The first-of-its-kind campaign is still pending approval by the Feds The crowdfunding campaign for Psychonauts 2 successfully reached its $3.3 million goal nearly a month ago, but the team at Double Fine has yet to receive more than $1.8 million dollars in equity investment. That’s because the related filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has yet to be approved.
Double Fine Productions launched the campaign for Psychonauts 2 on the novel new crowdfunding platform called Fig, which allows for traditional rewards-based funding alongside equity investment. The Psychonauts 2 campaign was especially unique in that it allowed anyone, not just high-net-worth individuals, to invest in the game.
Fig tells Polygon that the first-of-its kind campaign raised $1,954,524 in rewards-based money as well as $1,874,500 in equity investment. But while the rewards-based money has been collected, the equity investment portion is still outstanding because of an additional round of clarifications requested by the SEC.
“The SEC filing must be qualified before we can collect the investment reservations placed by unaccredited investors," Fig told Polygon via email. "We received comments back from the SEC on Jan. 17, which was 26 days after we made our filing, and the number of comments we received were low. As a result, we currently expect to be able to complete the unaccredited process in the next 4 to 8 weeks."

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Storystream: Fig is an equity crowdfunding platform built for video games

Fig’s first campaign, for the award-winning space exploration title Outer Wilds, was able to land $75,000 in equity investment on its way to a successful campaign. The campaign served as a proof of concept, and also attracted nearly $1 million in investor interest.
However, Fig’s second campaign — for a free-to-play title by the developers of multi-platform hit Scribblenauts — failed, coming in $400,000 short of its $500,000 goal.
The campaign for Psychonauts 2, unveiled during a December broadcast of The Game Awards, caught many in the industry by surprise. After quickly reaching more than a million dollars in funding, it took the balance of its month-long campaign to cover the $3.3 million ask. The final tally was more than $3.8 million. Fig says that the majority of rewards-based backers contributed an average of $81, while investors were more likely to fall in the $500 to $2,000 range.
"We already emailed all the investors with an update letting them know we’ve received comments back from the SEC and outlining next steps," Fig representatives said. "Once the filing is qualified, they can complete their investment profile, which includes collecting [banking and wire transfer information], and sign the final investment documents. Once that’s complete, money is transferred, their shares are qualified and we collect info on where to send their payments."
Double Fine told Polygon that the total budget for Psychonauts 2 was between $10 and $13.5 million, with funding coming from the studio itself, the Fig campaign and an as yet unnamed silent investor.
Are you an investor in Psychonauts 2? I’d like to hear from you, and stay in touch until the expected 2018 release. Send an email to charlie@polygon.com or via Twitter.

Also stars Steve Buscemi! Louis CK may be taking a break from his award-winning series Louie, but that didn’t stop him from launching a new web series over the weekend.
CK emailed his subscribers over the weekend about Horace and Pete, his new miniseries with Steve Buscemi. Much like Cheers or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the show follows a group of people at an Irish bar also called Horace and Pete.
The first episode is about 70-minutes long and also stars Alan Alda, Edie Falco, Jessica Lange and many other actors and comedians.
Horace and Pete’s debut episode is available on his site now for $5.

Here are some of the big games coming out this month
Here are some of the big video games releases for the month of February 2016. What are you looking forward to playing? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments.
Unfortunately not all games being released this month have firm dates so those are not included.
Feb. 2:

Gravity Rush Remastered, (PlayStation 4) – One of the very first PlayStation Vita games is getting remastered for the PlayStation 4 —check out our review of the original. Its sequel was announced at TGS 2015 and is set to come out in 2016. Check out the reveal trailer.
Feb. 5:

XCOM 2, (Linux, Mac and Windows PC) – After a three-month delay, the PC-only sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown is just about here. Check out the game in action.
Feb. 9:

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia, (PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Windows PC and Xbox One) – The final installment of Chronicles is set in 1918 Russia and tells the story of Nikolai Orlov. The Assassin’s Creed Chronicles Trilogy Pack will be released the same day, with the PlayStation Vita version coming April 5. Here’s our review of Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China.

Dying Light: The Following expansion (PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One) – Dying Light’s long awaited dune buggy expansion is here, albeit with a price increase.

Firewatch, (Linux, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC) – Starting with just one painting, Campo Santo’s first game comes to you from veterans of Telltale Games (The Walking Dead) and Klei Entertainment (Mark of the Ninja) who founded the studio.

Unravel, (PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One) – The adorable demon-cat Yarny stole our hearts at E3 2015. We can unravel Yarny’s adventure on Feb. 9, just remember to call your mom.
Feb. 16:

Street Fighter 5, (PlayStation 4 and Windows PC) Capcom’s deal with Sony is giving us a more cinematic Street Fighter experience along with our multiplayer fix, unfortunately we’ll have to wait until June for the single-player add-on.
Feb. 19:

Fire Emblem Fates, (Nintendo 3DS) The newest release in the strategy RPG series features three different versions of the game, each one containing a unique storyline. With the English version comes a myriad of localization changes, including 100 percent less face rubbing.
Feb. 23:

Far Cry Primal, (PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One) The new Far Cry allows you to travel 12,000 years into the past to stab prehistoric badgers. Unfortunately PC gamers will have to wait until March 1. Watch us play the first 50 minutes.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, (PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One) – Featuring the ability to be played offline and a new four-player co-op mode, this sequel looks to build on the surprise hit its predecessor was.

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My favorite moment in any RTS is when I’ve amassed a giant force and I draw a big box around my entire army and smash it into a single enemy. While satisfying, I understand that this is not always the most effective strategy. But in 10-Minute Barbarian from Studio Puffer, it’s the only strategy.
With almost no resource management and a souped-up pace, 10-Minute Barbarian is all about snatching up as many soldiers as you can find and blasting through the opposition. Oh, and with every step you take, you hasten the apocalypse, as I taught Nick Robinson in the video above. The game released on Steam for Mac and PC last week, but you can play a demo in your browser right here.

Super-fast, super-slow FPS delivers a hail of gunfire this month Superhot, the unusual super-fast/super-slow first person shooter that got a lot of attention over the past year, has set Feb. 25 for its launch date on Windows PC, Mac and Linux.
A version also will be coming to Xbox One about a month later, developers Superhot Team said.
A finalist for awards at the Independent Games Festival and SXSW, Superhot is a shooter in which time only moves when the player does. Each level then becomes something of a puzzle where the player has plenty of time to shoot oncoming foes, but not a lot of time to get into position for an accurate shot.
The level plays out like an impossible Jason Bourne-like action sequence, warping between sped-up movement and bullet-time. This video, of beta gameplay, provides a good visual explanation.

Superhot emerged from a 7-Day FPS game jam in 2013, then caught on with a very successful Kickstarter in 2014.
A beta of Superhot released to backers in August. For more, see Polygon’s preview from E3 2015.

Quirky indie project on ice after partnership disintegrates An independent game that captured a lot of attention back in 2014 is likely dead after a falling-out between the developer building it and the business partners managing the fledgling studio.
Eric Tereshinski, 25, said farewell to Ant Simulator and to ETeeski, the venture he cofounded with two childhood friends, in a YouTube message that accused them of misusing development funding. In an interview with Polygon, Tereshinski also charged that ETeeski’s business manager pressured him into selling an early-access beta of the game, and was deceptive about efforts to get a PlayStation 4 software development kit.

“It’s not a problem of being out of money," Tereshinski told Polygon, though other reports have fixated on his allegation that partners Tyler Monce and Devon Staley "secretly spent the overwhelming majority of both our Kickstarter money and the Ant Simulator investment money on liquor … and even strippers."
If those two did misuse ETeeski’s funding, Tereshinski said the most that could have been lost was in the low thousands. ETeeski was begun with seed money from a Kickstarter that raised $4,459, and that was for Tereshinski to produce a series of YouTube tutorials on game development.
Ant Simulator had been a 48-hour game jam idea that rose out of a video promoting the video series, and when it drew a lot of attention in 2014, Tereshinski had to divide his efforts between delivering the tutorial videos and now building out a full game.
ETeeski took a small private investment from another friend, and opened a donation portal on the studio’s website that accepted contributions toward Ant Simulator’s development. But, Tereshinski says, "I think seven people preordered it."
An unusual indie game is caught up in a falling out among childhood friends
More troubling to Tereshinski is the loss of about 10,000 hours worth of development, all of it uncompensated. Tereshinski supported himself off savings and a part-time job as he worked on Ant Simulator, with contractors lending support on some portions of development.
Ant Simulator is owned by ETeeski, not Tereshinski, and as such, that work is on ice unless his former partners relinquish it.
Tereshinski said his decision to leave the studio goes back to October, and that since then he has been in discussions about getting Ant Simulator back, but these seem at an impasse. Whatever the case, Monce and Staley have no development experience, so unless they hire someone to finish Ant Simulator or give it back to Tereshinski, the game is gone.
Polygon reached out to Monce and Staley but did not receive a reply to Tereshinski’s allegations as of publication time. This story will be updated with any reply received later.
Tereshinski accused Monce specifically of being deceptive about his efforts as ETeeski’s director of operations. After a trip to Game Developers Conference 2015 turned up a promising lead with Sony, Tereshinksi says Monce did not follow through on plans to submit the game to the console maker in order to receive a software development kit. Tereshinski said Staley even lied about conversations with Sony, saying the company wanted to see more polish on the game and using that to hustle Tereshinski’s work.
He said Monce and Staley also overspent on setting up an office in the basement of Monce’s mother’s home. The three had worked out of their homes in the 18 or so months ETeeski had been active. Tereshinski said that Staley also pressured him into the early-access release, saying the firm needed to show sales in order to keep its status as a limited liability corporation, for tax-filing purposes.
Tereshinski suggested in the video he would try to find ways to refund money to the few who did back Ant Simulator. But he’s through with his two former friends, whom he has known since middle school.
"The problem is these guys clearly demonstrated to me I should have no part of them" Tereshinski said. "The clearest thing was I should get as far from these guys as possible."