We reported last week that Notch, the creator of Minecraft, offered to fund Psychonauts 2 via Twitter. The Internet gamer population literally exploded with the news. The hype may have gotten a little out of hand, however, and Notch took to his blog to set the record straight.
Notch clarifies that his tweet that offered to fund Psychonauts 2 was a semi-joke tweet. The problem, of course, is that Notch has the money and the guts to fund a project like Psychonauts 2 so the Internet obviously took it seriously.
Notch gives fans an update on what is happening right now. First and foremost, Notch and Tim Schafer haven’t talked that much after the whole Twitter fiasco. They exchanged a few emails, that’s it. They are planning to meet at the Game Developers Conference in March. Double Fine is going to be busy anyway with their new adventure game funded through Kickstarter.
As for the actual funding of Psychonauts 2, Notch says that the budget for making a sequel is three times higher than what he initially thought. There are apparently other interested parties that would be willing to fund it. He wouldn’t be investing in the game as a charity, but because he thinks it would be profitable. He also would not be interested in influencing the game creatively, but would only be interested in the high risk investment.
It would be wise to realize that none of this is set in stone yet. He’s not used to this whole investment thing, but he does have advisers that would help him out if he were to take on the project.
He does feel that Double Fine might want to use Kickstarter again to fund a Psychonauts 2 since the company has raised almost $2 million in their current campaign for an adventure game.
Notch leaves the Internet with these wise words that many fans would be smart to adhere to:
Point is, stop hyping over this, internet! You’re going to scare me into doing things secretly instead of being open and transparent via twitter. I am incredibly scared of the very real risk of people feeling let down just because I took a chance at something that doesn’t end up panning out.
Also, I realize you won’t stop hyping, so I’ll just go into hiding for a few years if it falls through.
I couldn’t agree more. Hype is the best and worst thing that can happen to a game. When hype ends up being bad, it usually creates an environment where nothing can happen. So be happy with the current game being made by Double Fine and let’s handle the Psychonauts 2 issue when it comes up.