Apples to oranges, I think. Blue Prince was self-funded and solo developed for much of its long development time. Publisher funding was sought to polish and market the game.
The developers in the article are taking about seeking upfront publisher funding for a small studio to develop the game with a much shorter time horizon. The publisher would likely need to invest much more, but would take a much greater percentage of revenue, and with an established franchise like Myst and a team of veteran devs the risk is - in theory - lower.
Indeed. Folks with a trust fund/juicy investment account/etc have always been able to self-fund their solo gamedev career. It’s a whole other process to take a pitch deck to a publisher and get funded in the strength of your reputation alone
I appreciate your answer, thanks! Unfortunately my curiosity about the videogame industry has been replaced by anxiety over the newspaper one.
That said yes, put in those terms it makes sense, one thing can be true under a financing model and false under another one.
Can you please get hired by Wired? It would really help me address some trust issues.
To be honest, I still don’t know if no one can or cannot afford to make a Myst games anymore but I think at this point I will just accept the answer is
The developers in the article are taking about seeking upfront publisher funding for a small studio to develop the game with a much shorter time horizon. The publisher would likely need to invest much more, but would take a much greater percentage of revenue, and with an established franchise like Myst and a team of veteran devs the risk is - in theory - lower.