Notch: Psychonauts 2 budget "three times higher" than expected

Pat's trousers may be safe after all; Markus "Notch" Persson has clarified his position with regards to the funding of Psychonauts 2.

"Here are the facts of what’s happening now, from my perspective: Tim [Schafer] and I haven’t spoken much at all other than a couple of emails," the Mojang boss wroteon his Tumblr.

"The budget for doing a Psychonauts 2 is three times higher than my initial impression. I have no idea if this is actually going to happen."

Despite raining all over our parade, Notch does seem to be taking the prospect seriously.

"A couple of other parties have mentioned also being interested in investing in it. I would not be investing in this as a charity. It would be because I think the game would be profitable," he said.

"And naturally, I wouldn’t want to have any creative input in the game. It would be purely a high risk investment in a project I believe in.

"The Kickstarter stuff obviously changes the playing field a lot. Investing that incredibly high amount of money also requires a lot of planing and discussion, and I’ve never done anything like that before, but I do have contacts and advisors to help me out."

Notch said he is looking forward to a possible meet up with Schafer at GDC, and that Double Fine will be busy with its Adventure for many months to come.

"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."

Notch's blog appears to be a response to reports that he told Schafer he could manage $13 million for the game.

Thanks, Gamasutra.