EU Culture Agency to co-fund thirty games including Trine 4 and Spacebase Startopia
Feeling a little European pride right now
Trine 4, Earthlock 2 and the tantalizingly titled Spacebase Startopia are among a list of thirty games being co-funded by the EU Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). While I'm not familiar with too many of the studios, and the titles for most of these games mean very little, it's good to see Frozenbyte planning on continuing their visually delicious Trine series.
Among the titles listed, the game that most catches my attention here is Spacebase Startopia, being developed by Realmforge Studios, creators of the Dungeon Keeper-inspired Dungeons. While just speculation, a successor to Mucky Foot's underrated space manage 'em up would make sense. Fingers crossed, as it would be in keeping with the studio's Bullfrog-adjacent approach recently.
The full list of games backed is viewable here in PDF format. I notice that while most of the games listed are to see up to 50% co-funding, Tequila Works's Lumberjack is listed as potentially seeing only 4%. Typo or the Rime studio being short-changed? Either seems plausible. Another eyebrow-raising title in the list is Quarantine, from Aesir Interactive. Right now we only know the title - while I'm hoping for a successor to the off-kilter dystopian hover-cab sim/shooter, that seems unlikely considering how generic and re-used the title has been.
It's heartening to see Trine 4 on the list. Trine 3 was apparently shorter than planned, and ended on a very open cliffhanger, apparently due to budget constraints. Hopefully the EU backing will give development of the next game a bit of a boost. Another exciting title in there is a mystery game named Stranded from No Code, who only just yesterday announced sci-fi thriller Observation. That one's doubly interesting, as it's EU backing, but a UK studio - anyone following the ongoing political omnishambles would assume that would put such funding in jeopardy, but I hope not.
Thanks to Gematsu for spotting the list. You can view the whole PDF here.