Frontier Developments, the studio behind Elite: Dangerous, has netted itself a healthy chunk of change, £3.75 million, for the development of two new projects.
Both games – neither of which Frontier is ready to reveal – were the products of an internal game jam the company puts on every now and then called “Game of the week”.
I’ve got a jar of jam at the back of my kitchen cupboard and I’ve been waiting for it to turn into a game for years. It’s progressing nicely, as it’s already evolved into a hideous, mouldy concoction.
Frontier’s Game of the Week jam tasks the studio’s designers to put together game prototypes built around specific limits. Previously it resulted in a Wii prototype being developed into a full game.
This time, the prototypes caught the attention of an unnamed publisher, “a major new global publishing partner,” according to Frontier. This publisher put up the cash for the projects.
Though the publisher, like the games themselves, has yet to be revealed, Frontier has provided a hint in the description of the games. These titles “will drive support for the partner’s own hardware and technology eco-system,” says Frontier. So it’s also likely a hardware manufacturer.
Hopefully these new titles won’t detract from the development of Elite: Dangerous, which is currently in alpha.
Cheers, Gamasutra.