Following his departure from Konami, long-time Castlevania producer and visionary Koji Igarashi has been shopping his dream game around to publishers in an effort to get it greenlit.

We reported on a curious teaser from this year’s Penny Arcade Expo that we sincerely believed to be for his new game, but this has apparently been disproved. In a report via IGN, we’ve learned that not only is he shelving his dream game for now, but he’s returning to mobile games.

“It’s kind of an unusual agreement,” he said in a statement. “I have a special carve-out that allows me to work with another publishing partner or find other routes to fund my dream game.”

Apparently, this deal would eventually lead to him being able to work on his dream game, something that he believes his fans will love. However, Igarashi-san has a family to feed (like most of us), so he’s taking the job for now. Still, he’s optimistic for mobile games, saying they’re:

“…something I’m going to enjoy as well. It gives me the opportunity to feed my family and and ultimately gives me the option in the future to pursue my dream if I’m able to find a separate partner in funding the game.”

Igarashi-san elaborated on the competitive Japanese gaming industry, saying that finding a publishing partner was difficult:

“I’m a normal person just like anybody else. Unless I have a salary, I can’t feed my family. Not that this is a tale of woe is me…but ultimately you need to find other solutions to get by.”

Coming from this, Igarashi was sure that he had genuine interest from publishers on his game, but the negotiations fell through, and it boiled down to them being scared to invest. He said that “publishers want data”, and that it was something he didn’t have as a rogue developer. He sadly confirmed that publishers were more interested in cheap indie games, or giant AAA experiences. His game is apparently in “a strange space that doesn’t fit in either of those.”

Igarashi-san had some words of hope and enthusiasm, however, as he truly feels that he knows the kinds of games his fans are expecting of him:

“I have a concept, I have an idea of the game I want to make that I’m pretty sure fans would like…I really like tight action games, so having a game that would require a controller to enjoy it is definitely key to make a dream game.  I think I have a direct intuition of what my fans want. If I made it, the fans would definitely play it and enjoy it.”

Lastly, when asked about crowd-funding like Kickstarter, Igarashi-san coyly said that he’s somewhat of an old developer in mindset. “I think I’m perhaps a little more old school,” he said. Igarashi-san made a note that traditional publishers make development more streamlined, however he did pose a final question: “if it would make fans happy. Is this what they want? That’s the question I would pose toward the fans.”

So what do you guys think? Can you wait for Igarashi’s dream game?