"Every business-minded mate I have just took me to one side at some point and said, 'Just make Thomas Was Alone 2. Just make another platformer, improve the graphics if you want to, polish it up a bit, get Danny [Wallace] back in the studio, record a bunch more voice-overs, but just make Thomas Was Alone 2."

There's a self-deprecating air to Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell, a humble British smileyness that perhaps partly comes from the securities of today's successes, but was likely always there keeping him grounded. Despite how he put it as we chatted at the Eurogamer Expo, I doubt he didn't know just how lucrative Thomas 2 would be.

"At this point if I did Thomas Was Alone 2," Bithell continued, "I've got lots of people who would actually now buy that game at launch, and I would make a lot of money. But it's boring. And it's a decision and promise I made myself. I'm not going to use this opportunity I've been given to do that. I don't think Thomas needs a sequel right now."

"if something comes to me one day I might go back to it. Or if I make a couple of flops I might go back to that well," he giggled in jest. "I'll regret that quote down the line."