As the guys at Eurogamer found out, the mysterious benefactor behind the funding for Age of Wonders is none other than our minecraftian genius Notch. And to such a degree that the developers can sneer at traditional publishers (although they still entertain the distribution and co-publisher options)

Lennart Sas, one of the guys from Triumph studios (Overlord!) said that this came about very simply. They noticed that one of the screens in Minecraft mentioned Age of Wonders, so they wrote Notch an email. Surprise, he's a fan.

Notch, like Lennart says, looked at it as a businessman, but it helped that Triumph already had a working demo. Notch is supposedly a very busy man, so he's very hands off with the ongoing development. This is very good for Triumph, who claim that traditional publishers want to own the game and impose a lot restrictions.

Oh, and for those not in the know, Age of Wonders is one of the best, most complex alternatives to Heroes out there. And it did not seek not even a cent of Kickstater funding!