I actually have no idea how "word got out" that we turned them down, but since it did, here's the reasoning we gave:
While being published by Chucklefish would absolutely give us some strong, free advertising among their pretty sizable fan base, letting a larger company put their name on your product creates a significant risk of customer confusion. Even now, when we aren't being published by CF people still say Grindea is a CF-game sometimes (luckily to be quickly refuted most of the time).
For example, I wager many don't know who made Risk of Rain, or who's making Stardew Valley and that pirate game. To many people, maybe even most, those are all "Chucklefish Games", myself included I shamefully admit.
We want Grindea to be a Pixel Ferrets game, and we hope we've got a good enough product at release to reach reasonable success without publishing it under a different name!
I didn't guess or weasel the information from Molly. I saw that Molly Carroll (CF Community Manager) is following you guys on Twitter. I figured there was some, or soon to be, communication regarding the whole bit.
Due all the capital raised from Starbound, Tiy is trying to be smart about his company's future, and not rely solely on the unexpected success of an unfinished project. Focusing on publishing is a way to ensure longevity. He's obviously being serious about it because he's persuaded most of his to team to fly halfway around the world to relocate to the London area. He gets to have the fun of dealing with work visas and immigration. Oh, the joy.
Anyway, they're the new kid on the block. I can understand your rationale behind not signing on. Like you, he's trying to build a brand through Starbound and publishing.
Many successful companies publish
and develop. I don't see how people can assume that games coming out with the Chucklefish logo on it are seen as "their's" (which could easily be negated by adding a simple "developed by" in the opening splash screens). Starbound's not even out of the first phase of beta yet. Why would they suddenly be releasing several other titles out of nowhere (if they weren't publishing)?
I was suggesting that for the sake of resources in helping the game development along. Refusing reasonable offers of help is generally unwise, then again, Jeff Vogel, of Spiderweb Software, has been "soloing" it since '94. He's managed to eek out a decent living in self-publishing indies. Like you guys, he does everything he can inhouse, and outsourced what he can't (freelance artists, open license sound assets, etc.). I hope everything works out. Indies only have a small window to build a fanbase around before they get sucked up in the crowd of everyone else.