Shadow of the Eternals -- THIS CAN'T... BE... HAPPENING! (white flash)

Krathoon

A spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness is entering our world.

http://youtu.be/2ffQLAez67M

The crowd funding starts today. The countdown is here:

[No links to crowdfunding -RR]

TehSpectre

My body is ready.

(Dyack is going to steal all my money, huh?)

Krathoon

The kickstarter is now live!

RainbowDespair

Required reading before even thinking about backing this:

http://kotaku.com/5955223/what-went-wrong-with-silicon-knights-x+men-destiny

herojoe

But it looks so cooooooooooool. :-s

Vyolynce

Promised myself I'd never crowdfund a video game. Never thought that resolve would be challenged by a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness (being released for Wii U, no less).

Krathoon

Thanks for that information, RainbowDespair. This kickstarter feels somewhat icky now. I do believe I will not fund it.

urahonky

I'm really digging how it's looking... Hmm.

WotanAnubis

Vyolynce wrote: »

Promised myself I'd never crowdfund a video game. Never thought that resolve would be challenged by a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness (being released for Wii U, no less).

I have made no such promises and feel comfortable donating modest amounts when something catches my eyes.

No way am I giving Dyack a single penny, though.

TehSpectre

I'm going to drop $150 for the signed mini poster when I get home.

---

Too Human wasn't a bad game and it shows that when focused, Dyack can still make decent stuff.

He just didn't give a shit about XMD and his hubris led to SK's downfall.

With a small, tight knit group of devs, I see this not only being released, but being good.

I need this sequel. Need.

RainbowDespair

What happens if you do not reach your goal?

Our financial goal is a flexible one, and Precursor Games is committed to creating Shadow of the Eternals. All contributions will go directly towards the development of this game and making it a reality.

i.e. we'll take your money even if we don't reach our goal.

Vyolynce

RainbowDespair wrote: »

What happens if you do not reach your goal?

Our financial goal is a flexible one, and Precursor Games is committed to creating Shadow of the Eternals. All contributions will go directly towards the development of this game and making it a reality.

i.e. we'll take your money even if we don't reach our goal.

Yeah that's how I read that too. But I've wasted $50 on worse.

WotanAnubis

TehSpectre wrote: »

Too Human wasn't a bad game and it shows that when focused, Dyack can still make decent stuff.

He just didn't give a shit about XMD and his hubris led to SK's downfall.

With a small, tight knit group of devs, I see this not only being released, but being good.

I need this sequel. Need.

I'm worried there might only be an echo chamber left. With nobody to look over his shoulder Dyack seems to just fuck up - he goes over budget, he doesn't meet deadlines. He promises much, doesn't deliver, then keeps asking for more money and more time. I mean, I can understand a developer not putting their heart and soul into a licensed game, but the way he treated that production was just disgraceful.

Don't get me wrong, I want there to be another Eternal Darkness. I hope this goes well and if it's released I'll snap it up straight away. But Dyack casts a very dark shadow over everything.

Part of me wishes they'd go back to Nintendo's guiding hand. But they're committed to releasing on PC, apparently, so that's not gonna happen.

heenato

Is it just me, or do they have absolutely no drawback for if they fail? I mean, with something like indiegogo, which allows for flexible funding, if the campaign fails, they charge an extra 3 or 4 percent, I believe. However, this crowdfunding thing isn't actually using either of those services, so if this fails, they don't have to give any money to anyone. I dunno, maybe I'm overthinking it, but that leaves a real bad taste in my mouth.

urahonky

Starbound is doing the same thing.

Vyolynce

WotanAnubis wrote: »

TehSpectre wrote: »

Too Human wasn't a bad game and it shows that when focused, Dyack can still make decent stuff.

He just didn't give a shit about XMD and his hubris led to SK's downfall.

With a small, tight knit group of devs, I see this not only being released, but being good.

I need this sequel. Need.

I'm worried there might only be an echo chamber left. With nobody to look over his shoulder Dyack seems to just fuck up - he goes over budget, he doesn't meet deadlines. He promises much, doesn't deliver, then keeps asking for more money and more time. I mean, I can understand a developer not putting their heart and soul into a licensed game, but the way he treated that production was just disgraceful.

It looks like there's one guy above him, assuming CEO trumps his Chief Creative Officer. Not sure what the situation was with SK.

heenato

They don't carry Silicon Knight's track record though, so I'm a bit more inclined to believe them.

Dark Raven X

Yeeeah, if Dyack fails to deliver to actual corporations with scary lawyer guns, I dread to think how lackadaisical he'll be with crowdfunding. Pass.

WotanAnubis

Vyolynce wrote: »

WotanAnubis wrote: »

TehSpectre wrote: »

Too Human wasn't a bad game and it shows that when focused, Dyack can still make decent stuff.

He just didn't give a shit about XMD and his hubris led to SK's downfall.

With a small, tight knit group of devs, I see this not only being released, but being good.

I need this sequel. Need.

I'm worried there might only be an echo chamber left. With nobody to look over his shoulder Dyack seems to just fuck up - he goes over budget, he doesn't meet deadlines. He promises much, doesn't deliver, then keeps asking for more money and more time. I mean, I can understand a developer not putting their heart and soul into a licensed game, but the way he treated that production was just disgraceful.

It looks like there's one guy above him, assuming CEO trumps his Chief Creative Officer. Not sure what the situation was with SK.

According to Wikipedia, Dyack was president (and founder) of SK, which I'm assuming is more or less the same thing as CEO. So it's good he's not in that role this time.

On the other hand, according to their own site, Precursor Games' CEO also worked on Twin Snakes and Too Human. Which isn't good or bad, I guess.

Must be a bit weird, though. Being the boss of your former boss after your former boss destroyed his own company.

Alazull

I'll toss $5 at it, figure worst comes to worst I can afford to lose that much. Which I think is why they're offering something at that level, for those of us that are skeptical about this game.

If it releases and is awesome I can always pay full price for the rest of the "Episodes".

TehSpectre

Looks like this is on track to make 25k in the first 2 hours.

WotanAnubis

Hmm. Looking over the cast page, the last two silhouettes look... familiar.

Though I'm pretty sure they're not actually Pious and Alex. They could probably get into legal trouble if it were, couldn't they?

Vyolynce

WotanAnubis wrote: »

Hmm. Looking over the cast page, the last two silhouettes look... familiar.

Though I'm pretty sure they're not actually Pious and Alex. They could probably get into legal trouble if it were, couldn't they?

Depends on who owns the rights to them, I guess.

WotanAnubis

Vyolynce wrote: »

WotanAnubis wrote: »

Hmm. Looking over the cast page, the last two silhouettes look... familiar.

Though I'm pretty sure they're not actually Pious and Alex. They could probably get into legal trouble if it were, couldn't they?

Depends on who owns the rights to them, I guess.

Nintendo owns the trademark. Which may not be quite the same. I don't know enough about business and law to say for certain.

SoundsPlush

WotanAnubis wrote: »

Hmm. Looking over the cast page, the last two silhouettes look... familiar.

Though I'm pretty sure they're not actually Pious and Alex. They could probably get into legal trouble if it were, couldn't they?

I was just coming here to post that.



As much as I want there to be more Eternal Darkness, that site doesn't inspire confidence, and my initial reaction to those silhouettes was "they probably just threw these in here for fans without any planning on how to include them yet."

One Thousand Cables

Is this not even a Kickstarter-brand kickstarter, just a thing that they're hosting on their own site? Boo. I feel like there's a non-zero chance that three years from now Kotaku's going to publish an article about how a bunch of this crowdfunding money ended up in the development of 2 Human: the Balderening.

Vyolynce

One Thousand Dicks wrote: »

Is this not even a Kickstarter-brand kickstarter, just a thing that they're hosting on their own site?

Apparently KS only supports companies in the US and UK, so Canada gets shafted? Not sure if that also applies to similar systems like Indiegogo.

Ninja Snarl P

As many good things as I've heard about Eternal Darkness, Dyack's current record doesn't make this seem like sending good money after bad so much as just plain throwing it away.

This is basically like if Peter Molyneux asking for crowdfunding money for another smoke-and-mirrors bait-and-switch game through a shady non-mainstream site, except even Molyneux didn't get sued to actually have to destroy copies of his own games because he flat-out broke the fucking law.

I cannot recommend strongly enough that people stay as far away as possible from this guy and this project. Not just because it's probably going to be an unmitigated disaster, but because the guy has shown he has no qualms about blaming everyone else for his own fuck-ups and expecting them to foot the bill for it.

Panda4You

I actually thought Eternal Darkness was pretty bland crap, though I'm aware I'm much the minority. Will be inteesting to see if they can make anything fresh with that insanity mechanic.

The_Spaniard

TehSpectre wrote: »

My body is ready.

(Dyack is going to steal all my money, huh?)

That's actually a sanity effect in the ARG that Dyack is developing to go with the game. It's not theft, it's a feature!

And if you're really lucky, after you give him your money he might show up at your front door in a monster mask and kick you right in the balls. Could you imagine how scary that would be? ...and painful.

Dr. Chaos

Bums me out to see people so down on this across the net.

They have reasons I suppose, Dyack isn't exactly a name that inspires confidence or sanity these days.

Still though, it's Eternal Darkness. Might be the only chance we get of any sort of sequel to it at all, even if it's just a spiritual successor.

Kid Presentable

All of this negative stuff about the developer is totally news to me. I just know that I freaking loved Eternal Darkness and my friends and I played through it probably half a dozen times. I will say though that all of the developer stuff aside, I have been growing a little weary of all the crowd funding. I kinda want to just buy a game when it comes out, but all this cool stuff keeps coming along asking for my future money.

Ninja Snarl P

Kid Presentable wrote: »

All of this negative stuff about the developer is totally news to me. I just know that I freaking loved Eternal Darkness and my friends and I played through it probably half a dozen times. I will say though that all of the developer stuff aside, I have been growing a little weary of all the crowd funding. I kinda want to just buy a game when it comes out, but all this cool stuff keeps coming along asking for my future money.

Look up Dyack, Too Human, and lawsuit. Not only did the guy overspend on a game that ended up shit, he also tried to blame all the problems on the people who made the engine. Then he sued them, and in the countersuit, it was determined that Dyack violated violated the license and the law. Dyack was then required to destroy all copies of Too Human, since it was determined the game was developed in violation of their license.

Basically, the guy is a snake who takes money and information, then does anything possible to avoid accepting the results of his mistakes if he fucks up. As far as reputations go, the guy is literally a crook and a thief; handing him money via a non-Kickstarter system is basically the definition of poor money management, because the guy is scum and his recent record proves it.

SoundsPlush

Dr. Chaos wrote: »

Still though, it's Eternal Darkness. Might be the only chance we get of any sort of sequel to it at all, even if it's just a spiritual successor.

I dunno, I think the name "Eternal Darkness" might be the hostage in this crisis. There's some footage of a recreation of the abbey level from ED (this is an unfortunate abbreviation) over which Dyack says vague things about letting backers write flavor text or how you can 'move around and interact with things.'

$1.5m is a pretty high starting goal. Whatever they end up getting, once they produce a single episode anywhere near on time or budget and it's decent, then I'll start to hope, but not before.

Athenor

ED isn't a hostage. ED is owned by Nintendo, and they had just as much a hand in making it as Silicon Knights did. Not to put down the staff Dyack has working for him currently, but Dyack should stop touting this as ED when a significant chunk of the design, management, and leadership isn't around to work on it.

heenato

Yeah. I think that's kinda the thing. Eternal darkness only ended up good because Nintendo was breathing down their necks about it. I mean, otherwise, Silicon Knights had what? One good game and a billion canceled ones?

Docken

Dyack is a nutball, most (if not all) of the original ED guys are gone and Precursor has no track record at all.

This is going to end up as vaporware or shovelware. Take your pick.

Krathoon

ED really needs a Mantarok sequel. Hopefully, Nintendo will get a team together someday and make that happen.

glithert

My hopes aren't high. But even the chance of more Eternal Darkness has me pitching a tent.

Zxerol

Putting up money to Dyack to crowd fund an episodic game that has no guarantee of ever completing? It doesn't seem very... wise.

(Seriously, besides Telltale, who has ever successfully executed the episodic model?)

cooljammer00

And no Kickstarter safety net, so if you donate money and they don't make their goal they just keep your money.

edit: Fuck this entire sham of a crowdfunding experiment.