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[tryrar]

So, how long do you think it'll take for Crytek to sue Dyack for unauthorized and uncredited mods to the Cry engine?

[Virtz]

So far they've managed to reach 100K within about a day. There's a new interview with Denis Dyack on IGN, as well as their first crowd funding update.

Also, turns out it's not a flexible campaign after all, and that they intend to offer refunds in case they don't get enough funds. Also, they're apparently still talking with Kickstarter in an attempt to somehow get over the lack of a US/UK presence.

[tryrar]

I don't mean to be a downer, but come the mere mention of "possible Eternal Darkness sequel" makes everyone so excited they forget that Dennis Dyack has publicly certified himself as a grade A douche? I wouldn't trust him to be head of village idiots, and certainly not with my money....

[Virtz]

I don't mean to be a downer, but come the mere mention of "possible Eternal Darkness sequel" makes everyone so excited they forget that Dennis Dyack has publicly certified himself as a grade A douche? I wouldn't trust him to be head of village idiots, and certainly not with my money....

Well, he ain't CEO here. He's head of creative, which gives him less possibility to mess up the way he's said to have. Also, one among them is Eternal Darkness co-writer, Ken McCulloch. You'd think if Dyack really was a devil to work with, he'd find another job.

As for the Unreal Engine debacle, it kinda sounds like both parties are at fault. Epic for failing to provide the promised framework on time (which reminds me of what happened with Vampie The Masquarade Bloodlines and Source, which you could say ultimately resulted in Troika tanking, so fuck Epic there), and Silicon Knights for using UE code regardless without admitting to it. Hard to tell if maintaining the UE code was even Dyack's doing or if he had awful programmers under him. I know I've met a few people during my Computer Science studies who'd do something that lazy and stupid on their own.

Either way, I'm backing this on the same basis I backed Garriott's and Fargo's projects. I know they've fucked up in the past, but they've also done something great before, and I'm uncertain to what extent the fuck up resulted directly from them. This is basically giving them one last chance to redeem themselves.

[Virtz]

Just to follow up on the whole Dyack dislike, here's a few quotes from the forums.

Paul Caporicci is the CEO and Shawn Jackson is the CCO of Precursor Games respectively. Together they run the business end of the company and frankly, I think they are doing a great job. My role is purely creative and I have never been happier. I only appeared alone at IGN because Paul was focusing on making sure the servers and eCommerce site was running - he, unfortunately could not make it to IGN. Paul and Shawn have done about 2 - 5 times more interviews then I have and our campaign video shows many members of the team. I am not meant to be, and shall never be the figure head of Precursor Games. We will take this feedback to heart and do all we can to get this message out there.

From what I can tell, the concerns are focused around the Kotaku article that was published, that was clearly targeted at Denis as opposed to SK. When I read that article I was embarrassed for those anonymous sources, and I dismissed it as journalistic sensationalism used to excite controversy at Denis' expense. Any allegations that paint Denis as malicious or underhanded are completely untrue. For example, the allegations of funneling funds from one project to another are false, which I can say with confidence because I was directly involved in those manpower allocations. If the article was accurate, I wouldn't have spent 6 years at SK, and I definitely wouldn't be sacrificing as much as I am to make Shadow of the Eternals a reality.

I hesitate at writing this because of the risk of switching focus to the past, which is something I don't have the time or energy to do right now. Right now our focus is trying to create something new, something better. I understand people may disagree with the details of what we are doing, but it feels like new ground and the feedback -- both positive and negative -- that we've been receiving has been without a doubt at the forefront of driving further decisions of this campaign. Denis is one part of a group of amazingly creative people. All of us drive this company together, and share a vision which I feel is worth, and will live up to, your support.

Also, they've put up the 9 minute gameplay video without commentary. Although I would say it's somewhat better with commentary, as there are parts where they're just standing and looking around at the environment.

[Markus]

I'm rather surprised. Hopeful, but not holding my breath.

PTW.

[tryrar]

Eh, good enough. I think anyone would deserve another chance, though I was mainly trying to get people to temper their enthusiasm due to said fuckup being VERY recent :/. Hey, he might actually pull it off, though I wonder if the fact it isn't a direct sequel is tied to the SK mess?(you'd think calling it an actual sequel WOULD get more interest...)

[Virtz]

Eh, good enough. I think anyone would deserve another chance, though I was mainly trying to get people to temper their enthusiasm due to said fuckup being VERY recent :/. Hey, he might actually pull it off, though I wonder if the fact it isn't a direct sequel is tied to the SK mess?(you'd think calling it an actual sequel WOULD get more interest...)

Well, it seems to be kind of a weird alike-world thing, where apparently the events from ED are more or less the same, but the names and looks are different. Like the Tome of Eternal Darkness is now the Ephemeral Codex, Anthony is now Theodoric, and instead of being like a shoulder-length haired ginger he's now a short-haired brunette. There's also mention of something like the sword of Tyrannus, which kinda makes me think that might be Pious's new name (since in ED we later got Pious's enchanted gladius). Just about the only things we can expect to remain relatively constant are historical locales and people (Charlamagne, the chapel, etc.).

Speaking of historical figures, an interesting tid-bit is that Erzebert Bathory, the crazy haired noble woman, is one of them. A serial killer countess said to have tortured and killed hundreds of women, supposedly in an attempt to preserve her youth.

Also, they occasionally put up a countdown to some new update on the right of their forums. Right now it's like 2.5 days to something they call an Exciting Announcement. Which is a bit vague. Here's hoping they got something going with Kickstarter.

[Sirus]

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the Countess were actually preserving her youth in this game's story. A lot of crazy stuff happens when magick is involved

[Virtz]

Now available via Kickstarter.

There've also been a couple podcast interviews featuring some of the other team members, one with Denis Dyack and Shawn Jackson, and one with Ken McCulloch and Dyack.

[Virtz]

They've put out two vlogs, one with Shawn Jackson, and one with Ken McCulloch and Denis Dyack.

The latter is more interesting, as there are 2 character reveals, Tyrannus Vitus, a Roman tribune (apparently not the Pious equivalent after all), and Hogga, a Norwegian viking. They also explain what the Sword of Tyrannus is and how it'll work.

Another thing that some might be interested in is that Denis Dyack will be addressing the kotaku article, based on questions submitted on the forums. So if you want to hear something specific of his side of the story (rather than immediately assume a kotaku article with unverifiable anonymous sources must be true), go right ahead and ask.

[Tilla]

This whole thing reeks of bad business. Precursor seems to just be a shell company - all the people shown in pictures worked at Silicon Knights and they even have the same hardware and concept art and all that. I have no interested in giving that scumbag Dyack the benefit of the doubt.

[Virtz]

This whole thing reeks of bad business. Precursor seems to just be a shell company - all the people shown in pictures worked at Silicon Knights and they even have the same hardware and concept art and all that. I have no interested in giving that scumbag Dyack the benefit of the doubt.

So now you're accusing not just Dyack, but also everyone involved of being scam artists. And you do that based on...?

[Virtz]

The response is out. Dyack calls out a bunch of things being blatantly bull in the article, but also apologizes for how XMD came out, admitting to making poor business decisions (and that being why he's not doing them anymore).

And just to add to that, does anyone seriously think CryTek would get involved with a company they thought was a scam?

Seriously though, I'm really tired of people citing that article as a believable reason not to support this when there's so much to suggest it's just bitter ex-employee rumours, primarily people from SK that carried over to Precursor Games, including the co-writer of Eternal Darkness. The gaming industry is not barren enough to seek renewed employement with an abusive employer.

[Moghjubar]

A little bad press goes a long way.  It seems unlikely to hit goals now... which is a shame (for the game and Eternal Darkness ip anyway).

They would probably have to release a hella lot of data, and possibly bring more people in with full demos of gameplay for a prototype... AND get an actual retraction from Kotaku, at this point.  In any case, the crowdfunding is still young, I may yet still be surprised.