Silicon Knights Still Breathes, Dyack Has Left The Building

[Karloff]

Silicon Knights Still Breathes, Dyack Has Left The Building

Precursor Games has no connection with Silicon Knights, but it did buy a bunch of its stuff from them.

Silicon Knights, after its disastrous squabble with Epic Games [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120568-Silicon-Knights-Must-Destroy-Its-Works-By-December], laid off most of its employees and seemed to be on the verge of bankruptcy, but it isn't dead yet. Silicon Knights' CFO, Mike Mays, has said that the studio's few remaining staff are very busy, and confirms that it is "definitely alive." Alive in what sense has yet to be determined; it doesn't seem to have any projects on the go, there's no telling who works for it, and its former Ontario premises are vacant and ready to lease.

Meanwhile founder Denis Dyack no longer works at Silicon Knights [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdFXur5OocI]. He's now chief creative officer at Precursor Games, an outfit which rose from the ashes of Silicon Knights with some of its staff and some of its stuff, including office equipment and computers, which Precursor claims to have bought during a Silicon sale. Precursor's CEO Paul Caporicci has said that his studio has no connection with Silicon Knights. As part of the arrangement with Epic Games, Silicon had to prove that the computers it sold were wiped clean, in order to show that Silicon's engine and assets hadn't sneaked over to Precursor. When Polygon made contact with Dyack, he refused to comment on the Silicon Knights situation, saying that he would prefer to "concentrate on forward looking news and Precursor Games focused things only."

Precursor Games is known to be working on Shadow of the Eternals [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123736-Eternal-Darkness-Successor-Shadow-of-the-Eternals-Enters-the-Light], a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness. There's no word as to what, if anything, Silicon Knights might be up to, assuming it exists as anything other than a mailbox.

Source: Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/9/4316936/silicon-knights-epic-games-precursor-games?utm_source=feedly]


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[BlackMageBob]

So...who is gonna provide me the opportunity to play more sci-fi Vikings?

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I'd love for them to stay alive long enough to have another crack at the Too Human IP, but at this point I think they may as well die and fade into obscurity.

 

[Nimzabaat]

Never say Dy...ack!

So...who is gonna provide me the opportunity to play more sci-fi Vikings?

Hopefully someone who knows how humans use a controller and doesn't nerf firearms.

Yeah no kidding. Too Human had a good premise but was almost unplayable. I was willing to pay someone else to put up with those crappy controls just so I could see how it ended. That being said, the story had its good parts and I actually liked the cyberspace puzzles.

Whoever pulls that IP out of the ashes of Silicon Knights will have to add Techno-Viking as a playable character though.

 

[Midniqht]

So that means I can still hold out hope for a Too Human sequel... right?
...
..
.
Right?

I actually quite liked the original, despite its drawbacks and thought that the combat and loot system was freakin' awesome. With a few tweaks, user experience improvements, and polish, it could have been amazing.

Never say Dy...ack!

So...who is gonna provide me the opportunity to play more sci-fi Vikings?

Hopefully someone who knows how humans use a controller and doesn't nerf firearms.

Yeah no kidding. Too Human had a good premise but was almost unplayable. I was willing to pay someone else to put up with those crappy controls just so I could see how it ended. That being said, the story had its good parts and I actually liked the cyberspace puzzles.

Whoever pulls that IP out of the ashes of Silicon Knights will have to add Techno-Viking as a playable character though.

I managed to get through the combat because I figured out how to juggle enemies with the hammer and for firearms I only ever used the cannons. I had more fun is cyberspace and coloring my armor then I did on the actual missions.

If you played the commando class (pure gun focus), it was actually the most overpowered class in the entire game. You could get through the campaign without being touched once you beefed up your character enough. Melee characters were too squishy.

 

[CriticalMiss]

What the hell! Is everyone in here a fan of Too Human? *checks the colour of the moon* Nope, not blue. Maybe everyone who hates it couldn't care less.

OT: So do SK still have the rights to Too Human or did they auction them off in a THQ fashion? I too would like to see a proper end to this tale of Grendels and cybervikings. Just make sure to fix those controls!

 

[oldtaku]

Oh come on. They worked on ED2 while at Silicon Knights, and those assets have for sure been transferred over to the new company. Wiping machines means nothing when you can just make backups.

Unless you think they're really starting 100% from scratch. Does that sound like Denis?

 

[ChrisCarTheMarauder]

Where the hell did all of the Too Human fans come from? That game was probably one of the worst I've ever played this gen, maybe ever. I can't think of a single good thing from it.

As for the split, I'm cautiously optimistic for the ED successor.

 

[Tahaneira]

What the hell! Is everyone in here a fan of Too Human? *checks the colour of the moon* Nope, not blue. Maybe everyone who hates it couldn't care less.

Hey, we're just saying, if it hadn't been such a terrible game it would have been an awesome game.

OT: I shall add my voice to the chorus of those hoping for a revival (hopefully a good one) but sadly, that particular body has probably been buried. Deep. In bedrock. In an undisclosed location. And it's not the real corpse, just a skilfully made facsimile. The real body was burned and the ashes scattered over the entirety of Antarctica. Though it would be wonderful to get a proper sequel, we'll probably have to content ourselves with their other game.

 

[Nuttydwarf]

Once you got past the horribad controls, Too Human was a quirky little gem of a game. if a sequal ever gets made, one thing I wish for is to get rid of that horribad control scheme.

 

[Tahaneira]

Where the hell did all of the Too Human fans come from? That game was probably one of the worst I've ever played this gen, maybe ever. I can't think of a single good thing from it.

It had a good concept and an awesome setting. Story wasn't bad. Those of us who call ourselves fans think that if someone just takes it in and gives it decent gameplay, it would make a great game.

 

[ChrisCarTheMarauder]

Where the hell did all of the Too Human fans come from? That game was probably one of the worst I've ever played this gen, maybe ever. I can't think of a single good thing from it.

It had a good concept and an awesome setting. Story wasn't bad. Those of us who call ourselves fans think that if someone just takes it in and gives it decent gameplay, it would make a great game.

That could literally be said about dozens of shit games though, yet they aren't treated like diamonds in the rough.

Too Human deserves to die IMO, stand as Dyack's legacy.

 

[Tahaneira]

Where the hell did all of the Too Human fans come from? That game was probably one of the worst I've ever played this gen, maybe ever. I can't think of a single good thing from it.

It had a good concept and an awesome setting. Story wasn't bad. Those of us who call ourselves fans think that if someone just takes it in and gives it decent gameplay, it would make a great game.

That could literally be said about dozens of shit games though, yet they aren't treated like diamonds in the rough.

That's probably true. I can't speak for everyone else, but for me, though, the story was especially awesome. I'm slightly obsessed with old myths and religions, and I'm slightly obsessed with sci-fi, and this game brought them together in an incredibly badass way. It was imaginative, well-designed (story and setting wise), and full of potential. It was just brought down by several particularly disastrous design decisions.

It probably isn't rational. But hey, I liked it. Not your thing? That's cool. This one was our thing, and we're sad it didn't get a chance to shine. Sure, you can say that about a couple dozen other games. This one is ours.

 

[Parakeettheprawn]

So long as Dyack's associated with the project, I'm not touching it. That guy makes Phil Fish look like a Buddhist monk.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

So long as Dyack's associated with the project, I'm not touching it. That guy makes Phil Fish look like a Buddhist monk.

Both of those guys have their heads so far up their asses Neil deGrasse Tyson is still trying to theorize how they haven't destroyed the planet with sheer pretentiousness alone.

 

[Parakeettheprawn]

So long as Dyack's associated with the project, I'm not touching it. That guy makes Phil Fish look like a Buddhist monk.

Both of those guys have their heads so far up their asses Neil deGrasse Tyson is still trying to theorize how they haven't destroyed the planet with sheer pretentiousness alone.

Yes, but somehow I can still at least respect Phil Fish since he seems to at least on some level accept that his opinions are his own and they sound crazy more often than not. Dyack is just an arrogant, childish prick, based on all that I've seen, heard, and read, from multiple sources and multiple opinions. Plus it comes across very evidently in Too Human's game design...

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

So long as Dyack's associated with the project, I'm not touching it. That guy makes Phil Fish look like a Buddhist monk.

Both of those guys have their heads so far up their asses Neil deGrasse Tyson is still trying to theorize how they haven't destroyed the planet with sheer pretentiousness alone.

Yes, but somehow I can still at least respect Phil Fish since he seems to at least on some level accept that his opinions are his own and they sound crazy more often than not. Dyack is just an arrogant, childish prick, based on all that I've seen, heard, and read, from multiple sources and multiple opinions. Plus it comes across very evidently in Too Human's game design...

I guess you haven't heard the recent crybaby antics of Phil Fish. He was recently blasting Valve on his Twitter for them taking a 30% cut of sales from Fez (which is public knowledge) and telling people to support upcoming the Humble Bundle specifically for HIS game so that he could get more money. Between that and the way he responded to being called out on Reddit its safe to say that Dyack and Fish are cut from the same cloth here. I'd say your statement falls more in like with Jonathon Blow.