Shadow of the Eternals Crowdfunding Kicks Off With Gameplay

[Karloff]

Shadow of the Eternals Crowdfunding Kicks Off With Gameplay


The Lovecraft Video Game Association of America? Has Wilbur Whatleley been informed?

Denis Dyack's new home, Precursor Games, has finally launched its crowdfunding effort for its Eternal Darkness successor, Shadow of the Eternals [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123736-Eternal-Darkness-Successor-Shadow-of-the-Eternals-Enters-the-Light]. What's more, there's a teaser trailer with game footage, though as a seasoned Cthulhu gamer I offer this piece of advice to the protagonists: burn the books! It's the only way to stay sane.

Whether or not you're a Kachoolu fan [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable?from=Main.KnightsOfTheDinnerTable], this episodic horror title has struck a chord with a few gamers so far, and - at time of writing - $144,633 of the $1.5 million ask has been raised. "Being in the industry for a very long time," says Dyack, "one of the biggest problems that we always had as game designers is, we never had that direct contact with the consumer, so with digital distribution we can look to ways to raise our own money and interact directly with the consumer." Hence this crowdfunding campaign, run directly by Precursor itself, as Canada lacks a Kickstarter model of its own. Those interested in pledging should bear in mind that, unlike Kickstarter, this campaign will keep the money it raises whether or not it reaches its goal.

The $1.5 million ask, incidentally, funds the pilot episode plus the engine build. As we know, Precursor has had to develop its own engine this time out; after all, a look over here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123901-Silicon-Knights-Still-Breathes-Dyack-Has-Left-The-Building].

Source: PC Gamer [http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/05/11/shadow-of-the-eternals-crowdfunding-goes-live-along-with-a-lengthy-gameplay-video/]


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[Candidus]

Well, vegeta-hair's american accent put me off at first, but it seems as though there aren't many others using it (well, the blonde too, but she didn't speak much). If you absolutely have to include it in a medieval or other swords-and-sorcery setting, making it a rare ethnic thing is most tolerable.

I'm interested, and I'll pledge.

edit: Hmm. After checking out the site I'm in for 5 dollars. I don't have Project Eternity levels of faith in the man or the studio; my donation is based purely on my evaluation of the demo.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

Hey. Hey, you. You people. You guys.

Read this public service announcement before you pledge, you horrible jerks [http://kotaku.com/5955223/what-went-wrong-with-silicon-knights-x+men-destiny]. Yeah, I know it's a Kotaku article, but it's from an unusually talented freelancer, alright?

EDIT: Also, their being Canadian is no real reason not to use Kickstarter, as plenty of non-American-based projects (including some from Canada) have funded themselves through that website. The reason they're doing it without them is because 1: they don't want Kickstarter to skim a little bit off the top and 2: Kickstarter funding only goes through if the project actually meets its goal, whereas the transfer of funds for this project occurs as soon as you make your pledge.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Other than the shoddy voice acting and the sometimes hilariously bad animations, this game looks downright beautiful.

Count me in.

(Also, anyone else notice whoever was playing rush past the magically appearing/disappearing broom? XD)

 

[Davroth]

I dunno... the theme seems similar, but I fear they wont be able to secure the rights for the ancients and that kind of stuff, so this trip down nostalgia lane will probably end up feeling kinda off.

Also, I hope the final sanity effects are a bit more interactive, or shorter.

 

[Vivi22]

Hey. Hey, you. You people. You guys.

Read this public service announcement before you pledge, you horrible jerks [http://kotaku.com/5955223/what-went-wrong-with-silicon-knights-x+men-destiny]. Yeah, I know it's a Kotaku article, but it's from an unusually talented freelancer, alright?

Couldn't agree with you more. Denis Dyack being involved is all the reason people should need to put their wallets back in their pockets and keep their money. He doesn't deserve anyone's support and I'm honestly disappointed that people have already pledged so much money already since he's involved.

Hope this takes off. Not only because it would be great to have a follow up to Eternal Darkness, but this game is also confirmed for Wii U, and if it looks as nice there as it does in the videos, it should finally be the game to stop all this "Wii U is current gen" nonsense.

You mean a game that looks about on par with most PS3 and 360 games (assuming we ignore the awful character models and animation anyway) is going to convince people that the Wii U has the power to hang with the next Xbox or the PS4? I don't know what it is you're smoking, but I'd like to know where I can get some.

 

[Turner Shanks]

Line of Thought I: This trailer only deepens my largest fear for an Eternal Darkness sequel: Overblown and dramatic sanity sequences.

The brilliance of the first game came from the subtly of the sanity mechanic, it started with a faint humming you might not have noticed before, maybe the camera goes slightly askew, tiny touches that make a huge effect without blatantly doing anything to you.
At the height of insanity (I did like them referencing the classic "This isn't happening!" line) you got slammed with rooms where everything was upside down, rooms filled with enemies where you suddenly have no weapons, or otherwise normal rooms that resulted in you exploding if you tried to cast magic.
This is ignoring the beloved meta-effects where it pretended to adjust your television source, delete your memory card, or display a fake "to be continued" prompt after a chapter was finished (which could be used without a hint of humour to it now strangely enough).

Point being that regardless of what happened it was all reasonable and realistic to expect from Eternal Darkness as either a world or as a game that could have glitches. It also kept you in full control (there is a humourous line given if you try to go into the inventory and equip something after your arms have apparently fallen off), I am worried that a sequel will try to make the sanity effects too "cinematic" and ruin the concept entirely.

Line of Thought II: Is this a heavy remake or a sequel/successor? I'm not AGAINST replaying chapters from the original with new graphics and voice acting, but it seems like low hanging fruit given the potential of the world.

 

[Vivi22]

The environments use tessellation and parallax mapping to an extent we simply haven't seen on current gen games.

True. And yet it still only looks like a marginal improvement over current gen games, even when it's almost certainly not presently running on a system that is a minor step up in hardware from previous generation consoles. Even if it did manage to accomplish some of these newer effects on the Wii U, it wouldn't be a huge surprise that a system that is slightly more powerful than a PS3 or 360 would be able to accomplish slightly more. But that still doesn't change the fact that it's hardware is only a modest step up from last gen consoles and will not be nearly as powerful as what is under the hood in the PS4, and likely the next Xbox as well.

But unless I'm confusing you for someone else, I believe we were down this road already weeks ago, and I have no desire to get into it again with someone who has only the most basic understanding of console hardware, and is desperate to hold onto the delusion that the Wii U will somehow hold it's own against systems with almost eight times as much usable RAM which also happens to run an order of magnitude faster than it's even capable of or whatever other nonsense you'd like to argue. It's a waste of my time when you're clearly just zealously trying to defend a pet console as though you built the thing yourself.

And that really isn't the point of this thread, or even the most important thing I said in my last post. The more important thing is that the guy who's basically in charge at this new developer does not deserve anyone's money. He's an egotistical ass who doesn't seem to have a clue about actually making games or running a studio unless you have a publisher standing over his shoulder correcting his mistakes along the way. Nobody should donate to this thing. He hasn't done anything in almost a decade that warrants the trust and financial support of gamers.

 

[CrimsonBlack]

Well I was certainly quite charmed by revisiting Oublie Cathedral.

I wonder if the finished episodes will have nods to the characters from Eternal Darkness? I mean, both Theodoric (the character in the video above) and Anthony (a character in Eternal Darkness) visit Oublie Cathedral in search of Charlemagne, in the exact same year - 814AD - and both as couriers. Is it an alternative timeline or do they cross paths?

 

[CharrHearted]

this won't make it. 24 days and they need over 1,000,000? Not a chance in hell.

 

[Kmadden2004]

Isn't that the exact same medieval church that appeared in Eternal Darkness?

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

The game looks great, and something I've been waiting for for years. The metagame - "Pretend to be Microsoft and Activision without the opportunity of a return on your investment", that's the true test of your sanity.

 

[BramblinTheGnome]

I like the look of it for the most part and it could be interesting. And yet, I couldn't help but be a little peeved that they just took an exact copy of one of the levels from Eternal Darkness, dusted it off a little and presented it as a "new" game. If all they are going to do is make the old game prettier (and hopefully handle easier... the original had some pretty terrible controls) I'm fine with that, but don't lie about it and claim you are making a new product. This has "jerk trying to steal our money" written all over it. I don't hold out much hope at this stage.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

this won't make it. 24 days and they need over 1,000,000? Not a chance in hell.

They don't really need to "make it". Not to get a bit of money out of it, at least. In a Kickstarter project, if you don't hit the minimum goal, you don't get any money. This isn't a Kickstarter project, and Precursor gets your money as soon as you make your pledge. They've revised their FAQ and TOS multiple times since launching the project to give mention to refunds if they find themselves horribly under budget, but they are under no legal obligation to follow through on any of that.

 

[The_Darkness]

Line of Thought I: This trailer only deepens my largest fear for an Eternal Darkness sequel: Overblown and dramatic sanity sequences.

I'm right there with you. In fact, I get the feeling that they've completely done away with subtlety here, which concerns me. Monsters around the corner? Let's give you a good, up-close look. Sanity effect? Blow up the room! Main plot? Let's just have someone explain stuff to you. (Hey, Devs? NONE of the original characters had anything explained to them short of handling the book and seeing their predecessors actions, while the main lead walked around a disturbing mansion figuring stuff out for herself.) To a lesser extent, this is why I prefer written descriptions to voice acting when you examine something - reading it in your head helps you to draw your own conclusions, and the voice-acting damages the "You're all alone" impression.

Finally, Anthony seemed to drop the "Must find Charlemagne!" thing very quickly in that demo, while Eternal Darkness explained why exploring the church's secrets was so important to get to Charlemagne. The monk would tell you that the Emperor was behind a locked door, and that the head priest had the key. Going from "Charlemagne?" to "What's up with this church...?" so quickly without an explanation threw me out my immersion.

EDIT: You know what? I think I'm just going to play the original for a bit instead. I'll only get this if it actually turns out to be good - which means I need half a dozen good reviews to assuage my fears first.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

Is this what an insanity effect looks like in real life [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/617502838/shadow-of-the-eternals]?