Shadow of the Eternals, from the Eternal Darkness guys

It says it right in the trailer! Anywhoo, it'll be a crowd-funded game--requiring $1.5m to get going--and is intended to be released on the Wii U and PC as an episodic series. Although if they exceed their goal, then there's the possibility of extended it beyond its confirmed platforms and for more additional characters and episodes to be produced.

Sounds pretty alright, and the mere fact that there's something in the works behind the minds of Eternal Darkness on its own is great to hear. And for all intents and purposes, I imagine this is to also be a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness at that, especially given the name and the whole ''Darkness has returned'' tagline.

However, judging by the teaser it all looks rather... cartoon-y, almost like something out of Fable even. Eternal Darkness also had a rather cartoonish look to it, though, and could still prove to be rather chilling at times. So hopefully the same will hold true here. For such an incredibly creative mechanic, it's a bit perplexing as to why there's still been nothing quite like it. There was that part in Arkham Asylum I suppose, but nothing that really took a hold and attempted to build another game centred on screwing with your mind as much as Eternal Darkness did. Maybe in this day and age it'll appear a bit gimmicky, though. Still, that's why this much smaller episodic format should hopefully work for such a design.

First a new horror game by Shinji Mikami is announced, and now there's to be a horror game by the Eternal Darkness team. A Condemned 3 must surely be on the horizon... =( It's great to see the guys who were forced out of what remains of Silicon Knights are able to keep trucking least.

Here's a quick blurb describing the premise anywhoo:

When Detective Paul Becker is called to one of the bloodiest gang massacres in Louisiana state history, only two survivors remain from a brutal conflict between two rival cults. As Becker begins his interrogations of the suspects, their combined recollections will uncover the truth about the ‘Eternals’.

Featuring an ensemble cast of heroes and villains, Shadow of the Eternals will span over 2500 years of history throughout Egypt, England, Hungary, and the United States. Players will question the perception of reality as they try to balance the mechanics of combat, magick, and sanity events to progress through the adventure.

Shadow of the Eternals will take players on a memorable journey throughout time; weaving historical fact with disturbing fiction to create an experience unlike any other.

I'm not sure what to think about this. An episodic spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness sounds like a great idea, but at the same time, Dyack is involved, this time without direct oversight from Nintendo to keep his shit in shape, and well...

Yes please.

:D I am very glad this is coming to personalised computational entities.

I don't know, the stories I've read of Dennis Dyack make me not want to give him my money.

Oh God, you're right. I missed the part about Dyack and assumed he was still wallowing on his own while the guys who were sacked/left/whatever took on this project on their own.

Maybe his stream of blunders will have helped reconfigure his perspective, though...

Can someone quickly explain to me the disdain for Dennis Dyack?

He's been documented as being a complete tyrant of a boss and a control freak -- not to mention his tantrums involving Too Human at that. Here's a pretty good article detailing the horrors of working under him during the development of X-Men Destiny.

In a nutshell, he got in a massive PR disaster of an argument with NeoGAF during the development of Too Human and made a lot of promises about the game that weren't kept. At the same time, he pursued litigation against Epic for supposedly lackluster support when Silicon Knights tried building the game on the Unreal Engine. Then SK used a heavily modified engine that still retained original UE elements in the released game. Said game was then pulled from stores after the litigation against Epic backfired and the game was forced off shelves because it contained UE code, and...well.

Dyack created a big fucking mess that has all but sunk Silicon Knights.

I really don't know how you go from Blood Omen to X-Men Destiny. Hearing that Dyack is involved makes me iffy on this kickstarter and what the funds would be used for.

Also, it should be mentioned that the guy has a massive ego and knows barely anything about his job. He was able to completely halt work on X-Men Destiny and ignore important info from other designers and bugtesters pertaining bugs etc. just to focus on the fact that a car in the background isnot red, while it obviously should be red. Hell, his wife was head of Human Resources. There's also the fact that the only reason why Eternal Darkness and Twin Snakes were any good was because outside producers were brought in for development, keeping shit together.

I recommend reading that article posted by Yummylee. A very similar situation happened with Team Bondi and L.A. Noire.

I really don't know how you go from Blood Omen to X-Men Destiny. Hearing that Dyack is involved makes me iffy on this kickstarter and what the funds would be used for.

I really don't know how you go from Blood Omen to X-Men Destiny. Hearing that Dyack is involved makes me iffy on this kickstarter and what the funds would be used for.

I'll give Dyack my money IF he can make the game. Sorry, I'm not giving that guy any money until I see a finished thing.

Guy who hasnt created a decent game in almost a decade wants your money!

At least it's episodic meaning the scope seems somewhat realistic. But I still doubt developement on this will go smoothly.

Define "realistic." Even with the episodic format, there's still plenty of potential for Dyack to sink the ship in the harbor.

Even as a huge Eternal Darkness fan, there's no way I'm giving any money to Dyack after reading all those articles on him.

If it comes out (and its decent, of course), he'll get my money. There's just no way in Hell, given the man's track record post-Nintendo, that I'd pay for the game's development.

It kind of reminds me of the backlash against Zach Braff last week regarding Kickstarter.

If it comes out (and its decent, of course), he'll get my money. There's just no way in Hell, given the man's track record post-Nintendo, that I'd pay for the game's development.

It kind of reminds me of the backlash against Zach Braff last week regarding Kickstarter.

Many former Silicon Knights staffers have mentioned that the only reason Eternal Darkness turned out as well as it did was because Nintendo kept cracking the whip and carrying the team through rough spots.

Most of Silicon Knights other games speak to this, especially their more recent output. Not to mention that almost none of that team is still associated with or willing to associate with Dyack.

I loved Eternal Darkness, but anyone that thinks contributing to a Denis Dyack led Kickstarter is just throwing away their money.

The only company that can make a worthy sequel to Eternal Darkness is Nintendo (maybe through Retro?), and since I believe they own the IP, they can (but probably won't).

I'd really like to take a look at the kickstarter just to get a bit more of a feel for the project but I can't find the actual page anywhere.

I'm staying far away from anything involving Dyack at this point. Not even bringing into account his apparent bad treatment of employees, it's clear the only reason Eternal Darkness and Twin Snakes turned out as good as they did was because everything they did was overseen by Nintendo.

I've always had the position that Eternal Darkness is good but a bit overrated, but hearing that Dyack is involved doesn't give me much confidence in that regard.

I've always had the position that Eternal Darkness is good but a bit overrated, but hearing that Dyack is involved doesn't give me much confidence in that regard.

As much as I'd love to see a new Eternal Darkness, I just can't trust Dennis Dyack to deliver something worthwhile ever again.

As much as I'd love to see a new Eternal Darkness, I just can't trust Dennis Dyack to deliver something worthwhile ever again.

Nope.

Nope nope nope nope nope.

I refuse to contribute to this kickstarter if Dyack is involved. I hope they get funded and I hope it turns out to be a great game, at which point I will buy it. I just simply cannot give money blindly to a man who has a reputation like his.

I love the shit out of Eternal Darkness. Heck, I even enjoyed Too Human and would want to see more of it. But NO WAY would I trust Dyack with my money.

1. This guy managed to make me feel bad for Activision, he diverted almost half of their funding for X-men Destiny to a speculative demo of this thing! He tried to string them along as long as possible, treating the license as a piggy bank for whatever he felt like. The consensus of ex-staffers was that the vertical slice of Darkness 2 simply wasn't fun, it was terrible.

2. He claimed Unreal Engine was unfinished and unsupported, forcing Silicon Knights to make a "new" engine for Too Human and X-men. Tried to sue Epic for millions. Yet now they are court-ordered to destroy those games, because it was painfully obvious when people looked at the code that they were built off the Unreal foundation all along! He was trying to sue Epic while secretly pirating their engine!

3. Took millions from the Canadian government for all these projects he claimed SK were getting. It was all bullshit, and the company shrunk to about four employees as it was bankrupted by his big, dumb lawsuit.

This was how he dealt with companies and governments who supposedly had oversight over him, with ironclad contracts. With Kickstarter there is NO consequence if the project never materializes. Based on past behavior and current debts, I basically see Dyack and his wife disappearing to the Cayman Islands with this free money.

well at least the game looks alright. kinda fucking stupid to end the trailer with a crowd-funding campaign launch date.

Welcome to the new world.

Though I am morbidly curious to see if this campaign fails based on Dyack's infamy.

It should look good, isn't it the demo that SK were working on with Activision's X-Men money? Seems like it fits the description of that game.

@hailinel: i should know better in this age of teaser ads for ads.

How much money do I have to give Dennis to get sued by him?

Is there a lawsuit stretch goal?

Dennis dyack + kickstarter sounds like a perfect disaster waiting to happen.

Well his track record has been shit as late and he hasn't been doing himself any favors in the press so don't think I will be giving him any of my hard earned money

It's looking pretty good graphically. The voice acting and music seem great so far, which seems par for the course with their games (Legacy of Kain).

So a whole bunch of new information has been released about the game, gameplay features, videos and an announcement that the devs are attending E3 to try and get some excitement for the game. I myself was skeptical until i found out the news source everyone was citing was a Kotaku article which after looking at is a lot of hearsay and no real evidance. It also seems really weird that everyone is worried about giving Denis money when he is only in a creative role and not actually in charge of the funds in any way.

Ive taken the decison myself to help fund it purely because id like to see what a follow up to Eternal Darkness actually ends up looking like. Has anyone else looked at this game in the last month or so? They definetly seem to get that there is a lot of mistrust (a lot of it undue) surrounding the project, have any of the recent updates changed your mind?

I think dyack in charge of the game is the huge problem. Just look at too human.

Either way they will never reach their goal anyway so do not get excited for an already dead project.

At this point they're only 10% funded, which is kind of embarrassing.

Dyack's involvement has poisoned the chances of its success. Regardless of how accurate that Kotaku article is, even outside the context of that article, he's regarded as a fool.

I think This is just another totally nostalgia blindness overrated IP. Yeah it was good back then because there was nothing else. Same with Shenmue by the way.

@darji: I understand why everyone would think he is in charge but he is purely there as a creative consultant, he is in no way running the project and ill give you Too Human since i wasnt a huge fan of it myself, but he was also involved in Blood Omen and Eternal Darkness which had some fantastic writing and a great direction.

@marokai I dont know that its embarassing more for them or for us, with Kotaku just in the last few weeks taking an absolute pounding for their lack of journalistic integrity and ethics, it seems embarassing to me that we all fell for it without question. Lots of copy and paste jobs even on this site due to the usually dilligent Patrick Klepick left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, ive come to expect better from him and i thought we had already established that Kotaku are morally bankrupt at this point.

@Hailinel: Thats purely your opinion (which i respect) and i dont think anyone is going to say DD is without fault, he is prone to opening his mouth when he should keep it closed and keeping it closed when he should say something, but a lot of opinions have been formed purely from speculation from un-named sources, how can you defend yourself against an accusation when the person making it is too much of a coward to step forward and do it directly?

Id never tell people to throw money at something they didnt feel comfortable with, thats a fools errand at best, but i just feel that a lot of what is being used to crucify DD and put this game in the situation its in has been completely unfair and it wouldnt suprise me if a lot of it was fabricated. If this supposed source actually stepped forward and Kotaku hadnt already had Totilo do a piece distancing themselves from the story i wouldnt even be backing it myself but when something smells like a freelancer trying to increase their reputation by making stuff up it generally is.

Id personally like to see the game eventually come out and disprove all of this and i just hope those pepole who feel the same are making their own decisons and sticking by them. I can respect those that dont want anything to do with it but not those who are the "just wait and see" types that will only fund things that are doing well.

Sounds like this game is going to be dead in the water now. Since they didn't get it crowdfunded I can't imagine a publisher signing on for the project. Its sad but I can't say I'm surprised, I've always been a bit confused when on the bombcast they say there is a ton of nostaglia built up for the game. From what I've seen its a bit of a cult classic with a dedicated audience but not the biggest audience out there. And then theres all the stuff surrounding Denis Dyack and it always looked like an uphill battle to me, not the sure bet that Patrick said it was.

I wonder what will happen to the studio now? Will they be able to stick together and make another game or is this the end for Silicon Knights (or whatever they named there new company but lets be real its basicaly SK)

Nothing about this is surprising. They would have had better chances if they didn't reveal who they actually are (not that that's possible or desirable) but as soon as Dyack's face appeared the thing was dead.

@kagato: The thing is, it's not just about anonymous sources talking to Kotaku. It's about Dyack acting like a fool on NeoGAF prior to the release of Too Human, and it's even more about how he screwed Silicon Knights in his pursuit of a lawsuit against Epic that not only ended in Epic's favor, but resulted in the destruction and prohibition of sale of new copies of both Too Human and X-Men Destiny. And the reason that both games were destroyed was because both contained Unreal Engine code that Dyack and Silicon Knights claimed neither game had. The man is an egotist that makes hilariously poor business decisions and is not someone that I would willingly entrust with my money. His best games came when he was under the thumb publishers that were more than just financiers and took an active, hands-on approach to the production.