Precursor on Shadow of the Eternals and its failure to connect
Precursor Games Chief Creative Officer Denis Dyack tells Joystiq that the "noise" surrounding his involvement in Shadow of the Eternals added to an already unclear message in the company's crowdfunding campaigns. Earlier this month, the crowdfunding drives on the Precursor website and via Kickstarter were canceled by the studio, which promised to rework and relaunch the project at a later date.
"I think that noise was due in large part to misconception," Dyack says, who notes that the campaigns failed to detail what Shadow of the Eternals could be, were it to reach its funding goal. Dyack, who had previously been the leader at Silicon Knights before resigning from his position a year ago, adds that the cacophony surrounding his involvement linked Precursor and Shadow of the Eternals to his previous studio, which he promptly points out as inaccurate promising the companies "have nothing to do with each other."
In May, Precursor Games CEO Paul Caporicci told Wired his company had purchased assets originally crafted at Silicon Knights for its first project. While reports have suggested parts of an Eternal Darkness successor – which, spiritually, Shadow of the Eternals is – were built at Silicon Knights using investments made by other companies for unrelated projects, Dyack has denied the claims.
"We're working on getting over that," Dyack says to the continued discussion surrounding his role at Precursor, "I don't know what else to say. When Precursor was all set up, this was something I wanted too." Dyack's focus is in creative, in a role that does not put him in charge of business decisions.
"I guess it's safe to say there's always been noise around me and I think that what I'm working on now is to make people understand the games that we're making."
Precursor's feeling is it should have spent more time "educating people" about the project before it launched its crowdfunding campaigns. Precursor Games Chief Operating Officer Shawn Jackson adds that ultimately crowdfunding was launched alongside "a lot of messages" – such as the establishment of the new studio, who was involved and more – and failed to properly focus on detailing Shadow of the Eternals. "I think, ultimately, that was a mistake on our part," Jackson says.
Precursor's plan is to launch a new crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for less than its original $1.3 million goal and will only launch its own crowdfunding campaign if the Kickstarter is a success. Exact funding goal numbers and a new start date were not be shared when we asked.
Stay tuned for more on Shadow of the Eternals and make sure to check out Joystiq's E3 2013 Hub page for all the goings on in Los Angeles.
