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Denis Dyack's Shadow of the Eternals rises from the grave
Silicon Knights founder Denis Dyack has formed a new studio, called Quantum Entanglement Entertainment. The studio, abbreviated as "QE2," will produce content not just for games, but television and film as well. On its "Under Development" page, QE2 lists an unannounced IP as well as Shadow of the Eternals - a project that was put on hold last year, after two failed Kickstarter campaigns. Positioned as a spiritual successor to GameCube cult classic Eternal Darkness, Shadow of the Eternals tells its Lovecraftian tale of horror via multiple viewpoints over the course of thousands of years. A 9-minute gameplay video showing protagonist Clara meeting with Elizabeth Bathory, "The Blood Countess," as the two explore a strange and forbidden tome, is available to watch after the break. Oh those forbidden tomes, always with the insanity and the Lovecraftian horror! When will people learn that is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons, even Denis Dyack may create this game? No platforms or release information is given regarding Shadow of the Eternals, but the most recent Kickstarter drive advertised the game for PC and Wii U.
Work ceases on Shadow of the Eternals, team 'taking a break'
Shadow of the Eternals has been officially shelved, according to a post from Precursor Games Chief Creative Director Denis Dyack. "It is with a heavy heart that we have decided to put the Shadow of the Eternals project on hold," Dyack wrote. "We are very happy with what we have accomplished both as a group and with the community. The community has blown us away and was the one thing that kept us going through it all - we cannot thank you enough." Shadow of the Eternals is the spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness, which Dyack directed. The team held two Kickstarter campaigns, the first of which was canceled, and the latter of which failed to meet its goal. Dyack said last month that the Precursor team hadn't yet given up, and that they would "pursue other avenues with the ultimate goal of having our games come to fruition," but his most recent post on the Precursor forums also notified fans that many of the team would be "taking a break." For those looking for the upside in this news: The game is on hold, not completely scrapped. "We have all agreed as a group that when and if the time is right we will get together and start it up again," Dyack wrote. In other words, Shadow of the Eternals isn't dead just yet. It's a Lovecraftian horror game, and as Lovecraft once wrote, "That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die."
Shadow of the Eternals fails to reach funding goal
The second Kickstarter campaign for a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem has failed. Shadow of the Eternals from Precursor Games was seeking $750,000 in funds through Kickstarter, but ran out of time before reaching $400,000. Precursor Games pulled the plug on its own campaign the first time around, due to what Denis Dyack called "noise" surrounding his involvement in the project. Dyack also admitted there were misconceptions of what Precursor promised, due to unclear messaging in the first pledge drive. Precursor Games relaunched on Kickstarter late last month. Shadow of the Eternals was planned for Wii U, PS4 and PC on Steam. A Steam Greenlight campaign has been fighting for votes since May, though with a lack of funding for the game we may see it ultimately canceled as well.
Shadow of the Eternals Kickstarter campaign resurrected
Denis Dyack and his group at Precursor Games has relaunched their Kickstarter campaign for Shadow of the Eternals, the CryEngine 3-powered spiritual successor to GameCube horror game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. Shadow of the Eternals is looking to secure $750,000 in funding, half of the requested $1.5 million from the first go around. Reward tiers are restructured and so is the campaign: Shadow of the Eternals will span thousands of years and highlight numerous characters like Detective Paul Becker, voiced by David Hayter. Becker, investigating a massacre at an asylum, discovers two survivors who seemingly want to kill each other – one a prim Wall Street type, the other a tattooed biker archetype. Precursor is still aiming to launch on PC and Wii U, and a Steam Greenlight drive is currently seeking votes from the community. After pulling the plug on the Kickstarter campaign last month, Precursor Games' Denis Dyack told Joystiq there was a lot of "noise" surrounding Shadow of the Eternals due to misconceptions of what Precursor Games was promising. This new Kickstarter campaign aims to be more inclusive to the community, with a special area of the Precursor forums dedicated to fan input, unlocked at the lowest backer tier.
Shadow of the Eternals returns to Kickstarter on July 25
On July 25, Precursor Games will re-launch its Kickstarter campaign for Shadow of the Eternals, which it considers a spiritual successor to Silicon Knights' cult classic, Eternal Darkness. Last month, Precursor Games sought $1.5 million through the crowd-funding service for Shadow of the Eternals, but pulled the plug before the drive could be concluded. Former Silicon Knights head Denis Dyack told Joystiq that drama surrounding his involvement had affected perceptions of the game negatively. At the end of June, Precursor Games' writer, game designer and artist Ken McCulloch was arrested on charges of distribution and possession of child pornography. Precursor Games was quick to distance itself from McCulloch and assured he is no longer affiliated with Precursor Games in any way following the allegations.
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."
Nine minutes of Shadow of the Eternals gameplay revealed
Precursor Games has released nine minutes of gameplay footage from its CryEngine 3-powered horror-adventure game Shadow of the Eternals, giving a very thorough look at an early work-in-progress scene. Pitched as a spiritual successor to Silicon Knights' GameCube cult hit Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, Precursor's Shadow of the Eternals seeks backer support in an ongoing crowd-funding campaign. Backers have pledged over $134,000 toward Precursor's goal of $1.5 million, with 27 days left in the studio's funding campaign. Developer Precursor Games purchased game assets and hardware from the now semi-defunct Silicon Knights, and several former SK staffers, including Eternal Darkness director Denis Dyack, have joined Precursor's team for the project.
Precursor reveals 'Shadow of the Eternals' soundtrack tune, CEO defends Dyack
Composer Giancarlo Feltrin has revealed the first musical tune he's created for Shadow of the Eternals, the spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem that's currently seeking funding. The song is called "Bathory's Theme," after Erzébet Bathory, an infamous female serial killer who will be part of the game's pilot episode. Precursor Games' CEO Paul Caporicci has posted his own update on the title's development, focusing a portion of his note on the selection of Denis Dyack as creative lead. "Denis Dyack was my first choice for Creative, as he has a keen understanding on the creative aspects of game development," says Caporicci. "It saddens me to read that people's impressions of him are painted by anonymous accounts of other individuals." At Silicon Knights, Dyack oversaw the original cult-hit Eternal Darkness, before launching less successful games like Too Human and X-Men: Destiny. Ultimately, legal issues with Epic would seal the fate for Dyack's development house. Fans have asked about Nintendo's involvement, and Caporicci says that Nintendo has "been very supportive of our endeavour" so far. The game is being built in CryENGINE for the PC, but shouldn't have "substantial differences" when ported to the Wii U.
PSA: Shadow of the Eternals funding drive is live, has its own rules
The crowd-funding campaign for Shadow of the Eternals, a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, is live now directly through developer Precursor Games. Borrowing the format from Kickstarter, Precursor has given itself 30 days to raise $1.5 million, with rewards for specific pledge amounts. Shadow of the Eternals will be distributed in 12 episodes whose story spans 2,500 years of psychological horror across Egypt, England, Hungary and the US. The pilot episode takes place in Hungary in 1610, at the castle of Erzebet Bathory, who is regarded as the most prolific female serial killer in history. She was also a countess. The Blood Countess. The pilot is scheduled to hit PC and Wii U in Q3 2014, and the entire project has Eternal Darkness director Denis Dyack as Precursor's chief creative officer. Precursor is based in Canada, meaning Kickstarter is out of the question and so are its rules – Shadow of the Eternals has a "flexible" funding goal. Even if it doesn't reach the full $1.5 million, Precursor will keep whatever money it raises, as long as there is enough to complete the game. "All contributions will go directly toward the development of this game and making it a reality," the FAQ reads. "We are committed to making this game, however, if it becomes apparent that we cannot raise enough to develop this project then we will refund all pledges."
Report: Eternal Darkness 2 demo part of X-Men: Destiny's woes
According to a report by Andrew McMillen, Silicon Knights was working on an Eternal Darkness 2 pitch demo that distracted the team from X-Men: Destiny during its development.McMillen writes on Kotaku that there were a litany of problems around the terrible X-Men: Destiny, including a lack of direction, technical and publisher issues with Activision, and problematic management from studio founder Denis Dyack."SK didn't take the development of XMD seriously the entire time I was there," says an anonymous former Silicon Knights employee. "It seemed more like a job to get us by, until ED2 could be developed and sold to a publisher - which never happened." Another unnamed source says "SK had about 60% of the development team working on XMD and the other 40% working on ED2," which caused staffing problems and allegedly lowered the quality of the final X-Men release.The piece also alleges that Silicon Knights earned the Activision contract and other contracts by "talking about Eternal Darkness endlessly," so if this is all true the very franchise that got Silicon Knights the X-Men project was the one that helped sink it. Given how certain Dyack has been in the past about an Eternal Darkness sequel, this might be one of several answers as to why X-Men: Destiny didn't get the focus it needed.
Silicon Knights: we never received any of Canada's money
Last year, Silicon Knights was awarded a grant by the Canadian government, in part to self-publish games, and to hire 80 employees. But it turns out the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade never handed over the funds -- a promised sum of $3 million Canadian."There hasn't been any funding. There were announcements and no money received," Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack told GI.biz. "That's one of the strangest things. So, at one point, there was a loan that we got. That's it." Dyack said he's following up on the money, but to no avail so far.It could be an alarming issue for Silicon Knights, considering the state of affairs at the Ontario-based studio. Late last year the developer had to let 45 go, and it remains embroiled in a long-running legal dispute with Epic over the use of Unreal Engine 3 during the development of Too Human.
Report: Silicon Knights cuts staff by nearly 75 percent, from 97 to just 25 [update]
X-Men Destiny and Too Human developer Silicon Knights may be in dire straits, with a report today stating the company is down from 97 employees to just 25. 1UP cites "two credible independent sources" as telling the news site of the massive layoffs over this past weekend. The report seemingly flies in the face of a $3 million Canadian government grant given to Silicon Knights this past July, intended at the time to "create 80 new jobs and protect 97 existing positions." It was also supposed to make SK into a self-published dev house -- something that company head Denis Dyack has continually pushed for. As of this publishing, representatives from Silicon Knights had yet to respond to request for comment. Update: The company has since confirmed layoffs, although the number is lower than originally reported in this piece.
X-Men Destiny review: Destined for failure
Sometimes you read about a canceled game and think, "Oh, that's too bad, that could have been fun. I wish they'd just release what they had finished so I could check it out." Do me a favor. The next time that thought should happen to flit across your mind, remember X-Men Destiny. Because when someone has a cool idea and releases it unfinished, this is exactly what it looks like. %Gallery-130861%
X-Men Destiny preview: Designer genes
Silicon Knights founder Denis Dyack is happy to hear that X-Men Destiny looks unlike many of the games already based on Marvel's mutant universe. "We've been collaborating with Marvel and Activision to do things very differently," he says. In most X-Men games, you pick a familiar hero, like Wolverine or Gambit, and then explore the world from his or her point of view. In X-Men Destiny, however, Dyack and his team have been given free reign to separate powers from characters. Your custom-built hero can play through the RPG-driven side of the game by equipping powers as you would gear. You could combine Cyclops' eyebeams with Juggernaut's charge, or Wolvie's healing factor, all while finding a place in the campaign somewhere between the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants. Unfortunately, while there are a lot of interesting touches in the story and powers system, X-Men Destiny's core game struggles to hold the higher ideas up. The graphics look only marginally better than those leaked screens, and even in the short demo I played the game's combat and enemies teetered on the verge of becoming notably repetitive.%Gallery-128867%
Silicon Knights receives Canadian gov. grant to hire 80, self-publish
The Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade announced yesterday that it gave Too Human and Eternal Darkness developer Silicon Knights "support" that will help the company become a "self-sustainable, self-publishing" company. According to the St. Catharine Standard, the developer received nearly $3 million in provincial funding. The money is also intended to create 80 new jobs and protect 97 existing positions. "This will enhance our competitive edge within the highly-competitive video game market ... and allow us to enter lucrative global markets," Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack said in a statement. Dyack had hinted toward Silicon Knight's self-publishing future in an interview with Joystiq in May. The latest batch of cash will be added to the $4 million the company received from the government last year. Silicon Knights is currently working on X-Men Destiny.
Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack still wary of game previews, hints at studio's self-publishing goal
During GDC this past March, I met with Silicon Knights head honcho Denis Dyack under the condition that he wouldn't be discussing the studio's upcoming action-RPG, X-Men Destiny (pictured above). The game is slated for release this year, yet we know relatively little about it -– and we've seen even less. Save for OXM UK, no outlet has published a preview (nor been offered one, as far as I know). I asked Dyack about his outspoken views against the preview process. "In my view, the ultimate model requires our industry to not show games until they are ready," he told me, echoing his past sentiments. "I'm not saying get rid of previews, because previews are a good thing," he clarified. "What I am suggesting is that our industry should not do previews until the game's completed."
Silicon Knights' Dyack on Too Human: 'we do plan on finishing the trilogy'
During the Game Developers Conference nearly two months ago, Silicon Knights head Denis Dyack met with me in a hotel overlooking that week's event at the Moscone Center. He wasn't there to show off his studio's next game -- X-Men: Destiny -- to press, but for unspecified "meetings" with unnamed folks. Spooky. And while we touched on the subject of XM:D during the half hour, the first questions I had for Dyack were about his studio's last major release, Too Human. Primary among them: Is the Too Human trilogy dead? "No, not at all," Dyack told me. "It is still on the table and we do plan on finishing the trilogy." When it came to other questions about Too Human, however, Dyack was far more verbose. With the intention of setting the record straight, as it were, Dyack outright denies that Too Human was in development for 10 years. "It is true that an earlier version of the general 'Too Human' concept was first shown on the PlayStation in 1998, but that was a completely different game than what was released on the Xbox 360," he said. "Among other things, the original concept was a single-player, third-person action/adventure game based on a detective called John Franks trying to discover who had killed his partner." It's a far cry from the Norse mythology-based dungeon crawler we played in 2008.
Dyack dismayed by layoffs, anticipates growth in Ontario
Following yet another report of company restructuring resulting in job losses, outspoken industry veteran Denis Dyack called industry-wide layoffs within the last year and a half "staggering." However, the Silicon Knights boss does see a brighter future for development over the next five years, at least in the Canadian province of Ontario. "Before, Ontario was a little isolated, there wasn't a lot of videogame companies here. But that's going to change. With all the positive steps that the government's done," Dyack told GamesIndustry.biz. Dyack's hopeful outlook for Ontario comes, in part, from Ubisoft's July announcement to open a new studio in Toronto -- a move Ubisoft hopes will bring 800 new jobs to the region over the next decade. According to Dyack, new business in Ontario means the province will be able to combat recruiters who remove developer and designer graduates from the area. "It's really depressing going to [University of] Waterloo to recruit and we see that Microsoft was there before us and took all the best people. The tax payer paid for that education," he lamented. With development expanding in Ontario, Silicon Knights can finally start combing schools for talent to help produce the (Sweet Lord, make it happen) sequel to Eternal Darkness.
Dyack predicts more publisher consolidation
Publishers have been disappearing faster than Ludwig's snickerdoodles at Joystiq's Mid-Autumn Tea Social lately, both through bankruptcy or (for the lucky ones) being purchased. Designer and industry soothsayer Denis Dyack told Gaming Union he expects that to continue, comparing the shift to that of Hollywood which went from hundreds of individual studios to the six major houses we know today. Dyack expects the role of publishers to change as well, though he's less specific on exactly what that means. Boy, one console and now fewer publishers? Sounds like Denis has been listening to too much They Might Be Giants.
Dyack muses about clouds, won't abandon current consoles
"We have no intentions to stop making video games for the current consoles ... that would be nuts." That was Silicon Knights head Denis Dyack's response to our question about whether his musing about cloud technology had anything to do with a new direction for the company. During Dyack's "musing about clouds" presentation today at GDC Europe, the SK president mentioned a belief in systems like OnLive -- but he's not ready to take a walk in the clouds just yet. The outspoken executive said that he doesn't believe people should be investing in game stores at the moment, though he was unsure how long the cloud model will take to gain a foothold. According to Dyack, cloud computing could become the dominant form of distribution and access for consumers within the next 20 years. In the meantime, Dyack told us Silicon Knights will keep doing console-based games "as long as the market is there."
