The game is currently in development by Precursor Games, though has been put on hold indefinitely. While development was ongoing, the title was being developed to release on Wii U and PC, there is a possibility that the game will be ported to other platforms.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 2. Characters

Development

Despite the cult acclaim surrounding the Eternal Darkness games, the details regarding the games development have been very scarce. The current status of the game is that it’s on hold for a non specific amount of time.

When questioned about the games indefinite delay by IGN’s Mitch Dyier who asked whether or not the game was dead, Precusor Games’ Denis Dyack said that members of the games development staff were “taking a break” and thus, the game was “on hold”.

He commented further on the matter by saying ” we feel it needs a rest too. We have all agreed as a group that when and if the time is right we will get together and start it up again.”

The game went through various stages of development that were to be boosted by crowd-funding. The first stage saw the developer try and fund the title through the Shadows of the Eternals website and via a kickstarter campaign.

The initial target funding goal was set at a massive £1,350,000 via kickstarter and this began on May 13th of 2013. Precursor Games cancelled the games kickstarter on June 19th when the game had raised only $128,039 of it’s goal.

The official line for the cancellation of the first kickstarter was to create a single unified crowd funding effort. Though fans and media outlets mostly agree that this was done so that they could reduce the goal.

Shadows of the Eternals returned to Kickstarter on July 25th with a severely reduced goal of $750,000. This kickstarter campaign ran until the 23rd of August 2013 but it was unsuccessful and only raised $323,950.

It was after this when development staff went on a break and the games active development was halted.

The new campaign came back to Kickstarter on July 25th for a much reduced number of $750,000. The campaign ran until August 23, 2013. It remained unsuccessful with only $323,950 raised. The current state of the game is indefinite hiatus.

Story

Legitimate details remain scarce, but thus far the game seems to be centred around a young woman named Clara who is working alongside authorities to locate and capture a character named Elizabeth Báthroy.

Gameplay

The game is played from a third person perspective. The game claims to share features similar to those found in its Gamecube predeccsor, but thus far, that remains to be seen.

Characters

Character details are also, unsurprisingly, vague.

Clara is said to be the games protagonist, despite gameplay depicting a male character whereas a character named Elizabeth Báthroy is represented as being the enemy.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Though 2012 was the year that Kickstarter truly arrived as a potent crowd-funding platform, it had a very strong total in 2013 as well. A quick look at the stats on the site reveal that all projects on the site successfully accrued $919 million. Video game projects accounted for $200.42 million of that total.

That’s considering that the total number of launched projects stands at 7,922. Game projects have had an overall success rate of 35.08% on Kickstarter, with 29 projects having raised more than $1 million in 2013 alone (the total number of said projects numbering 54 at this time). There were also 1,028 campaigns that managed to accrue between $1,000 and $9,999 in crowd-funding.

Of course, the year had its share of failed projects with 4,933 unsuccessful Kickstarters. One of the more prominent projects was Precursor Games’ Shadow of the Eternals, which was meant to be a spiritual sequel to Eternal Darkness and featured many former Silicon Knights developers. What are your thoughts on the present success and future of Kickstarter? Let us know below.

In a post on Precursor’s forums, Dyack stated that “For those who are not aware, we all worked on this project as a labor of love and self financed 100 per cent of everything for a over a year to try to make Shadow of the Eternals a reality. Although we did not succeed on doing this, we succeeded in making many friends and starting something that we hope provided value for those involved. We have no regrets.”

“Is the project dead? No, but we feel it needs a rest. We have all agreed as a group that when and if the time is right we will get together and start it up again. Keep your head high everyone and remember what we have accomplished together.”

Anyone bummed that we’ll have to continue waiting for a follow-up to Eternal Darkness or did it seem too good to be true from the start? Let us know in the comments.

The project, it seems, is no longer divided into episodes. It will feature multiple playable characters and Sanity events a la Eternal Darkness and bring an 8-10 hour single-player experience. Developed using CryEngine 3, Shadow of the Eternals will be releasing for the Wii U and PC.

In an interesting twist, Precursor has also announced that it is officially a licensed PlayStation 4 developer, and one of the reward tiers for the game’s funding includes bringing the game to the PS4. This will be done if the target goal of $750,000 is surpassed, though how much is exactly needed hasn’t been specified.

As of this writing, 366 backers has contributed $16,097 to the game’s development with 29 days to go.

An action-adventure title, Shadow of the Eternals was marked as the spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, developed by Silicon Knights. The game was to be divided into a number of episodes and developed for the PC and Wii U.

The original campaign was halted last month when the developer stated that it came across “a host of a new exciting opportunities that will make the game better than we envisioned.” How that will play out is unsure, but look forward to more details as the new Kickstarter gets underway.

Canadian police have arrested co-founder Ken McCulloch on charges relating to child pornography. A press release by the Niagra police stated that, “On Thursday, June 27th, 2013, Detectives from the Internet Child Exploitation Unit/Child Abuse Unit, Technological Crimes Unit and Uniform Officers executed a search warrant at a St. Catharines residence. Subsequently, a significant number of computer systems and peripheral devices were seized as evidence.

“Kenneth McCulloch, 42 years old, of St. Catharines, Ontario, was arrested and is charged with one count each of Possession of Child Pornography, Making Child Pornography Available, and Accessing Child Pornography, contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada. This investigation is ongoing. McCulloch is being held in custody, pending a bail hearing scheduled for June 28th, 2013 at the Robert S. K. Welch Courthouse, located at 59 Church Street, in the City of St. Catharines.”

In an official company post, CEO Paul Caporicci stated that, “Having just learned of these disturbing charges today and based on the serious nature of them, Ken McCulloch is no longer affiliated in any way with Precursor Games.” The former Silicon Knights director’s name has been removed from the site and staff listings.

“This doesn’t mean we are going away — far from it. We’ll be re-launching the Kickstarter in just a few short weeks with a reveal of these exciting new developments,” said Caporicci in a public statement.

“As we’re closing the current Kickstarter campaign not a single dime from this campaign will be removed from supporters’ accounts and everyone from our website’s crowd-funding campaign will receive full refunds via PayPal.

“As we re-tool our campaign and continue development, the forums on our site will remain open and active and any interested fans can still join the ‘Order of the Unseen’ to see our progress and join in the fun of creating content for the game themselves.”

Currently, the Kickstarter campaign has amassed 2,399 backers, who pledged $127,387 of the $1,350,000 goal with 13 days remaining.

In a Reddit AMA, CEO Shawn Jackson defended the decision to hire Dyack. “We hired him because he’s a valuable asset to the team. We intend to show people the real Denis Dyack through his interactions on the forums and videos. Denis has made many successful games and ran independent studio for over 20 years.

“We didn’t anticipate a backlash because we actually know Denis as the person he is. We believe in Denis and with him focusing on creative, he is excelling at something that he loves.”

That being said, if the game doesn’t even get off the ground, will it really show us the man who made Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem possible, rather than the present man whose negligence made X-Men Destiny possible?

In a Reddit AMA, Precursor Games CEO Shawn Jackson answered questions about the game’s funding. In the event of the Kickstarter failing, would development continue? “Since we do not have any other source of funding, it is unlikely”.

Jackson also stated that, “If the project does not reach it’s goal on Kickstarter, we will refund all pledges made through PayPal on our own site.

“We will entertain all options to make this game a reality because we believe in this project. However, we can’t be sure a publisher will share our vision for interacting with the community during development or this would work in the traditional model.”

According to the two, internal development takes up 44.3 percent, which makes up staff salaries and new hires; distribution costs, which includes royalty fees for Nintendo eShop and Steam (with the game releasing on Wii U and PC), make up 3.8 percent; physical goods rewards make up 3.8 percent and make up the rewards that will be shipping to contributors.

Payments to Amazon and Kickstarter for using their services make up 9.2 percent; software licensing, which includes use of Autodesk, Adobe and CryEngine will make up 21.4 percent; and voice acting, motion capture, and contracting for art assets takes up 17.6 percent. Of course, since this is episode one and most of the technology development will be happened now, future episodes will cost less to develop.

Still, does it look worth the investment?