Shadow of the Eternals 'unlikely' if crowdfunding falls short, studio believes in Dyack, COO says

Shadow of the Eternals, Precursor Games' spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, is unlikely to be finished if the developer's crowdfunding efforts aren't successful, Precursor COO Shawn Jackson revealed today during a Reddit AMA.

Jackson revealed the game's possible fate in response to a question about wether the game will still be made if it fails to reach its funding goals on Kickstarter and its independent crowdfunding effort.

"Since we do not have any other source of funding, it is unlikely," Jackson wrote.

Jackson also defended the studio's decision to hire Denis Dyack, who like other Precursor employees and equipment that the studio is using are also veterans of Eternal Darkness developer Silicon Knights. Dyack, who serves as chief creative officer at Precursor, has faced criticism from gamers unhappy with his more recent work and some former employees, as Kotaku reported last year.

Earlier this month, Dyack took to YouTube to speak to allegations, and Jackson took to Reddit today to explain why Precursor brought him aboard.

"(a) We hired him because he's a valuable asset to the team," Jackson wrote in response to a multi-part question about Dyack and Precursor. "(b) 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. (c) We didn't anticipate a backlash because we actually know Denis as the person he is. (d) No game is immune from being cancelled or delayed. (e) We believe in Denis and with him focusing on creative, he is excelling at something that he loves. (f) Paul Caporicci founded Precursor Games and is the CEO."

If successfully funded, the first episode of Shadow of the Eternals is scheduled to be released on Windows PC and Wii U in 2014. As of this writing, the Kickstarter campaign has raised $113,848 of its $1.35 million goal with 19 days remaining. Its total crowdfunding efforts have raised $271,283.

"If the project does not reach it's goal on Kickstarter, we will refund all pledges made through PayPal on our own site," Jackson wrote on Reddit.