Shadow of the Eternals unlikely to be finished if crowdfunding is unsuccessful
Although its willing to explore all options, Precursor Games does not have a back up plan if its Kickstarter drive for Shadow of the Eternals falls through.
Precursor COO Shawn Jackson was asked during a Reddit AMA whether the game would come to market if the Kickstarter did not reach its target.
"Since we do not have any other source of funding, it is unlikely," he said.
"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."
Jackson said Precursor launched a Kickstarter in addition to a direct PayPal contribution campaign because fans asked for it - but if the Kickstarter falls through, the original funding will be cancelled, too.
"If the project does not reach it’s goal on Kickstarter, we will refund all pledges made through PayPal on our own site," he said.
Two of the most-aired concerns regarding the crowdfunding efforts are Precursor's acquisition of assets from Silicon Knights, and its retention of Denis Dyack, who in his role as CEO of Silicon Knights may be considered responsible for the developer's woes. Jackson answered both of these.
"We purchased the assets via an arms length transaction as many other ex-employees and companies did. A company selling assets during a downing sizing is a very common place and not illegal or underhanded in any way," he said.
"We hired [Dyack] because he’s a valuable asset to the team. 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," he said.
"We believe in Denis and with him focusing on creative, he is excelling at something that he loves. Paul Caporicci founded Precursor Games and is the CEO."
Shadow of the Eternals is a spiritual successor to Silicon Knights' much-loved adventure Eternal Darkness, which Nintendo owns the rights to. It has gathered just over $113,000 of its whopping $1,35 million goal with 19 days to go. Check out the Kickstarter here.