Dad’s Basement #3c3 – The Shadow Over Denis Dyack: At The Mountains of Bad Press
Part of a Video Series on Video Game History
Featured Here on the Happygamefamily YouTube channel and at Happygamefamily.com
In mid 2012, a number of people were laid off from Silicon Knights after the company’s long-running lawsuit with Epic Games took a bad turn. They started a new company, Precursor Games, purchased some assets and equipment from Silicon Knights, and set about to nearly a year’s work building a demo to bring to the public in order to crowd-fund the spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. In mid 2013, immediately upon launch, they would find themselves in the unenviable position of being the first crowdfunding effort roundly shouted down by various influential voices in the games press.
Long overdue, part Three of our three-part (plus) series covering Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem and its attempted spiritual successor now is a posthumous survey of the failure of the Kickstarter for Shadow of the Eternals, split into multiple chapters.
Footage Sources:
- “Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem”, Silicon Knights/Nintendo;
- “Technopoly”, by Neil Postman, read by Jeff Riggenback;
- “Shadow of the Eternals Pitch Video, v1”, May 6, 2013, Precursor Games;
- “Shadow of the Eternals IGN First Look, Day Two”, May 7, 2013, Precursor Games/IGN.com;
- “Shadow of the Eternals Trailer”, May 16, 2013, DominoGaming, YouTube;
- “Shadow of the Eternals Developer Demo”, July 25, 2013, GamesRadar;
- “Dad’s Basement, Episode 3, Pt. 1: Lovecraftian Horror/Lovecraftian Games”, May 23, 2013, HappyGameFamily;
- “Eternal Darkness MS Paint Contest”, June 7, 2013, Precursor Games;
- “Community Art Showcase”, Aug. 8, 2013, Precursor Games;
- “Order 333 Podcast, Ep. 2: This Can’t Be Happening!”, Jun. 25, 2013, GameCrunch;
- “Shadow of the Eternals Art Showcase”, 2013, samusbaisden.com;
- “They Live!”, 1988, Universal Pictures;
- “Alamo Drafthouse Presents: They Live!”, June 7, 2011, Speaker: John Carpenter;
- “The Creepiest Conspiracy Theories (That Could Be True!)”, Aug. 17, 2013, Thought2, YouTube;
- “Disaster Chronicles: MGM Grand Fire”, 1991, NBC Productions/A&E;
- “MGM Grand Fire of 1980: Secret File (Untold Story)”, Oct. 29, 2013, Amatimas, YouTube;
- “MGM Grand 1980 Fire Footage – News 3 KSNV”, Nov. 21 1980, sunphotogmg, YouTube;
- “Sanity Systems Update”, Aug. 14, 2013, Precursor Games;
- “Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth”, 2005, Headfirst/Bethesda;
- “Trapper Autopsy Voiceover – Eternal Darkness”, Silicon Knights/Nintendo, Speaker: William Hootkins;
- “The Abyss”, 1989, Lightstorm/20th Century Fox;
- “The Mummy”, 1999, Alphaville/Universal Pictures;
- “Bug”, 2006, L.I.F.T. Productions/Lionsgate;
- “Player One Podcast, Ep. 340: Blood Raggin'”, May 6, 2013, Player One;
- “Game Code – Season 2, Ep. 17”, Jul. 28, 2014, GameCodeTV, YouTube;
- “Shadow of the Eternals Teaser Tailer”, May 3, 2013, Precursor Games;
- “Weekend Confirmed Podcast, Ep. 168”, Jun. 7, 2013, shacknews.com;
- “The 1up Show”, Oct. 19, 2007, 1up.com;
- “What Went Wrong with X-Men Destiny?”, Oct. 26, 2012, kotaku.com;
- “Giant Bombcast”, May 7, 2013, Giant Bomb/CBS Interactive;
- “Precursor Games Podcast, Ep. 1”, May 15, 2013, Precursor Games;
- “Precursor Games Livestream”, Aug. 2013, Precursor Games;
- “Interview with Precursor Games at E3 2013”, Jun. 19, 2013, Operation Rainfall;
- “Player One Podcast, Ep. 341: The Shame Completion”, May 13, 2013, Player One;
- “The Besties Podcast, Ep. 57: The talking helicopter”, May 17, 2013, Polygon/Vox Media;
- “The Besties E3 Video Spectacular”, Jun. 14, 2013, Polygon/Vox Media;
- “Showcase Preview Trailer”, May 29, 2013, Precursor Games;
- “Through the CryEngine3 Looking Glass”, May 23, 2013, Precursor Games;
- “Art Creation and System Development”, May 2013, Precursor Games;
- “Gamers With Jobs Conference Call”, May 15, 2013, gamerswithjobs.com
- “Broken Age 1 & 2 Trailer”, 2014 & 2015, Double Fine Productions;
- “Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter Campaign Video”, Feb. 9, 2012, Double Fine/2 Player Productions;
- “VGX 2013”, Dec. 7, 2013, Spike TV/Viacom Media Networks;
- “GDC 2012 – Game Developers Choice Awards”, Mar. 8, 2012, Presenter: Cliff Bleszinski;
- “Double FIne Adventure Documentary Ad”, Mar. 3, 2015, Double Fine/2 Player Productions;
- “Kickstarter Pitch Video – New Show”, Mar. 5, 2013, Jeff Cannata;
- “AMD Interviews Denis Dyack”, Aug. 19, 2013, AMD Gaming Evolved;
- “Project Overview and Budget Breakdown”, May 2013, Precursor Games;
- “Gamers With Jobs Conference Call”, May 29, 2013, gamerswithjobs.com;
- “Shadow of the Eternals Gameplay Preview”, May 7, 2013, Precursor Games/IGN.com;
- “8-4 Play Podcast”, May 17, 2013, 8-4, Ltd.;
- “8-4 Ninjas of the Games Industry”, Feb. 6, 2015, Press Start, YouTube;
- “San Diego Comic Con Interview with Denis Dyack”, Jul. 21, 2013, CeriGotGame, YouTube;
- “Response to Kotaku Article”, May 19, 2013, Precursor Games/Denis Dyack
- “Dad’s Basement, Episode 3, Pt. 3, Ch.1: The Shadow Over Denis Dyack – The Colour Out of Place”, Sept. 7, 2015, HappyGameFamily;
- “Concept Art Trailer”, Aug. 7, 2013, Precursor Games
- “Shadow of the Eternals Trailer Analysis”, May 7, 2013, Gamexplain, YouTube;
- “Bathory’s Theme”, Precursor Games/Giancarlo Feltrin;
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