Shadow of the Eternals - Preview @ Leviathyn

Leviathyn has a preview of Shadow of the Eternals that tries to convince everyone to help the troubled kickstarter.

The game is currently on Kickstarter and is taking a fascinating approach in offering incentives to those who are willing to back the project with their hard-earned money. Instead of merely offering the standard fare of t-shirts and game copies (which you can also get), a minimum $5 pledge will admit you into The Order of the Unseen, a community supporting the game and actively taking part in its development process.

No, backers won’t be responsible for writing lines of code or rendering images, but they are able to contribute their ideas with the fair possibility of said ideas being implemented in the game’s finished product. Have an idea for a sanity event? Enemy? Story beat? Share it with the Order, and there’s a good chance you’ll see it in the game.

Community engagement in this fashion is but one of the many reasons the game has sparked some interest in the online community. There have been many game companies in the past that have engaged with fans during the development of their titles, but few have gone much further than limited contests and online polls in allowing fans to take part in the development process. Dyack himself said in an interview with us that he wanted to do something unique with the game and the passionate community of both Eternal Darkness and Lovecraft fans, and felt that offering engagement as a backing incentive was the best way to go. It’s already proven to be a successful experiment, as the forums are teeming with ideas and bringing in talented creators to be a part of the idea vetting process.