Elysian Shadows backers gets a free copy of Towards The Pantheon

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Press release:
In August 2014 the game Elysian Shadows was successfully kickstarted by 2,282 backers for $185,322. During the following year, only 2 of 7 team mates would remain after the majority of team mates left the project. In 2016 former Elysian Shadows soundtrack composer Connor O.R.T. Linning began development on a new 2D RPG entitled Towards The Pantheon along with Former Elysian Shadows team mate Leandro Tokarevski contributing pixel art, and other former Elysian Shadows team mates such as Daniel Tindall contributed additional game design and playtesting input.

With Towards The Pantheon’s release date of May 16th nearing, lead developer Connor O.R.T. Linning has written an open letter offering a free Steam key and a free Bandcamp soundtrack key to all Elysian Shadows backers.

The open letter has been posted as follows:

“Dear Elysian Shadows Kickstarter backers.

My name is Connor Linning and back in 2014 I was contributing soundtrack work to the kickstarted game Elysian Shadows. While this should have been a happy time, the unfortunate reality is that the situation had soured to the point where I (and the majority of other people who worked on the project) felt the only option moving forward was to leave the project.

I am posting this open letter to you because I would like to try and make up for that disappointment. After leaving Elysian Shadows I developed three small free games and a couple of soundtracks for other games. For the last two years I’ve been working on my 2D RPG Towards The Pantheon which releases on May 16th. Former Elysian Shadows pixel artist Leandro Tokarveski created all of the pixel art for Towards The Pantheon and other former Elysian Shadows members such as Daniel Tindall also contributed to the game.

I am offering a free Steam key and free Bandcamp soundtrack key to all backers of Elysian Shadows. This offer is for all backers regardless of the amount of money pledged to the Elysian Shadows Kickstarter campaign. The game is roughly 10 hours long and the soundtrack consists of over 2.5 hours of music. It is important to me that anyone who has supported me knows that I work hard to deliver the best results I can for them. While obviously this is neither the game nor soundtrack you pledged for, I am offering this in gratitude of your support of my work and to show that I never took your support for granted.

To receive your free keys after the launch of the game on May 16th, send an e-mail to [email protected] using the same e-mail address associated with your Kickstarter account and include in the body the name associated with the Kickstarter account. You must include your name and use the same e-mail address so that I can verify you as a backer using the public community page on the Elysian Shadows Kickstarter page. After May 16th I will reply with your keys as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, I cannot offer this to those who preordered copies of the game while I was on the team as that data belongs to the Elysian Shadows team.

Please note that I never accepted any funds from the Elysian Shadows Kickstarter and that Towards The Pantheon was completely self-funded. Towards The Pantheon is in no way associated with Elysian Shadows. I do not intend to speak on behalf of, or represent, the Elysian Shadows company, team, or project in any way with this open letter. Pursuing other projects did not factor into my leaving the Elysian Shadows team. None of us left Elysian Shadows project with the intention of creating something new together – there was a span of over a year and a half between my leaving of Elysian Shadows and the beginning of Towards The Pantheon’s development.

Since we have remained friends, it made sense to later work together again. I hope that I am clear in stating that there are no malicious intentions associated with this open letter and have no desire to rehash any past concerns with the current Elysian Shadows team. That would take away time and attention that is better focused on game development – which at the end of the day is what should really matter. I will be posting this open letter and contacting a few game journalists so that my offer can reach as many backers as possible as I do not access to the list of backer e-mail addresses.

I agree with businessman Gary Vaynerchuk that there are two ways to try and succeed; through hard work and positivity, or by tearing everyone else down and winning by default. I am in music and game development for the long haul and only want to succeed if it’s through hard work and positivity.

We have limited time in life and I don’t want to spend any of it on pointless drama and negativity. This is why I have not publicly taken part in any drama regarding Elysian Shadows. I hope that the remaining Elysian Shadows members work hard and make a great game that ultimately delivers the vision promised to you, the backer. I still thank the team for the opportunity I had to work with them and wish them the best.

Thanks again to all Elysian Shadows Kickstarter backers for the incredible support you showed back in 2014″ – Connor Linning

I am contacting you with this information in hopes that you report on it so that the message and offer can be spread to as many Elysian Shadows backers as possible. Thank you for your time!

Towards The Pantheon Steam page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/709510/Towards_The_Pantheon/
Towards The Pantheon Twitter: https://twitter.com/PantheonDev
Towards The Pantheon Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TowardsThePantheon/
Towards The Pantheon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/towardsthepantheon/
Towards The Pantheon webpage: http://www.towardsthepantheon.com/