STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl has had one of the most interesting afterlives of any modern video game. Bleak and buggy, the survival horror-infused shooter and its sequels earned the affection of mod-makers who devoted years to restoring old levels, upgrading graphics, patching bugs, and rebalancing mechanics. When GSC Game World, the Kiev-based team behind the games, abruptly dissolved in 2011, it created a cluster of new studios, most working on projects with a similar post-apocalyptic atmosphere. So when a small group of ex-STALKER developers launched their Kickstarter campaign for a "definitive" spiritual successor called Areal, it seemed like a natural fit.

Areal, based on a book of the same name, is described on Kickstarter as a complex open-world shooter set in a world where civilization has collapsed. Development studio West Games touts a wide range of missions, weapons, and vehicles, as well as an all-new game engine that will allow it to be released on Windows, Mac, Linux, and all next-gen consoles — including the Wii U. Its 11-person core team plans to deliver the game in barely over a year, with a $50,000 goal that's an order of magnitude smaller than Shadowrun Returns and similarly ambitious games. To some other people who got their start in STALKER, that plan is much too good to be true.

West struck back hard, apparently threatening legal action if its critics didn't rescind their more serious accusations, including a suggestion by Vostok that West's members were fraudulently claiming to have been involved with STALKER at all. Vostok deleted the forum post making the claim, and the VG 24/7 article with its statement seems to have been pulled altogether. MDT also took down its page of complaints, stating on Facebook that it had "been formally asked to resign from commenting on West Games and their Kickstarter project Areal." GSC finally joined the fray to defend West, officially making Areal the subject of a fight between no fewer than four STALKER-related studios, three with competing spiritual sequels.

The controversy over Areal is reminiscent of another tortured Kickstarter: Shadow of the Eternals, a now canceled successor to 2002 horror game Eternal Darkness. Unlike West Games, the studio behind Shadow of the Eternals had a shady past: its head was accused of deceiving publishers at his previous studio, which had also been sued for millions over a copyright infringement claim. Despite terrible planning and worrying fundraising choices, though, they seemed genuinely to be trying to make an ambitious sequel to a beloved video game. Areal looks much more likely to reach its goal, particularly given how much less it's asking for. In spite of that, it remains the most risky kind of project: the one that shows little and promises a great deal. Kickstarter, increasingly, is for fans who want to see their favorite series continue outside the limits of a studio system, whether that's in film, music, or games. But in this case, they'll have to trust the tenuous link between an untested project and the big name it's building on.