A new Kickstarter update for Areal reveals that Alexey Sytyanov has joined on as producer of this upcoming survival shooter, with his background workin on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Survarium bolstering West Games' disputed claim of this being a "spiritual successor" to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series (thanks Eurogamer). They offer an excerpt from a recent interview with Alexy that touches on all the controversy:

Unfortunately, mass culture right now is such that it's easier to put down everyone who wants to make something instead of supporting or making something themselves. Back when we were developing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. originally, we had the same exact situation as right now. People said that we were doing everything wrong, that we weren't experienced and that we could never make a good video game -- even respected video game developers told us these types of things. What happened was that we pushed through that and made an awesome cult hit video game series with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.