I think Eric left the gaming industry mainly because Heart of Darkness was a really exhausting. If I rememeber this is the only game he made with a team. I think he only want to make game without problems with other people like team members or publishers, like this is nearly impossible today to do that he prefer working on something else.
I contact him some months ago to be consultant on one of our game (the gameplay was inspired by Flashback and Another World) but he was too busy to work with us. But he gave us some short advices. He seems to be a really nice person with some great artistic skill and programming.