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Just came across this and figured after the whole double-fine kickstarter topic that it would make for a lively topic! Basically they asked for 35 thousand, got 122 thousand and they canceled it after going through all the money.

The head of the projects expenses apparently included moving to another city (by his own admission) isn't there some 'no 'fund my life'' rule on kickstarter?

Did anyone here back this particular project? I think it'd be great (and far more informative) to hear the opinion of someone who followed and helped fund the project.

And the penny drops.

Everyone who was genuinely surprised that this could happen, I hope you'll fund my own Kickstarter, as soon as I can find something plausible. I'm thinking a game called "Ponzi's Pyramid" with lots of in-game purchasing, just to cover all the bases.

I recall the days when you got a game to beta before seeking funding. Now you put the blue sky paper online and wait for folks to throw money at it. And people do. Like we say here in the South, a lot of folks got more dollars than sense.

Wow... that sucks donkey dick...

I didnt back it (not a table top gamer), but seriously, i wouldn't have thought cost of forming a company should have come out of KS funds either. This why people should be careful about backing devs who have almost zero previous history with making a product.....

The project page for the curious

Also of interest is this response from one of the game designers. Basically: they never saw a cent, are as surprised as anybody, and (considering that they spent a decade of their lives on this game only to have their business partner spend the money to do Christ knows what), are more upset by this than most. They're planning a print-and-play thing so that backers at least get something out of this mess, but have no way of actually contacting their backers (because they don't have access to the Kickstarter page).

What an incredible mess.

Yeah, this is not good news for small, amateur kickstarters who would genuinely deliver if given the chance.

I think we should still look at the positive side of kickstarter. I currently have received:
FTL
Conquistadors
Shadowrun Returns
Alcarys Complex
LSL: Reloaded
Legend of Aetherus

All as promised, and all thoroughly enjoyable. They would not have been possible without kickstarter.

This result is utterly unsurprising. Looking at the product page there's no mention of what the funds are actually needed for, which is a very good indication that the Kickstarter is nothing more than "fund my life while I mess around on my pet project." For a small project where those involved will all have equity in the final product they shouldn't even be asking for money until the project is pretty much complete and they need the cash outlay to manufacture and/or distribute it, or until they've done all they can on the project and they need to hire in some specialists (in which case the work that still needs to be done needs to be enumerated, and estimates need to have been obtained for all of the work). People asking for money short of these requirements are pretty much just asking to have their lives funded, and when people oblige them this kind of result is to be expected.

It's meant to be more than a donation, or game makers wouldn't promise to deliver a project in return for the money. I've only backed two games on KS, both are well established indie devs. A much safer bet than the garage project variety..

That's incredibly generous of him, seeing as he apparently wasn't involved in the KS.

This sounds terrible. I feel bad for people who put significant dollars into it as well as the actual developers who seemed to lose out.

It would be very interesting to know what actually happened to the funds. I suspect they were spent on setting up the guys business (and it looks like legal costs as well) rather than producing the product...

after doube fine and this, it seems kickstarter is becoming a trend where you support and pay more then they are asking to a bunch of imbecile

i am just waiting for someone to kickstart this : The fall of kickstarter the movie .....where you see fail in a larger scale then before.......will be in theater soon.,,,.........home theater i meant

It's not all that bad. You just need to be careful with who you are backing and what they are pitching.

The problem with Double Fine is that the game was not yet designed. Their initial funding was for a small game, then when they unexpectedly gained more money, they expanded the scope of the game beyond their funding without realising it.

The problem with this board game was even worse. The game was designed and the costs should have been known and planned well in advance.

What we backers need to start demanding is a detailed breakdown of where the funds are expected to go. Many KS projects have done this already. If someone is asking for $30,000 to make it, where did they get that number from? Why do you need that much? etc. etc.

Precisely, from the looks of it Wasteland 2 is in good shape. LSL added additional content and is already out. Serpent's tongue ended up being massively over supported and that should be sent out in the near future, with nicer stuff over all than was originally promised. My Enclave sun glasses were shipped on time and quite nice.

OTOH, I did get bit by Code Hero which appears to be effectively dead due to mismanagement.

So, I'd say that it's best to be careful, but most projects do seem to be completed. Even if late.

I wonder if there is any percentage, or statistical data about kickstarter projects and their success.

That would be interesting to know.
How much money has been spent at kickstarters,
how much of it was wasted (like here)
and
how much of it helped to deliver an astonishing and breathtaking experience as proclaimed.