That is why FTL only got 10$ from me. That gamble paid off. (Every gamble so far is either paying off or running well).

The most important thing to remember with Kickstarter

Kickstarter is not a store!

I think that Kickstarter is a great concept, and I enjoy being able to support people with little track record who want to make something I think I'd enjoy. That said, I tend to spend small sums only. My maximum pledged are $30 (I'm considering $35 for Project Eternity but I'm not sure yet), and those with no track record tend to get $10 and under from me, which I try to make up for by advertising their projects and making suggestions.

I only Kickstarted one project (Wasteland 2) because I felt that the developer had a sufficient reputation and service history that my investment would not be squandered. I haven't and will not invest in any other KS projects (not to say there aren't other industry veterans on KS, but W2 is the only one I am interested in). These games can get my money if and when they come out, like FTL.

I enjoy the idea of Kickstarter, but like others have said it is a total gamble. I have only KS'd 3 projects (Planetary Annihilation, Project Eternity and some Cthulu tiki mug) but I've always done them for the bare minimum to receive the product so if for some reason I don't get the product or something happens I'm not out rent or something and usually the time between getting the product and actually pledging the money is so spaced out I can mitigate the money spent.

Granted, I have been thinking about pledging more to Project Eternity since it seems to be one of the safest Kickstarters I've seen, but still haven't decided.

As I've said before, not sure if here, but it's very important for any Kickstarter to have a back up plan. This, sadly, isn't something budding entrepeneurs usually think of, as like in this case, they may see the production of their product through rose tinted glasses.

I expect to see more news like this, especially from first time commercial game devs and so on. There's so many ways the production can go wrong and the end costs will be much higher than they've anticipated. This goes double for gadget manufacturers. It's extremely easy to miscalculate actual prize of the stuff you actually need for your product.

In the end it's the backers choice though: there needs to be some responsibility there as well. With each product you have to ask yourself: do I trust this? And if so, with how much I trust this.

At least they tried to make the product, it would be squandering if they would have spend the invested money on fast cars, women and expensive holidays.

I actually felt that Wasteland 2 was one of the riskier projects I invested in. Many of these old developers haven't done much in recent years, or if they did it wasn't something very impressive. They also often come to Kickstarter with only vague promises. The small devs more often come with the game already in a state where they can show art style and gameplay, or even provide a working demo.

I predicted this months ago - and I also predicted that a few failed projects would cause a lot of people to refrain from funding other similar projects. Yeah, well known developers are a low risk but they're just a very small part of Kickstarter when you look at the total amount of projects. They do rake in the most money, but there's still thousands of projects run by people who generally have no idea how to run a business.

If you look at Dragon's Den or Shark Tank, you see a lot of business questions being asked. Often, things go like this:

Dragon: "Cool product, but what are your projections, manufacturing costs, etc. ?"
Inventor: "Well I haven't actually approached a manufacturer yet because I haven't got a functioning prototype yet".
Dragon: "I'm out!!!"

or:
Inventor: "Well this innovative hair clip costs just $50 to manufacture and will retail at $75"
Dragon: "I'm out!"

Truth is that most creative types are also horrible with numbers and rather dense in general (shows why Apple is so popular with them <.<) and the more clever ones hire accountants to help them out. The dumb ones think they can pursue their idea regardless of math and will burn through massive amounts of cash in no time.

This is what happened here - employing friends with little to no experience was a monumentally dumb move even if they weren't all being paid. Why?
a) if a friend is lazy, it's hard to tell him off
b) if half their work is for free, it's even harder to be a "boss"
c) if they don't want you to be a boss but a friend and they lack discipline, you're fucked
d) if things go sour, you can't just sack them - there's a good chance half your "team" will leave.

Honestly, the only way to work with friends, is as their equals and colleagues, not as boss and employees.

In the end, he made a string of giant mistakes - the project failed because of him and no-one else:

- he employed friends and didn't realise the mess that would create

- he hadn't actually investigated how much it would cost to produce before he did the Kickstarter which is a HUGE mistake

- even worse, he decided to continue after discovering that he only asked for 30% of what it was going to cost him to produce them instead of returning the money = very unreliable and irresponsible

- he obviously wasn't creative in cutting costs (if you mail items en mass, you get massive discounts - no way P&P would have been that high - and no way a box and bubble wrapping costs $4 a piece).

Thing is, these are life lessons, it's basic sense. Some things you only learn with time but these he should have figured out by himself.

Personally I usually pledge on the lowest tier to get the product, as I don't feel it's justifiable to ask 10k donations towards anything, especially when all you get is basically warm and fuzzy feeling.

After reading comments on the kickstarter page, I'm not so sure about the scam part. It looks like the least he did was try to cover up everything, run away and escape any legal proceedings as soon as things fell apart.

I've backed 20 KS projects, even from small-time 'nobodies'.
True, I am more likely to pledge higher if I know the project starters have a background in what they do.

Of those 20, 2 failed funding. 1 was canceled (due to an epic JOKE of a funding campaign).. of the remaining 17, 10 have finished their product. Of those 10, all 7 that I am receiving something for backing them have arrived.

Of the remaining 7, 1 is still running, and the remaining 6 are still working on their projects.

Yes, this happens in KS, albeit quite rarely. It's sad.. but.. it is investing in a company it's always a risk. You take the same risks you would by investing in a start up company in standard means.. except in KS, you can invest a few bucks in to a start up, instead of a few grand.

This guy made a lot of mistakes, anyone starting up a business for the first time is going to.. his mistakes cost him, and his backers, dearly. That's a bad mark on him though, not KS.

One can always use Kickstarter like this

What can you do, sex sells.

edit: how did it take me 10 minutes to figure out the kickstarter page was at fake address? I'm stoopid. STOOPID!

I'll just leave this here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1577707665/the-boudoir-baker-the-worlds-first-boudoir-cookboo?ref=live