News - When a successful Kickstarter project goes wrong

[HEXUS]

Backers of horror video game get a fright; programmers have quit, money has been spent.

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[Terbinator]

Is it successful if it's gone wrong?

[OilSheikh]

"We spent all the money" - what ? How ? How, if no one was working on the project ?

[RMcLeod]

Is it successful if it's gone wrong?

Successful in raising the required funds

"We spent all the money" - what ? How ? How, if no one was working on the project ?

People were working on the project evidently, there just isn't anyone now.

[sykobee]

I guess that's the risk for the indie game kickstarters - there is always a risk that a key person will go and actually get a real job. Here's hoping that they get somebody else in (although the time to get familiar with the existing code base would probably put the release off for many months), or alternatively open source what has been developed.

[jim]

"We spent all the money" - what ? How ? How, if no one was working on the project ?

$28k isn't going to go very far in terms of salaries.

[howdee]

Unfortunately, getting online play working took three times longer than estimated

That happens frequently and I've had this same experience on number of occasions, sadly. The world is full of 'visual' programmers that estimate their abilities higher than they should when it comes to completely different programming like sockets and data structures. Nothing 'visual' there at all (or OOP for the geeks among us LOL) and yes, it takes its time and a lot of testing, debugging,... I don't even blame those OOP programmers in cases like this one, it's the responsibility of the project lead to determine project time-frame, and theirs alone. They should ask questions to those that are able to give meaningful answers. If he asked an OOP programmer how long it would take him to program the client-server modules, that's like asking a baker how long it takes for wheat to grow. Why am I guessing OOP programmers were on the job? Because, looking at the screens provided, it doesn't look too demanding to program the client side at all. It's a simple square area turn based world with pre-animated characters and wouldn't take a good programmer more than a fortnight to come with a working beta. The CS part of it is another matter, though. Nothing straightforward there when you need custom data structures, stable sockets methods on both ends and a server capable of interpreting the data structure given through these programmed sockets. I've yet to see a stable AND easy to program 'visual' library doing that. Best one I've seen so far was, no joke, Microsoft's DCOM implementation in Borland's Delphi, but that's limited to LANs due to added security system and only supported on Windows platforms - meaning, not suitable at all. Basically, what I'm saying is, there's no point in mr. Dakan complaining about their programmers abandoning the project, is there? What he needs to do is to find one that won't over-stretch his/her abilities and cut a healthy share of possible future sales profits for that, too. The project could still survive if he manages to do the latter. It's entirely up to him now and his ability to manage a project.

[kalniel]

This sorry tale of the Haunts game development is perhaps a timely reminder that not all investments will pay off and not to invest more than you’re willing to lose on any project.

Hexus is misunderstanding what kickstarter is if it's talking about investments.

Kickstarter is a chance for people to help fund the development of something. If you raise enough money for a year's development and you then do a year's development then the kickstarter is a success, not a failure. You should not expect a product at the end of it unless you are sure that the development you are paying for will produce a product.

[HalloweenJack]

I think the team at Planetary Annihilation have the right idea about funding - for a top class title it takes millions , not 28k

[jim]

Hexus is misunderstanding what kickstarter is if it's talking about investments.

Kickstarter is a chance for people to help fund the development of something. If you raise enough money for a year's development and you then do a year's development then the kickstarter is a success, not a failure. You should not expect a product at the end of it unless you are sure that the development you are paying for will produce a product.

But then, typically, all kickstarter game projects offer the game itself as a reward for the promise of funding... there's certainly the implication, almost every time, that you're investing in something tangible - however wrong that might be.

[scaryjim]

... You should not expect a product at the end of it unless you are sure that the development you are paying for will produce a product.

I think the issue is that all the backing levels of this project included a copy of the finished game, and from the Hexus article it looks like if you back the project and it gets funded that forms a legal contract with the project founder to deliver the products as promised in the rewards.


Looks like one unfortunate soul has sunk $7k into the project for a ridiculous amount of bonuses, but the standard packages include things like tshirts, soundtracks, and many, *MANY* copies of the game (easy/cheap enough if it's a digital download though, I guess).

*sigh* the more I read the more of a train wreck it sounds. They've burnt through $42k from a charitable foundation that promotes open business practices, now they've burnt another $28k from Kickstarter - so that's $70k investment with no product, and by the sound of it no actual finished levels. The sad thing is it looks like they weren't even trying to make it massively multiplayer as far as I can see - it's 1v1 and turn-based, so the networking interaction is relatively simple. I reckon a decent programmer could probably fix it up in no time, but of course if they're out of funding there's no way for them to attract another programmer to the project. Sad thing is that if they had just one playable level they'd probably be able to persuade someone with more money than sense to invest a bit more in it...

[kalniel]

I think the issue is that all the backing levels of this project included a copy of the finished game, and from the Hexus article it looks like if you back the project and it gets funded that forms a legal contract with the project founder to deliver the products as promised in the rewards.

That's true, or refund if you can't and the backers want a refund. I think I read that this guy had offered full refunds for any backers who wanted. But it would be a bit harsh once you understood how your money had been spent.

Hopefully not too many people will demand refunds, or other makers might be tempted to just push any dross out the door to meet the requirements.

It's like publishing all over again...

[directhex]

$28k isn't going to go very far in terms of salaries.

Precisely.

Caveat emptor when you hand over money to someone on the basis of their pitch. Go with your gut on whether you think a project will succeed or fail. An entire game, including engine development, for $28k? Nope.

[scaryjim]

... An entire game, including engine development, for $28k? Nope. ...

To be fair, they'd already invested $42k. I can only assume they thought their development was further along than it really was. e.g. they'd done 80% of the game, but they'd done the easy 80% without realising the remaining 20% would take more time and effort than the 80% they'd already done.

Of course, once you consider the fact that their entire team - including their developers, presumably - had so badly underestimated how much work was left to do ... well, it kind of makes me hope something bad happens to them. And I know that's wrong, but it really grinds my gears.