All is not right in the world of crowdfunding. For every massive critical success like Shovel Knight or Divinity: Original Sin, there are numerous games or game-related projects that disappoint, under-deliver, or, as has become scarily common, take peopleâs money and never make what they promised in the first place.
One of last weekâs biggest stories was the struggle of Godus, Peter Molyneuxâs undercooked strategy game that raised ~800,000 on Kickstarter in late 2012. But at least that game came out, even if it was unfinished and disappointing to most backers. There are other Kickstarters, both big and small, that have gone MIA or taken years longer than originally promised.
Weâve put together a list of 12 game-related Kickstarter projects that took peopleâs money but never quite delivered. The combined total: $2,098,967. We plan to continue shining a light on crowdfunded projects that never come to fruition, so e-mail me if youâd like to share any.
Aura Tactics
Earned: $11,577
Funded: April 6, 2012
Estimated Delivery Date: May 2012
Itâs unclear why Aura Tacticsâwhich promised to be a tactical RPG with asynchronous multiplayerâdisappeared with over $11,000, but their last Kickstarter update was in January of 2013. In November 2013, creator Douglas Miller wrote a comment saying that members of the team had been laid off and were looking for new work. At the time, Miller promised that the game was not cancelled, but a year and a half later, itâs MIA. The creators didnât respond to a request for comment.
LA Game Space
Earned: $335,657
Funded: December 7, 2012
Estimated Delivery Date: May 2013
The LA Game Spaceâenvisioned as âa place for discovering the potential of video gamesâ that would host exhibitions, stream games, and facilitate indie developmentâstill doesnât exist, at least in the physical realm. The organization is active, hosting the occasional gaming event in Los Angeles, but nearly two years after the estimated delivery date, they have yet to open a physical location. The folks behind the project say theyâve given out 99% of promised rewards to backers, but the companyâs last update on the status of the physical game space was in September 2013, calling it a âwork-in-progress.â
When reached by Kotaku, the creators said they had run into unexpected problems:
The launch of our permanent space has been delayed. Institution-building is a lot of work and can take a long time, and the reasons are usually boring to the public. Still, we are proud of everything that LA Game Space has already delivered, enthusiastic about our upcoming events, and still working towards the launch of a permanent physical space.
Code Hero
Earned: $170,954
Funded: February 24, 2012
Estimated Delivery Date: February 2012
This one sounded so promising. Code Heroâa game that promised itâd teach you how to make gamesâblew through over $170,000 by December of 2012, leaving backers angry and incredulous. Project creator Alex Peake told me at the time that he was still working on the game, but itâs still MIA. The most recent update, from April 2014, starts off with a note from the project coordinator saying heâs quitting. Peake didnât respond to a request for comment.
After: A Series of Stories Following The Events of Feb. 22
Earned: $6,300
Funded: March 26, 2012
Estimated Delivery Date: June 2012
This is the only book on what is otherwise a game-focused list, but itâs worth noting here because its creator, Stephen Toulouse, spent many years working as the face of security for Xbox Live. Toulouse, a well-known figure in gaming, said backers would receive soft- or hard-cover editions of the book based on what they had pledged, but three years later, he has yet to release it.
When reached by Kotaku, Toulouse sent the following statement:
I have offered and given a refund to anyone who asked, provided more content in the form of short stories and a full length comedy album free of charge (mine was done long before âstretch goals, etcâ) than the size of the original project, and yes, am still working on the final text.
Shining Empire
Earned: $3,056
Funded: May 14, 2014
Estimated Delivery Date: October 2014
The domain for Shining Empire appears to no longer work, which is probably a bad sign. Project creator Robby Mulvany hasnât posted an update on his ambitious retro-style RPG since last June, and backers are currently trying to figure out how to get refunds on what they believe to be a dead project. Mulvany didnât respond to a request for comment.
Unwritten: That Which Happened
Earned: $78,017
Funded: February 13, 2013
Estimated Delivery Date: August 2013
After raising over $78,000 for his rogue-like procedural strategy game at the beginning of 2013, project lead Joe Houston wrote in January 2014 that his family had been struggling with medical issues and that they had run out of money to complete the project. Houston says the game is still happening, but backers have been frustrated at the lack of updates over the past year.
When reached by Kotaku yesterday, Houston said the game is still in production:
Although the project was always tight (we had ambitious goals and a small budget) everything changed when my daughter and my wife were diagnosed with long term medical conditions. In addition to my family requiring my full attention and support, as a US citizen I was squeezed by a healthcare system that is hostile to independents. The US affordable healthcare act helped some in the final stages, but not by enough.
Development on the game has actually continued ever since that last project update, but the situation is undeniably different. I was fortunate to find a fulltime games job that respected my creative property (and had real health insurance), but like anyone squeezed by work, family, and a difficult situation I havenât had as much time for my creative pursuits as I would like. I spent all of last year collaborating with another programmer to help make my time go farther, and this year Iâm optimistic as the health situation in my family has stabilized somewhat. It is slow going, but there is something about this game that keeps me and all the old collaborators coming back.
This is clearly a different situation than any of us expected when our project met its initial funding goal, which is why I opened a round of refunds a year ago with the last project update. I plan to post further updates if and when I am confident that I can deliver something of worth. I take my commitments to everyone in my life seriously (including the original backers), and I want to be as sure as I can that I donât make promises that I cannot keep. I am especially grateful to the vast majority of backers that extended words of support during the worst part of my family crisis. Despite all the press to the contrary lately, there are good gamers out there and I am grateful that I can continue to make games for them in whatever way I can.
Moon Rift
Earned: $8,082
Funded: June 5, 2013
Estimated Delivery Date: November 2013
The last update for Sam Hutcherâs Moon Riftââan RPG platform shooterâ with randomly-generated levelsâwas in October of 2013. Since then, the website has beentaken down, the game is nowhere to be found, and at least one backer is hoping to sue. Hutcher didnât respond to requests for comment.
Yogventures
Earned: $567,665
Funded: May 6, 2012
Estimated Delivery Date: December 2012
This oneâs a doozy. A group of YouTube personalities called the Yogscast put together a Kickstarter campaign, raised over half a million dollars, and then abruptly announced that the game had been cancelled following a number of conflicts between Yogscastâs Lewis Brindley and developer Kris Vale. A cautionary tale in Kickstarter funding.
H-Hour: Worldâs Elite
Earned: $252,662
Funded: July 7, 2013
Estimated Delivery Date: Jan 2015
Billed as a spiritual successor to SOCOM helmed by the original creator of those old shooters, David Sears, the H-Hour project was remarkably successful, raising a quarter million dollars. The most recent real update, from April 2014, is a dismal monologue from Sears about how difficult itâs been to fund the project. And today, rumor suggests that Sears has left the team entirely. Reps for the game did not respond to a request for comment.
UPDATE (3:38pm): As has been pointed out by several readers, the people behind H-Hour have been posting regular updates on their website rather than on the Kickstarter page. Though Sears is indeed no longer on the project, the game has entered alpha and at least appears to be making progress, unlike the other projects on this list. We apologize for the error.
Clang
Earned: $526,125
Funded: July 9, 2012
Estimated Delivery Date: February 2013
Author Neal Stephensonâs Kickstarterâwhich promised to ârevolutionizeâ sword-fighting in video gamesâraised over half a million. But itâs dead. Said Stephenson when it was officially cancelled late last year:
Last year, Subutai Corporation delivered the CLANG prototype and the other donor rewards as promised. The prototype was technically innovative, but it wasnât very fun to play. This is for various reasons. Some of these were beyond our control. Others are my responsibility in that I probably focused too much on historical accuracy and not enough on making it sufficiently fun to attract additional investment.
Rival Threads : Last Class Heroes
Earned: $24,812
Funded: July 10, 2012
Estimated Delivery Date: October 2012
Rival Threads, a promising (and beautiful) 2D game that raised close to $25,000 back in 2012, never came to fruition. In April of 2014, developer Leonardo Molar wrote that his action-RPG project was âtemporarily on holdâ and that theyâd be offering refunds to backers. When reached for comment, Molar sent over an extremely long statement that you can read here. In short:
I can only ask people to stay patient. I canât promise anything any longer because this has become much bigger than me. Our initial estimates were based on my personal experience of making games, but as the team grew and the quality with it, the further and further that estimate got pushed back. It is now a big unknown. One thingâs for certain, as long as Iâm running the group, I wonât let things completely fall apart and we wonât sacrifice and rush our personal work for a quick buck. I might have become a bit too ambitious with the things weâve involved ourselves in and in a way became a traitor to our own goals⊠but I regret nothing, weâve made a lot of good friends and weâve learned and grown a lot and picked up a thing or two along the way.
From being merely pedestrians trying to make a game, to actually knowing what weâre doing and wanting to achieve bigger things than what we set out to do in the first place. Everything weâve learned and experienced will be reflected in the game, itâll be a much more well executed, polished and enjoyable experience, everyone wins. Itâs been a very painful and unique journey and weâre not even halfway there, Iâm sure most of your readers have never even heard of us, but weâre hoping to change that within the next few years.
The Stomping Land
Earned: $114,060
Funded: June 6, 2013
Estimated Delivery Date: May 2014
Perhaps the most infamous Kickstarter on the list, The Stomping Land was released on Steam Early Access in May of 2014 before developer Alex âJigâ Fundora went radio silent and apparently stopped working on the ambitious dinosaur game. Just last month, artist Vlad Konstantinov announced that he had quit the project after his messages to Fundora went unreturned, and backers are furious. Itâs unclear why The Stomping Landâwhich is buggy and incompleteâis still on Steam today after being pulled last September for a lack of updates. Fundora didnât return a request for comment.
FURTHER READING:
You can reach the author of this post at [email protected] or on Twitter at @jasonschreier
