2Awesome Studio, the team behind a Kickstarter campaign for the shooter Dimension Drive, just had their hearts put through the ringer.
With their time almost up, and with thousands remaining to hit their goal, a single backer appeared out of nowhere and pledged €7000.
Who is Jonathan, Jonathan is our hero! We love you and we want to meet you in person!
THANK YOU
7000k in a single pledge! #DimensionDrive
— 2Awesome Studio (@2AwesomeStudio) May 13, 2015
The devs were, unsurprisingly, thrilled.
Funded at the moment of speaking, can we reach 500 backers? That would be a nice numberhttps://t.co/2V6UAaEAVs#gamedev #indiedev
— 2Awesome Studio (@2AwesomeStudio) May 13, 2015
But then, heartbreak.
We've just been informed by Kickstarter that the 7K euro pledge was fraudulent. Somebody played with our dreams. Sorry for the confussion 🙁
— 2Awesome Studio (@2AwesomeStudio) May 13, 2015
Somebody pledge 7k to our Kickstarter just to be taken a way in the last moment. Trolling our end of #Kickstarter. Funded and it's gone
— 2Awesome Studio (@2AwesomeStudio) May 13, 2015
Don't know what to do now, mentally devastated 🙁 Don't know what to do now#gamedev #indiedev https://t.co/b9lROaQQvz
— 2Awesome Studio (@2AwesomeStudio) May 13, 2015
The clock has since run out, and the game was just under €7000 short of hitting its goal.
“We honestly do not know what to say”, 2Awesome’s Alejandro Santiago tells Kotaku. “We are quite devastated in the team right now. It has been a roller-coaster night for us to be honest.”
2Awesome say the pledge, which was made a few hours before the campaign’s closure, was withdrawn by Kickstarter for being “fraudulent” with only 31 minutes remaining.
“Honestly speaking it has been a exhausting month for us. We have been working really hard to make our campaign a success, and right now we are speechless, demoralized, you name it”.
A Kickstarter rep tells Kotaku that the user behind the fraudulent bid has been suspended.
It’s one thing to have a game come up short on Kickstarter. Shit happens, the market pays for what the market wants, etc. But nobody should have to go through this.
