Now this presents an interesting conundrum, doesn’t it?
Last year, a game designer raised $123,000 through Kickstarter to make a tabletop game called The Doom That Came to Atlantic City. The end goal was just $35,000, so the creator actually made way more money than his initial target.
However, in a Kickstarter update, Erik Chevalier has simply said this…
The Project is over, the game is cancelled
He went on…
Every possible mistake was made, some due to my inexperience in board game publishing, others due to ego conflicts, legal issues and technical complications. No matter the cause though, these could all have been avoided by someone more experience and I apparently was not that person.
Of course, all funds will have been taken from donators and at this point, they’re left out of pocket with no end-product coming to them. The major danger of actually paying for something upfront.
However, Chevalier says he wishes to personally pay back all of his backers…
My hope now is to eventually refund everyone fully. This puts all of the financial burden directly on my shoulders. Starting with those who’ve pre-ordered after the Kickstarter campaign through our webstore, then i’ll begin working my way through the backer list, starting with those who funded at the highest levels.
Unfortunately I can’t give any type of schedule for the repayment as I left my job to do this project and must find work again.
Again, I never set out to con anyone or to perpetrate a fraud but I did walk into a situation that was beyond my abilities and for that i’m deeply sorry.
A major lesson learned for all considering Kickstarter (or any form of crowd-funding). Having attempted it ourselves, we understand the challenges, but the importance is not to promise something over and above what you can provide or afford.
Just imagine if he’d only just reached his main goal.
That said, this is the first major occurence of this happening, but we worringly doubt it will be the last.
(Source: Kickstarter)