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I have a morbid fascination with failed kick starters and try to follow the forums to read about them on Dakka. I have considered running my own and would like to gather as much info on failed kick starters as possible. Just a brief name and description will do fine. I can google for more details. Thanks in advance and I will start things with one I am familiar with. Please stick with tabletop hobby games and not video games.


1. Defiance Games. Gained about $46,000 and delivered nothing as far as I know. Company is gone.

Here's my own personal KS project that we ended up cancelling midway through the funding process, despite having paid for prototypes, concept art, retail packaging, none of which was cheap.

BattleBones: The Fight For Sorroah. BattleBones sees players take on the role of a CleroMancer one of the MageCaste who use ancient Artefacts of great power to control the armies of the land. Through the use of these BattleBones, warriors and heroes are summoned to the field of battle, where great battlelines are created with which to attack the enemy.

While we decided to cancel midway through, since October 2014 we have been developing the fantasy world and plan to return to our goal of releasing several games and novels set here at a later date.

One of note to look at IMO is the attempted resurrection of VOR- The Maelstrom.

The reason it failed to me was because of the timing. He started it just before Kickstarters became the in thing for wargaming companies to do. I have no doubt if they redid it it would get funded.

It's probably also worth looking at ones that have funded but been a PR disaster post-funding, Sedition Wars might be one example.

(I'd suggest Robotech and AvP as well, but I wasn't in those so that's just from skim reading).

Hell, even though Kingdom Death $2m and delivered a pretty awesome project, the massive delays resulting from going add-on crazy are probably a good lesson too.

Drake: The Dragon Wargame was an epic fail. 2 kickstarters and even an appearence on the Canadian Dragon's Den investment TV show couldn't save this one.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/agm/drake-the-dragon-wargame?ref=users
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/agm/drake-ii-horizons/comments

Then there's the legend of Dina and Lars played out across the Ice Age Mammals and Sea Monsters projects. It was outright fraud.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dinaandrewswalker/miniature-ice-age-mammal-adventure-set
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dinaandrewswalker/28mm-miniature-sea-monsters-dungeon-terrain-and-bi

That I'm aware of from my funding habit (I've pretty much kicked it, but need an occasional fix)

Cancelled
- Westwater Role-Playing Game: B/X D&D engine for Weird West gaming. The designer canceled because at the time there were too many similar games coming out, but released the rules for free.
- Hulks & Horrors: D&D for Sci-Fi dungeon crawling. He had a solid game built, just needed funding to pay for the art. Released it anyway.

Funded but didn't deliver
- Axes & Anvils: #2 of Mike Nystul's failed Kickstarters. Dwarves clan RPG. Handed off to another designer, but nothing to show for it (at least I haven't received anything beyond the initial playtest rules)
- Time Heroes: A Fate derived RPG. Creator has been posting updates every 2-5 months, but I'm not holding my breath
- Base Stampers (David McCormick): These were supposed to be all resin base stampers. The few of us who received them got resin shafts with very weak rubber stamps glued to the ends - I'm able to use them, but usually takes 2-3 restamps to get a usable base. I shoulda waited: just a couple months after McCormick's KS, Basius ran theirs.

Failed after Kickstarter
- All Quiet On The Martian Front: Did really well on KS, but iffy models and packaging (among other issues) lead to the company folding last month. Bought a couple 1/2 off boxes at my FLGS to use as counts-as Skitarii
- Cairn: #3 of Mike Nystul's failed Kickstarters. Nystul gave the game to another company to finish the game, but they couldn't fulfill the KS book orders - Nystul'd transferred the property, but no funds, so funders were going to have to pay for their book a second time. Also, a small pickup RPG ended up with a huge, bloated rulebook.

There are probably others I went in for that didn't fund, but I don't have any records of them.

Goblins: Alternate realities.
Games company ran off with the money and left up links on the KS page to their web store where it could still be preordered.

After a long fight with KS, the artist behind the Goblins comic that inspired the game, got the KS page taken down.

Look up Katalyka if you want to see actual insanity, rather that the typical stuff people bitch about

 Bi'ios wrote:
Look up Katalyka if you want to see actual insanity, rather that the typical stuff people bitch about

QFT, I actually went to check on that project after it had been mentioned a while ago and the comments indicate that some people are still waiting. It's more sad than enraging though, as there's clearly some untreated (or at least insufficiently treated) mental health issues there, rather than being thieving and/or fraudlent bastiches like Defiance or the guy who ran The Doom That Came to Atlantic City. Or the Prodos/PB "stringing backers along for years" nonsense that is still on-going.

Found this website
http://kickfailure.com/

the roleplaying KS from Mike Nystul (spelling?)

Nystul's Infinite Dungeon,
Axes and Anvils
Cairn

Center Stage Miniatures old school RPG minis KS

Demons and Devils
Tome of Horrors
Tome of Horrors II

Tabletop game

All Quite on the Martian Front

Thon
Torn Armor

To Be Determined:
Dungeon Crawler's latest project (moved to their own site)
Total Extinction (what happened to that guy?)
PDC weapon sprues (delivered then disappeared)
Wargods of Olympus (did they ever finish that one?)
Trollforged Alien Assimilation (ticking along sooooo slowly)
Imbrian Arts/Jody Siegel (the Frank Grimes of the miniatures industry)


Indiegogo:
Avatars of War: Dwarf Standard Bearer
6mm Armies for your Armies (problems with China?)

Harmony Gold's Robotech academy (cancelled before it could fail) was an amusing flop.

They offered a $2 'enemy spy' pledge allowing Harmony Gold H8ers to chime in with their venom.

Wargods of Olympus is looking at about a year yet to finish everything. They have shipped factions as they have completed. Far from dead, but way late.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Found this website
http://kickfailure.com/

That site gives a quite troubling insight into the mindset of the 'creators' of those kickstarters.

More than 2.

Surely Creature Caster and the machinations of its pretentious creator deserve a mention?

And not forgetting that ghastly mess of a Kickstarter for Robotech (where, after stumbling upon the thread, I learned what Palladium is and what a total incompetent gak-break Siembieda is). What really surprises me is the lack of vitriol being heaped on that joke of a cult company (it really does sound cult like. A leader and his hangers on who are prepared to work for free)!

Also, could Sedition Wars qualify? Yes, it eventually delivered, but was hideously late, Wave 2 was a joke and the game is now consigned to the dustbin of history.

That kickfailure site is hilarious! Some truly deluded folks wanting funding for some crazy gak lol.
Check this guy out- though to his credit he managed to raise $504 from 29 people. For even more comedy value, watch the video! I don't even know wtf he's on about lol.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/973736766/the-cybermatrix-100-tu01/description

**edit: I think this guy may have a few mental health issues...

Did the Emperor's New Clothes game ever happen? What was some expert Kick Trolling.

Last Saga has partly failed, although in a promising way.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1318212665/last-saga/posts/1487558

Essentially - they sent off the models to the caster, who had a good reputation, heard nothing for months, and then got their order delivered...which was a few models out of the 60 or so from the project, repeated over and over again! So they had a pile of metal that was mostly useless for fulfilling the Kickstarter. Efforts to get them to correct this failed, as did commissioning a second caster with the remaining insufficient funds.

They were however able to sell the rights to the IP, all rules and models/masters created to Zenit Miniatures (creators of Kensei), who are taking on fullKickstarter fulfillment. They then folded their company, but will continue to be contracted by Kensei for development of the Last Saga IP. In theory, everything works out okay for the backers (although very heavily delayed), but Rocket Games suffered no end of stress and ended up losing their company!

 zedmeister wrote:
Surely Creature Caster and the machinations of its pretentious creator deserve a mention?

Definitely. That guy has no brains for business. He spent a good amount of time, travelling the world for someone to cast the models only to wind up USING A GUY HE WORKED WITH AT ULTRAFORGE WHO IS JUST DOWN THE ROAD as well as coffee-gate where spilled coffee on his computer (you shouldn't have drinks anywhere near your super awesome CAD computer anyways. ). Oh and then there was the yoga retreat thing as well. We're only now seeing some production stuff but that's just for the Tree-woman.

I forgot about Alas Vegas.

...I wish I'd continued to forget about Alas Vegas.

It's not much different than what we've seen here so many times, where someones starts a thread about the amazing new game they're making that is totally going to take over the market place! Because they've got big ideas about the amazing story they're going to tell, and all the models they're going to have, and the amazing rules, and the books and comics that are going to use that setting.

And then they're absolutely befuddled about how they're going to do that, that there are maybe a couple-three steps between 'idea' and 'fruition.' Kickstarter just gives those people who have no idea that they have no idea what they're doing a more visible platform.

I forget if Dakka was one of the places hit by it, but 7-8-9 years ago, there was a guy who was hitting up places all over the web to drum up interest for his amazing fantasy story, about high schoolers finding a portal to a fantasy realm, and creating a totally bad ass mercenary gang because modern pocket knives are OMG amazing comparted to worthless primitive metal working. And it was going to be a video game, a book, a comic, a movie, a tv series, AND a day camp! (that last one is why I still remember this. It was just so weird)

Ambition often out strips ability, for obvious reasons.

Oh, remember War Prime?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ericsexton/war-prime-tabletop-miniatures?ref=discovery

Supposed to be the next big thing, guy was on here promoting the heck out of it. Never actually funded, the guy was in the video game industry and had no idea about tabletop.

Biggest laugh was when backers requested a pic of minis next to a ruler to determine scale, at which point he posted a picture of a tape measure laying horizontally next to a mini He later fixed it, but it was a "prime" example of how he had no clue about the hobby and was just trying to cash in on a 40k ripoff. The artwork was re-colored from blue not-marines to grey not-marines when people called him on it, as if a palatte swap would make it any less obvious...

This one for lasercut walkways:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/554764.page
It was tried twice. The first got cancelled to get re-raised, and the second for just past half funding before ending.

 angelofvengeance wrote:
That kickfailure site is hilarious! Some truly deluded folks wanting funding for some crazy gak lol.
Check this guy out- though to his credit he managed to raise $504 from 29 people. For even more comedy value, watch the video! I don't even know wtf he's on about lol.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/973736766/the-cybermatrix-100-tu01/description

**edit: I think this guy may have a few mental health issues...

Risks and challenges

nothing special.

Not overly convinced on that front.

I think the people that actually gave this money probably had more issues than the creator

Thanks for the info. Actually not as many as I was thinking. I was aware of a few, but not aware of the robotech stuff.

I run Proxie Models. I have been in business for 5+ years now and have decided to quietly build my infrastructure. I see a lot of over promotion going on and think it is too easy to raise expectations too high.

I went back to working construction and was actually working 3 jobs in addition to making bases because I wanted to make my own stuff with out risking other people's money. Hooking up some new equipment and hoping to make some real progress this year because I am now down to just one job in addition to making bases. ( No more working outside in the cold!!)

The reason I want to sort out kick starter is because I am trying to figure out if customers actually prefer to be part of a kick starter instead of just buying stuff out right. In other words, if there is a choice between buying something right now or buying in to a future possible item it seems that people almost prefer to buy the big new shiny thing that might appear.

I have no need to kick start so the question is sort of a business question. It seems a lot of people are on kick starter that really do not seem to need it so maybe they are smarter than me. (not a great feat in reality)

In my opinion as a KS creator myself, I feel like if you are able to make something and bring it to market yourself, then you don't need to Kickstart it. You can just release it and the people that want it can get it now.

With a KS, you will have to contend with backers expectations these days and thanks to bigger companies, most people want deep discounts or tons of free stuff.. in most cases that means you probably won't make much money, or may even be in the red.. however in your case it probably wouldn't be as bad since you are able to make everything yourself.

In my case, by the time I pay artists, sculptors, mold makers, and get the production minis done there's very little left over for me to put toward something new. It costs me a little over $1000 per mini altogether, and these days kickstarters for minis just aren't doing as well as they used to. My last KS failed, but I was able to get the minis produced anyway thanks to regular sales and sold enough to at least break even just doing things the old fashioned way. So, I plan to only use KS in the future for things I truly need help with. I'm content to release new models slowly and just sell one to pay for the next, and build up a bigger line over time even if it takes several years.

In your case I would try making some new models, paint em up or hire a pro painter if you're not good at painting. And take good professional photos and/or make videos showing more angles or whatever. Present it the best way you can and then get the word out I generally hate social media, but I'm finding that Facebook is a really good tool for drumming up lots of interest too.

I've supported only a limited selection of KS. It has to be something I really want that's not being produced by anyone in the way I want it (Dungeon Saga fit this) or some really lovely art from a small creator who I want to see succeed (Tre Manor's RBG Kickstarters).

I've not been too badly hit by any KS disappointments - Tre was pretty late with his first KS but I got my minis before a lot of backers because I'd backed for something that already existed - the problems were with the Helsvakt plastics in Trollforged which weren't really suitable for the material.

I won the KS lottery with Mantic, and pretty much got everything (one slight mispack) and am happy with my product, but I'm aware of the large number of backers who were not so lucky and it makes me wary of backing Mantic again.

I prefer to buy things locally if possible. I've got a good FLGS in my area and I'd like to give them money. I like to walk into a shop and pick something up.

One problem with KS is that they take up a lot of media "space" and sort of crowd out other releases. Conquest Games have been putting out kits fairly quietly, nice hard plastic Normans. I'd gotten the Infantry and the Knights, but was disappointed that they had no archers. They must have released some, as I just saw a box in the FLGS and nabbed it, but I didn't see that announced anywhere.

 Carlson793 wrote:
Cancelled
- Westwater Role-Playing Game: B/X D&D engine for Weird West gaming. The designer canceled because at the time there were too many similar games coming out, but released the rules for free.
- Hulks & Horrors: D&D for Sci-Fi dungeon crawling. He had a solid game built, just needed funding to pay for the art. Released it anyway.

H&H didn't get the art budget it originally wanted but the game got released in quite a decent print-on-demand edition (the author's an online friend and I have a copy on my shelf, just for disclosure). Just goes to show that there's a difference between failing to meet your goal and kickstarter failure, in my opinion.