Starting to see this circulate on some of the news sites and appears to be the first major Kickstarter failure for tabletop top games. Given the predominance of
KS drives in the News and Rumors section and the considerable funds some us have contributed, felt this news should be posted here.
For those not familiar with the
KS, information can be found here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/forkingpath/the-doom-that-came-to-atlantic-city
Basically a Monopoly meets Cthulhu with a Rampage video game twist. I did not follow or participate in the
KS. It raised over $122K with originally a $35K goal. This by most accounts would mean it was a massive success by most people.
Unfortunately on July 23rd, this update was released:
This is not an easy update to write.
The short version: The project is over, the game is canceled.
After much deliberation I've had to make this decision. I've informed Keith and Lee and neither at all happy with this situation. 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 experienced and I apparently was not that person.
From the beginning the intention was to launch a new board game company with the Kickstarted funds, with The Doom that Came to Atlantic City as only our first of hopefully many projects. Everyone involved agreed on this. Since then rifts have formed and every error compounded the growing frustration, causing only more issues. After paying to form the company, for the miniature statues, moving back to Portland, getting software licenses and hiring artists to do things like rule book design and art conforming the money was approaching a point of no return. We had to print at that point or never. Unfortunately that wasn't in the cards for a variety of reasons.
I'm going to write a full post-mortem to explain every issue in greater detail but suffice to say that I never gave up and always intended to get this project printed. My intentions have always been good and I've struggled with this greatly. I've spent a large amount of time pitching investors, begging banks for loans and seeking other sources of funding to fix this. Sadly I found no takers.
As stated above Lee and Keith were not directly involved in this decision. I informed them earlier this month about the situation. Keith went out of his way to speak with his contacts at other companies to see if any could help salvage the game. We spent quite a bit of time working on possible deals and arrangements but in the end they just weren't interested in taking the risk. Keith has only ever done amazing work in getting this made and can't be blamed in any way for its downfall.
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. I'll create a separate bank account to place anything beyond my basic costs of living. Every time that account has a decent amount saved into it I'll issue a payout to a portion of the backer list. I'll post updates with each payout to keep you all informed on the progress.
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. This has been a rough year, I never wanted to make it harder for anyone. There will be no more monthly updates, not that there have really been in some time, but I will post with each payout, as well as the post-mortem when it is eventually complete.
Over 1,200 backers are now facing the real prospect that they threw their money at this project and will see nothing in return.
I'm intrigued to see what the creator states what went wrong in his postmortem. One article has already pointed out one obvious factor regarding misuse of funds here:
http://valleywag.gawker.com/kickstarter-project-canceled-after-dude-spends-all-the-912176282
Given I continuously see people state how this company or that game should go to
KS, and felt I should post this here to show
KS' can fail. People also seem to think that just because a
KS raised a large amount of money, it should do fine. Things can go wrong and go wrong spectacularly.
Donors are talking legal action, but given the amount involved, I do not see it going anywhere.
Was anyone involved in this
KS that is able to provide some additional insight?
And apologies to the Mods if this is the inappropriate sections for it. While I felt it was news, seemed more like a general discussion topic given it relates more to
KS in general than just Boardgames.
