Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Well not what you want to see if you are a backer of any of Mike Nystul's KS projects

Nystul's Infinite Dungeon,
Axes & Anvils (i'm in this one as a backer)
Cairn

It looks like he's over-reached himself, and needs some extra cash to keep going on/complete these projects (actually Cairn was intended to be a quick project to bring in some money to fininsh the first two)

so he's set up an indiegogo to try and get some exta money (using the flexable funding model so he get to keep the money even if he misses the target)

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/build-the-castle/x/893194

thanks to recruittons from the Reaper forums for spotting this one

Guess he misses yet another release date?

Any way of getting the cash back, since he's not intending on finishing here and still asking for more money?

I don't get it, he wants money to fund things that people already paid for? I haven't seen any of these before so I'm asking an actual question not trying to flame.

Yup. All 3 of the projects he's trying to supplement with this IGG are ones he Kickstarted. I'm guessing he is using IGG because Kickstarter would probably reject this project outright for being less than scrupulous.

So, he's asking for money to build the products he's already sold to other people but never delivered?

Wow. That's chutzpah.

At least he is more or less honest about the burden to fulfill a kickstarter:

I ran three successful Kickstarters but as many pundits have pointed out, success carries it's own burdens. I brought on more overhead than I should have, it took longer to deliver than it should have and there have been and continue to be endless hidden costs that gnaw away at us. I have read that something like 40% of all funded RPG projects never deliver and most of those never even offer refunds. Because of this climate and how long it has taken us to deliver on our initial offerings we are facing fears of vaporware. I will not allow anything like that to happen.

The thing I'm most disapointed about is that the impression from all the KS projects (except Cairn) was that he had a solid core of design/rules/background to build on

from what's been said later (and especially here) thye were a lot less well thought out; more like 'oh, lets make a cool dwarf rpg' ant that was all he had

Oh look, Ponzi scheme.

Wait, Infinite dungeon got +800% of his target funding goal,
$16k from a $2k goal and he still needs funding to keep going?

Axes and Anvils +3500% for $35K!!!

@Orlando have you received anything yet, based on your pledge level?

I put in to get some of that Axes and Anvils action.

Nothing has been delivered.

 Mr. Burning wrote:
Wait, Infinite dungeon got +800% of his target funding goal,
$16k from a $2k goal and he still needs funding to keep going?

Axes and Anvils +3500% for $35K!!!

@Orlando have you received anything yet, based on your pledge level?

No, I was only in Axes and Anvils for the PDF as I thought of it as a bit of fun rather than a game I would actually run (so no hard copy thank goodness),

We've been told A&A should be done by 22nd March (Mikes Nystuils birthday), but that was before this Indiegogo (and Infinite Dungeon was meant to be done by now too)

I'm supporting 2 of his projects, especially Cairn with a rather big amount.

One of the comments to one of Mikes last updates summarizes it quite well for me: I'm backing a project and not preodering something (some people seem to forget this idea behing Kickstarter, and yes, some companies seem to use KS as a preorder-platform).
I would like to get my hands on both rpgs as soon as possible, but as long as I'm getting regular updates with visible progress (and/or explanation why there is a delay) I'm okay with that. I prefer a high quality product instead of a rushed one. We once published an rpg-supplement, from there I know how complicated it is to keep everything as planned. Most of the time it was fun, but getting writers and illustrators coordinated can be challenging *g

Especially with Cairn we supporters are also responsible for the delay. The project started with a 100 page book and at the end we got the pages increased, a compendium, several adventures and miniatures. We supported his crazy ideas, making the game bigger and bigger

Viewed from a project management side, you can see that even during a KS you have to regularly check your project plan if its still financially or time-wise feasible. Unfortunately it seems that Mike had to learn this, but at least he learned. There are several articles from KS creators about this topic. One lesson learned seems to be that every update or pledge level you give must return money to you. And I think (but I'dont know if it's technically doable) if you have a very successful KS (which is good) it shouldn't be a taboo to officially delay the delivery date.
I did not ask Mike about this topic, but I think the dwarf convention this year which he announced during the Axes & Anvils KS, might be one financial challenge where he let himself get carried away.

I cannot deny that I'm at least a bit worried about this indiegogo-campaign (and I won't back it as I already supported their work), but I'm still confident that Mikes projects will be successful at the end.

-Cheers
Ghrik