The crowd funded Kickstarter campaign from 2Awesome Studio for the game Dimension Drive was sabotaged this morning by a troll going by the name Jonathan that pledged €7000 but was later invalidated. Kickstarter has been known to have avenue for financial support on indie and veteran game developers like the upcoming Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Project.
The game developer's campaign timeframe for the completion of the shooter game Dimension Drive was coming to a close when "Jonathan" suddenly pledged €7000 in order for the team to reach their goal. The pledge was registered a few hours before campaign closes, with just under €7000 for the team to reach their goal. 2Awesome Studio was ecstatic, but was suddenly heartbroken when 30 minutes before the formal closing of the campaign, Kickstarter had withdrawn the pledge due to fraudulence. 2Awesome Studio team is heartbroken and devastated with the whole deception.
Nobody deserves to have their dreams shattered in such a public manner, especially not those that rely on crowd funding in order for their dreams to be realized. Crowd funding is a serious business, and mischief like these take more collateral damage along the way. Kickstarter is a way for artists to be able to directly engage themselves with their audience to be more involved in the development of a certain project.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night creator Koji Igarashi has recently turned to Kickstarter to help fund his upcoming Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night project. Gameinformer's interview with Igarashi regarding his desire to have his project funded through Kickstarter resonates to how corporations choose the projects that they wish to fund. When asked what made him turn to Kickstarter for his next game, Igarashi reinforces that no publisher would fully support the title, and that the publishers were reluctant with the game itself, that the genre was not popular enough. "Fortunately, we found some investment that would allow us to get close to the budget we need to make the core game", Igarashi further states, "but even then, the condition of this funding was to first prove the desire for the game I'd drawn out. Not only is Kickstarter what will allow me to do this, but it will also potentially allow us to add a lot more content and some really creative things if we manage to surpass the bare minimum goal."
Another success story through Kickstarter was realized by Double Fine Productions. The original goal of the campaign in February 8, 2012 was to raise $400,000 but the production company far surpassed the goal, reaching $3,336,372 from 87,142 pledges by March 13 of the same year. Through the Kickstarter campaign, Broken Age was possible to develop and publish in two parts, Act 1 in January 14, 2014, and Act 2 in April 28, 2015.
Projects funded through crowdsourcing like Kickstarter have its own risks involved, and production teams and artists are aware of these risks prior to such a major decision. Falling short of the goal in a crowdfunding campaign is a risk, but such a mean spirited move as fraud is truly devastating. No doubt the support that 2Awesome Studio has generated over the unfortunate ordeal will allow the company to bounce back and finally have Dimension Drive released in the near future.
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