Points of evidence
- God character art is from http://pgwebdesign.net/blog/35-mythological-art-masterpieces...
- Backgrounds are from http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=211755 and http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/painting/ancient-temple-en...
- Poster consists of this icon; http://xooplate.com/templates/details/2443-ancient-warrior-s... on top of this texture; http://panzertm.deviantart.com/art/Old-Yellowed-Paper-125646...
- The sword reward pictures are from; http://www.knifecave.com/fantasy/store/products/Designer+Cus...
- The reward tier text and values are copied wholesale from The Banner Saga's kickstarter, with just a game name search & replace.
- The office photos; http://i.imgur.com/uTCBT.png are just crops from the Burton Design Group; http://i.imgur.com/XOFdi.jpg
That is incorrect. The money is transferred once funding period has ended if funding goals have been reached.
From that point on, the project authorship has the money (minus Amazon's and Kickstarter's shares) and may never get it done still.
Source: funded half a dozen of KS so far, I know when money leaves me. It would also completely unmake the point of kickstarter: it's about providing funds for the project to be done, not guaranteeing sales so people can go get institutional investors showing they have 3 million sales in already (especially since most KS are a few thousand, the current million+ craze is not the median project)
Well, the funding was canceled, which according to the FAQ means that all pledges are voided. So they actually managed to get exactly $0.
Second the game concept was incredibly vague about a game that was supposedly already in production. Making big vague promises should always be a warning sign of scam. Conversely when Double Fine did their campaign it was okay that gave gave no details about the game because, 1 it hadn't been started yet, 2 they actually explicitly stated that the game might suck. Coming up with a real good detailed game concept is actually pretty hard.
Next the studio and team wer never shown. Instead you see one young guy sitting at a desk in a poorly lit room with no windows, and a laptop running some stupid animation on it. In other videos we walked though real offices with real people with names, and real workstations that actually look like they are in use.
These last two are going to be very difficult to fake as they require a reputation, accomplices, and money, which scam artists tend to lack. Not to say scams are impossible but I think they are going to be harding then people think.
I'm sure there will someday be someone clever enough to get away with it, but most people are likely to get caught very quickly.
I think it shows, always do some due diligence, it seems people did in this case. Look up the creator, their experience. They don't have to provide any work at the end of it all, so it's up to you as a possible pledger.
Could this create a market for 'verified' kickstarter projects? Kickstarter as an organization states they dont verify, but as they grow the need will also grow. I'm thinking this could be an optional feature that everyone would be aware of (IE: grayed out badge when not invoked). For a small fee a typically background check will be performed, either by kickstarter or an independent.
First, Star Command didn't fail to deliver. It simply hasn't delivered yet. The game was being shown at a trade show last month. It's on it's way. This is not a case of a cancelled project or someone running off with the money.
Second, the article's statement that only 4k went to the game is an outright lie. They clearly state that 6k went to music, 5k to marketing (poster + PAX), and 1k to development/demo hardware. That's not necessarily ideal but it's not entirely unreasonable either. You can argue the marketing/hardware issue perhaps, but 6k went directly into the game in the form of music.
The real lesson to take away from Star Command is their under-estimation of time and money required to create, package, and ship backer rewards. That's the real danger that other projects should be wary of.
As the saying goes, a fool and their money are soon parted!