Board 8 > Any Kickstarter fulfillment horror stories?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Well, I'm a bit disappointed since I still haven't received my copy of Eiyuden Chronicles Rising that I added back in 2020 during the Kickstarter. Some people got theirs upon release (mid of May), others got theirs slowly after. Others still wait for them like me.

So the fulfilment partner is this tshirt company called Yetee who also did the fulfillment for The Wonderful 101. And apparently some people are just getting their digital OST of TW101 nowadays, nearly 2 years after the game's release.

So...yeah, heard/have any similar stories? Crowdfunding campaigns that got the funding and did deliver on their promises, just...very messily.

Kickstarters are pretty hit or miss. In general I fund kickstarters that are either glorified preorders by people who have successfully released items before or I don't expect the thing to ever come out and I donate on a whim.

Charles Barkley Shut up and Jam 2 scarred me.

I used Kickstarter for video games when it first came out, but enough of those never materialized that I stopped. After that I used it for miniatures (which wound up being a huge waste of money, I have a trunk full of unpainted Bones minis) but one, I think Tome of Horrors minis, went out of business and lost me over a hundred dollars. Since then I haven't used Kickstarter at all and don't feel like I've missed anything

I went in on the Kickstarter for the Batman Animated Series board game, and a bunch of people did not receive the product due to a high amount of damage on resources the company received. I luckily got mine early, but a lot of people got screwed over.

I should add I still have been waiting on the Frosthaven kickstarter that is almost 2 years late now, but I don't have any doubts that will actually come out yet.

Delays due to the pandemic are pretty standard

I have pretty much exclusively used Kickstarter for board games, which are typically in a better position to turn out well. They tend to be near completion and the Kickstarter is essentially a pre-order with a bunch of extras thrown in.

Not me but my friend was one of the backers for the print version of Pictures For Sad Children, whose author had some kind of mental breakdown during the shipping process and refused to send out any more copies, eventually burning unsent copies and posting a video of it on kickstarter.

The Dark Souls boardgame was a clusterfudge. Backed it in 2016, originally promised in 2017, finally received the last part of my pledge at the end of 2019. Basically, they underestimated how popular the kickstarter would be, promised too much and had a manufacturer that couldn't cope with demand.

That said, the board games kickstarted from the same developer since have all been much smoother and normally fulfill in about 18 months.

Oh, the Wonderful 101 Remastered one was pretty bad too. Ended up getting the game after the retail release date AND paid more for it.

All of the physical rewards for Shantae: Half-Genie Hero came out in summer 2018, two years after the game came out and 5 years after the campaign. I love the series, and WayForward, and Matt Bozon, but that was pretty bad. At least we got the stuff though. Plenty of people have ended up SOL with other campaigns.

Stilling waiting for Unsung Story to actually be a game.

Ive backed 76 projects (mostly board games) and Ive only had a few bad experiences. Ive still received everything besides one of them which is 3.5 years late from their estimated delivery date.

oh yeah, I didn't back it directly through their fundraising campaign, but I paid for a preorder of The Magical Realms of Tr na ng: Escape from Necron 7 Revenge of Cuchulainn: The Official Game of the Movie Chapter 2 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa. I wonder if I can get any kind of refund for it since I paid through Humble Store instead of kickstarter, think I'll look into that right now

I've only ever kickstarted one game, by a company whose previous product I loved, and the new game did not turn out well. At least not during the beta period I got to try it. Maybe it pulled up after, but I had no interest in finding out. I paid for one of the higher tiers, too.

I backed the Sanderson secret novels kickstarter and I expect to be as horrified when I actually get the books as I was when he announced it

Great_Paul posted...

Ive backed 76 projects (mostly board games) and Ive only had a few bad experiences. Ive still received everything besides one of them which is 3.5 years late from their estimated delivery date.

Do you do a lot of research or do you just have a good sense on what projects are likely to pull through?

masterplum posted...

glorified preorders by people who have successfully released items before

I never really thought about it, but this explains why I've never had a "bad experience" with Kickstarter. Everything that I've backed has been a good product, by a trustworthy source, where I knew exactly what to expect, and have donated money just to help fund the physical creation or release of the product.

I have only backed around 10-15 projects on Kickstarter over the past decade, but of the ones that met their funding target, I guess the de facto "horror story" is that one ultimately canceled the development about a year later.

I've never supported kickstarter for major media like video games. Why would a developer have any incentive to produce a quality game when it's already paid for?
For every Shovel Knight and Undertale there's like 50 kickstarter horror stories. Even other sucessful games like Bloodstained was stuck in limbo for years so they can milk more and more kickstarter bonus goals.

Kickstarter is for smaller projects by actual one man teams who want help to finish a passion project. Board games are a good example, as well as one piece music hits.

Team Rocket Elite posted...

Do you do a lot of research or do you just have a good sense on what projects are likely to pull through?

I generally do research, but it doesnt always help. The game that hasnt fulfilled yet was with a company that I had backed with previously and had no issues, and another terrible fulfillment I had was with a reputable company that has done many projects in the past.

NFUN posted...

I backed the Sanderson secret novels kickstarter and I expect to be as horrified when I actually get the books as I was when he announced it

That man is insane.

"I wrote a secret book during COVID"
"OK I lied. I wrote 5 secret books during COVID"
"I just went into the office one day and left them all on a table to confuse and terrify my staff."

Ive backed 30ish Kickstarters and the only time Ive been burned is Barkley 2, which died for basically no reason because the parts of a game they DID have looked good as hell when they canceled it, Id be happy with just it tbh.

IndieGogo on the other hand, Im 2/3 for straight-up scams. One for a headset for the Switch that looked awesome and you can buy at retail, but they never shipped anyones IndieGogo orders and seemed to have used it to scam for seed money.

The comments on the project are all people complaining, but IndieGogo hasnt done shit, I will definitely not be going back.

Its one thing for a project to fall through, but a straight up blatant scam? Absolutely wack.

The most cursed kickstarter I ever backed was the Homestuck Adventure Game. The Odd Gentlemen stole my money.

Addendum: According to recent updates, TOG may not have stolen my money, but Andrew Hussie mega mishandled it. Which is still bad but less cursed.

KamikazePotato posted...

The most cursed kickstarter I ever backed was the Homestuck Adventure Game. The Odd Gentlemen stole my money.

Addendum: According to recent updates, TOG may not have stolen my money, but Andrew Hussie mega mishandled it. Which is still bad but less cursed.

Bad project management is rampant, because like driving everyone thinks they are great at it