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Eurogamer: Yogscast Kickstarter-Funded Game Folds (Oh Boy..)

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...kers-given-steam-key-for-another-game-instead

Project creators sign a document legally requiring them to fulfil any stated rewards, but it is up to the creators themselves to adhere to this and work out a refund policy if applicable.

Over 200 people put down more than $300, while five backers opted for the most lavish $10,000 tier where you could go and have lunch with Yogscast themselves.

"Because Yogventures never completed it's going to be impossible to deliver the rewards relating to the finished game," Brindley stated. "However we'll do everything we can to find cool things to take their place." More details and further peace offerings were being considered, he concluded, but would be announced at a later time.


The likelihood of any refund from developer Winterkewl Games looks remote, however. The studio will "probably" now go out of business, lead developer Kris Vale explained.

"Working on Yogventures was an amazing experience and everyone at Winterkewl Games really wanted to achieve the very lofty goals the game set out to do, but lack of experience in planning and managing a project of this scope proved too much for our little team," he said.

There is just so much holy shit here.

Just the whole thing.

Also.. what the hell is Yogscast
 

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
Humorous guys at the best of times, but no one can deny that they are slowly becoming the poster child of "guys who have no clue regarding business"
 

Sendou

Member
Heh and they raised not less than $567,665.

For context that's almost three times what FTL got from Kickstarter.
 
This is why you stay away from Kickstarter.

No obligation to complete it? FUCK YOU.

Edit: I'll rephrase. This is why you stay away from Kickstarter projects where a complete amateur tries to outdo professionals with little or no experience in that particular industry.
 

_Ryo_

Member
I thought the way Kickstarter worked was if a project failed (as in both the project was not funded and the creators failed to deliver the promised product), it was mandatory to refund all backers?

I'm not exactly sure though.
 

Bumhat

Member
This should be in the OP:
Yogventures raised nearly $570,000 for indie studio Winterkewl Games during the title's Kickstarter campaign back in 2012, more than double its original goal of $250k.

I just... wow. I've got nothing. I feel really sorry for the people that donated over $10,000, this entire situation is completely bonkers.
 

Ban Puncher

Member
4ciCI.gif
 
This is why you stay away from Kickstarter.

No obligation to complete it? FUCK YOU.
No, this is why you don't throw money at risky projects by new teams, or you accept the risk of losing your money for the chance to make something happen.

I thought the way Kickstarter worked was if a project failed (as in both the project was not funded and the creators failed to deliver the promised product), it was mandatory to refund all backers?

I'm not exactly sure though.
...no? That would never work. The point is to raise money that you'll spend making or doing something. How would you refund it? It's going, spent on development.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Ah, this always seemed like it was going to be one of THE big Kickstarter failures. And they didn't disappoint!

The Homestuck one is the next on the biggest profile piss-takes, with 2.5 million raised and nothing to show. High interest bank scam a-go-go.
 

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
5 people chucked in $10,000 to go and have lunch with some people that do youtube videos?

I can't believe the amounts of money some kickstarters / twitch streamers etc are STILL getting. Seems like this would have died down by now.

Is it too late for me to hop on this free money mobile.
 
I'm sure the 5 backers who gave 10k are happy to get a Steam key for TUG!

"We took a fuckload of your money and cancelled what you should have gotten in return. We aren´t legally obliged to give you anything, but here is this cheap Steam Greenlight game because we are so generous. "

How nice of them. Amazing.
 
I thought the way Kickstarter worked was if a project failed (as in both the project was not funded and the creators failed to deliver the promised product), it was mandatory to refund all backers?

I'm not exactly sure though.

If the project doesn't reach its goal level of funding they don't take anyone's money. Maybe that's what you're thinking of.
 

Rapstah

Member
I don't see why they can't give people the rest of the rewards. The Yogscast dinner and Yogscast t-shirts would hardly have been supplied by the game developer anyway, right?
 
but lack of experience in planning and managing a project of this scope proved too much for our little team

Ya think?

Yogventures is going to be an open world sandbox game designed first and foremost as a multiplayer experience. The game will allow you to create and shape worlds, then easily share them and play with friends! We're going to take the idea of "build your own adventure" to the extreme. Yogventures will provide simple-to-use tools to design worlds that match your imagination and are packed with thrilling stories and epic treasures.

You'll have control over everything from buildings and dungeons to the NPCs and mobs. Yogventures will be the ultimate modder's game where even the rules of winning and losing can be tweaked. Think adventure maps in Minecraft, only now you aren’t limited to just blocks! The game utilizes technology called "Marching Cubes" which allows us to generate fantastic new world terrain that is random and editable. This means the terrain will be vast, interesting and fully destructible - you'll be able to diggy diggy as much as you like or just say 'Balls to it!' and blow it all up!

But that's not all - there will be other gameplay modes to play alone or together, and we will be kicking off your imagination by making brand new adventures for you to play! These will feature all your favorite characters from our series, the heroic Honeydew and Xephos, the bumbling wizard Fumblemore, the raucous Professor Griswold, the Knight formerly known as Old Peculier, and many more! And of course this means we'll be launching an even more epic and amazing video series to run alongside the release of Yogventures - potentially even featuring maps that you have made. All of the maps and adventures we make for this will be released to the community so you can play along with us or re-imagine the adventure and make it your own!

Beautiful, randomly-generated game worlds that are different every time you start a new Yogventure
Fully shapeable terrain - with the ability for players to raise a mountain range or create a vast ocean; you can effortlessly shape your world however you imagine it
A wealth of novel building materials, creatures, NPCs and items
A rich underground to mine and explore - bristling with rare outcroppings of gems and crystals, hidden tombs and dark underground terrors that drop rare weapons and loot
A fully-fleshed out crafting system
An in-game physics engine that will even effect the blocks you place in your creations
The ability to customise your own unique avatar or play as one of your favourite Yogscast characters
Easy-to-use in-game modding API including in-game scripting
Ability for modders to have a chance to get their work added to the game
Regularly released video updates from the developers including the latest feature additions

It basically sounds like they were trying to build Everquest Next on a 570k budget and with a small and inexperienced team.
 

xMuku

Member
Yeah, I feel bad for anyone who invested in a Youtube group who obviously know little to nothing about game development. I'm not sure if anyone has seen screens or videos of their game but it looked horrendous.

ngbbs4f89104156f93.jpg
 

patapuf

Member
I can't believe the amounts of money some kickstarters / twitch streamers etc are STILL getting. Seems like this would have died down by now.

Is it too late for me to hop on this free money mobile.

Divinity: Original Sin just came out and it's one of the best WRPG in years. It's far from the only good Kickstarter game released. There's always going to be some bad with the good.
 
Or you are smart and just don't give your money to a bunch of Youtubers to make a game.

Yeah that too. I'll restate: I've backed a lot of Kickstarter projects and it's quite obvious that some projects will not complete. Stay away from projects that don't look credible.

It's weird though, I thought they have a running beta.
 

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
Divinity: Original Sin just came out and it's one of the best WRPG in years. It's far from the only good Kickstarter game released. There's always going to be some bad with the good.

I didn't mean that as a negative towards KS in general but like, five people gave 10,000 to have dinner with these people?

Just seems like a lot of 'gamers' have a lot of money to spend. I need to come up with a plan ( ≖‿≖)
 
Why can't they just refund the money?

Well from what I understand (I called out the developers on Reddit, and learned a lot from there), around half of the money raised (which ended up being a bit less than $500K, after Kickstarter/Amazon fees and high paying backers not coming through), around HALF (yes half) went to the Yogscast folks, because they used their name.

The rest was split among around 6-8 people to work on the game. So all of the money is now used, Winterkewl is bankrupt, and the morons at Yogscast (yes they deserve to be called that) can't follow through on their project. What pisses me off is they never updated their KS page for nearly a year, leaving fans in the dark. I never watched Yogscast, but I will never support them now.
 
Yeah, I feel bad for anyone who invested in a Youtube group who obviously know little to nothing about game development. I'm not sure if anyone has seen screens or videos of their game but it looked horrendous.

ngbbs4f89104156f93.jpg

Why on earth would someone fund that
 

Seanspeed

Banned
Ya think?





It basically sounds like they were trying to build Everquest Next on a 570k budget and with a small and inexperienced team.
Holy shit. No way that was ever going to happen.

I suppose its hard for most people to understand this, though. Many aren't going to know a damn thing about game development and would have no idea that this was a pipe dream. Seems the 'developers' themselves didn't know, either.
 

Rapstah

Member
Well from what I understand (I called out the developers on Reddit, and learned a lot from there), around half of the money raised (which ended up being a bit less than $500K, after Kickstarter/Amazon fees and high paying backers not coming through), around HALF (yes half) went to the Yogscast folks, because they used their name.

The rest was split among around 6-8 people to work on the game. So all of the money is now used, Winterkewl is bankrupt, and the morons at Yogscast (yes they deserve to be called that) can't follow through on their project. What pisses me off is they never updated their KS page for nearly a year, leaving fans in the dark. I never watched Yogscast, but I will never support them now.

If half the money went to the Yogscast people and they didn't use it to fund the backer rewards, where was that money going to come from?
Why on earth would someone fund that
I don't think they marketed it with that, it was all concept art and Youtube hype. The original site should probably still be up on Kickstarter.
 

Acosta

Member
This is why you stay away from Kickstarter.

No obligation to complete it? FUCK YOU.

There are great games that has come from Kickstarter or helped immensely by it like Divinity.

This is not one of them but this this was obvious from the beginning ,but even so, some rotten fruits don't invalidate the whole concept.
 

Goon Boon

Banned
"Although we're under no obligation to do anything, instead we're going to do our best to make this right, and make you really glad you backed the project!"

Holy fuck the balls on them hahahahaha.
 

Sendou

Member
If half the money went to the Yogscast people and they didn't use it to fund the backer rewards, where was that money going to come from?

Hookers/booze/mansions/cars/whatever? Point being even if they had some money left they won't refund anyone.
 

Ban Puncher

Member
I can't believe the amounts of money some kickstarters / twitch streamers etc are STILL getting. Seems like this would have died down by now.

Is it too late for me to hop on this free money mobile.

You live in Japan, don't you? Crudely film yourself buying a coke from a street drink machine or your crazy electric toilet (don't forget to swear and scream in every video too), throw it up on YouTube under the name 'JAPAN MAN PEWDIEGAIJIN ADVENTURE SEMPAI-KUN' and watch the e-money and e-fame roll in.

You are now obligated to give me an e-percentage.
 
So, get double the asking budget, still fail to finish the game in budget, can't even cover a lunch with 5 people who gave 50k to them.

Lovely.
 
Well that's fucking shitty.
This is why you stay away from Kickstarter.

No obligation to complete it? FUCK YOU.
Because people gave money to a group of youtubers and a no-name developer does not mean this is the reality of all kickstarter projects.

This was 2012, people didn't know better.
I thought the way Kickstarter worked was if a project failed (as in both the project was not funded and the creators failed to deliver the promised product), it was mandatory to refund all backers?

I'm not exactly sure though.
The refund is only if the project doesn't reach the goal, I believe.
 

Doran902

Member
There are great games that has come from Kickstarter or helped immensely by it like Divinity.

This is not one of them but this this was obvious from the beginning ,but even so, some rotten fruits don't invalidate the whole concept.

Yeah its really about picking and choosing with your money and researching who it is going to. This game was sketchy as hell because it was just a bunch of dudes who got famous for playing Minecraft. They aren't going to know how to make a game. It is like giving 500,000 to a bunch of first year college kids who just love to play games. There are tons of people on kickstarter like you said though who make fantastic products, have experience etc.
 
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