Following that blunder, Vale says Lewis Brindley, one of the two Yogscast founders, "lost faith right away in my ability to run the company from a business standpoint." Brindley, Vale said, then demanded that "all the rest of the Kickstarter money that hadn't been spent be transferred to them right away." That amounted to about $150,000. Vale said Yogscast was supposed to use the money to create and ship the physical rewards promised to donors, and then hire, at $100,000, the lead programmer the project still lacked.
Yogscast Kickstarter failure is a painful reminder of the risks of crowdfunding
That person apparently was never hired. "We began developing in earnest but without our main programmer and no funds to hire one it became clear that more of that role was going to be filled by me than I ever intended," Vale said. He says he "worked tirelessly for the next 18 months," and the project didn't lose another person, but "too many design changes and my in-experience as a project lead and programmer were what's to blame for our company never really making what it was we set out to make."
Polygon has reached out to Yogscast for comment about Vale's version of events, and what the $100,000 was spent on if not the salary for a lead programmer. In a comment published to the Yogscast subreddit, Brindley said "We're not ready to make a detailed statement about what happened with Yogventures!. Winterkewl's statement omits much and I would disagree with a number of points, but there's no value in going into detail." He added that "Any monies the Yogscast have received in connection with this project has been spent on this project."
