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Games under Ouya's "Free the Games" fund on Kickstarter looking suspicious

N

Nibiru

Banned
Wow what a pile of nothing. I have a deep rage for Ouya as a company because they screwed up delivery two times BUT if a kickstarter gets a lot from an individual that is irrelevant.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with what happened here.
 
K

kirblar

Member
Nibiru said:
Wow what a pile of nothing. I have a deep rage for Ouya as a company because they screwed up delivery two times BUT if a kickstarter gets a lot from an individual that is irrelevant.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with what happened here.
Click to expand...
Have you ever seen "The Producers"?
 
C

Celegus

Member
Nibiru said:
Wow what a pile of nothing. I have a deep rage for Ouya as a company because they screwed up delivery two times BUT if a kickstarter gets a lot from an individual that is irrelevant.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with what happened here.
Click to expand...

Sure, if that's all it was.
 
T

TetraGenesis

Member
This whole thing has to end up going down in videogame history, right? I have no right to watch from the sidelines declaring OUYA a failure, but if it does (and the situation doesn't exactly look good) then this whole controversy seems like it would be one unbelievable chapter in a "Whatever Happened to OUYA" retrospective.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
kirblar said:
When Ouya is just handing the cash away and not blinking an eye, it makes me very suspicious that there's something more to this on Ouya's end.

I mean, hell, Kickstarter cancelled one of these projects. They never do that.
Click to expand...
I'd say right now their attitude is any publicity is good publicity. Anything that keeps people from forgetting the Ouya exists, complacency with being so obviously scammed.
 
A

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
Neuromancer said:
I'd say right now their attitude is any publicity is good publicity. Anything that keeps people from forgetting the Ouya exists, complacency with being so obviously scammed.
Click to expand...



I'm fully convinced that Ouya is an active participant. It's a fairly cheap marketing campaign and it has people talking about Ouya more than anybody really should be talking about Ouya.
 
K

kirblar

Member
Archaix said:
I'm fully convinced that Ouya is an active participant. It's a fairly cheap marketing campaign and it has people talking about Ouya more than anybody really should be talking about Ouya.
Click to expand...
The platform's an obvious disaster, so people trying to essentially get as much money out of the ship before it sinks makes an enormous amount of sense.
 
B

BiggNife

Member
Nibiru said:
Wow what a pile of nothing. I have a deep rage for Ouya as a company because they screwed up delivery two times BUT if a kickstarter gets a lot from an individual that is irrelevant.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with what happened here.
Click to expand...
Uh

How can you not see anything wrong with this

The Gridiron Thunder guys are using fake accounts to bump up the KS total so they get a free $50k from Ouya

It's not like 200 random people just stumbled upon the GT KS page and decided to give ridiculous sums of money to it because they thought it looked interesting
 
D

Dark Octave

Banned
BiggNife said:
Uh

How can you not see anything wrong with this

The Gridiron Thunder guys are using fake accounts to bump up the KS total so they get a free $50k from Ouya

It's not like 200 random people just stumbled upon the GT KS page and decided to give ridiculous sums of money to it because they thought it looked interesting
Click to expand...
I thought that's how KS worked.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
BiggNife said:
Uh

How can you not see anything wrong with this

The Gridiron Thunder guys are using fake accounts to bump up the KS total so they get a free $50k from Ouya

It's not like 200 random people just stumbled upon the GT KS page and decided to give ridiculous sums of money to it because they thought it looked interesting
Click to expand...
It'll end up being $150K. The game that raises the most money on KS gets an extra $100K from Ouya.

Not bad for a game that was almost finished by the time they put up the Kickstarter.
 
R

rohlfinator

Member
Ugh this stuff is all super gross.

I'm glad I never caved and bought an Ouya, but now I regret even defending the idea. They've managed to take a cool concept and screw it up in just about every way possible.

And Kickstarter isn't winning themselves any goodwill either by letting junk like this slide through their system.
 
Fox Mulder

Fox Mulder

Member
Archaix said:
I'm fully convinced that Ouya is an active participant. It's a fairly cheap marketing campaign and it has people talking about Ouya more than anybody really should be talking about Ouya.
Click to expand...

it smells bad, as they certainly want publicity and games for the platform. I just don't really care as I use my ouya for xbmc and emulators. I haven't bought a game on it in forever, and it sounds like the indie devs it was supposed to be for, at least the ones that bothered to support it, are fed up with the company.

It could have been an interesting device, but has been botched from the start by people that are obviously inexperienced and overwhelmed by the success of their kickstarter.
 
C

Celegus

Member
Dark Octave said:
I thought that's how KS worked.
Click to expand...

A small percentage of people pay a ton of money into projects they really believe in, yeah. But when the average donation is nearly $1000 for a low budget looking android game coming from "people" that just signed up for an account using fake names, that's where the problem is. This isn't the kind of project where some random guy stumbles on the page and says "YES! This is the kind of thing I want to spend $10,000 on! No, I don't need any prizes, because I just want to help you fulfill your dream!" It's beyond fishy, it's just stupidly blatant.
 
M

Maxxan

Member
The really bad thing about all of this is that the money comes from the Ouya backers, who definitely don't want to donate a fortune to a couple of scammers.

It'd be better if they just gave the money straight to a number of legit developers.
 
D

Diablohead

Member
rohlfinator said:
Ugh this stuff is all super gross.

I'm glad I never caved and bought an Ouya, but now I regret even defending the idea. They've managed to take a cool concept and screw it up in just about every way possible.

And Kickstarter isn't winning themselves any goodwill either by letting junk like this slide through their system.
Click to expand...
I wanted the ouya do be more then it is, an android based console sounded real good on paper but these fools ruined it for themselves and are pulling down other android boxes IMO, madcatz project mojo really needs to kick android consoles back into gear when it's released.
 
J

jlevel13

Member
Maxxan said:
The really bad thing about all of this is that the money comes from the Ouya backers, who definitely don't want to donate a fortune to a couple of scammers.
Click to expand...

They have outside investors too, not just kickstarter backer's money (and retail sales too)...

Ouya has revealed that the company recently received $15 million in new funding. The money comes from several big investors including Mayfield Fund, NVIDIA, Shasta Ventures, Occam Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. KPCB is particularly notable on account of it being the same firm that originally backed Electronic Arts. Bing Gordon, a general partner at KPCB, will also be joining Ouya's board of directors. Gordon's also serves as a board member for Amazon, Klout, Lockerz, MEVIO, Zazzle and Zynga and worked as an executive at EA during its formative years.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...illion-From-New-Investors#6r6VJfI3JPYVdEhr.99
Click to expand...
 
K

King Tubby

Member
So, uh, anyone want to lend me $50k for this new Ouya game I'm making? I'll pay you back in a couple months. It's space basketball with real NBA players, I call it Space Jam. Don't need to pay for the license, First Amendment got me covered.
 
R

rohlfinator

Member
Diablohead said:
I wanted the ouya do be more then it is, an android based console sounded real good on paper but these fools ruined it for themselves and are pulling down other android boxes IMO, madcatz project mojo really needs to kick android consoles back into gear when it's released.
Click to expand...

Yeah, or maybe Amazon will be able to do something with the idea.

It's sad because Ouya got quite a bit of indie support simply by virtue of being a cheap, open platform, but they've already squandered most of their goodwill. Hopefully this doesn't turn everyone off to the concept entirely.
 
Y

YianGaruga

Banned
There's another FTGF OUYA kickstarter that has a shady backing history, and the creators don't even deny that they basically threw in their own money

http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...rid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=589#post419427665

Dungeons the eye of Draconus posted:
Dear Pledgers,


We have been honest and upfront with you about our situation from the start. As you can all see, we are currently only one quarter of the way to our goal. Before launching this Kickstarter, we approached our immediate families and asked for the financial assistance needed to complete Dungeons. They refused, to put it mildly. They are not what one would call, “Gamer Friendly.” In addition, the majority of our friends work at minimum wage jobs. They could not fill the funding gap and in our opinion needed the money more than we did. We needed this money to hire our artists full-time and finish the project quickly. We have never paid ourselves for our hourly labor, Danielle, John and myself all have day jobs.

Now here we sit, with days left in our struggling Kickstarter and an unexpected thing has occurred. For the past few years we have all been struggling to keep the game going while still paying our rent and bills. My father in particular has been concerned that I would have to move back in with him if I could not secure a better job. Seeing that we are presented with a once in a lifetime opportunity that looks like we may miss, my father decided to finally help us. After 5 years of us nickel and diming our way to completion, without any assistance besides the $3000 we netted from our first Kickstarter. My father has finally decided to give us a break. My father gave me 5 checks to give to my most trustworthy of friends. The 5th check was given to John to pledge for my father. My father cannot pledge himself because he expected to pledge on Kickstarter with a check and he also doesn't want his debit card on the internet... Yes he's old.

Now you may ask, how does my father have that kind of money? Is he rich? No. No he is not. He lives, frugally, in a terrible house, alone, ever since my mother died. He was a radar technician for 40 years with the FAA. He has been saving his retirement checks for the past 3 ½ years to buy a brand new plug in hybrid car, this is that car money. For the first time in my life, he is actually helping me with one of my projects and making a pretty big sacrifice to do it.

So what does this mean for you? Well it means all the tiers are hereby unlocked! You and the previous Kickstarter plegers' will receive all 3 episodes! We will stream with you once every two weeks, let you know where the money is going, show you artwork, update the alpha/beta builds for those of you who qualify and we will listen to your feedback on the current build.

Everyone wins with this scenario. We are going to make an excellent video game series for $65,000! OUYA match funds come in 3 disbursements, 1st $12,500 at the end of the KS, 2nd $25,000 when the game is released and finally $12,500 after six months of OUYA exclusivity. So we have to finish the game, before we can get the 2nd and 3rd payments. You will all receive the fully expanded Dungeons trilogy, we get to hire our artists full time and plow through all three games with a consistent art style and OUYA gets an exclusive title for six months that kicks rear end. Thanks to OUYA funds, we will be able to afford marketing, have a booth at PAX, and finally finish all of Dungeons feature complete.

If for any reason you want to lower your pledge, we understand. The more money we have to work with the better, but we know some of our friends pledged higher than they would have if this funding had been secured beforehand. Our friends and supporters just want to see the game finished as much as we do. We are going to make our trilogy as we originally intended 5 years ago. We are going to qualify for the #FreeTheGames match funds and those of you that stay with us will be the first to play an awesome video game.

Thank you all for your support,
William A. McDonald
Click to expand...

This game has <150 backers who were actually interested in getting a copy of the game. Sounds like a fantastic way to spend >$100,000.

EDIT: This is their 2nd kickstarter for this game. The first one promised the game for PC and XBLIG and raised a whopping $5000.
 
T

Tripon

Member
This is just turning into a mess.

BTW, Gridiron Thunder saying they are launching on Sept. 30th. 2 weeks after they say would originally launched.
 
J

jack..

Banned
Lookin good. Definitely looks like a solid game that's ready to be released in a few days and a good use of the $342,000 in funding.
 
C

Camjo-Z

Member
I think at this point people would probably be less offended if they just uploaded a 15 minute video of a middle finger.
 
C

Celegus

Member
Just keeps getting better and better and better! How the heck do you release your kickstarter game a week after funding? Looks like that sweet sweet Ouya money went to great use.
 
Zomba13

Zomba13

Member
DennisVSG said:
We have published a statement to our Backers regarding the suspended Kickstarter campaign. We encourage you to read it and appreciate your support.

http://victorysquaregames.com/elementary-my-dear-holmes

Thank you.
Click to expand...

It's kinda bullshit when a legit kickstarter (as in, for an actual product, no comment on how it was funded) gets shut down by KS but a fucking 'fund my life' KS like the Send my kid to camp and get her a laptop so she can learn games because boys smell go through and even get KS blessing.
 
N

nampad

Member
DennisVSG said:
We have published a statement to our Backers regarding the suspended Kickstarter campaign. We encourage you to read it and appreciate your support.

http://victorysquaregames.com/elementary-my-dear-holmes

Thank you.
Click to expand...

Makes it sound like Ouya are the culprit, who else could it possibly be?
Do you have to register with their FTG program before starting the Kickstarter?

If they are really behind it, I just can't understand their reasoning. $1 million is enough to handpick 5-10 good indie projects and fund them. If they are the astroturfers, they even have more money to fund projects.

Just look at how much Hyper Light Drifter wanted at first and there are many talented indie devs out there. I would believe they have someone well connected in the indie scene with Kellee Santiago as a third party relations manager who can pick some good games.

Ok, maybe they wanted to go this way to have better publicity but how would they not have seen this charade being blown away easily?
I haven't followed your project, but Gridiron looks really bad so they wouldn't have even picked interesting games for this.

Feel free to correct me if you are thinking about someone else being the culprit.
 
J

Jetman

Member
Wooow- fucking atrocious. The bulk of that money could have definitely been split up and given to different projects that didn't look like shit. I guess the only problem in that would be finding a really good Kickstart that already didn't have or wasn't on the way to being funded and giving them a reason to stay exclusive to Ouya. Well that and time, no one wants to wait until 2015 to have something different to play on this thing.
 
B

belushy

Banned
PetriP-TNT said:
OUYA'S Madden killer.

So good that people are willing to give 5000 dollars just for OUYA to have the best NFL game around.

Feast your eyes...


on this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmFgWO0D0HQ



LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
Click to expand...

I love the video description.

"This Game Is Looking Awesome!"

edit: @Nairume Yep. Avatar Football was pretty good too. Worth the buck or two I paid for it.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
DennisVSG said:
We have published a statement to our Backers regarding the suspended Kickstarter campaign. We encourage you to read it and appreciate your support.

http://victorysquaregames.com/elementary-my-dear-holmes

Thank you.
Click to expand...
That Teddy Roosevelt quote was a nice touch.

I think this was probably a mistake, though:

I created four accounts for my immediate friends and family, and the employees we have at Victory Square Games created a few for their friends and family to donate. We operate from a huge shared office space with 7 other companies, and so we coaxed some of those people to donate as well.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if this is against Kickstarter's terms of service but I bet it had the effect of your campaign looking strange.
 
Y

YianGaruga

Banned
The game I mentioned above, "Dungeons the Eye of Draconus" has now been removed from the FTGF by OUYA.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...of-draconus-completion-fund-ouya/posts/600740

Dear Backers,
Well apparently OUYA has decided to change the rules on us. With less than two days to go they have removed our #Freethegames link from the OUYA homepage and delisted us from www.Freethegamesfund.com website. The timing aligns with winning back of some devs that threatened to pull their games through conversations on twitter.

It appears we were thrown under the FTG bus. OUYA gets their fall guy and Grid Iron keeps their money. So while a bunch of ex-EA employees with rich friends can apparently receive $171,000 in match funds for a game they, allegedly, already finished. A person whose father was willing to make a large sacrifice so his son's team could qualify for the fund and actually develop their game properly is disallowed. If we had remained silent we very likely would have received the funds, our transparency and honesty apparently was our undoing.

There have been many articles written about us and forums debating us the past week. Many of them apparently didn't read or fully comprehend what we wrote in Update #6 or on the front of our Kickstarter page. Misinformation ran wild, climaxing not in an investigation on the part of OUYA, but in our de-listing from their fund without explanation or even the decency of a notification. Without OUYA match funds and only $4055 in donations from our crowd source backers, the cost of swag, taxes and fees would cause us to have a net loss of approximately $11,000. Further, being essentially told OUYA doesn't want us, makes us not want OUYA. Sadly, we were early adopters, we got our OUYA on launch day and had been one of its strongest supporters. We have no plans to develop for OUYA further.

So we have no choice, but to cancel our Kickstarter. Episode one will still be finished in time for PAX 2014. If you still wish to support an awesome FreetheGames fund project please check out Neverending Nightmares a very deserving game.http://kck.st/19WHHDH

Thank you all for your continued support and we are sorry to disappoint you our backers.
Click to expand...

This party just doesn't stop.
 
T

Tripon

Member
Wait, OUYA, now you have a problem with your Free the Games Fund? You released a press release last week saying YOU HAD NO PROBLEM AT ALL.
 
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