There are "no guarantees," and then there's something like this. In no universe was this likely to succeed.
The guy has never made a game before, and he's starting out with a 3D JRPG on multiple platforms. And thought he could make it for $60k with a handful of people.
So, let's put that in perspective: he's taking on basically the largest-scope genre there is, for his first game project, with not enough money to pay one actual mid-level industry professional for a year. Those are all gargantuan red flags to me.
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Spot on. This game was never going to get made. If you backed this, you should give me all your money instead so I can waste it on more sensible stuff like lottery tickets and drugs.