While not every indie game can be a success, when donators and supports sink this kind of cash into a project; needless to say they want some accountability.
So where did the money go? That is what co-founder Lewis Brindley attempted to explain recently, now that the game (which had raised over half a million dollars in funding) is now caput. “This is a very good example of how my inexperience caused some problems in the development. Because we had worked out a contract that guaranteed each of the principal artists a $35,000 lump sum payment, and we didn’t make any clear clause on how and why someone could legally stop working on the project, the artist in question got paid, worked for about 2 weeks and then stopped working on the project. We had no way to force that person to pay back any of the funds and it was a bitter lesson to learn. Always get every possible scenario in writing or you will have no legal recourse.” He says sadly.
This is just one example of how mismanagement can spell certain ruin for these types of crowd-funded projects (when proper oversight is not in place). Another deadly fumble dealt with the hiring of key staff, as Brindley says they “… negotiated that $150,000 would be transferred to the Yogscast with the understanding that they would use that money exclusively to create and ship all the physical rewards, AND they would help hire the main programmer that we still didn’t have on the project.”
For more information regarding this ongoing story, check out the official Kickstarter page .