MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The risks of Kickstarter projects have been further highlighted today by the cancellation of Yogventures, a crowd-funded sandbox game commissioned by popular YouTube group Yogscast.
The team raised just under $570,000 via a Kickstarter campaign back in 2012 so that indie dev Winterkewl Games could create Yogventures.
However, Eurogamer reported that the project has been scrapped and Yogscast is attempting to offer alternative rewards to its 13,647 backers.
"As you may have heard, Winterkewl Games have stopped work on Yogventures – but this is actually a good thing," Yogscast co-founder Lewis Brindley told backers via email. "The project was proving too amibitious and difficult for them to complete with their six-man team.
"While this was Winterkewl’s project, we put a lot of time, energy and effort into trying to help them realise their dream. Since we heard the news, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to make sure that you still get awesome stuff and cool experiences.
"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."
The solution so far has been to give backers a Steam Early Access key for open-world title TUG. However, many have complained and demanded refunds, having either pledged enough to earn additional extras – such as lunch with Yogscast, a $10,000 tier backed by five people – or already owning TUG keys.
Brindley wrote: "Because Yogventures never completed it’s going to be impossible to deliver the rewards relating to the finsihed game. However we’ll do everything we can to find cool things to take their place."
Winterkewl Games lead developer Kris Vale has said refunds are just unlikely from the studio, stating that it will "probably" go out of business now.
Kickstarter project creators sign a document that legally requires them to provide the stated rewards if their project is funded. Whether Yogscast’s alternative rewards will fit the bill remains to be seen.
