Yogcast take half a mil from gamers - run with money

http://www.technologytell.com/gaming/131965/yogventures-kickstarter-debacle/

Yogventures! was supposed to arrive in December 2012. It didn’t. Instead, the first apology for delays came on December 2, 2012, it’s explanation only made available to backers. A pre-alpha was released a few weeks later on December 24, 2012. This should have been the first sign that something was wrong, since not even an alpha was available near the expected release window. A full Yogventures! alpha wouldn’t be released until March 30, 2013, 3 months after the game’s expected release date.

Attemped explanations were offered when the Yogventures!‘s August 30, 2013 closed beta release was announced. It was then that Winterkewl Games and The Yogscast admitted that no physical rewards had been doled out and tried to say why no one was getting anything. It was then that backers also learned that almost all of the $567,665 had been spent prior to December 2012, and the teams had returned to their day jobs. Hearing that the game you backed is no longer the priority is never a good thing.

My friends, you can click the comments section to see 14 year old's make 1000 angry comments.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/winterkewlgames/yogventures/comments

I could see why some of those people are angry, but they should have read Kickstarter's FAQ before backing the project.

It's why I don't do Kickstarter. And I'm not saying all projects end up screwing you over. I just prefer to spend money on something that's finished.

Many people who follow the yogcast tend to be young kids into minecraft.

I believe the notch man called them assholes and banned from from Mien Kampt.

Ironically, in the promo video, they specifically boast telling notch "in your face".

The "in your face" probably should have been redirected to little Timmy,

Shows what could be described as a prototype created for a learning excersise.

"In your face Notch!"

Edit:

I suppose the joke about the cookies is also rather ironic ;)

Eh.

They don't even have to refund, it's a risk you yourself decide to take.

I have 0 sympathy for anyone who has given to a kickstarter campaign and then had their money wasted.

You should post there. You'd be right in your element.

Your harsh comment cut through my soul as if it where a blade separating butter. Such is the power of your words.

Oh. It's too much.

Cool. Then leave. No one will miss you.

This. I don't even back stuff I think looks or sounds cool. Get your own money or the money of fools. You shall not have mine. I don't even back artists I like, like musicians or actors or directors. I just don't believe in this it's just another way to take money from fools.

Thats why if I were to back a kickstarter, Im backing a development studio who's actually put out games.

Lol at any of the schmucks that blew money after watching the trailer. Kickstarter is a waste of time.

I'm sorry but even listening to them it's quite obvious there a bunch of 20 year olds messing around programming, thinking oooooo we could kick back relax don't go to work and get paid buy a bunch of moron's and make this game happen, only to realize that money doesn't last when your spending it on bills and flash clothes and holidays and what ever else they spent the money on, because come on it doesn't cost to make a video game it costs the people who make them, that's who your paying, if there not 100% in and know what there aiming for, then it's just like me and someone else going lets make a game lets do this, o but what else should we do lol, you need a true creative mind to create a game and dedication, which they simple lacked, I mean they must of had a great time with 500,000

Many of them are kids. When it comes to kickstarters like Tides of Numenera chances are the people have been gaming for 10+ years and are aware of the pedigree. With this, it's youtube celebs and kids who are part of the minecraft culture.

Children not even in the double digits giving these unfunny, talentless fucks money to scrunge. No wonder Notch told them to **** off.

The video game Pyramid scheme.

Didn't see that coming. :D

And it's twin brother "early access."

@uninspiredcup: LOL are anyone surprised? yogscast has always been a scam operation and if it wasn´t for the 12-13year olds out there would never have been a success on youtube either.

For fans now looking for a refund Yogscast suggest contacting Winterkewl Games.

Agreed for both.

That's the risk investors make, difference is that they can sign a contract with the business they invest money into a project with. Kickstarter however does not so any money given is a gamble. I understand why the ones who funded it are angry and it is a shame many of them are essentially kids but they really should've known there is always a risk that things you invest in doesn't always end well.

Divinity original sin is fucking amazing though.

Kickstarter... I'll never support it.

What a surprise.

A couple of idiot Youtubers who have no idea what it takes to develop a game, tries to get a random nobody developer to make a game starring them.

I feel zero sympathy for anyone who actually supported the very idea. Glad to see it tanked, fell through and now maybe those consumers will stop supporting Yogscast all together.

thats why the only kickstarters ive ever backed were from known developers... Obsidian, Richard Garriott and Larion Studios

It's a shame when this happens on Kickstarter. It's only going to serve to make skeptics out of people who may have otherwise donated to a project.

Though it could help to weed out projects from people with unproven backgrounds which could be good. That'll put more pressure on them to present amazing ideas with actual work behind them rather than just vague concepts without foundations.

Not Kickstart's fault the Youtube community is full of idiots willing to give 500k to non-developers who just "know" some other devs. They outlined a very ambitious feature list that even an experienced studio would struggle to make work right. Their fans ate it up.

This had scam written all over it from day one.

Why anyone in their right mind would back that crap is beyond me. I feel sorry for the little ones who wanted to play this game and now will receive nothing. That's too bad. Parents and teens need to be careful what they back on Kickstarter. Know who you are backing before you shell out your money.

Was reading the comments. Once guy said the developers deleted the website for the game. LOL!! I feel bad for the 10 backers who paid $5000 & $10,000 to back this game.

some even pledged $500-$750. This is going to destroy them inside and out

Suckers. They deserve to be robbed of their money.

The game looked like ass anyway. Definitely not worth 500k, let alone 250k. More like 5k at most.

This was a good post, very witty haha.

Keep in mind that many Kickstarter donations see no return because of real life complications, poor planning or short-sightedness. To an extent these are inavoidable.

But in this case it sounds like the guys who were backed didn't even make a truly concerted effort to develop the game to begin with.This is beyond a regular Kickstarter failing, to a straight up abuse of the system. It would be like if you donated to charity expecting your money to go to starving kids in Africa, only to find the charity had embezzeled it to buy booze for staff parties. You never had any guarantee where the money was going anyway, but still... that's wrong somehow.

Kickstarter is a great idea in theory, but in practice talk is cheap and scams are easy.

For once, I agree with you.

As is Spin Tires.

I'm sad to see a kickstarter fail but it's a part of the process you pledge your money to fund a project you think will be great, it's not always going to work out sadly.

I do however love this quote where they explain a series of events and then contradict it at the end.

$35,000.00 Concept Art / Sky boxes / Environment Textures (Senior matte painter / concept artist from PDI Dreamworks)

They then go on to explain this...

Unfortunately, right off the bat we had one major incident that happened that we could not fix. Our good friend and matte painter really terrific artist that created most of the concept art with environments on the Kickstarter page, he left PDI to work at LucasArts. LucasArts wouldn't give him a carve out in his contract to work on Yogventures so he couldn't work on the project any longer.

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.

The artist they just payed 35 grand for assets worked for two weeks and left. making 35 grand for 2 weeks of work is pretty damn good if you ask me...but hey.

I do hope that sheds some light on where everything went though, nothing was scammed, no one and I mean NO ONE has gotten rich from this effort or is even better off then when we started

Yup nobody got a payday out of this....asides the artist who walked away with 35k

Holy shit what a mess. How stupid do you have to be to get involved in something like this without AT LEAST getting someone with financial knowledge on board. This is the problem I always had with Kickstarters by smaller companies, if they don't have people who know how to manage projects then why should I believe that they can deliver on anything they say? Even Double Fine messed up and overshot their budget and they've got decades of combined experience as well as having released a bunch of games.

Honestly. this entire debacle kind of reeks of scam. "we're sorry, we had no clue about anything and that half a million pretty much just evaporated..."

Yeah, no.

Hahahahaha. That artist must of been laughing all the way to the fucking bank.

Yep, that's why I backed Project Cars by buying a toolpack. Slightly Mad Studios actually have a long history of making racing games. They made GTR, GTR2, GT Legends, NFS Shift 1 & 2, Test Drive Ferrari Racing Legends.

The only way I would back a Kickstarter project is if there were certain assurances the game will be released as described.

There should be clauses written in where if they fail to deliver all the backers get the chance to use the developers nutsack as target practice with paintball guns, then upload it to youtube and distribute the ad revenue back to the backers.

From what that irish gamespot man person said apparently the two yogcast youtubers left the developer man in the shit and disassociated themselves to try make him take all the blame. Truly the heroes we deserve, the dark shites.

I don't support kickstarter, so it is a non issue for me. I only buy games once they release. I play no part in their development.

Yet, let's all cherry pick this as an example of how awful kickstarter is. Despite many kickstarter successes in the past.

To be fair, though. This game wouldnt have gotten anywhere without Yogscasts' endorsement.