"Evil Dead Kickstarker has jumped the shark" Topic

SO Being a fan of Evil Dead, I back the Kickstarter.

link

I pledged $80 USD for a game to be delivered Nov 2016 and $30 USD shipping after it was funded.

They collected $722,622 USD pledged of $70,000 USD goal with 6,143 backers.

As the Years go by and the delays and promises stack up.
It starts to get laughable. Now they want us to Crowdfund them to save the Company ( Space Goat Productions, Inc)

Here's the e-mail sent to the backers.

Dear Kickstarter Backers,
I'm writing to you today to announce something that truly has me energized. I'm announcing something that has been in the works for a very long time. Since I launched Space Goat Productions in 2006, it has always been my intent to build a creative, nimble company capable of bringing to life the coolest comic books, games, and--someday soon--the coolest TV shows and films we could possibly dream up. In 2016, with our expansion into games and with our first two Kickstarter campaigns, each and every one of you helped get us a heck of a lot closer a heck of a lot faster than we could ever dream. For that, I am forever in your debt.

However, even with the massive successes of both our Evil Dead and Terminator campaigns, the financial side of our business has not been easy. There have been cost overruns, personnel changes, increased tax liability, and generally more growing pains than I ever imagined possible. If a small but growing company could be faced with a problem, that problem was thrown in our face over the last 20 months. But the biggest hurdle of them all is the simple fact that we had built all our financial projections on backers and retailers getting both the Evil Dead and Terminator games in 2017--and we had planned to have a third board game Kickstarted and in manufacturing by now. Without the revenue coming in from those three major projects, working capital has simply gotten very, very tight.

Does the word "thief" not apply now!

In the real world people have gone to cushy prisons for this sort of thing. Or run for office. :)

Dan

Wow. Sorry, Bill. Sounds like you may not see your $80 USD worth. Over $700,000 USD pledged on a project initially quoted as $70 USDk? Bad outcomes like this is why I haven't participated in any Kickstarters, although I realize there are many, many others that turn out just fine. Guess Army of Darkness and Evil Dead aficionados like us will have to rely on our old Leading Edge Games figures or other stand-in's.

Anyone backing a KS, even one from a company with previous KS experience, should approach it with a healthy dose of "Buyers Beware." There are simply no guarantees and even when successful, it could be a much longer wait than initially projected.

The frustration is understandable here since similar projects have been fulfilled on a much smaller budget. Sounds like cash flow mismanagement. Maybe the 6,000+ backers should fund a class action lawsuit against the company instead.

With the recent cancellation of Starz's 'Ash and the Evil Dead' after three seasons, the prognosis isn't good for anything related to this franchise.

Wow…

It takes stones to deliver that statement/KS campaign with a straight face.

I think a little jail time would be in order – if only to dope slap a sense of adult reality into him.

Sorry your $$$ is gone, bro. Another fine example of why to avoid KS.

See, that's what went wrong with K-Mart. Not creative and nimble enough.

I bet he was creative and nimble with the money, though….

"Nimble with the money"

"Nimble" seems as good a word as any. :)

Dan
PS. They should work for some governments.

Wow, they collected 10X the amt requested & still cannot manage the company properly! Now they want more??? Fat chance I think.

Paul

Ouch, that's too bad.

It's not intuitive, but KS projects that do astronomically well for funding can be more at risk for running into cash problems. The expenses and complications are very difficult to anticipate adequately, especially for first-time campaigns.

No jail time is in order, KS spells out very clearly that all pledges are at risk and this is not a shop is in big print right at thhe top of the pledge management page. Still hurts when one does go bad, but emptors have been properly caveated.

Somehow, I don't think they'll collect enough on the please keep us alive campaign though.

Kickstarters that kill small companies through success are not that uncommon. The companies mean well(nobody who has ever started a small business really wants it to fail).

A financial miscalculation on a 70k project is manageable. The same miscalculation on a 700k project is lethal.

Maybe the 6,000+ backers should fund a class action lawsuit against the company instead.

Always laugh when I read this sort of thing. If the company is near bankruptcy who do you think will pay the judgment you'd obtain via the litigation?

Always laugh when I read this sort of thing. If the company is near bankruptcy who do you think will pay the judgment you'd obtain via the litigation?

Yeah, you're right of course. Sorry, but those who got burned by this have no recourse other than to avoid future KS campaigns from the same individuals.

I wonder how many and what kind of new cars were bought with that money?

I've always thought of Kickstarter in the same light as "The Producers"

What is worse is that some of us (like me) supported both of their KS (Evil Dead and Terminator) that received the same "great news" update. Even on other KS I have supported that failed to fully deliver everything at least I got something (Robotech and AQMF). This announcement does not bode well for the future of these games. I guess the lesson learned for all of you is to ask me first if I'm in on a kickstarter and then not sign up as it is sure to fail :o) Thank God I don't play the stock market, as my investment skills seem to match my die rolls – pathetic.

HI Rogues1

What was the numbers on the terminator KS ?

Two words: Up Front.

WM9 $220,456 USD (towards a goal of $120 USDK) with 2126 backers. Does not include additional shipping funds we sent in nor the late subscribers to both. I think the total for both was close to $1 USDM US with little to show for it.
Gossip (take it for what it is worth) on the KS forum is that if they don't hit the minimum WeFundMe goal of $250 USDK we will have no chance to ever see the games. That is a terrible predicament to put people in that have already invested in your company with no substantive return to ask for more money with lower confidence anything will happen. On Robotech the venom was pretty bad for the owner and there was a lot of real life and death drama, this just seems like a desperate business approach that is not welled thought out or prudent. I hope they can get the games out but I think they need some real business discipline applied to their day to day operations. I accept that KS are a gamble, I just didn't think it would be this spectacular for something that was so successful. Sort of like someone winning the lottery and then blowing it all on stupid stuff (which may have happened here) to end up broke again. I agree @mwindsorfw

I'am just tried of lame excuses in their E-mails. Just laugh at us and say We stole your $$$$$ and there's nothing you can do about. By the way can you loan us some more $$$. So I hope they had a great time with my Money and may they rot in Hell!

For what it's worth, Section 4 of the Kickstarter Terms of Use has this to say:

If a creator is unable to complete their project and fulfill rewards, they've failed to live up to the basic obligations of this agreement. To right this, they must make every reasonable effort to find another way of bringing the project to the best possible conclusion for backers. A creator in this position has only remedied the situation and met their obligations to backers if:

A. they post an update that explains what work has been done, how funds were used, and what prevents them from finishing the project as planned;

B. they work diligently and in good faith to bring the project to the best possible conclusion in a timeframe that's communicated to backers;

C. they're able to demonstrate that they've used funds appropriately and made every reasonable effort to complete the project as promised;

D. they've been honest, and have made no material misrepresentations in their communication to backers; and

E. they offer to return any remaining funds to backers who have not received their reward (in proportion to the amounts pledged), or else explain how those funds will be used to complete the project in some alternate form.

The creator is solely responsible for fulfilling the promises made in their project. If they're unable to satisfy the terms of this agreement, they may be subject to legal action by backers.

You don't have to be a bean-counting auditor to know that Space Goat Productions has a lot to account for as to how the over $700 USDK (and over $200 USDK for the Terminator KS) from their backers were squandered.

Always love the excuse "well, we really planned for a new kickstarter to pay for the old Kickstarter." That's more of a Ponzi scheme than a launch strategy.

I have only backed one Kickstarter so far. It was for an amount of less than $100. USD And it was with a company that was already producing Historical miniatures. And they had master of the new ones already "built". So it seemed very low risk. And they were providing updates along the way as things progressed. So I felt very comfortable the whole process was being managed well and there was very low risk.

But I doubt I will ever do another Kickstarter (unless it is with the same company). Too many of these ventures seem to go South.

Now they are Advernewing their gofunding on Newsarama Site.

Become Co-Owner of a Comic Company – SPACE GOAT Offers Ownership Stakes To Raise Money

In a bold move to allow fans to become even more invested in a company they support, Space Goat Productions will launch a fundraising campaign via equity crowdfunder Wefunder.com. Investors will join a community of other investors who seek to help SGP expand their presence in the board game and comic book marketplaces--and own micro shares of the publisher in the process. The fundraising campaign will run for a period of 45 days.

"We want to make cool stuff with and for fans," stated Founder and CEO Shon Bury. "It's a core tenant of our mission. Equity crowdfunding provides the perfect opportunity to show our fans how sincere we are," he continues. "We aren't the first comic-book company to ever offer shares to fans, but we are taking it one step further by allowing anyone to buy a micro share for just $100 USD and by offering our Kickstarter backers a 20% discount if they elect to buy-in at this funding round. We are also offering a great perk to comic book retailers. That's how much our crowdfunding community and retail partners mean to us."

Hold your watches up cus its get deep!!!!!

Yikes. They're not offering stocks that generate any returns to an investor. Even the Wefunder FAQs page appears to discourage it as a sound investment strategy: link

Skipped this one. ED2 was their First Created project, so that starts it off with a yellow flag. The presentation was somehow off, with an odd assortment of renders, concept art, and poor design of the KS page, from a company whose background seemed to be in comics and illustration. Take a look at SG's Services page and you will see *no* miniatures or game design experience. : link

I'll avoid these folks. I have had mostly good to great experiences w Kickstarter…. biggest burn was for Mercs. Which while delivered it took years to get it out. Now it seems dead. I have the entire KS…but no interest in playing because of the bad taste left over from the delays.

I will say imho the small kickstarters usually do a lot better than the big ones in terms of delivery.