Kickstarter users uncover fake project
Mythic: The Story Of Gods And Men campaign shuts down after accusations
A Kickstarter project by Little Monster Productions appears to have been a sham, with the developer closing the campaign after the community noticed stolen concept art and photography.
Something Awful users noted Little Monster Productions were fraudulently using work by fantasy artist Gonzalo Ordoñez Arias, images from Photoshop CS5 tutorial sites and replica weaponry manufacturer photos for its game Mythic: The Story Of Gods And Men, while shots of the company's office were actually from app developer Burton Design Group.
After users began calling foul play in the comments Little Monster Productions responded, before closing the campaign and deleting the company's Facebook and online presence.
"A few members of our team worked at Burton Design Group last year before they found out the owner was being shady with funds," the company tried to explain in comments.
"They left and joined our team shortly after. As for the concept art, it seems we have been subjected to false claims of ownership right to our concepts. The game itself is well in progress and is NOT a scam of any kind. Thank you for understanding. If you have any further questions please feel free to ask."
Claiming in its pitch to be a "team that left Activision / Blizzard in search of something better" Little Monster Productions was seeking $80,000 to fund the RPG. Promising the gameplay of World Of Warcraft and the visuals of Skyrim, the blurb also claimed Disney and Pixar would provide the animation. Seth Westfall appeared in a video on the site, calling himself a co-founder and called on "true gamers" to support the title.
"Help us make a triple-A title without letting a publisher go near it. Help us build something epic."
When it closed the project had raised $4,739 from 83 backers. Little Monster Productions could not be reached for comment.
But all joking aside, this is an issue that Kickstarter and potential pledgers need to be aware of. How long before scam emails are asking for support for RPGs rather than off shore bank accounts or churches?
Overall it might give legitimate indies and Kickstarter a bad whiff of a bad smell/taint.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Dr. Chee Ming Wong on 1st May 2012 10:37am
As with anything like this, you have to be as sure as you can that it's legit before you sign up -- there will always be scammers about. But $80k for WoW meets Skyrim? Sounds dodgy right from the start to me.
This is (supposed to be) why Kickstarter vets projects before they go up for funding - to pick the best and most promising projects, and cast at least a wary eye over possible scams. It would seem that control is slipping.
Eg. Lets say Promising project X promised to send a gloss artbook to every donee. But blew all the funds on making a vertical slice demo and say 3 years down the line, gets cancelled, I'm guessing the donees dont see anything...
It's actually all down to what the developers can do (and want to do) to make it up to the donees.
Sorry, but you need to be really naive to fall into that.
In theory, the "reputation economy" is supposed to kick in - i.e., rip off your donors and your name will be mud all over the Internet for ever more. Of course, if you already have a few million dollars in the bank, you might not care what the Internet thinks of you...
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Antony Johnston on 2nd May 2012 12:13pm
"A failure to do so could result in damage to your reputation or even legal action on behalf of your backers." - just not through Kickstarter itself, so good luck with that.