[kickstarter] Kickstarter cost me a house

[paulbaxter]

Odd story about the pitfalls of the game development business.
http://qz.com/94925/this-man-lost-his-h ... uccessful/" target="_blank

[Holman]

I am sympathetic, but it sounds like inexperience with international manufacturing and marketing is really what cost him a house.

I still hope for a happy ending, but I suspect that the post-mortem on Kickstarter Up Front will be as dark as this one.

[LawBeefaroni]

I am sympathetic, but it sounds like inexperience with international manufacturing and marketing is really what cost him a house.

I'd say he knew just enough to be dangerous. He tried to game things rather than either checking with someone who had done it before or going through normal channels (drop shipping, etc). Simply put, he lost the "save a bunch of money on shipping/distribution" gamble.

[hepcat]

I went into that article prepared to be more sympathetic towards the guy. But honestly, I don't find him to be all that sympathetic of a character after reading it.

[Zarathud]

He also doesn't seem to have learned any lessons from the experience. It's hard to tell because the article is badly written/edited.

[hentzau]

The sad thing is that there are still people that haven't gotten their copy of the game. And I have my copy and haven't played it since I got it.

[Zaxxon]

I went into that article prepared to be more sympathetic towards the guy. But honestly, I don't find him to be all that sympathetic of a character after reading it.

This.

[baelthazar]

Yeah, not so sympathetic. Sounds like poor planning. He also lost a house he didn't use in a country he didn't live. A little different than if I lost my residence... That KS was poorly managed.

[Daveman]

Should have been titled "Bad business decisions cost me a house" but that's much less attention grabbing.

[Turtle]

Yep, I gave up trying to get overseas manufacturing for my game. It's just too much of a nightmare unless you've got someone you directly know and is actually in China to check on quality control.

Printing can be done cheaply enough in the US, sure not as dirt cheap as China, but you get none of the headache and quality control issues.

[naednek]

I also dont feel sorry for the backers. They knew the risks. Its an investment on something thats not created yet. Sometimes they fall through.

[baelthazar]

With all the KS projects I have funneled money into the last two months, I think I could almost write this article from the BACKER perspective of losing a house...