The following post is a follow up to my previous post on Ouya’s Free The Games campaign which can be found here:
Why I call Bullshit on Ouyas Free The Games campaign successes
Today, a marvellous victory has been won for all indies everywhere that want to one day use Kickstarter as a valid investment source. Elementary, My Dear Holmes (made by Sam Chandola), has recently been suspended due to unusual activity on its account (this was the Kickstarter project that had many fake profiles, included a poor lady that has been missing for months and many fake celebrities).
Sam Chandola, the creator Elementary, My Dear Holmes has stated in the Kickstarter comments:
“We love point-and-click adventure games and this will, by no means, stop us from pursuing Elementary, My Dear Holmes. We are devoted towards the project and will be seeking private equity to finish this up. And I’m happy to say that based on the initial traction that we got here, we are already in talks with some Venture Capitalists who are willing to back this project privately. Elementary, My Dear Holmes will see the light of day – and will see the light of day sooner than later.”
This is a great victory for those of us that want to keep Kickstarter a clean and safe place for the small independent studios of the world, and goes some way towards clearing Kickstarters name, but the campaign isn’t over. MogoTXT (the developers of Gridiron Thunder), the worst culprit of the Free the Games campaign, is still at large and racking in the thousands through rich investors:
I hope that within the next 47 hours (at the time of writing), the internet can join together to get rid of this evil from Kickstarter. Technically, what MogoTXT is doing isn’t breaking any rules, but it is breaking the spirit of Kickstarter, a site for those that don’t have the means to find investors in their projects, that just want a chance. What MogoTXT is doing is a blatent rip off, for Kickstarter and Ouya. You can’t defend the project on the grounds it’s a game the community wants when only 142 backers have backed the project, showing that no one actually wants this game. I mean, look at the quality of it:
Does Girdiron Thunder really look like a game that a team of talented developers have poured their souls into? Especially one thats going to be released in less than a week and has now got itself over $220k of funding? Ask yourself, why do MogoTXT need the money? They’ve already made the project, meaning they’ve already had the funding needed to release the game. What you’re seeing here is just a scam, pure and simple, to get as much money as possible whilst releasing a sub-par project. It’s a disrespect to Kickstarter that MogoTXT would even dare host this campaign, and extremely disrespectful to Ouya themselves.
The Free The Games campaign was meant to be a fantastic publicity stunt for Ouya, but it’s turned into a bigger mess than any AAA publisher or developer could ever cook up.
I shall keep this blog updated if any more news comes to light in the coming days.
