4 ms·

Code hero has had a rocky past; It was an indie darling, after a cool looking demo, but along the way the creator has done all the classic scam-artist things -

Code hero has had a rocky past; It was an indie darling, after a cool looking demo, but along the way the creator has done all the classic scam-artist things - Gone dark for a significant amount of time, been unclear on status in updates, gave strange and only half believable excuses for lack of progress. These are all trademarks of inexperienced devs, too, which is why it's hard to prove malfeasance. There was a demo at PAX, which I saw; It looked okay, but barely more than the unity dev tools. There was something slightly off about the person I talked to at the booth, they seemed oddly desperate, but I'd put it down to it being a slow day for them. I'm glad to see this fail, actually, if it fails - It was ambitious, and would have been cool, but if it fails it's a good wake-up call that these are, in fact, attempts - Not guarantees. I feel sorry for the ~20 people who put $1k+ into this for essentially nothing, but caveat emptor.

eli 14y ago
I know nothing about the situation, but I would hesitate to attribute to malice that which can easily be explained by inexperience.
chimeracoder 14y ago
> caveat emptor. Ironically, that doesn't even apply here - 'emptor' means 'buyer', but the whole point of Kickstarter is that you're not a buyer - you're a backer. Your point still stands; I just found the aphorism amusing, since the whole point is - as you said - that Kickstarter projects are attempts, not guarantees (purchases).
- dragonwriter 14y ago
  But you are a buyer. By the terms of use of the site, you are purchasing the reward offered at the level you pledge, with a right to a full refund if the reward is not provided. The problem is that project creators are treating Kickstarter as if it were a source for speculative investment with no obligation to deliver rewards when Kickstarter's own terms make it a system for purchasing with a commit to deliver or refund.
dtf 14y ago
The "classic scam-artist things" sound a lot like the kind of things I've done when I've gone under on a project.

eli 14y ago

I know nothing about the situation, but I would hesitate to attribute to malice that which can easily be explained by inexperience.

chimeracoder 14y ago

> caveat emptor. Ironically, that doesn't even apply here - 'emptor' means 'buyer', but the whole point of Kickstarter is that you're not a buyer - you're a backer. Your point still stands; I just found the aphorism amusing, since the whole point is - as you said - that Kickstarter projects are attempts, not guarantees (purchases).

dragonwriter 14y ago
But you are a buyer. By the terms of use of the site, you are purchasing the reward offered at the level you pledge, with a right to a full refund if the reward is not provided. The problem is that project creators are treating Kickstarter as if it were a source for speculative investment with no obligation to deliver rewards when Kickstarter's own terms make it a system for purchasing with a commit to deliver or refund.

dtf 14y ago

The "classic scam-artist things" sound a lot like the kind of things I've done when I've gone under on a project.