Unlucky Kickstarter Project Game Alpha Colony Falls Short by $28

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Unlucky Kickstarter Project Game Alpha Colony Falls Short by $28

Post by Dan @ 01:36pm 03/12/12 | 21 Comments

The Kickstarter Campaign for hopeful building and trading sim Alpha Colony has ended disappointingly for developer DreamQuest games, raising US$49,972 of its $50,000 goal --A shortfall of a measly $28, which as per Kickstarter's service rules, still disqualifies it from receiving the pledges of its 542 backers (via Polygon):

Thank you all for your support, but I am afraid that we came up $28 short. Kickstarter is very strict about their terms and our project will not be funded. Obviously, we are very disappointed. We have invested 10 months and over $60,000 of our own money into this project. It is so frustrating to come so close, but clearly there simply isn't that much interest in building the kind of game I envisioned.

I have already invested everything I have getting my dream this far (twice!) and now I must feed my family and focus on projects that will pay the bills. Thank you all for your support and help and I am sorry that we came up short. Perhaps we will try again at some future point once I have attended to my personal and team's immediate financial needs. I have been trying to build this game for almost 14 years so I doubt this is the end for Alpha Colony, but I do have to be responsible business owner and father and accept the reality of where we are at the moment and what the world wants.

Presumably the developer's friends and family must have either been already tapped out, or not paying attention to the campaign's end to fall short by such a trivial amount. Unlucky.

alpha colony kickstarter crowdfunding

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thermite
Posted 01:45pm 03/12/12

I think the problem is there is way too much of this going on right now. I've already given to several kickstarter projects, and nothing has come to fruition yet. I can't keep buying games that don't exist.

(Not that I knew or cared about this one, but other people that did might be in the same situation)

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sudbobo
Posted 02:02pm 03/12/12

That is pretty ridiculous, there should be exemptions or appeals for them to do it, it is too minor a amount to halt a entire project..

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Insom
Posted 02:13pm 03/12/12

really? there isn't an option for fundraising to just keep going until they reach the target? sounds like a major flaw in the concept

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scuzzy
Posted 02:14pm 03/12/12

needs auction like reserve price functionality

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fpot
Posted 02:28pm 03/12/12

Can you pledge to your own kickstarter? This reminds me of the time Bart and Milhouse forgot to vote for Bart as class president and they lost.

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Nerf Lord
Posted 02:32pm 03/12/12

I'm pretty sure that a lot of kickstarters get their sudden boost at the end by devs/family/friends making up the shortfall.

I actually ended up on this kickstarter page a few times, but every time that I started the video, it spent ages on some rubbish about old consoles, and the video didn't let you skip ahead to see what they were actually making.

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Hogfather
Posted 02:44pm 03/12/12

really? there isn't an option for fundraising to just keep going until they reach the target? sounds like a major flaw in the concept

I think that the idea is that you pledge, if it makes it in 30 days you pay up, if not you're off the hook and can pledge elsewhere. This increases liquidity in the system and hopefully increases the pool of potential backers for new projects.

Otherwise you'd have potentially hundreds of dollars out there in unclaimed pledges that might roll in..

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trog
Posted 02:57pm 03/12/12

Can you pledge to your own kickstarter? This reminds me of the time Bart and Milhouse forgot to vote for Bart as class president and they lost.

haha, so true. I'm not sure how it all works, but if I had one that was getting close to the wire, I would have been on the phone ringing friends and family just to try to find that one last person to push it over the line.

I'm amazed that they didn't, unless there's some rule that stops them doing stuff like that.

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thermite
Posted 03:06pm 03/12/12

Look they obviously decided they needed 50k, not 40k or 45k or 49.9999k. Without being *significantly* over the line, they are probably relieved their own pledges, and the pledges of their friends/family won't be taken from their accounts - and therefore they won't be investing any more into something that isn't as popular as expected.
If they really think it's a matter of $28, they would find a way to make it work. This isn't completely out of their hands. They didn't get screwed, I think they've just weighed up their options and can see the interest they were hoping for isn't there.

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Nerf Lord
Posted 03:18pm 03/12/12

Going by the picture on their site, it looks like they have a ton of people for such a tiny game, $50k would at best cover like two and a half for 12 months.

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Hogfather
Posted 04:15pm 03/12/12

Going by the picture on their site, it looks like they have a ton of people for such a tiny game, $50k would at best cover like two and a half for 12 months.

Is this the bit where we all go "wtf, nobody can live on 20k!" ... or can we just skip it this time?

That's a joke nerf. Don't get mad.

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eski
Posted 05:00pm 03/12/12

Sounds like the devs decided not to go ahead. I cant believe that noone they knew had $28 to kick in, so they mustve decided to let it go.

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arkter
Posted 05:51pm 03/12/12

Sounds like the devs decided not to go ahead. I cant believe that noone they knew had $28 to kick in, so they mustve decided to let it go.

Exactly...

"Mum I need $28 to go through with my dream"

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Insom
Posted 05:52pm 03/12/12

ahha

how many red bull cans does fifty grand buy anyway

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Nerf Lord
Posted 06:00pm 03/12/12

Sounds like the devs decided not to go ahead.

From what I gathered from glancing at the details, an $800 pledge came through seconds before it closed, before there was time to do anything.

Is this the bit where we all go "wtf, nobody can live on 20k!" ... or can we just skip it this time?That's a joke nerf. Don't get mad.

It is the part where I ask you to get over your love affair with me.

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Superform
Posted 06:38pm 03/12/12

they invested 60k of their own money.. and no one though to make a kick starter account and chip in the 28 bux before the deadline?

if this is an example of their creative thinking.. i think your better off not funding these noobs...

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Whoop
Posted 06:41pm 03/12/12

they invested 60k of their own money.. and no one though to make a kick starter account and chip in the 28 bux before the deadline?

if this is an example of their creative thinking.. i think your better off not funding these noobs...

are there rules against doing this?

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Deviouz
Posted 08:37pm 03/12/12

Sounds dodgy, from all the info/vids etc seems they already have a complete product, I think they didn't push trough so they could avoid full-filling all the pledge rewards

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Hogfather
Posted 08:53pm 03/12/12

It is the part where I ask you to get over your love affair with me.

LOL it was a joke nerf, I even specifically pointed it out ... !

There's a thing on QGL where we sardonically reference previous posts in jest. It was a fun in-joke, no malice matey. C'mon, chin up!

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