Back in February, a Kickstarter game called Code Hero won a lot of hearts with its promise of teaching players how to actually make a game. It also won a lot of money, with backers pledging $170,000 to get it made, $70,000 over the game's original target.
Since then, though, things haven't exactly gone according to plan. Despite being promised various physical perks for pledging, backers have yet to receive a thing, even those who are out of pocket $1000. And comments from the game's boss, Alex Peake, suggest that the $170,000 received won't be all that's needed to finish the game.
We can deliver a bunch of levels that deliver on what we promised originally, but what we have in mind is ten times more ambitious. We've been talking to quite a few interested investors, philanthropists and foundations, and it looks like they're going to be willing to help us finish the job.
While the developers have issued a lengthy statement pledging that work on the game continues, and point out that a playable build was released earlier in the year, backers have every right to be cautious, especially since they paid expecting their money to contribute wholly to a developed game, not be used as a down payment for further funding.
To that end, some of them are getting together to demand answers, the goal being the "organizing backers of Code Hero into a group where we can better communicate". While this sounds a lot like lawsuits are on the way, the group's organiser, Dustin Deckard, told the the devs he is "just trying to get answers about the project's progress as [they] hadn't replied to his email before".
Code Hero development continues [Primer]
Code Hero Kickstarter Goes Bad [The Escapist]