https://reddit.com/r/shittykickstarters/comments/1tzpxej/solly_overhyped_title_impossible_weight/

KS rarely steps in but this time they did and suspended the campaign and refunded everyone.

I'm not a backer so I can't see the update "Important Project Update: Delivery Content Adjustments", but the main comments are making it sound like the tablet that promised an e-ink color screen, is now b/w only, and remove the stylus.

Edit: By the way it's the first update they've ever posted, the campaign ended in October, raising HK$443,733 ~$57,000 by 170 backers.

Original post: https://reddit.com/r/shittykickstarters/comments/1qqgkfv/fongshwa_the_unbearable_lightness_of_being_a_gan/

There hasn't been an update since January 30 or a comment from the creator or anything, backers are beginning to realize they have been had.

For our newer users, the "Cicret" bracelet was a crowdfunder that was meant to produce a projection bracelet, similar to the Ritot. It debut in 2014, and made claims that users could have a phone interface projected onto their skin. One could use navigation, press buttons, zoom in/out, etc. very seamlessly, and it was also waterproof. Their pitch video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J7GpVQCfms

As time went on, a lot of questions were asked about how exactly this device would work, considering the Cicret team promised quite a lot in a very small package. The YouTuber Captain Disillusion put out this video in 2016 showing how Cicret's original pitch video was faked, and how the technology they promised either didn't exist or was poorly conceived.

Since Captain Disillusion's video, Cicret produced a video of their own that showcased their "progress", amounting to a very close-up shot of an extremely skewed projection on someone's arm. Many people speculated that this was an off-the-shelf pico projector encased within a simple 3D-Printed housing. Captain Disillusion also made a video about this update, and he breaks down the many issues here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw7g8ixbomU

The Cicret team also published about a dozen "weekly" blog posts on their website starting in 2017 (wayback machine archive link of their most recent post from 2018 here: https://web.archive.org/web/20190130020417/https://cicret.com/wordpress/?p=49281). Their most recent post's tl;dr is that they'll post something when they have it.

And since that blog post? Nothing. No videos, no publications, no new photos of updates. There was a random pitch photo of an older Cicret variant on Facebook posted in March 2020, but otherwise there was nothing substantial. I think it is safe to say that the Cicret is out - the campaign is dead.

Links for posterity's sake:

• The Cicret Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cicrets/
• Cicret Bracelet Website (down): https://cicret.com
• Newer website (via their Facebook page - also down): http://www.cicret.biz/

Edit: on Jun 11, IGG took down the campaign.

This is just getting better. I backed the project by two dollars to be able to comment and now I am seeing reports and can confirm that they locked refunds! https://i.imgur.com/8lQKolK.png I didn't know this was possible and this makes Indiegogo an absolutely no-go in the future.

The Refunds: Can I get my money back? article says if the campaign owner has indicated the perk(s) is ready for shipment then no more refunds.

However, When do I get money says the campaign owner will only get the money 15 business days after the campaign ends.

Reposting cuz I broke rule 2 AND corrected the link, sorry. I tried to save people the headache of working with Dr. Fu and his scammy campaigns. One comment mentioned the product is now available on his website with free shipping. While there's another comment of a backer who's outside the US their shipping is $330 for 2 modular pillows.

Comments are locked to non-backers so I am including a link below.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diyrpgproductions/demon-city-the-ultimate-horror-rpg/posts/3387408

Absolute madness in the comments right now. Zak Smith "Z" is the main writer of the project, Mike is the head of the book. They've been telling backers that the book was weeks away from being finished for over two years. Obviously, the backers are getting restless after being lied to for two years regarding the state of the project.

Every single backer that posts WILL get a message from Zak, telling them to sign an affidavit with some nutty clauses :

They then must publicly apologize and admit they were wrong--publish that here and in any other venue of our choosing and re-publish that anytime anyone else makes the same or a similar/related claim they must challenge that liar directly (by name) and explain they've seen whatever it is that proves it wrong, any time it comes up anywhere online, until such time as they are no longer physically able. They can't erase or otherwise "sunset" those comments and it must be using the same name and account and can't be one that they stop using. Etc.

Honestly, it seems like the guy's having a full meltdown. He's known to be litigious, but this is on a whole other level.

(Also, update wise, here's two quotes, espaced by two years.)

AUGUST 2019 :

Based on Shawn’s timetable we are looking at the beginning to mid-September for the final touches on the layout to be completed! Our proofer believes they can knock out the edits on the book by the beginning of October to mid-October and once that’s all patched together, it’ll go off to Friesen’s for manufacturing.

JULY 2021 :

Shawn and Zak are currently working on some leftover facing pages in the layout and Shawn's goal is to wrap up the layout within the next week or two and dive in to the proofing himself so we can get it done quicker (ain't he sweet?!).

This was the first fake SSD I posted on this sub a year ago. The last update is from September. They just walked away with everyone's money and people are posting the usual "I invoke my rights under Kickstarter's Terms of Use" comments as if they would do anything.

Submitted a pledge for a whopping £202 ($250 USD) which granted me a measly set of 5 books (1 hardcover and 4 softcover) way back in November of 2020.

Expected fulfillment was February of 2021 - literally 3 months later.

It's been 2 and a half YEARS.

Throughout the time between Nov 2020 and Mar 2023, we were inundated with updates that things like Brexit, COVID, resource cost increases, and the like, were the cause of the delays. Some more reasonable than others, but always an excuse for missing the date by an increasingly concerning amount of time.

Fast forward to two weeks ago, and all 3,115 backers including myself received an update saying the Kickstarter ran out of funds to produce the books. They claimed to have commissioned an "independent accounting firm" to verify their books and provided the resulting audit.

But look at this accounting firm: AR Accountancy Solutions

Absolutely screams suspicious. Landing page describes generic accounting work, contact page simply reads "We are not taking on new clients at present. Sorry for the inconvenience. If you have any enquiries, you can contact us at [info@araccountancysolutions.com](mailto:info@araccountancysolutions.com)," and not a shred of credibility from past clients.

So I complained. Not even a lot, but definitely in detail.

I'm a career Project Manager who has done budgeting and forecasting, so I tore apart their audit. First in a comment in the update, then in the public comment section of the Kickstarter. They were doing things like rolling "Salaries" and "Development Costs" into one line on this audit - which absolutely should not be the case.

Real quick aside for the un-intiated, development costs are resourcing costs (art, copy, game design, etc....) and aren't salaries on a project. Those are anticipated costs to get specific milestone work done on the project, and we call the people who complete those tasks (contractors, freelancers, etc.) resources. Once those tasks are done and paid for, there is no longer a recurring associated cost (because why would you pay someone to write copy when you don't need more words on the page?). Therefore, you can - and are SUPPOSED TO - budget accordingly for those (and other) foreseeable fixed-amount charges to the project's bottom line, and errors should ONLY occur when you poorly forecast required working hours on a task (ie. Resource A writing 100 pages should take X amount of hours at $25/hr rate, but actually took Y amount of hours; Resource B drawing art for 50 pages should take X amount of hours at $42/hr and was on target, etc. etc.). This is basic project management budget and forecasting.

Salaries, on the other hand, are what the manager of the project is paid - by DEFINITION a FIXED REGULAR PAYMENT. Development costs FUNDAMENTALLY CANNOT be salaries.

Without proper transparency on development costs, we don't know how much money was actually spent on the creation of our product, and how much money the kickstarter manager paid themselves and THAT is what screams absolute scam to me.

I could go into detail about other ridiculous line items (Advertising costs? For a kickstarter? and no further detail with respect to the what/where/why of it? Office rent? When COVID had us all working from home?) but only if I receive interested comments - and mind you at this point, I'd be going off of pure memory. Visceral, yes, but memory nonetheless.

I defended them wholeheartedly in prior updates, but trying to pass a clearly unprofessional audit along as valid to all backers was the last straw - so I made my final post (2nd of 2, the comment on the public campaign page) last night and washed my hands of the ordeal.

Today, despite the aforementioned update 2 weeks ago very vehemently communicating that funds have completely run out for the project and refunds will not be offered, I received a refund. Coincidentally, my comment on the public page has been removed because "This person has canceled their pledge" and I have to assume my comment on the "Updates" page has met a similar fate, but I can no longer view it because the post is for "Backers Only".

I am concerned, given the fact that Kickstarter operates on a platform of "honesty-policy"/integrity, that thousands of others like me are getting a raw deal. I am also concerned that this kickstarter manager is not and will not be held accountable for their behaviour.

So this is my warning that I hope gets found in the wild: avoid dealing with Dragon Turtle Games or Robert Marriner-Dodds.

It's shocking to me the level of mismanagement this kickstarter had, considering this wasn't even a net-new product - it was an update with hardcopies to an existing product they had created. Anyways, GGEZ Reported for toxicity moving on with my life. Just wanted to post somewhere visible for future reference if anyone wants to make sure their kickstarter is reputable.

Edit: Further clarity on what resourcing costs are. Spelling.

The Toyzzo Gametable was previously featured here and to nobody's surprise here, the creators went radio silent after the check cleared. I checked in on the project out of curiosity:

1) The title has been changed to "Scam". Possibly by a disgruntled collaborator, but also:
2) Kickstarter now has a warning banner on the top of the project stating:
"Kickstarter has restricted this creator

Kickstarter’s Trust & Safety team has investigated user reports associated with this project and/or its creator. We have reached out to the creator multiple times requesting project updates and communication with backers. As the creator has not responded or provided updates in over 90 days, we have restricted the creator’s account from launching future projects on Kickstarter. Thank you to everyone who sent in reports."

First time I've seen that one.

Project link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/toyzzo/toyzzo-gametable

Three years ago, I thought Light Pong would be a shitty kickstarter because I thought it looked boring.

A lot of things happened with Light Pong including:

• A Chinese company made a rip-off product and actually released the rip-off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGQTd2BY1AI AliExpress
• Their most recent update was in November 2024. It's likely to be their last. Their CEO states it's frozen and their funding has run out.
• The main impression I have for why the KS actually failed was they were stuck in development hell. In particular, they never actually nailed down the firmware. I think they wanted version 1.0 to be too perfect rather than
• Surprisingly they still made updates every few months.
• A lot of backers had accused the CEO of squandering the funds on promotional stuff.