That "million dollar" Kickstarter board game fizzled in 8 months

I backed this card game called Crown of Embers that raised $1.2 million in 2021, but I just checked their last update and they've only shipped 40% of pledges as of last week. Found this digging through their campaign comments section where backers are posting angry photos of broken components. How do you verify if a big crowdfunding project is actually going to follow through before you put your money in?

3 comments

3 Comments

linda_reed3d ago

A buddy of mine backed this tile-laying game called Mythic Realms back in 2019, the video showed all these beautiful minis and they raised over $800k, but they moved the factory three times and most people got their stuff two years late with a third of the minis missing or broken. He told me he should've noticed the creator had zero shipping experience and their only other campaign was a failed card deck that never delivered.

rodriguez.mia4d ago

Wait, is Crown of Embers the one with the metal coins and the weird dragon egg expansion... I thought that one raised $2.1 million, not $1.2 million. I remember looking at their campaign page because the video was so polished, but the update drama is exactly why I'm careful now. The thing is, most big Kickstarter projects look amazing because they spend a ton on renders and prototypes, but you gotta check how many times the creator has actually shipped stuff before. I always dig through their past projects and look for ones that delivered late or with missing pieces. Also, a huge red flag is when they only show early prototypes and never mention their manufacturer or timeline specifics. If they can't tell you who's printing the game and where, it's basically a gamble.

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logan_wood3d ago

Wait, did they actually say $1.2 million? I swear I remember the total being way higher too, maybe I'm just mixing it up with another campaign. I had the same exact experience with a different big box game last year, the renders were insane but then they kept pushing back the delivery date and changing the manufacturer halfway through. It's wild how much a nice video can make you ignore the basic stuff like actual shipping history.