In a word, yes.I have no clue of Kickstarter projects, never started one, never backed one, so my question: Can it really be this easily abused, don't have backers any security? If they back a scammer who collects the money and then runs for the hills is there really nothing they can do?
When it comes to a specific Kickstarter project and backer security, basically no. Its ultimately the backer's responsibility to look into if the project looks risky or not, and if he/she wants to support a project. Kickstarter.com warns about that projects can run into problems, and that people shouldnt threat Kickstarter as a store with pre-orders. I guess that theres some protection through Kickstarter to stop the same people to run new projects though. Otherwise for the backers, they have to take it through the legal system if they think that a project was a scam, and they want a chance to get their money back.I have no clue of Kickstarter projects, never started one, never backed one, so my question: Can it really be this easily abused, don't have backers any security? If they back a scammer who collects the money and then runs for the hills is there really nothing they can do?
In a word, yes.
In more words, Kickstarter have taken some measures to limit abuse/scam projects, but it really is a platform that relies on reputation and 'buyer beware' for backers to determine for themselves if a person is likely to deliver.
If they take the money and run, backers can maybe try and report the person for fraud if they can do enough online sleuthing to find out the persons details, and Kickstarter can refuse to host another project by that person. Other than that, if they took your money and spent it, you could be S.O.L.
I've backed over 50 Board Game kickstarters and they've either all delivered or are still on-track to deliver, but I stay well clear of video game projects now (only ever backed Broken Age, and that wasn't worth it) because there are just too many unknowns and ways for a project to fail. Board Game production is a somewhat standardised process, video games are not. If a person hits a coding roadblock, that could sink the game no matter how well-intentioned the person trying to make it is.
so he'll copy of off this, maybe Filip Miucin will hire'em for his channelSo how long before this guy makes a video that starts with a deep SIGH "I don't even know where to begin" and ends with a shot of him reaching up to turn off the webcam left in the final cut.
I've been following the dev for about 5 years now, honestly just for entertainment purposes. Dev claimed to have 10 years of industry experience, but no previous work or references to be found anywhere. Besides, an experienced dev would not have:
Nothing shady about it, but dude's been living a "game dev" fantasy and wanted to live the dream, with no concrete idea on how to get there. Seemed to want to experience every indie game dev trope: announcement trailer, tear up about how you managed to quit your job, make fancy "official" statements.
- Announced a kickstarter, launched it, removed it after 24 hours and called it a "test" (source: podcast interview)
- Announced a kickstarter, launched it, removed it after a week and pretended it never happened (source: deleted lol)
- Announced another "first" KS and copy-pasted the text from another successful game KS (Omno)
- Redesigned the art style, character, gameplay and name to match that of said other successful game
- Promised the game would launch on all consoles, despite having zero porting experience or access to dev kits. Not to mention Switch keys aren't free to generate.
- Passive aggressively called out publishers in general for rejecting the game, coincidentally shortly after releasing a demo
- Splurged 8k in KS funds on conventions and a Wacom tablet, best put in porting because that doesn't even cover half the cost
- Complained about how unfair it is that successful games keep getting attention, and his game isn't getting a chance (like… ???)
- Retracted every claim after an ounce of negative feedback, or backed it up with another false promise.
- Launched two fundraisers for struggling devs, with no clear indication of where the money was going
- Called out a private legal dispute on social media to gain backup, that's real professional
Meanwhile, the game was just an endless stream of iteration with no clear scope or planning. A telltale sign of inexperience and overambitiousness. When I saw the KS was successful, my heart sank, because so many people were fooled by a hot air trailer and promises.
Just a thick air of insecurity throughout it all. Mimicking whatever he perceived as successful: art style, character design, gameplay mechanics, and turns even being more direct with 3D models. Even if the trees weren't a straight copy, they would have been remodelled to match, because they're proven to be "good".
Would have panned out so much better if he went his own direction and believed in it!
I guess he decided to disappear from the internet now. Understandable, if you feel like the world's coming down on you, but unsurprisingly immature.
Dev appeared in an interview to "set the story straight" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaY9egL93gI&feature=emb_title. Believe what you will!
and they'll continue to do the same too.
I'm listening to this interview and I have no clue what he's talking about, implying that it's normal in game development to have "reference files" that he "accidentally" left in. Never in my life have I ripped someone else's model files as "references" to put into my commercial game. That isn't normal, is it? I don't know any developers who rip other games assets and use them as templates? Just sounds like a super weak lie, just apologise dude, tell the truth
edit: gotta love these interviewers for noticing the lies and nonsense and calling it out, and he keeps saying it was a reference to learn from the texture, but the texture was changed? it was the 3D model he stole and retextured himself
Yeah he sounds entirely like he's trying & failing to think on his feet/talk out of his ass. The excuses are super weak, it's painful to listen to.
While petting his dog, of course. No person can be bad if they have a nice doggo.So how long before this guy makes a video that starts with a deep SIGH "I don't even know where to begin" and ends with a shot of him reaching up to turn off the webcam left in the final cut.
They're the exact same model with a mildly different texture.
This forum has a weird trend of taking the most minute differences and treating it like an entirely different design; this isn't the first thread I've seen it in.
Are you laughing based on the gif being there? The original post only had the two pictures at the bottom, which is hard as hell to make out similarities.They're the exact same model with a mildly different texture.
This forum has a weird trend of taking the most minute differences and treating it like an entirely different design; this isn't the first thread I've seen it in.
Are you laughing based on the gif being there? The original post only had the two pictures at the bottom, which is hard as hell to make out similarities.
I have absolutely heard of reference files being accidentally left in a video game before. Sometimes you put in a placeholder, like a painting, that you intend to replace, and it gets missed. I think Uncharted 4 had this happen.
And some people still refuse to take the L.
Kumo's.I understand nothing of the threadmarks. Which dev admitted fault?
In hindsight, incredible first post
Readt the thread. The Kumo developer is completely full of shit.
Ah, this explains it then, I did assume the GIF was there initially.
The two pics at the bottom are such bad points of comparison though, that jumping straight to "they're completely different trees" is very premature regardless, because you can't make that assessment with any certainty one way or the other in regards to how different they actually are with just those crappy pics. (I mean 'premature response' basically sums up the first two pages of the thread in general.)
And it's still quite funny in hindsight when the model turned out to be identical.
It just keeps piling up. Thank you for sharing.I'm another indie dev from the community who fell victim to Ben's nonsense.
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The first page :D
Dude is trying to DM copy/paste his way into bring a developer. If these devs didn't stop feeding him, he'd probably have finished his game. Lmao
Why not just buy assets? They're cheap as hell.
There are some priceless quotes in that interview... so cringe worthy, yet gold!I'm listening to this interview and I have no clue what he's talking about, implying that it's normal in game development to have "reference files" that he "accidentally" left in. Never in my life have I ripped someone else's model files as "references" to put into my commercial game. That isn't normal, is it? I don't know any developers who rip other games assets and use them as templates? Just sounds like a super weak lie, just apologise dude, tell the truth
edit: gotta love these interviewers for noticing the lies and nonsense and calling it out, and he keeps saying it was a reference to learn from the texture, but the texture was changed? it was the 3D model he stole and retextured himself
I'm listening to this interview and I have no clue what he's talking about, implying that it's normal in game development to have "reference files" that he "accidentally" left in. Never in my life have I ripped someone else's model files as "references" to put into my commercial game. That isn't normal, is it? I don't know any developers who rip other games assets and use them as templates? Just sounds like a super weak lie, just apologise dude, tell the truth
edit: gotta love these interviewers for noticing the lies and nonsense and calling it out, and he keeps saying it was a reference to learn from the texture, but the texture was changed? it was the 3D model he stole and retextured himself
Looks like I was completely wrong on this one. It really did seem like a bigger dev being unfair about another taking a little bit too much aesthetic inspiration. But no it does look like that's a straight up stolen asset.
Here I was thinking that I was getting better about jumping to conclusions.
I do think that in situations like this where a dev takes some serious cues from another it's normally fine, people will decide for themselves how far is too far. Stolen assets are something else entirely though. This time round though I'll hold off until knowing for sure.
I have no clue of Kickstarter projects, never started one, never backed one, so my question: Can it really be this easily abused, don't have backers any security? If they back a scammer who collects the money and then runs for the hills is there really nothing they can do?
It was edited after, you can see what the OP was after the big words saying 'Original Post'.That first gif nailed it. Its a 1:1 copy. Not sure if its posted later but all these comments that say its not the same has me wondering if a few of you aren't overdue for a visit to specsavers.
Man, this post need more attention. Thanks for sharing, definitely establishes the pattern of behaviour. I kind of feel bad for this dude.I'm another indie dev from the community who fell victim to Ben's nonsense. He got in contact with me on Discord asking for some shader help. I'm pretty open to sharing techniques and info on what I've made, but i never simply screenshot my code or send them the actual asset. I usually link them to tuts/docs that helped me figure stuff out or just give them a rather detailed technical explanation of how to do it... no hand-holding.
At first, Ben seemed to be fine with that and appeared to follow what I told him... you know, 10 years in the industry and all that, only to come back an hour later complaining how it's so hard for him to hand paint a custom mask in Photoshop because he's not an artist but a level designer. This went on for a while... but he eventually gave up. But every time I share something new on twitter, He kept coming back on Discord praising my work, then slithers into asking me to show him what the code looked like. Again, I explain it to him, he goes off to try and then comes back ranting as usual. This went on for a few months but I never gave in.
he claims he's been a freelancer prior to Kumo... he shared with me that he was doing an art test for a role at another small indie studio... and I actually knew someone there (Ben did not know this). And guess what, he kept on complaining about it and started asking me for help on the test.
He also had this habit of boasting about who all he "knew" on twitter and made it sound like they were all buddies. That's when he mentioned Hippowombat and guess what, I wasn't the only one who was annoyed with Ben's behaviour... of course Hippo has been dealing with him longer and had it worse. Things started to heat up when OMNO had a successful KS campaign and when he pretty much copied his campaign outline, and both OMNO and Hippo called him out on it, he threw a tantrum and started ranting about it to me... that was when I just blocked him and kept my distance.
From what I can tell after dealing directly with the guy, he is not a developer, he's more of a salesman... and should probably go back to being an Advisor at GAME (probably counted that in his 10 years in the GAME industry). He has this illusion that he's able to make something unique and simply draws inspiration from other games like Rime and Journey. But the guy cannot see when he's blatantly copying something... and gets defensive when you point it out.
I'm a dev myself (lead artist at respectable studio) and I have never seen anyone using actual 3D models as a reference. Much like character artists don't using tracing paper! Real-life photos or concept art, yes, definitely. That's where an artist translates something into their own style or following an art direction, and that takes skill.
I also find it preposterous to think you're in the clear when using ripped game assets, simply because you found them online, and didn't rip them yourself.
This dude tends to proclaims his "experience" as fact, and generally anything you say with conviction and confidence people tend to take as the truth. And he has a knack for convincing himself of his own bullshit. This is also apparent in how he claims conventions such as GDC are vital for a game's success. In reality, it costs way more money than it returns and is more of a company outing and a milestone to work towards a working demo.
There are some priceless quotes in that interview... so cringe worthy, yet gold!
"Tree generator which i coded in Houdini" I like how he took complete credit for that despite tweeting about how he followed LucenDev's in-depth tutorial. Knowing Ben, he probably just renamed a node in Houdini and calls it his own code
I'm a dev myself (lead artist at respectable studio) and I have never seen anyone using actual 3D models as a reference. Much like character artists don't using tracing paper! Real-life photos or concept art, yes, definitely. That's where an artist translates something into their own style or following an art direction, and that takes skill.
I also find it preposterous to think you're in the clear when using ripped game assets, simply because you found them online, and didn't rip them yourself.
This dude tends to proclaims his "experience" as fact, and generally anything you say with conviction and confidence people tend to take as the truth. And he has a knack for convincing himself of his own bullshit. This is also apparent in how he claims conventions such as GDC are vital for a game's success. In reality, it costs way more money than it returns and is more of a company outing and a milestone to work towards a working demo.