Last week, we saw the darker side of Kickstarter campaigns, as a fraudulent backer gave €7000 to Dimension Drive’s Kickstarter during its last hours, enough to fund the game. Kickstarter, according to its ToS, pulled the charge, which de-funded the campaign with minutes to spare.
Most teams might have packed it up and called it a day, but David Jimenez and Alejandro Santiago have persevered and got back in the saddle again, starting a second Kickstarter campaign for Dimension Drive. A symmetric shoot ’em up with bright visuals and fascinating gameplay, it’s a great concept that will have a second chance at seeing a major release.
I had the pleasure of (virtually) chatting with David recently, and the passion this team has for both their game and the Kickstarter community is infectious. Check it out below.
Eric Van Allen: So to give a quick rundown, your Kickstarter for Dimension Drive was on its final hours when an anonymous backer made a €7000 contribution. This pushed you over the €30,000 funding goal for the game, but with 30 minutes to go in the campaign, the payment got pulled due to fraudulence. Within half an hour, the campaign failed.
How did you feel when that contribution got pulled? What was your first thought after getting the notification from Kickstarter?
David Jimenez: It was a terrible moment, you feel like somebody robbed you of your dream. This is not work for us, this is our dream game. For a while we had it, we were celebrating, people in our Twitch stream were going nuts and together we were putting plans in motion for the future. All of that vanished with a single blow, less than 30 minutes before the end. We wonder what kind of sick person does something like this. We have seen trolls in forums and websites but this is above that. This person played with the dreams and jobs of our team members.
EVA: Within a few hours, there was a significant swell of support and outrage that this happened around social media. What was that like, to get that outpouring of support from the community?
DJ: We’ve seen the worst and the best of the internet in less than 24 hours. First that evil prank hit us and then a massive wave of support. Honestly, that’s what put us back in the game. Thursday morning we were too depressed for anything. But opening our laptops and seeing all those emails, twits and Facebook messages telling us to keep at it, and come back was an amazing experience. We’ll be eternally grateful, the way the gaming community has stood up for us shows the actions of a single bad person don’t represent us.
EVA: Now you’ve decided to re-launch the campaign from square one. How do you go about starting over again on a Kickstarter campaign you’ve already fought so hard for once?
DJ: That’s the hardest past, running a Kickstarter is a ton of work. You can’t even imagine the amount of sleepless nights we had to go through during our first month on Kickstarter. Going back for another 30 days seemed to us like crossing back the dessert after you already did it one time. But we are positive and happy to see this time we are not alone, everybody is pulling for us. With so much support we are now in a position were we feel that we have not only to complete this Kickstarter but to deliver the best game we can craft. We owe people that much.
EVA: 2Awesome Studios, your team, is made up of two people. How did you and your co-developer meet? What made you two want to start a studio and Kickstarter campaign together in the first place?
I'm a Texas native and graduate of Texas Tech University, freelancing in the gaming journalism industry. I love games, live music, Texas BBQ and sports. Favorite games are The Witcher 2, anything from Bioware, the Kingdom Hearts series and Dota 2.
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