You pay PLN 500, wait four years, and at the end you find out that you will either contribute to the transport costs or you will not see the goods. This is not a story in the movie, but from the popular Kickstarter, specifically the Darkest Dungeon board game campaign. Backers who donated over $5 million for a product from Mythic Games learned the hard way that crowdfunding is not a commercial transaction, but only the financing of a business venture.
Kickstarter, the most famous crowdfunding platform in the world, needs no introduction. Anyone who has ever visited the website knows that there are both creative and questionable ventures there, but there are projects that seem doomed to success. This was supposed to be the case with Darkest Dungeon, a board version of the computer game of the same title. Unfortunately, what seemed perfect in theory ended with the bankruptcy of the game's publisher, Mythic Games, and many backers did not receive what they paid for.
The Kickstarter hit turned into a flop
The story of the board game adaptation of Darkest Dungeon was supposed to be a great success. In 2020 nearly 29 thousand people paid a total of USD 5.65 millionto finance the project, but it turned out that instead of a perfectly designed game, some of the supporters were left with nothing.
While working on the project, it became necessary dividing the shipment into two partsbecause distributing the base game and all expansions at the same time turned out to be impossible. In July 2022, the publisher of Darkest Dungeon (Mythic Games) announced that due to a 600% increase in transport costs and a 30% higher cost of materials, the company was short of paying contractors as much as $1.75 million, therefore needs additional donations from supporters – on the order of $18 to $69 to ship first wave games at all.
Mythic Games went bankrupt, supporters were left without orders
The creators' demand was met with outrage from supporters, who called it a ransomdespite this, approximately 80% of users decided to pay additional amounts to the previously paid USD 100-330 (depending on the components); Mythic Games assured that if supporters also ordered second-line products, it would no longer be necessary to incur further costs. The rest of the supporters have not received their orders to this day, and in October 2023, the publisher demanded… additional payments for the second wave, this time $13 for each ordered add-on plus shipping costs.
Ultimately, it turned out that Mythic Games had such serious financial problems that it was unable to produce or ship the items from the second part of the orders. The company declared bankruptcy in October 2025and not only supporters of Darkest Dungeon, but also other fundraisers of this publisher, did not see their games. The rights to the brand returned to the creators of the original (Red Hook Studios), who in January 2026 made a desperate gesture: they allowed digital files of the game for self-printing, which were in the possession of a former Mythic Games employee, to be made available to supporters. This gesture was supposed to be the last positive accent in the whole matter, although the people who ordered the games lost their money forever.
Polish “board gamers” can talk about true happiness because Even before the collapse of Mythic Games, the Polish publisher, Lucrum Games, bought the rights to publish the Polish version of Darkest Dungeon from him.. The game is still available in some stores, but the box price is now around PLN 800 (previously it was around PLN 500), and Lucrum will probably not release any more copies.
9% of Kickstarter projects fail
The history of the Darkest Dungeon campaign shows that not every Kickstarter project is a guaranteed success. It is not known what the current scale of failures is, but some estimates are provided by the only study so far, conducted in 2015 by Prof. Mollick from the University of Pennsylvania. The author interviewed 500,000 people. supporting and came to the conclusion that 9% of Kickstarter campaigns failunderstood as no rewards for supporters. The other conclusions were also not positive:
- 8% of funds paid on Kickstarter go to projects that end in failure,
- 7% of supporters do not receive the promised rewards,
- Campaigns that raise less than $1,000 are more likely to fail.
How do crowdfunding platforms work?
Before anyone decides to support a creator on Kickstarter or another similar website, they should know one thing: a deposit is not a purchase. Crowdfunding platforms are not stores, but only places where creators present their projects for which they are responsible. Support in the campaign is an agreement between the creator and the user, not Kickstarter, which the website reminds about in the terms of use. Supporters should keep these other things in mind:
- Crowdfunding platforms are not responsible for unsuccessful projects,
- Delivery times on the campaign page are indicative only, not guaranteed, and are subject to change,
- In case of problems with the collection, please contact its author, but the website may suspend the creator who repeatedly violates his obligations towards supporters.
- Creators should provide regular updates on their projects with a commitment to follow through.
In the case of Darkest Dungeon the problem turned out to be underestimation of costs by the publisher, who blamed the additional expenditure on the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. For contrast, it is worth looking at other collections from the board game category, e.g. Nemesis from Awaken Realms or Frostpunk from Glass Cannon Unplugged. Both titles raised £3 million and nearly €2.5 million respectively, and are examples of professionally organized campaigns in which backers received regular updates and, despite delays, products were delivered.
Can a supporter do anything about collection problems?
If we have made a payment on Kickstarter or Zrzutka.pl, and the creator of the fundraiser refuses to deliver the product, as users, unfortunately, we have little room for maneuver. Comments from people who found themselves in a similar situation show that you can try to refer to: chargebackunfortunately this option is only possible within approximately 120 days of making the payment/providing the service. In the case of crowdfunding platforms, the delivery of ordered goods usually takes place even a year or two after the end of the collection, so there is no guarantee that the bank will positively consider the application.
As for legal protection, crowdfunding remains in a “gray zone”. consumers must take into account the risk of financial losses. A lawsuit against the platform itself is basically not possible, because they are not responsible for the creators' failures, but it is a different matter if someone decides to bring a case against the authors of the project. Such a situation occurred in the USA in 2014 and resulted in the imposition of a penalty on the creator who did not fulfill his obligations. Unfortunately, in the case of Polish users, taking the case to an American court may not be possible.
Crowdfunding was also looked at by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, but only in relation to three websites: Siepomaga, Zrzutka and Pomocam. The Office's allegations concerned the use of deceptive interfaces, manipulation techniques or incorrect information about what donations are, but there were no references to collections whose creators do not fulfill their obligations after completion.
Kickstarter is not a store, but an investment
In the case of any crowdfunding site, it is worth remembering that we do not buy the product, we only finance the projectwhich may turn out to be a flop, so we have no right to make a complaint, just like in a store. Although Kickstarter offers the possibility of withdrawing the payment before the end of the collection, while the Polish Wspieram.to refunds funds if the financial goal of the campaign has not been achieved, the platforms are silent on how to deal with if the backer has not received what he paid for.
Before we decide to support an unknown project, it is always worth checking the creator and his previous fundraisers. If the author regularly contacts recipients and realistically estimates costs, taking into account possible delays, this indicates professional preparation of the campaign, but when contact is difficult and the goal is suspiciously low, it is worth approaching the financing of such a collection with caution.
