The inevitable denouement of ‘That Which Sleeps’. Your author asks readers to report King Dinosaur Games to the Federal Trade Commission.

Nearly 18 months to the day, on 22/10/2014, I paid $50 into the Kickstarter for proposed Indie game ‘That Which Sleeps’. The game sounded appealing and the developers King Dinosaur Games (Joseph Vivolo and Joshua Perry) said it was almost written. Many were convinced and backers paid $85,593 into the Kickstarter against a $12,000 goal.

A note in the ‘Story’ section of the ‘That Which Sleeps’ Kickstarter.

The developers promised a game in two months. A year later, after many delays, I wrote the blog post, ‘Those Who Wait’. After sending the developers the draft and a threat of a report to the FTC, they refunded the money whilst I slept and excluded myself and another dissenter from their forums.

Joseph Vivola and Joshua Perry better keep their promises.

Now, 18 months since backers were promised a game, 16 months after the proposed beta release, the developers claim to be out of money.

Fenicks (Joseph Vivolo) claims the King Dinosaur Games team are out of money. Your author says ‘show us the accounts’. Click for full size.

Having had a full refund, your author has no claim against King Dinosaur Games. However there were thousands of other backers. Your author strongly suggests they ask for the developers to account for the money – and if they cannot produce accounts backed by bank statements then backers should report them to the FTC.

The US Federal Trade Commission took legal action against the developer of another Lovecraftian themed game, “The Doom that Came to Atlantic City” in very similar circumstances in 2015. That Kickstarter too had a great campaign, convincing mockups of the final product and massively exceeded its goals. It turned out the developer had in fact spent most of the money on himself.

Kickstarter backers who have not received a refund can contact the FTC here.