Sekai Project cancels campaign of WAS The Hourglass of Lepidoptera

[Darklord Rooke]

3 hours ago, kyrt said:

but this definitely is a good reason to only back kickstarter projects with actual companies behind them. 

Half defeats the point of Kickstarter, really. 

[sanahtlig]

1 hour ago, CeruleanGamer said:

It's not silly because the very last thing we need to do is keep white knighting Sekai Project for all their fuck ups, broken promises, and ridiculously late delivery of pledges/rewards. 

This experience should have been a good lesson for them, so they will try to pick partners with better reputation and track record. I prefer a small number of high quality content VNs from respectable partners over high quantity. Quantity isn't everything. Customer satisfaction is a huge determination of sales in this day and age. See Apple.

I think one of Sekai Project's founding goals is to champion startups and underdogs.  Like Winged Cloud.  Or something.

[Mr Poltroon]

8 minutes ago, Rooke said:

Half defeats the point of Kickstarter, really. 

No, no. This is hilarious, actually.

People have this stigma against kickstarter when big or better known groups use them (Sekai Project?). If they now develop a dislike against kickstarter being used by unknown groups (also Sekai Project...?) then... well... I dunno.

lol hypocrites.

[Silvz]

Wait, I don't get it. Everything is over because the company was paying for good reviews? Or is there a deepest meaning that I didn't see?

[CeruleanGamer]

1 hour ago, sanahtlig said:

I think one of Sekai Project's founding goals is to champion startups and underdogs.  Like Winged Cloud.  Or something.

If that is truly one of their founding goals, then the future of VN localization is DOOMED.

[Deep Blue]

11 hours ago, Scorp said:

 Pack it in archive for future use, I think it have no DRM as well. But game is really bad, as I heard.

you sure did not read my previous message and like you said the game has no DRM is just a regular renpy visual novel (it was ported to it)

[Elki]

Dovac claimed that the kickstarter wasn't for the translation, but for the voices.

https://www.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/2i8ihy/sekai_project_to_bring_was_lepidoptera_no/cl0mxvg

Now he's claiming that SP supposedly has nothing to do with the voices or production of physical goods, so at the end of the day, one has to wonder if Sekai Project has done any work on this themselves at all because there's no evidence of it.

Besides censoring negative reviews, I mean.

[Darklord Rooke]

4 hours ago, Elki said:

Dovac claimed that the kickstarter wasn't for the translation, but for the voices.

https://www.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/2i8ihy/sekai_project_to_bring_was_lepidoptera_no/cl0mxvg

Now he's claiming that SP supposedly has nothing to do with the voices or production of physical goods, so at the end of the day, one has to wonder if Sekai Project has done any work on this themselves at all because there's no evidence of it.

Besides censoring negative reviews, I mean.

I should point out there is zero logical flow to your argument. The kickstarter seemed to have funded the voices, nowhere did it say SP was responsible for those voices - the voices weren't provided and therefore a refund was arranged. 

SP are a Publisher, not the Developer, so problems with the development of the title lie with the developer themselves. Therefore SP's claims that they weren't responsible for the voices are very credible to anybody with any knowledge of the industry.

[sanahtlig]

People assume that since Sekai Project sponsors these Kickstarter campaigns that they're contributing in some substantial way.  That is, in fact, not necessarily the case, and indeed in many of these projects it just looks like Sekai Project is acting as a middleman.  You might ask, "Then why is Sekai Project involved at all?"  Perhaps they're simply there to handle PR.  Or perhaps they're just lending their brand name and followers.  Lovely to think that your attention and patronage might be traded like a commodity between businesses, isn't it?

[Deep Blue]

It's a shame about SRL really, acting in this shitty way without any reason, also they kinda scammed all of the backers by doing this and sekai project too because sekai didn't get any of the money but they are the ones doing the refunds for the physical stuff and we financed their game for extra content and adding extra voice acting that now I'm sure they wont deliver (probably for the jap ver only)

can't sekai start legal actions against them?

[Zakamutt]

Everyone's saying that SP should have investigated the company more, but really, these things will just happen sometimes - to much bigger publishers too! It doesn't seem like any of you have had much insight into how SP did the whole thing, so why are you so sure it's their fault? Hell, the creators had actually both completed a game and added partial voicing to it, which should speak in their favor. This is just part of the risk associated with crowdfunding; believe it or not, it is not (always) a glorified pre-ordering system. SP even delivered on translating the initial version of the VN. I'd put most of the blame on SRL for this one unless some info surfaces that actually points to SP being at fault.

I'm glad Sekai Project decided to work with doujin circles - it's had a great success in the fault series. I'm not really a fan of the crowdfunding-as-risk-reduction approach they've been using, but please, try not to think in these absolute terms. It makes my head hurt, and I already have a headache tonight for unrelated reasons.