The Crowd-fund Funstravaganza - Born to be Wild

It is time folks, once again, for another magical trip into crowd-funding with The Crowd-fund Funstravaganza! This week we are going to take a look at the curious tale of Chris Taylor and Gas Powered Games - whose recent Kickstarter for their new project Wildman has followed a strange path full of sadness, mystery and sabretooth tigers.


Does whatever a wild can.

To begin, we need to take a look back at a new project launched a couple of days ago, when Gas Powered Games launched their Kickstarter project for Wildman - an Action-RPG/RTS mashup about cavemen who grow more sophisticated as the game progresses. Asking for $1.1 million, Gas Powered Games were trading on the recognition of their company's history, along with the history of their creator - the well known Chris Taylor. If you watch the Kickstarter video, you can see several neat ideas flying about, as well as an authentic seeming passion for the game and genre.

Unfortunately, all the passion in the world won't help when the company needs to fire 40 employees - the situation GPG found itself in on Saturday - just four days after the Kickstarter was launched. Taylor updated the project with an emotion-filled explanation of the situation - if all of the employees were kept on and the Kickstarter failed, GPG would go bankrupt and nobody would get paid. Taylor then asked the backers - should he continue the Kickstarter and re-hire staff if it succeeds, or pack it in now and go quietly into the night.

Naturally, while the overwhelming response is to continue, some people have noted suspicion at the timing of the layoffs. Gas Powered Games weren't perfectly fine up until 3 days ago, so why did they wait until then to fire most of the staff? Why was Taylor ok with 'betting the company' on a Kickstarter campaign a week ago, only to decide he couldn't do it five days later?

To a cynical mind it looks like emotional manipulation - an attempt to get backers to invest emotionally and back the project out of sympathy for the staff. Watching Taylor's video update makes that seem less plausible - unless he is an astonishingly good actor, he seems genuinely broken up by the decision. He has said he wants to be open with his fans however, so it would be nice if he could explain the timing of recent events.

If it is all just a ploy to manipulate the public, it has done an excellent job. The layoffs have spurred an increase in backers, who are no longer purchasing a game, but saving peoples' livelihoods while doing so. $266,578 of the $1.1 million goal have been raised so far and with 25 days still left on the clock, it seems plausible that Wildman will make it in the end.

And to be honest, while I've never particularly cared for any of Gas Powered Games' titles, I will be incredibly disappointed in the internet if it doesn't. Wildman does look like an interesting game, ignoring the drama surrounding it. And hey - Molyneux made his ridiculous goal and Wildman looks to be 10x the game Godus will be, with approximately 10% of the arrogance. What do you think, should Taylor pull the Kickstarter project or reach for the stars? Have you backed Wildman? Let us know in the comments below!