Serious followers of crowdfunding know that it’s there not as a way to “game the system”, to “test fans”, or even as a “preorder system” but to help great ideas get the money needed to become a reality. And I’m most certainly fine with that. But, when a developer abuses our trust enough times it’s time to set our foot down. AJ Tilley is most certainly a repeat offender and the latest update for My Highschool Crossdressing Romance is just another reason to stay away from him.
I’m not going to go into the minuscule and somewhat controversial plot. I can live with that. It’s the fact that he constantly seems to make a mockery out of Kickstarter that makes me mad at him constantly going back for more. The fact that he admits to running My Highschool Crossdressing Romance as a “test” to weed out the most loyal fans is the last straw. This quote pretty much says it all.
To make it more difficult to make the decision for backers I purposefully created a brand new account for this game so that new backers would not find it easy to see the games that came before, so that they backed the game purely on the concept that is here.
Apparently it wasn’t enough to start up a campaign that’s more or less already funded (by his own admission) but to treat anyone other than the 56 people who backed not being loyal enough is an insult to those who were interested but decided to wait. On the plus side, any of those who went in on a Steam copy will get a comp copy as “thanks for their support of this campaign despite the limited content and information.”
While I might eventually find it in my heart to forgive a good deal of AJ Tilley’s past wrongs making a joke out of what Kickstarter stands for isn’t one of them. This will be the last that you hear from me about any of his projects as I’m through dealing with him and his antics.
Damn! Hard to defend the guy, when he does things like this.
For having been directly in contact with him when i confronted him. I can tell you there is no need to even think to defend him. The guy is an asshole. Period.
And for those who knows me for years like Serena..they know i am sincerely not someone that spit nonsense and insult them if i’ve not seen for myself what they are. He is only there for the money, he is full of disdain for backers and mostly think of them as “fools” , sheep and fat milked cows.
Plus i should add that he is an utter liar. When he says that he delivered what..he promised i am strangling myself from laugh. Only Sword of asumi (all KS added it’s over 30k£ aka 45k$ for a piece of crap..is out and 1 part of Beach bounce lol) if i compare with what delivered Sekai project..another serial KS creator..for the same amount of money, it’s laughable.
Sekai Project isn’t all white either still they are thousand times more trustworthy.
Plus he lie when he is saying that he’s changing account for test lol.
Obviously he is changing account because of the bad reputation he has with his customer.
If he was keeping his old account and people would realize he launched a new project, either they will go there and ruin is project either they would warn other to not back him.
The real reason he did that is just so old backers couldn’t track him directly.
Some old angry backers could almost forget his name and since he isn’t linked to his old project back twice toward him without realizing it lol.
There is plenty of people that are on KS, indiegogo etc. just to take advantages of others.
Still there isn’t much of them that are acting without hiding it and being so full of themselves.
Even boasting about it.
Yeah, I’m completely done with the guy. He continues to mock what Kickstarter stands for and I’m through with it. I won’t even bother playing any of the games that I’ve got coming to me I’m that fed up with his antics.
Yup there are definitely issues, the guy acted shady, and the coverage he’s getting makes sense. When money is involved, everybody needs to have there A-Game ready.
Has there been anyone else in KS history who has so blatantly worked the system? It makes me pretty sad this face is in the forefront of visual novel kickstarters.
There were a few that I’m aware of, but they only had one campaign or so that stank to high heaven of scam. The “send my child to game camp” one was so obvious I only backed it during the campaign to point out the problems with it then pulled my pledge. And then there was the Ouya Free-the-Games fund fiasco with Elementary, My Dear Holmes and Gridiron Thunder. Plus, we had the poorly ran Sierra documentary (scam or not they didn’t listen to backers). But none so blatant and repeating as Tilley.
Also, for the luls… the upcoming project list on his website (not including the 8 in current)
Dear lord. That’s another twelve games that I won’t be playing. I’m aware of Coterie and Absolute Power (based on a backer only update) but where did the other ten come from?
Great reporting, Serena! The situation is certainly a shame, though. I’ve actually never played (or owned) any of the AJ Tilley games but certainly won’t be rushing out to get them anytime soon.