Kickstarter clarifies what happens when a project is canned

Kickstarter has updated its Terms & Conditions to better explain creators’ responsibilities when they are unable to complete a project that has been successfully funded.

The update follows a number of crowd-funded projects that have been scrapped despite raising enough funds – most notably, the canned Yogventures game. 

In these cases, responsibilities and how much developers are liable for has been a little foggy, but Kickstarter has spelled the matter out clearly.

"If a creator is unable to complete their project and fulfil rewards, they’ve failed to live up to the basic obligations of this agreements," the new Ts & Cs read. "To right this, they must make every reasonable effort to find another way of bringing the project to the best possible conclusion for backers."

Kickstarter considers this accomplished if the creator: posts an update explaining what work has been done on the project, how the funds were used and what is stopping them from finishing that work – and offers to return remaining funds to backers that have yet to receive their reward. More conditions can be read in the Terms.

The new Terms & Conditions also stress that Kickstarter is not part of the contract between creators and their backers.

"They creator is solely responsible for fulfilling the promises made in their project," Kickstarter warns. "If they’re unable to satisfy the terms of this agreement, they may be subject to legal action by backers."