An artist working on the failed Kickstarter project Yogsventures was paid $35,000 for two weeks of unfinished work, according to a recent disclosure by Kris Vale of Winterkewl Games, the studio in charge of developing the game.
According to Vale, the artist, who remains unnamed as of this time, accepted a $35,000 contract (via The Escapist) to work on the project and subsequently exploited a loophole within the contract to leave the project without returning any of the money when another opportunity arose.
“Because we had worked out a contract that guaranteed each of the principal artists a $35,000 lump sum payment, and we didn’t make any clear clause on how and why someone could legally stop working on the project, the artist in question got paid, worked for about 2 weeks and then stopped working on the project,” said Vale. “We had no way to force that person to pay back any of the funds and it was a bitter lesson to learn.”
Yogsventures eventually fell apart when its developers failed to deliver an acceptable piece of work to Yogscast. This setback was among the many issues with the development that eventually lead to the entire collapse of the project.