The open world Star Wars RPG Kickstarter has been cancelled after raising over $18,000 dollars from 118 backers.
Creator Devin Tripp planned to hire professional developers to create the project as he admitted he was a terrible programmer and artist. Tripp planned to discuss terms with LucasFilm owner Disney but has shut down the Kickstarter as he feared being sued.
In an update explaining why he's chosen to end the fundraising campaign, Tripp says he had received no official demand from Disney to shut it down but wanted to avoid it becoming too big and getting out of hand.
The message reads:
“Hello Everyone…
"I’d like to start off by saying I'm sorry to Disney for using their logo and name. Having said that, I find it very disturbing that you want to report me to them. As if they didn’t already know. You truly want to see some be in debt for the wrest of their life because they had a dream for a video game that they never created. Very selfish, and very ironic. Disney was created because Walt Disney had a dream, was it not? I find it ironic because on a lot of the news and the forums there was a quote from something I said. It read ” I have talked to Disney, and they have informed me to contact Lucas arts”. I believe most of you said quote ” that’s like a father telling the kid to go ask their mother because they do not want to deal with them.” Yet I received emails from random people basically telling their dad to send me to time-out because they don’t like me.
"Secondly, I am taking this kick starter down myself. Disney has not contacted me to tell me to shut it down for those of you who think you own Disney. I am taking this kick starter down, because I very much respect Disney, and I do not want this to get to big. I love all their Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I always wanted to be Captain Jack, but I think Mr. Depp is too good to be replaced. I have faith that somewhere in the future, a game like the one I described, will be made by Disney/EA/LucasFilm/BioWare or whoever is going to do it.
"Thirdly I know my spelling and grammar sucks, but all you need is the force and you will do ok in life. I wrote the entire thing on my phone while in Childress Texas with a JUAN bar. So I did not care for spelling mistakes, because of that and I really didn't think I’d actually be doing this. As many of you pointed out I am highly unqualified. The point of this whole Kickstarter is to not let your dreams be dreams. Don’t say tomorrow just do it.
"-Devin Tripp
"Thanks for all the backers. It made this whole thing extra funny”
The Kickstarter's backers had pledged $18,325 to the campaign but it's impossible to know how many were actually genuine. Tripp had been looking for $200,000. As for whether Tripp himself was a naive but earnest fan or was simply making a joke we'll leave up to you.
