A proposed fan-made Star Wars game popped up on Kickstarter this week and, despite making nearly $20,000 over the course of just a few days, it has now been removed because, well, that was never going to happen.
The project was launched by Devin Tripp, who asked potential backers a simple question: “Ever wonder what it would be like if you were a Jedi with no boundaries, and could explore the galaxy freely?”
Called the Open World RPG “like” Star Wars Game, Tripp was asking for $200,000 to make his dream of unleashing the Force become a reality.
The project description was an English teacher's worst nightmare, overrun with spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors, including the misspelling of characters' names. Somehow, despite the fact that this was clearly not a legitimate project with anything resembling a future, Devin Tripp's Star Wars game garnered $18,325 from backers in just a handful of days. Of those backers, four were actually offering funding at the $1,500 level. You might say those were suckers with way too much money burning a hole in their pockets, but I prefer to assume they were the type of folks who like to watch the world burn. “What if,” they may have asked themselves, and then gladly handed over the money to see what sort of train wreck would follow.
Devin Tripp finally pulled the plug on his Star Wars game heading into the weekend, beginning with an apology to Disney for using the name and logo without permission. He then complained that anyone would want to report him to Disney for the game, though he asserts that the Big D never actually contacted him about the project.
Tripp goes on to explain that he agrees with his many critics that he is nowhere near qualified to make the sort of game he was promising, and even states that he posted the original campaign from a bar in Texas. At least there is a positive message buried somewhere in here, which Tripp offers himself:
The point of this whole Kickstarter is to not let your dreams be dreams. Don't say tomorrow, just do it.
It's a solid message, but maybe this wasn't the best example of it in action. You can't just say, “Give me $200,000 and I'll see if I can do something with no knowledge, skills, or planning related to the actual thing.” And in case it sounds like I'm being a bit harsh, keep in mind that Devin Tripp signs off by thanking his backers, as it “made this whole thing extra funny.”
Then again, maybe it's those backers who deserve shade being thrown in their direction. Backing a project you believe in is understandable, but there had to be a few dozen red flags going up in their minds before hitting the contribute button, right?
But while Tripp's game is never going to see the light of day, at least we have Star Wars Battlefront to keep us busy for the time being. And who knows what other Star Wars games Disney has in the works, right?
