Kickstarter updates Terms for successful-then-cancelled projects

Some high profile Kickstarter projects are coming to fruition - Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, Broken Age - but not all make it this far. Author Neal Stephenson last week announced the cancellation of his sword fighting project Clang, which raised the $500k it needed in 2012 - but went on to run out of funds. A similar fate befell Yogscast-themed game Yogsventure earlier this year.

When things like that happen, the people who backed the project are sometimes kept in the dark. That's why Kickstarter updated its Terms of Use to provide guidelines for what should happen if such a thing occurs.

"For the overwhelming majority of projects, it's pretty simple: creators finish the work they planned, backers are happy and nobody sweats the details. But there are exceptions," the company wrote. "Sometimes problems come up, projects don't go according to plan, and people wind up in the dark about what's supposed to happen next. So we're spelling it out - what's expected from backers, what's expected from creators and what needs to happen if a project runs into trouble."

The new guidelines state that, if the unfortunate happens, "every reasonable effort to find another way of bringing the project to the best possible conclusion for backers" should be made.

These new terms echo those which were in place, but are more strongly worded. That final term is key: "The creator is solely responsible for fulfilling the promises made in their project. If they're unable to satisfy the terms of this agreement, they may be subject to legal action by backers."

Of course, Kickstarter insists it is not liable for undelivered products. It remains to be seen how a court would react if a suit was brought against a creator by disgruntled backers.