“I will admit that the amount needed to create this game was largely underestimated for the campaign,” wrote the director of a Kickstarter game called Midora in an update yesterday. “I knew that the game would need more than $60,000 to be made.”


This confession comes roughly 14 months after Midora, which promised to be an old-school action-adventure with some seriously gorgeous sprite-work, raised $73,470 from over 3,000 people. Back in April, the director—who goes by the handle Mhyre—confessed that he had run out of money. Now, he’s begging video game publishers and other potential investors for a deal.

“If you want to know exactly how much money we need to finish this game, I will tell you,” Mhyre wrote. “Between $120,000 and $150,000.”


That’s double what they raised in July of 2014. And, again, this comes as part of a message in which the director admits that he knew he wouldn’t be able to make this game with the amount of money he took from gamers.

Mhyre continues:

“I would like to call all publishers and investors that could potentially be interested in the game. We have all that you need to make a decision and we’re ready to be generous, provided that you help us in the first place. We want things to move on, to progress. If you are yourself interested or know anyone that could be interested, please leave us a message on kickstarter, facebook, twitter... anywhere really, as long as it’s private. Feel free to suggest companies or suggest us to other companies if you think that could help as well. We are ready to talk.”

Some advice: If you see a video game Kickstarter asking for less than, oh, say, $200,000 (aka: a year’s salary for four people working at below-average rates), you probably shouldn’t back it. And if you see a video game Kickstarter whose creators don’t seem to have any experience shipping actual video games, then, well, you probably shouldn’t back it.

You can reach the author of this post at jason@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @jasonschreier.