



This … is a weird one.

I considered not posting this one, since the person involved is clearly suffering from a mental illness. However, I feel that if you’re taking people’s money then you’re fair game. I’ll try to restrict my criticism and comments only to what she’s said about her actual project, and allow you, the reader, to take this as a cautionary tale.

In August 2011 Molly Friedrich successfully kickstarted a boardgame called “Katalyka”, thanks in no small part to the game’s gorgeous art.

The Delays

After the project funded, months passed. The project was late and people were starting to get impatient. Finally Molly posted a photograph of her first prototype and it looked great. She promised that shipping would start in a week or two.

…Then nothing. More silence. Again, people started to get impatient.



Delays are common on Kickstarter, but this was starting to try people’s patience.

The Explanation

Finally, in June of 2012, nearly a year after the project started, Molly explained what was causing the delays.



Woah.

Imagine you gave this woman $200 and when you asked where your stuff was you got this in response!

Her posts on DeviantArt and elsewhere make it clear that she’s 100% serious about this, and she’s really talking about the sun. You know, the one in the sky.

However, even Molly understood that it didn’t make sense for an inanimate celestial body a hundred-million miles away to be contacting her about a board game. She eventually came up with a new theory.



Of … course…

At this point someone pointed out on her DeviantArt account that taking people’s money and then not delivering is illegal.

The latest Update

Her reply was not as reassuring as it could have been :Yeah, who’s thecriminal, here? Makes you think.

Last month Molly posted this status update :

So … I guess that’s good news?

The Lesson