Gridiron Thunder closed today having raised $171,009 on a goal of $75,000. The campaign caught an initial wave of interest and popular support, but then quickly dived into questions regarding the validity of some of the backer support. At one point the project owners, MogoTXT, threatened to sue a specific commenter on the Kickstarter page and it appeared both sides were lawyering up – which ironically generated even more exposure for the crowdfunding game.
Questions regarding the motive of support were driving by the large number of significant contributions. Eight backers contributed $10,000 -which is a hefty sum for most of the gaming world. The $80K alone assured crowdfunding success. Average contributions stood at over $930 per contributor. Former NFL star Scott Fujita was a high profile supporter of the game. Perhaps he and a few of his 
mates jumped in to help. With the game scheduled to ship in the next few weeks some commentors were wondering why the crowdfunding was necessary at all.
Since Gridiron Thunder was participating in Ouya’s #FreeTheGamesFund – which contributes matching funds to successfully crowdfunded Ouya exclusive games, this added fuel to the conspiracy theories. Forty games have registered to participate. Eleven games have gone live. Gridiron Thunder is the only game to have passed the finish line with their crowdfunding intact. Another participant, Elementary, My Dear Holmes!, collapsed into Kickstarter controversy. Fully funded with just a few days to go, the project was suspended by Kickstarter and remains in limbo today. Commenters continue to discuss this game as Kickstarter remains silent.
Commenters on the Gridiron Thunder campaign page were varied. Some positive but many expressed their disdain for the process and the project. One commenter even provided their own forensic analysis of the contributions. Similar discussions were happening on other Ouya forums and game boards.
Since this is Kickstarters world – we may never know. They are the ones that slammed the “suspension hammer” on Dear Holmes. And they are the ones who have decided to allow this campaign to close fully funded. We may assume they did review the many questions and, unless there are still some deliberations, decided contributions were valid and fair.
Interestingly enough, as of yet there has been no victory dance from the organizers. Thanking supporters has become a Kickstarter tradition as soon as a campaign which has hit goal – closes. Perhaps Monday will bring further word.
When Ouya crowdfunded itself raising over $8.5 Million they knew they were on to something big. Using some of these funds to help developers build Ouya games really make sense. But maybe they may want to adjust their requirements a bit so the focus can remain on the cool Ouya games and not the intrigue surrounding them.
Update:
Well the MogoTXT finally got around to thanking their backers. The brief note is posted below:
We at MogoTXT want to thank all of our supporters for helping us reach and surpass our funding goal for Gridiron Thunder!
We are working hard to bring you the best game possible and we can’t wait for you all to see it in the coming weeks!
We will continue updating everyone on the progress of the game as we get closer and closer to the launch date.
Thank You Everyone,
The Team
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