

Nine-year-old girl’s $829 Kickstarter to build game passes $10,000 after one day - chrisdinn
http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2013/03/22/nine-year-old-girls-829-kickstarter-to-build-a-video-game-passes-10000-after-one-day/

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Smudge
From Kickstarter's policies:

> Kickstarter does not allow charity, cause, or "fund my life" projects.

In the "where's the money going" section of her project page, it's pretty
clear that this money was going to go towards tuition for a week-long summer
camp, and also a new laptop. I'd put these squarely in the "fund my life"
categories. If all she's doing is asking for a hand-out, her success sends the
wrong message. (Maybe there's more to it though, and I do think that this kind
of campaign is, in general, a very good thing!)

Technically, the project also adheres to this policy:

> Everything on Kickstarter must be a project. A project has a clear goal,
> like making an album, a book, or a work of art. A project will eventually be
> completed, and something will be produced by it.

Assuming she sets out to produce an RPG, perhaps she can use some of this
money to pay for game assets, writing, editing, etc. Or, alternatively, she
could pay for other kids to attend RPG camp (or other STEM camps). I really do
hope could be turned into something very positive, but I have my doubts.

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MoreMoschops
It's a training course that the people building the product need to go on
(which, in this case, is a single person). Some kickstarters might send two of
their people on a 3D animation course. Some might buy an expensive set of
textbooks and other such training material. This one sends someone on a
residential RPG course. Some kickstarters might need to buy some expensive
hardware that she could not otherwise afford. That's exactly what this one is
doing.

I could not disagree more that it counts as "fund my life". "Fund my life"
would be paying for things that she was going to have to do anyway, such as
paying the rent and bills (which she probably doesn't, being 8 or however old
she is, but that kind of thing is "fund my life").

~~~
waterlesscloud
So I could do a Kickstarter to fund a long European vacation?

~~~
EliRivers
No, you've missed the point completely. In English, "vacation" and "training
course" do not have the same meaning; don't be fooled by the fact that they
both involve living away from home.

The Kickstarter policies are clearly listed on their page, but the point is
that you have to be making something; producing a product. If you'd checked,
you'd have seen that vacation is explicitly listed as forbidden.

For example, you could be making a book about European art, and to do this,
you need to go to Europe.

In this case, one could argue that she's getting money for tuition, which is
against the rules, but it's part of the disallowed "fund my life", which
implies that it's things that are already part of her life. Without the
kickstarter, she's not going on the training course; it's not part of her
life. It's an essential part of producing the product at the end of the
kickstarter.

~~~
waterlesscloud
No, I get the point.

It's just that it opens such a blatant loophole that the rules might as well
not exist.

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christiangenco
Brace yourselves for the massive wave of "I'm a X year old kid who wants to
make Y" kickstarter campaigns.

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peripetylabs
Great initiative. It may be wise to steer the kid towards something more
educational, like a Snake clone in Python or something. RPG Maker teaches
nothing.

~~~
bsilvereagle
“Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” - William Keats

For what she's after, I think a first game in anything is good. The technical
knowledge will come later after the passion has been ignited.

