Nine-year-old girl’s $829 Kickstarter to build game passes $10,000 after one day
thenextweb.com
thenextweb.com
> 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.
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").
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.
It's just that it opens such a blatant loophole that the rules might as well not exist.
Regardless of whether it violates policies, I'm more worried that it sends the wrong message. Call it "training" all you like, It's ultimately just a week-long class for children who want to learn RPG Maker. And don't get me wrong -- I'm a huge fan of that particular piece of software. (I taught myself to use RPG Maker 2000 back when I was 11 years old.) But let's call it what it is -- at best, an impromptu scholarship for this girl, and at worst, a hand-out.
Again, I'm hoping that the girl and her mother can use the overwhelming success of the funding to turn this into something great -- something far bigger in scope than the original proposal. But until I see that happen I'll continue to be skeptical.
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.