UNSUNG STORY: TALE OF THE GUARDIANS: TRPG KICKSTARTED BY YASUMI MATSUNO

Despite being only 80% of the way there three days ago, they somehow hit their goal with only 20 hours remaining. I always sort of suspect shenanigans when that happens, but if the end result of the shenanigans is that they make the game anyway despite really only having $500k funding, I guess I'm not actually going to complain too hard. And despite my skepticism, it's probably actually legit, since they've been sending out mass emails like mad several times a day for the past week, trying to entice people with everything from gameplay details to increased rewards for backers to an AMA on Reddit.

Matsuno didn't, instead it was Joel Goodman, the CEO of Playdek who's making the game. I'm not even sure if Matsuno speaks English.

I know there are lots of legit reasons why it happens but I can't help but suspect every time that it's because the person running the kickstarter pledged to pay himself a hundred thousand dollars of his own money so that he could get everything that was pledged so far. It's probably almost never true, I'm just super cynical.

author=RyaReisender
If you don't believe in the good of humanity, just think of it this way: Why would they pay $60000 more than they'd need just to lose 10% of that money due to fees?

Because mathematically, they're paying $6000 to get themselves $560,000 for the project, which they probably need to help pay for expenses already accrued - I'd call that a good trade. There's also an instinct in human beings to align themselves with the greater majority, especially if there's a massive surge of popularity. If there's suddenly a massive spike in the funds, especially in the value of 1/6th of the total they want, there's a tendency to be more likely to contribute ("Oh, this project looked like it wasn't going to fly three days ago, but now it's overfunded - I wanted to get in on it, so now that I know it'll succeed, it's a good time!").