When I finally become the High Lord Capitalist and implement the AnCap regime, I will make sure I buy the rights to be named Zachary, so that I don't have to deal with the taint of all the other Zacharys that came before and after me.
@@KiraTV1 Aislinn still thinks Dreamworld is real, thats the craziest thing I got out of her video. Really nice person though, Im glad she will be hopefully with someone who is more grounded :D
@@EckosamaGhostTsushima Well obviously it is real. It's a base assets game. She probably doesn't understand that the game they promised is far off from what was shown. You can tell her "The game isn't real", but the video shown shows a baseline demo game that anyone could make in one day. It is as real as anything else from a rookie who just started doing random shit for fun. What the promises say is a different thing, and she can't say the promises are fake or unreal - only that the people behind it have 0 experience in the gaming industry. Everything else is up to the individual to think of themselves if this game is a scam or not - unless the people behind it come upfront with it and say it out loud or don't deliver the final promised game... looking at Chronicles of Elyria, might take a few years until we see anything remotely punished. Even what Kira says is not fact, it's a opinion based on evidence that show Dreamworld must be a scam and the people behind must be con artists. I and many other choose to believe because of the evidence, not because someone just straight out said it's a scam. It's her opinion and she can believe what she wants - Dreamworld can come out in any form and shape, but she probably won't say anything because she wants to stay out of it either way. Which I can understand... imagine being together with a mentally ill person who pretended to be a completely different person... geesh, I wish her only better things in life.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaait a minute... is this all just an evil ploy by KiraTV? Is he ACTUALLY behind Dreamworld so he can get more subs and viewers because this content is so juicy... the plot thickens...
@@manuxx3543 I think what's bothering me is usually nervous laughter is a small laugh to themselves, sometimes while talking, but this is full blown laughter. It's catching me off guard I guess
Laughter can disarm people, just like a smile. It's a psychological response in humans to be more trusting when met with percieved benevolent behaviour. This can be exploited, whether subconsiously done or with intent. It is good that you find it unnerving. It's uncanny, like a 3d model is uncanny you sense something is not right. After all, humans are social beings and social cues and behaviour is integral to us on a fundamental level.
I know right? I am actually amazed that they managed to date for 5 whole years while he is obviously a compulsive / delusional liar of some sorts. Probably has smoked more weed than Snoop dogg the last years.
Plus side: it's nice when your crazy ex creates so much evidence that they were genuinely a crazy ex and you aren't just being hyperbolic, or deflecting blame.
just watched the ex-fiance's video. she seems cool and he strung her along in multiple ways for extended periods of time. i feel bad for her. she, amazingly, doesn't hold a grudge.
@@FEEAR1000 I want to know more about this girl that the two talk to in private VCs. The way Kira mentioned it, it made it sound like it was a 14 year old who was getting groomed--or it's some 20something looking to be queen of the kingdom. Narcissists attract each other like something fierce. It was just glossed over and that alone sounds like it could be a whole story in of itself
My wife was one of the 3 major Discord mods for a big UA-cam channel. He was a **ick. She quit. So did everyone else.. so guess who now moderates his now dead Discord? Yep, kids.
I went and watched her video and it really is worth watching. It's so ironic that this man scammed her in the limelight and used their breakup, which was mainly based on those lies, for emotional marketing to scam people. She says she doesn't think he's scamming because he seems to genuinely want the game and he isn't going to just run off with the money, but I really think she's more taking the high ground and giving him the benefit of the doubt. Really respect that woman. She bought herself an engagement ring with real diamonds because she deserved it. Just amazing.
It's concerning when an adult connects with kids like this. Especially when they begin to show affection like they care for him and don't wanna see him get hurt.
i found the info about long talks with a girl on the discord concerning. generally, these kids are possibly just being used as free labor. which is also not the greatest.
@@KiraTV1 I would ask if the kids are being talked to in a creepy way, this really needs to come out into the public and the police. No one should be using kids to promote a scam. Make sure they are okay for us.
@@KiraTV1 i know you cant say anything about this touchy situation about him without anything being provable, but yes please do make sure they're ok for us kira.
Honestly, I sympathize with the kids that were used as moderators. It was their first thing that came close to job experience and they handled it pretty well and seemed like genuine good people. And now they are heartbroken or embarrassed that they worked for pricks making a scam. I would've felt awfull in that situation at that age. I wish them all the best
i can feel that pain too, i was a discord moderator for a server not a while back, i was a good friend of the owner until i realized that he's actually racist. I am no longer a discord moderator of that server.
No lie, the kids behaved better than some colleagues I had in university. Hell, they remind me of working retail, young people on their first job dealing with awful higher ups just trying to serve customers.
"My sincerity... left me." "My integrity... left me." "My creepy laugh which I use to show everyone I have no idea what I'm talking about... still got it."
There isnt anything remotely funny about the question or the motive behind asking it. So we know his laugh is forced/fake and just a way to cover his awkwardness.
Its OK! You can now fund my Kickstarter where I develop a Popcorn Making Simulator! You can trust me, I have over 9 years of game development experience. But it was all personal projects mostly Flash games on Miniclip and stuff. ..... I've also written stories and stuff....that I'd like to see turn into games. I'm basically a Superstar.
One of the bigger scams in Kickstarter games is one called Project Phoenix. They took millions from their backers and just ran away with it. I’m amazed it’s not being talked about more
thanks for the credit bossman, great video! i was just told today about the mod being removed, its insane. only these guys could cause more damage during damage control
KiraTV thanks for showing these scammers and I originally saw the video of the game teaser and was almost on board to kick in a few dollars. I decided to search for more information on the game and news and found this channel. There are so many kickstarter scams out there thanks for saving me money!
Just do a massive Discord Grooming Report to Discord. Their Discord and Private Discord accounts will be banned and the case will be sent to police. Nothing is gonna happen tho if we don't go together and report their Discord Server and what they do.
Yeah, like am I the only one who gets some "to catch a predator vibe" from it ? They are involving children in his scam project, luring them with the promise of a job, banning anyone who question them, like it's seriously scary.
He trying to make eye contact. It's a marketing thing that making eye contact makes you seem more trust worthy, its why when you see bad marketing campaigns they are staring down the camera like it killed there dog. He doesn't know how to act like a normal human and be natural, so he trys to make what he thinks is friendly eye contact with the camera but just ends up looking like a crazy person
Yeah, supposedly some people can feel uneasy around pyschopaths, due to their uncanny pretending of emotions. I feel it too, there is something not right with the way he laughs and holds a gaze.
@@jimmyseaver3647 the video has a lot of jump cuts, but the music plays continuously. I think it's a part of the meme... Wouldn't put it past him to have done that in the original video though lol.
This literally sounds like the plot of a movie called Dreamworld, where the guy is making a game called Dreamworld...but the real Dreamworld is the delusional fugue state in which he spends his waking hours, OH THE IRONY OF IT
Remember the episode of Black Mirror, that starts out like an old episode of the original Star Trek series. That's what it makes me think of when I hear those 2 dudes talk about "Dreamworld" and, welcome the the endgame. Talk about delusions of grandeur. It almost makes me hope this is a scam. Those dudes are so out of touch with reality.
This Y Combinator thing deserves further investigations indeed. Apart from this ridiculous scam, i'm amazed that projects could be funded in such an off-hand way
Imagine being the type of guy that buys a fake wedding ring for his beloved fiancé, and when she finally finds out about it his only response is: *"Why do you even deserve a diamond?"* Somebody *please* say the same thing to him when he complains about nobody wanting to support this bogus scam.🤣
Never trust a guy who NEVER stops smiling. For that matter, never trust a guy who refers to himself as a "serial entrepreneur". Anyone who calls themselves an entrepreneur is, 9 times out of 10, a complete lying tool.
"I worked in Unity" = 9 years of professional game dev experience. This guy is full mental, so he is saying that he has 9 years of game dev experience with Unity and Flash and not a single game to show for it? That would imply extreme amounts of incompotency if anything.
Something about the user-submitted footage starting at 16:28 is reminiscent of EverQuest: Landmark... An open sandbox building tool and nothing else. I had a lot of fun in Landmark, and they always were clear that it was just a step toward EQ: Next. As I recall, the devs were going to build the new version of Qeynos entirely out of user-submitted buildings - pretty cool, right? And then... Landmark lasted a few months and was killed by Daybreak Games. I don't think it was anywhere near the scam that Dreamworld appears to be, but there were a lot of people who were really pissed.
I’m so glad that more people are becoming aware of this scam and I feel so bad for anyone that did pledge! Creating scam kickstarters like this is so hurtful to the games industry. I’m making a sloth MMO and I was going to use Kickstarter to help launch my game but after seeing this and all the other scams, the community will be way less trustful of new developers which leaves the genuine new MMOs almost no chance of being funded 😢
I think maybe someone should send in a tip to law enforcement that something strange is going on here. Any company that is getting free labor from minors by promising them a job in the future may already be doing something illegal. Combine that with the possible grooming of that girl on Discord... I'm not saying the guy should be locked up immediately. But I am saying I'd feel much better about this stuff if he was on the radar of whatever entity is best at keeping an eye on this.
60K is still a lot of people's money but at least its not 100's of thousands but I guess if it was then this may have escalated higher. Just real curious where this story will fall in the end.
Holy shit this is ***huge***!! PLEASE reach out to more VCs about this!! A16z, Jason Calacanis, Justin Khan, Garry Tan, etc... These people need to know wth is going on because it indeed has implications for the startup industry. Nepotism in YC?? I don't think people are realizing the importance of that. BILLIONS of dollars go through that org every year. Almost every major company has come out of there: Twitch, Airbnb, Reddit, Doordash, Dropbox, Stripe, etc etc etc... People are talking about the possibility of the tech bubble bursting, but its the success of these companies that keeps the momentum going,... However, if there's nepotism and lax due diligence this bad going on than it's only a matter of time before we get another Theranos fiasco and eventually a market crash like the Dot com crash in the 90s. This seriously needs to be addressed and corrected!!
I worked with Unity too around 7 years ago. So it was like opening an empty scene/map adding some default models. Guess what? I'm a game developer with 7 years experience.
Knew a similar bloke I went to Uni with - lied about everything; his upbringing, his parents, his medical history, everything. Dude was engaged to a lady and it all came out months before the wedding that he had been lying... needless to say she called it off and he had a nervous breakdown and went missing. Funny thing was that he was an alright guy, average looking, could have done alright if he hadn’t lied all the time.
It's an investment opportunity; when Dreamworld takes off, and it will, I can sell the account for thousands. Just wait and see mom, we'll see if you're laughing when I become the richest person in this basement.
Hey Kira, been watching you for a bit of time and just wanted to say I think it's great that you do these videos and act as a kind of advocate for gamers/consumers. Much appreciated and your content and humor is awesome.
I don't know if i like Kira opening this hell hole further. This story about Dreamworld is getting worse and worse, absolutely disgusting how these 2 people are going about their way, with their discord and the treatment of underage children. I feel very uncomfortable knowing this is actually happening as we speak. There has to be some way to report this to discord and Kickstarter
It's always a blessing to those who value freedom of information and freedom of access. It's only a curse to those who want to censor information that the public has a legal and ethical right to know and obtain the information concerned.
@@ORiOh4582 The internet never forgives and forgets for good reason, humans do both too often. Letting it be and no one will throw chairs at you calling for your head is always the best course of action behind taking responsibility. Public forums hold no mercy or respite. So prepare for the worst.
@@DR3ADER1 Except it does. Digital information, just like real paper, also rots away and is eventually lost in time, in fact, it rots way way faster than actual paper, which is ironic.
So his game developing experience... is only from personal projects. You can't claim experience if you didn't actually make anything substantial. By these guy's standards, I'm a writer, movie director, designer, musician, etc.
@@henrik1743 dude is a manipulator. And lets be honest - emotional manipulation is the worst one, as you basicly play on other person (who should be everything to you) feelings.
@@JamesEarlCash Well you are right to be honest, I am sorry. I was myself stuck in 3-4 years on and off in my late high school years with a girl who was borderline, shit is really hard on you when you are young and you just wanna be a good person.
still believe Zach is a sociopath just based on that kickstarter video, the sound of his voice, his mannerisms etc, I'd be shocked if he wasnt at the very least a borderline sociopath
There is definitely more than a touch of cluster B going on there. Although I fear he is in good company. I’m pretty sure about 80% of the shit on Kickstarter is delusional scams operated by Sociopaths.
Very much the same feel as my abusive narcissistic ex. Most narcissist are at least somewhat on the sociopath spectrum. Wouldnt be surprised if he's pretty far along it
@@andrewtaylor940 Crowdfunding, in general, only opens up opportunities for delusional and deceptive individuals who will promise the world 50-ton oyster pearls when in reality, all they have are tuna guts and hubris. It's why I always say to people online and offline "DO NOT GIVE MONEY TO CROWDFUNDERS!!!" the exceptions not only prove the rule of consistency that crowdfunding is flawed and scummy by design, said exceptions are either mediocre at best and crushingly dull and derivative at worst, plus, you can spend money on a finished product after the campaign ends without donating to the people behind said product, for less. Especially when discounts and other sales occur in the following months and years. Fools and their money are soon parted, and because not a lot of people are wealthy as is, it's in your best interest to preserve your financial assets as a responsible customer.
Not sure about sociopath, but definitely unhinged. I guess it would take a sociopath to con people out of their money... most people wouldn’t be able to do it, conscience would get in the way.
Hearing the backend being something they never made just puts the icing on the cake. I absolutely love the idea of games running on some sort of advanced network in the vein of SpatialOS or something akin to it, which made me extremely suspicious that two people could develop this thing companies will pay thousands just to license
I'm honestly surprised these videos aren't getting shit done against these guys.. I'd imagine people would be putting pressure on y combinator at this point
@TheMasterZar and if they somehow lied and perhaps forged things to get accepted by y-combinator then that will not end well either as those kind of firms tend to hold a grudge when they loose money or gets a bad rep lol. we'll see how much shit this ends up beeing :)
"Assisted creation of virtualized process containers that can be migrated across machines..." Dude actually put "installed Kubernetes on his resume". "implemented Checkpoint and Restore in Userspace of Linux Control Group properties" That's like 5 commands in the terminal; stick them in a bash script and your internship is over before lunch.
19:22 That Github profile is top-notch! An average of 10 contributions a day, to open source (and private) repos is amazing. That aside, Kira is quite bold for challenging Y-combinator's authenticity, based off the quality of DreamWorld. And he's absolutely right. I wonder when news of DreamWorld will show up on the front page of Hackernews. Edit: it's been on Hackernews since the 22nd of April.
Hi Kira, great coverage of this train wreck. I found your channel looking for new games that are going through Early Access. You do a great job sorting out the wheat from the chaff. You make things accessible for the layman and seem to be fair from what I've seen. Your coverage of the Dreamworld Scam Saga is important work because people need to know about this as it is projects like this that hurt EA titles now and in the future. Keep it up.
18:50 I'd looove to see a tour of the horrible code and asset mismatches. If it's anything like the Yanderedev code (the discord is like it anyway lol), this'll be fun.
I just cannot wait for this series to go even deeper and for you to uncover all the dirty secrets and expose these guys even more! Keep up the good work!
They sent out a mass PM this evening to their KS backers. In it, they claim that alpha will release on May 21st to all backer tiers $29 and up. They also stated that they have 2 new devs, 1 full time and 1 part time. Claiming a total of 3 full time and 2 part time devs. The rest of the message states how other backing rewards will be distributed.
That proposal story is the slimiest, most manipulative garbage I have heard in a long time. Dude was clearly afraid she would move on from him now that her career was really taking off and went there unannounced to pressure her into accepting his proposal in front of all the cameras and onlookers. The man isn't a clown, he's a piece of shit that thinks he's way smarter than anyone else.
I'm not one for "car crash TV" but Kira thank you for holding these "game developers" to account. It's good to get awareness out there by showing how this is a scam (same with your vids on CoE/KoE). Everyone needs to be extremely diligent when backing a Kickstarter and I enjoy your critical analysis on these bad Kickstarters. I would love to see more vids of active Kickstarters that seems dubious to ensure the general public do not get scammed.
I absolutely love how you break this down man. It's too funny, I'm just here laughing my ass off. It's funny but also very sad how many people this guys is scamming. It's just so blatantly obvious, and an even more sad thought is this guy might actually believe he can do this. Keep it up, people need to be aware of things like this. We appreciate it.
the whole idea this guy had was to build a basic world with assets and add world building tools and modding tools and have people build the MMO for him
Kira, I love these dumpster fire exposing videos. This is the kind of journalism that the industry needs to help inform and protect the consumer. Informative, yet so entertaining! Keep it up man.
This will never be over. These scummy people are just in it for the money and to run away with it not releasing anything. A lot of other kickstarter projects went like this. And it's so dam surprising there are people actually funding this with no actual clear ideas of what the game will be or look like. They just put pre-made assets together and made a video with them...
@@0-Seya-0 I moreso meant the rabithole that is these guys' existence and the clear implications that their scam being fully funded means for the platform. I remember first seeing this and thinking: man money launderers have gotten really bold. And yet, somehow, the more I learn about the situation the more I really just hope its just money laundering.
I made a house in Minecraft once.... That's more game development experience then Zachary has.
haha me too
When I finally become the High Lord Capitalist and implement the AnCap regime, I will make sure I buy the rights to be named Zachary, so that I don't have to deal with the taint of all the other Zacharys that came before and after me.
I turned on minecraft once, still have him beat
And good on you for not claiming to have invented Minecraft, lol.
@@toddtaylor6506 that would be ridiculous! I did invent the internet though 😜
That beef is sizzling baby. Not even a shred of pink in the middle.
😄
@@KiraTV1 Aislinn still thinks Dreamworld is real, thats the craziest thing I got out of her video. Really nice person though, Im glad she will be hopefully with someone who is more grounded :D
@@EckosamaGhostTsushima I think she just said that as a means to be polite. The facial expression sort of gave away the polite lie.
@@EckosamaGhostTsushima Well obviously it is real. It's a base assets game. She probably doesn't understand that the game they promised is far off from what was shown. You can tell her "The game isn't real", but the video shown shows a baseline demo game that anyone could make in one day. It is as real as anything else from a rookie who just started doing random shit for fun. What the promises say is a different thing, and she can't say the promises are fake or unreal - only that the people behind it have 0 experience in the gaming industry. Everything else is up to the individual to think of themselves if this game is a scam or not - unless the people behind it come upfront with it and say it out loud or don't deliver the final promised game... looking at Chronicles of Elyria, might take a few years until we see anything remotely punished.
Even what Kira says is not fact, it's a opinion based on evidence that show Dreamworld must be a scam and the people behind must be con artists. I and many other choose to believe because of the evidence, not because someone just straight out said it's a scam. It's her opinion and she can believe what she wants - Dreamworld can come out in any form and shape, but she probably won't say anything because she wants to stay out of it either way. Which I can understand... imagine being together with a mentally ill person who pretended to be a completely different person... geesh, I wish her only better things in life.
I don't think it's a surprise that someone who was with another human for 5 years wouldn't want to assume they're capable of such malicious intent.
At this point, anyone who has invested in this Kickstarter basically is paying for this mini-series from Kira.
kickstarter, providing your daily dose of gaming drama since 2009
hehe i can live with that
Hell at least the videos on this catastrophe will provide more entertainment than the game ever will.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaait a minute... is this all just an evil ploy by KiraTV? Is he ACTUALLY behind Dreamworld so he can get more subs and viewers because this content is so juicy... the plot thickens...
Money well spent
The way he laughs whenever he's confronted by anything is honestly scary
Sounds like he’s on the edge of a breakdown.
@@Ryotbh Yeah, either he's doing it to belittle people who question him or he knows he can't keep this up much longer
It's a bit common
@@manuxx3543 I think what's bothering me is usually nervous laughter is a small laugh to themselves, sometimes while talking, but this is full blown laughter. It's catching me off guard I guess
Laughter can disarm people, just like a smile. It's a psychological response in humans to be more trusting when met with percieved benevolent behaviour. This can be exploited, whether subconsiously done or with intent. It is good that you find it unnerving. It's uncanny, like a 3d model is uncanny you sense something is not right. After all, humans are social beings and social cues and behaviour is integral to us on a fundamental level.
I'm just glad his fiance left before tying the knot. Many people aren't that fortunate.
Yeah, she dodged the bullet on that one, for sure.
I know right? I am actually amazed that they managed to date for 5 whole years while he is obviously a compulsive / delusional liar of some sorts. Probably has smoked more weed than Snoop dogg the last years.
That story was some craziness you really don't think happens outside of a movie script, lol.
@@henrik1743 according to her he's totally a no-drug guy. Mind you that not everyone on weed is becoming a useless piece of meat.
@@henrik1743 His fiance actually mentioned that he's strictly against drugs, so his crazy is au naturale.
Ex-Fiance- We are breaking up.
Zach- *Nervous laugh* I'll get back to you *Goes on two week holiday*
I'm glad the fiancee got out when she did but I feel bad she wasted so much time on this guy.
Facts
at least she got a story out of it.
Plus side: it's nice when your crazy ex creates so much evidence that they were genuinely a crazy ex and you aren't just being hyperbolic, or deflecting blame.
I'd like to waste some of her time. At least about 20 mins worth. Hubba hubba.
just watched the ex-fiance's video. she seems cool and he strung her along in multiple ways for extended periods of time. i feel bad for her. she, amazingly, doesn't hold a grudge.
Discord moderation and kids is the creepiest combination there is
We don't even know what kind of creepy messages he sends kids. I am worried
@@FEEAR1000 I want to know more about this girl that the two talk to in private VCs. The way Kira mentioned it, it made it sound like it was a 14 year old who was getting groomed--or it's some 20something looking to be queen of the kingdom. Narcissists attract each other like something fierce. It was just glossed over and that alone sounds like it could be a whole story in of itself
mods who are simps and constantly white-knight their streamers can be pretty nightmarish. just had a great example of this today.
My wife was one of the 3 major Discord mods for a big UA-cam channel. He was a **ick. She quit. So did everyone else.. so guess who now moderates his now dead Discord? Yep, kids.
Yeah, definitely sounds like grooming.
I went and watched her video and it really is worth watching. It's so ironic that this man scammed her in the limelight and used their breakup, which was mainly based on those lies, for emotional marketing to scam people. She says she doesn't think he's scamming because he seems to genuinely want the game and he isn't going to just run off with the money, but I really think she's more taking the high ground and giving him the benefit of the doubt. Really respect that woman. She bought herself an engagement ring with real diamonds because she deserved it. Just amazing.
It's concerning when an adult connects with kids like this. Especially when they begin to show affection like they care for him and don't wanna see him get hurt.
i found the info about long talks with a girl on the discord concerning. generally, these kids are possibly just being used as free labor. which is also not the greatest.
Indeed
@@KiraTV1 I would ask if the kids are being talked to in a creepy way, this really needs to come out into the public and the police. No one should be using kids to promote a scam. Make sure they are okay for us.
@@KiraTV1 i know you cant say anything about this touchy situation about him without anything being provable, but yes please do make sure they're ok for us kira.
I've left a line of open dialogue to one of the mods , I'd hope if anything improper happens they would reach out
He's laughing because he's trying to delay some time to come up with a bs answer.
Honestly, I sympathize with the kids that were used as moderators. It was their first thing that came close to job experience and they handled it pretty well and seemed like genuine good people. And now they are heartbroken or embarrassed that they worked for pricks making a scam. I would've felt awfull in that situation at that age. I wish them all the best
100% agree
Wait, they found out that they were scammed? I thought the kids are still under Zach's control?
@@hak1111111 Some realized, some haven't, but its just a matter of time. Eventually they'll turn tail and run
i can feel that pain too, i was a discord moderator for a server not a while back, i was a good friend of the owner until i realized that he's actually racist.
I am no longer a discord moderator of that server.
No lie, the kids behaved better than some colleagues I had in university. Hell, they remind me of working retail, young people on their first job dealing with awful higher ups just trying to serve customers.
I just went from having never heard of Dreamworld to being SO excited to see this train wreck happen in a single video
Lmao , legendary
Chronicles of Elyria: I am the scammiest game on Kickstarter!
Dreamworld: Hold my beer-
😄
And then we find out Dreamworld's beer wasn't his.
More like: "Hold my adolescent Discord mods"
Hold my limited Edition Beer, for only $1999.00!
Hold my Unreal asset store flip
"My sincerity... left me."
"My integrity... left me."
"My creepy laugh which I use to show everyone I have no idea what I'm talking about... still got it."
His awkward laugh is eerie when he's asked a question. Like you know he's lying with the skirting around the question.
There isnt anything remotely funny about the question or the motive behind asking it.
So we know his laugh is forced/fake and just a way to cover his awkwardness.
Reminds me of Kamala.
@@HulksterHogan missing the “poor me” voice
Textbook NPD behavior from this whack-job
AHAHAHA WHAT DO YOU MEAN I BANNED THAT GUY AHAHAHAH
*you have been banned*
It's like telling the truth physically hurts this scammer.
Well, doesnt it hurt all scammers?
The worst part about all of this is that I'm running low on popcorn.
😄
Its OK! You can now fund my Kickstarter where I develop a Popcorn Making Simulator!
You can trust me, I have over 9 years of game development experience.
But it was all personal projects mostly Flash games on Miniclip and stuff.
.....
I've also written stories and stuff....that I'd like to see turn into games.
I'm basically a Superstar.
One of the bigger scams in Kickstarter games is one called Project Phoenix. They took millions from their backers and just ran away with it. I’m amazed it’s not being talked about more
That fireworks scene gets me every time, all 5 of those frames that we get.
im dead lmao
4 frames*
5? You’re being nice.
Imagine losing that beautiful woman that was gonna marry him simply because he can’t stop lying. It’s only downhill for him for sure now.
thanks for the credit bossman, great video! i was just told today about the mod being removed, its insane. only these guys could cause more damage during damage control
My pleasure man you're doing good work
@@KiraTV1 thanks man, that wonka intro killed me!
KiraTV thanks for showing these scammers and I originally saw the video of the game teaser and was almost on board to kick in a few dollars. I decided to search for more information on the game and news and found this channel. There are so many kickstarter scams out there thanks for saving me money!
I know this developer as "the guy who got dumped by his ex and used that to fish some easy cash"
Accurate
By Zach’s logic, I also have 9 years of game dev experience, and I’m only 23.
The child grooming stuff is scary. Even if it goes no further than misleading kids about a job and never delivering, that's still really messed up.
Is there any way we can contact discord about this guy grooming the kids.
@@simmimon Yeah you can actually send a message to them on this URL
support.discord.com/hc/nl/requests/new
Just do a massive Discord Grooming Report to Discord. Their Discord and Private Discord accounts will be banned and the case will be sent to police. Nothing is gonna happen tho if we don't go together and report their Discord Server and what they do.
Yeah, like am I the only one who gets some "to catch a predator vibe" from it ? They are involving children in his scam project, luring them with the promise of a job, banning anyone who question them, like it's seriously scary.
it is the best part , how easy to fool these kids
His eyes, what is with his eyes? They're uncanny
He trying to make eye contact.
It's a marketing thing that making eye contact makes you seem more trust worthy, its why when you see bad marketing campaigns they are staring down the camera like it killed there dog.
He doesn't know how to act like a normal human and be natural, so he trys to make what he thinks is friendly eye contact with the camera but just ends up looking like a crazy person
@@gyroscope915 Psychopaths sometimes overdo it, when trying to seem genuine and empathetic....they try to mimic emotions too strongly.
Just saying.
Yeah, supposedly some people can feel uneasy around pyschopaths, due to their uncanny pretending of emotions.
I feel it too, there is something not right with the way he laughs and holds a gaze.
@@morpheas768 that's why I said he doesn't know how to act like a normal human being and so he over does it and it gives freaky vibes off
That "Left Me" montage never gets old, istg, lmaooo
Its fantastic
Only thing that would have made it better is a cut of "I... left me... ".
@@joelbaker9366 true time to continue this Meme
And he's playing that meme sad violin track without even the slightest shred of irony.
@@jimmyseaver3647 the video has a lot of jump cuts, but the music plays continuously. I think it's a part of the meme... Wouldn't put it past him to have done that in the original video though lol.
These guys really give indie devs a bad rep. Would never even call these guys devs in the first place. Great video!
This literally sounds like the plot of a movie called Dreamworld, where the guy is making a game called Dreamworld...but the real Dreamworld is the delusional fugue state in which he spends his waking hours, OH THE IRONY OF IT
Bro I'd watch that. 😆
That's actually a brilliant idea for a movie!
Remember the episode of Black Mirror, that starts out like an old episode of the original Star Trek series. That's what it makes me think of when I hear those 2 dudes talk about "Dreamworld" and, welcome the the endgame. Talk about delusions of grandeur. It almost makes me hope this is a scam. Those dudes are so out of touch with reality.
This Y Combinator thing deserves further investigations indeed. Apart from this ridiculous scam, i'm amazed that projects could be funded in such an off-hand way
The game that keep givin content...to kira
For real, he's giving Kira more content than his supporters.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hahaha the less content the game has equals to more Kira gets to talk about, makes sense hahahaha
Yea, but lets be real, Kira has endless content to draw from. But this topic right now is just so yummy.
LOOOL
They keeping me fed
Imagine being the type of guy that buys a fake wedding ring for his beloved fiancé, and when she finally finds out about it his only response is: *"Why do you even deserve a diamond?"*
Somebody *please* say the same thing to him when he complains about nobody wanting to support this bogus scam.🤣
Its honestly so sad
I will unban Kira when he shills my game - Dreamworld Dev
This should be a Netflix mini-series and you should head it up. Absolutely loving your coverage of this proper-scam.
This guy makes Caspian seem legit.
Funny but not even close lol
@@obliviouswanderer208 At least Caspian put in the effort for a multi year scam. Dream World is so blatant only kids fall for it.
Sad true
Chad Caspian vs virgin Zach
I wanna say this is BS, but unfortunately I dont want to lie.
Yeah....Zach is worse.
Never trust a guy who NEVER stops smiling. For that matter, never trust a guy who refers to himself as a "serial entrepreneur". Anyone who calls themselves an entrepreneur is, 9 times out of 10, a complete lying tool.
"I worked in Unity" = 9 years of professional game dev experience. This guy is full mental, so he is saying that he has 9 years of game dev experience with Unity and Flash and not a single game to show for it? That would imply extreme amounts of incompotency if anything.
Something about the user-submitted footage starting at 16:28 is reminiscent of EverQuest: Landmark... An open sandbox building tool and nothing else. I had a lot of fun in Landmark, and they always were clear that it was just a step toward EQ: Next. As I recall, the devs were going to build the new version of Qeynos entirely out of user-submitted buildings - pretty cool, right?
And then... Landmark lasted a few months and was killed by Daybreak Games. I don't think it was anywhere near the scam that Dreamworld appears to be, but there were a lot of people who were really pissed.
Dude is like the Joker in the last movie, just laughs like a freak when any stress kicks in
damn.. too real
like hes buying time to come up with an excuse/lie
@@DietCrystalPepsi that’s exactly what he is doing, it’s a mental thing people who are bad at lying do
ua-cam.com/video/OCXLqgvHayI/v-deo.html
I’m so glad that more people are becoming aware of this scam and I feel so bad for anyone that did pledge! Creating scam kickstarters like this is so hurtful to the games industry. I’m making a sloth MMO and I was going to use Kickstarter to help launch my game but after seeing this and all the other scams, the community will be way less trustful of new developers which leaves the genuine new MMOs almost no chance of being funded 😢
That nervous laughter is going to haunt my nightmares.
Everytime I hear Zach's laugh, it sends a shiver down my spine..
A very scary kind of person he is. I hope those kids around him will see this before real consequenses happen, because that will happen.
I think maybe someone should send in a tip to law enforcement that something strange is going on here. Any company that is getting free labor from minors by promising them a job in the future may already be doing something illegal. Combine that with the possible grooming of that girl on Discord...
I'm not saying the guy should be locked up immediately. But I am saying I'd feel much better about this stuff if he was on the radar of whatever entity is best at keeping an eye on this.
60K is still a lot of people's money but at least its not 100's of thousands but I guess if it was then this may have escalated higher. Just real curious where this story will fall in the end.
Caspian should learn from these guys because their whole project is just a big fog of war
this xD
Legendary comment
The world is filled with fog at this point.
Holy shit this is ***huge***!! PLEASE reach out to more VCs about this!! A16z, Jason Calacanis, Justin Khan, Garry Tan, etc... These people need to know wth is going on because it indeed has implications for the startup industry.
Nepotism in YC?? I don't think people are realizing the importance of that. BILLIONS of dollars go through that org every year.
Almost every major company has come out of there: Twitch, Airbnb, Reddit, Doordash, Dropbox, Stripe, etc etc etc...
People are talking about the possibility of the tech bubble bursting, but its the success of these companies that keeps the momentum going,... However, if there's nepotism and lax due diligence this bad going on than it's only a matter of time before we get another Theranos fiasco and eventually a market crash like the Dot com crash in the 90s.
This seriously needs to be addressed and corrected!!
I worked with Unity too around 7 years ago. So it was like opening an empty scene/map adding some default models.
Guess what? I'm a game developer with 7 years experience.
Start a Kickstarter dude. Your record is truly impressive.
15:51 this video is already getting pretty long? Bruh you can make a 4 day documentary and people wont stop watching.
Lmao
Anyone who laughs hysterically and condescendingly at a tough question is almost certainly lying.
Good on you mate. Unbelievable watching, couldn't take my eyes off the sheer audacity of those guys.
Oh my god, that definitely-not-edited clip killed me
Lmao
lmao
Knew a similar bloke I went to Uni with - lied about everything; his upbringing, his parents, his medical history, everything.
Dude was engaged to a lady and it all came out months before the wedding that he had been lying... needless to say she called it off and he had a nervous breakdown and went missing.
Funny thing was that he was an alright guy, average looking, could have done alright if he hadn’t lied all the time.
Its a sickness for some unfortunately , I know a few too
I just sold my house and invested it all in dreamworld
It's an investment opportunity; when Dreamworld takes off, and it will, I can sell the account for thousands.
Just wait and see mom, we'll see if you're laughing when I become the richest person in this basement.
*nervous laughter ensues*
It's been a year and I absolutely NEED more Dreamworld tea
Dude is freaking insane....
I would add compulsive liar on top of that, dude just can't stop double dipping them lies.
@@henrik1743 Just a piece of trash human being, no point to sugar coat it.
Hey Kira, been watching you for a bit of time and just wanted to say I think it's great that you do these videos and act as a kind of advocate for gamers/consumers. Much appreciated and your content and humor is awesome.
Dreamworld is the gift that keeps on giving
Like an undiscovered STD.
Talk about Unreal Engine stock assets
I don't know if i like Kira opening this hell hole further. This story about Dreamworld is getting worse and worse, absolutely disgusting how these 2 people are going about their way, with their discord and the treatment of underage children. I feel very uncomfortable knowing this is actually happening as we speak. There has to be some way to report this to discord and Kickstarter
I can't get past the clip, I just rewatch it.
Those poor kids in 6 months time: “Zack.... left me.”
The Internet: Where your actions will never be forgotten.
Sometimes a curse, sometimes a blessing.
It's always a blessing to those who value freedom of information and freedom of access. It's only a curse to those who want to censor information that the public has a legal and ethical right to know and obtain the information concerned.
@@ORiOh4582 The internet never forgives and forgets for good reason, humans do both too often. Letting it be and no one will throw chairs at you calling for your head is always the best course of action behind taking responsibility. Public forums hold no mercy or respite. So prepare for the worst.
Except people forget things quite literally next day.
@@kirayoshikage4057 People do, the internet doesn't.
@@DR3ADER1 Except it does. Digital information, just like real paper, also rots away and is eventually lost in time, in fact, it rots way way faster than actual paper, which is ironic.
9:07 "We don't have a case bro." Oh don't worry Zach bro, I'm sure you'll have plenty cases soon enough.
first!
finally!
Now seriously Kira, that laugh is sus. I'm a little scared ngl. Great video as always
Thanks buddy
So his game developing experience... is only from personal projects. You can't claim experience if you didn't actually make anything substantial. By these guy's standards, I'm a writer, movie director, designer, musician, etc.
I seriously thought the whole ex fiance thing was it...
*BUT WAIT THERES MORE!*
I am actually *amazed* that they managed to date for 5 whole years while he is obviously a lunatic.
@@henrik1743 dude is a manipulator. And lets be honest - emotional manipulation is the worst one, as you basicly play on other person (who should be everything to you) feelings.
@@JamesEarlCash Well you are right to be honest, I am sorry. I was myself stuck in 3-4 years on and off in my late high school years with a girl who was borderline, shit is really hard on you when you are young and you just wanna be a good person.
I had no idea about this game or what was going on.
Good job covering it my dude.
still believe Zach is a sociopath just based on that kickstarter video, the sound of his voice, his mannerisms etc, I'd be shocked if he wasnt at the very least a borderline sociopath
There is definitely more than a touch of cluster B going on there. Although I fear he is in good company. I’m pretty sure about 80% of the shit on Kickstarter is delusional scams operated by Sociopaths.
Very much the same feel as my abusive narcissistic ex. Most narcissist are at least somewhat on the sociopath spectrum. Wouldnt be surprised if he's pretty far along it
@@pokerusfreak8194 Can second this.
@@andrewtaylor940 Crowdfunding, in general, only opens up opportunities for delusional and deceptive individuals who will promise the world 50-ton oyster pearls when in reality, all they have are tuna guts and hubris. It's why I always say to people online and offline "DO NOT GIVE MONEY TO CROWDFUNDERS!!!" the exceptions not only prove the rule of consistency that crowdfunding is flawed and scummy by design, said exceptions are either mediocre at best and crushingly dull and derivative at worst, plus, you can spend money on a finished product after the campaign ends without donating to the people behind said product, for less. Especially when discounts and other sales occur in the following months and years.
Fools and their money are soon parted, and because not a lot of people are wealthy as is, it's in your best interest to preserve your financial assets as a responsible customer.
Not sure about sociopath, but definitely unhinged.
I guess it would take a sociopath to con people out of their money... most people wouldn’t be able to do it, conscience would get in the way.
Been following this Kickstarter and your videos on this. Absolutely comical. Keep up the solid work mate
I love how ruthless Kira is when it comes to scams 🤣
I cant stop
@@KiraTV1 Respectable lmao
Hearing the backend being something they never made just puts the icing on the cake. I absolutely love the idea of games running on some sort of advanced network in the vein of SpatialOS or something akin to it, which made me extremely suspicious that two people could develop this thing companies will pay thousands just to license
I'm honestly surprised these videos aren't getting shit done against these guys.. I'd imagine people would be putting pressure on y combinator at this point
@TheMasterZar and if they somehow lied and perhaps forged things to get accepted by y-combinator then that will not end well either as those kind of firms tend to hold a grudge when they loose money or gets a bad rep lol. we'll see how much shit this ends up beeing :)
"Assisted creation of virtualized process containers that can be migrated across machines..."
Dude actually put "installed Kubernetes on his resume".
"implemented Checkpoint and Restore in Userspace of Linux Control Group properties"
That's like 5 commands in the terminal; stick them in a bash script and your internship is over before lunch.
Oh he worked at facebook, now I know who is deleting my memes.
19:22 That Github profile is top-notch! An average of 10 contributions a day, to open source (and private) repos is amazing.
That aside, Kira is quite bold for challenging Y-combinator's authenticity, based off the quality of DreamWorld. And he's absolutely right. I wonder when news of DreamWorld will show up on the front page of Hackernews.
Edit: it's been on Hackernews since the 22nd of April.
Don't worry about the video being too long, some of us listen while we're at work...
Legend
Just discovered your series of exposing the scam kickstarter games. Love it! Like your style too
Seems like Kira peered into the abyss, and Zachary Kaplan smiled back.
P.S. Love the content. Praise the algorithm.
Thanks bud
This almost deserves a playlist.. almost. Thanks for putting all that effort in your videos !
The Peter Piper of the gaming industry at its finest. Please save the poor souls that has been led astray by him.
Hi Kira, great coverage of this train wreck. I found your channel looking for new games that are going through Early Access. You do a great job sorting out the wheat from the chaff. You make things accessible for the layman and seem to be fair from what I've seen. Your coverage of the Dreamworld Scam Saga is important work because people need to know about this as it is projects like this that hurt EA titles now and in the future. Keep it up.
Thats so nice man thank you , I'll try my best !
18:50 I'd looove to see a tour of the horrible code and asset mismatches. If it's anything like the Yanderedev code (the discord is like it anyway lol), this'll be fun.
This shit is so crazy. Glad you’re making these, I can’t look away from this train wreck either.
They "make" a game with digging because they are experts in digging holes under themselves XD
I just cannot wait for this series to go even deeper and for you to uncover all the dirty secrets and expose these guys even more!
Keep up the good work!
Zach seems like the kind of guy who sells you an ounce of weed for £210 and it's a half ounce of mostly seeds and stems
They sent out a mass PM this evening to their KS backers. In it, they claim that alpha will release on May 21st to all backer tiers $29 and up. They also stated that they have 2 new devs, 1 full time and 1 part time. Claiming a total of 3 full time and 2 part time devs. The rest of the message states how other backing rewards will be distributed.
That proposal story is the slimiest, most manipulative garbage I have heard in a long time. Dude was clearly afraid she would move on from him now that her career was really taking off and went there unannounced to pressure her into accepting his proposal in front of all the cameras and onlookers. The man isn't a clown, he's a piece of shit that thinks he's way smarter than anyone else.
8:13 genuinely creeped me out lmfao. it's the perfect horror movie psychopath clown laugh
1:43 "My dog...left me" "My car...left me" "My dentist...left me" "My freezer...left me" 😂🤣
I'm not one for "car crash TV" but Kira thank you for holding these "game developers" to account. It's good to get awareness out there by showing how this is a scam (same with your vids on CoE/KoE). Everyone needs to be extremely diligent when backing a Kickstarter and I enjoy your critical analysis on these bad Kickstarters. I would love to see more vids of active Kickstarters that seems dubious to ensure the general public do not get scammed.
I try and cover them as much as I can mate its my bread and butter content at this point and super fulfilling to make. Thanks for the support
I absolutely love how you break this down man. It's too funny, I'm just here laughing my ass off. It's funny but also very sad how many people this guys is scamming. It's just so blatantly obvious, and an even more sad thought is this guy might actually believe he can do this. Keep it up, people need to be aware of things like this. We appreciate it.
So long as we all get a laugh out of it and we lessen the damage that can be done... I call it a win mate. Thank you
Ps I’m super glad you bring this stuff to a day light. If it wasn’t for you, these thieves would go without notice
the whole idea this guy had was to build a basic world with assets and add world building tools and modding tools and have people build the MMO for him
Kira, I love these dumpster fire exposing videos. This is the kind of journalism that the industry needs to help inform and protect the consumer. Informative, yet so entertaining! Keep it up man.
Protect Kira at all costs!
I just found your channel and Im so blown away at the investigative talent you possess. Great video!
...Just when I thought this whole thing was over.
This will never be over. These scummy people are just in it for the money and to run away with it not releasing anything.
A lot of other kickstarter projects went like this.
And it's so dam surprising there are people actually funding this with no actual clear ideas of what the game will be or look like.
They just put pre-made assets together and made a video with them...
@@0-Seya-0 I moreso meant the rabithole that is these guys' existence and the clear implications that their scam being fully funded means for the platform. I remember first seeing this and thinking: man money launderers have gotten really bold. And yet, somehow, the more I learn about the situation the more I really just hope its just money laundering.
That "left me" montage was gold. That needs to be made into a meme going forward