Spark backing disclosure

Spark is community backing for projects that are still being made. You put money towards something unfinished because you want it to exist.

Backing is not buying

This is the whole of it, and everything else on this page follows from it.

When you buy a finished game you get the game. When you back a project you are funding an attempt. The attempt may fail. The project may change into something you would not have backed. It may take three times as long as it says. It may stop with no announcement at all.

If you would be angry to get nothing, back nothing. That is not a disclaimer, it is advice.

What a check mark means

Some projects are reviewed before their campaign opens and carry a badge saying so. That review asks whether the creator is who they say they are, whether the work shown is theirs, and whether the plan is coherent.

It is not a judgement that the project will be finished, that it will be good, or that the estimate is realistic. Nobody can check those. A reviewed project that never ships is a normal outcome, not a failure of the review.

What I do and do not do

• I pass the money to the creator, minus the fee published at /fees.
• I do not hold it in escrow, release it against milestones, or supervise how it is spent.
• I do not guarantee delivery, quality, or a refund if the project stops.
• I remove a campaign that turns out to be a fraud, and I act on copyright complaints — but that is enforcement, not a guarantee.

Anyone telling you a platform can promise more than that is describing something other than crowdfunding.

Refunds

A backing is not refundable once a campaign closes, because the money has gone to the creator. Before it closes, write to admin@talkingpixels.games and I will sort it out.

If a project stops, that is between you and the creator. I will help you reach them and I will say publicly what I know, but I cannot return money I no longer have.

What creators owe you

Honesty about where the project is, including when it is going badly. A creator who goes quiet for months, or who takes backings while knowing the project has stopped, is not someone I will keep hosting.

Tell me if that happens: admin@talkingpixels.games.

Before you back anything

• Look at what actually exists today, not what is promised.
• Read the creator's devlogs. A steady record beats a good trailer.
• Treat the date as a hope. Almost every one of them moves.
• Back what you can afford to lose entirely.