Dhruin
SasqWatch
Grim Dawn's first Kickstarter update offers more background on the project and responds to some comments:
More information.Just to clear things up, we do not have a publisher or really any funding at all right now besides a small trickle from our pre-orders, which has been very helpful but isn't near enough to pay even one person full-time wages. We aren't a big portion of the team from Iron Lore as some might assume, we're just two full-time guys and a few friends from Iron Lore who help us out as much as they can on nights and weekends. We all work remotely in home offices as we can't currently afford to rent a space. So, we're about as indie as it gets and definitely aren't double-dipping. [...]
Finally, I just wanted to respond to a couple comments I've seen where people have expressed that they think Kickstarter should only be used to fund projects that couldn't happen otherwise. Grim Dawn couldn't happen if we weren't willing to start this project with no funding and work for the past 2.5 years without any pay. It also couldn't happen if the other developers who have contributed over the years weren't willing to donate some of their free time on nights and weekends to create art and animations for us. It is still true today that the only reason Grim Dawn can continue to happen is that we're still willing and able to keep working unpaid.
So, I don't think it is fair for people to say a project that isn't started, because no one was willing to put in any work on it without full funding first, is more worthy than a project that people had the dedication to start themselves without money. I'm not knocking on any of the other projects, I can appreciate that those other studios have employees to support and maybe can't afford to invest free time into a new project but I also don't think we should be penalized because we did.