A fake pledge on Kickstarter has brought to an end the efforts by 2Awesome Studio to fund their game. Though the project came close to being funded, the actions of a single troll ruined the campaign and left the indie developers heartbroken.

2Awesome Studio launched the Kickstarter campaign to fund their space adventure game, Dimension Drive. The game was going to be styled like a comic book and had some interesting ideas behind it. The Dutch studio needed €30,000 to achieve its goal, and just as the deadline for their campaign was approaching, they were short by €7,000. All hope seemed lost until a single pledge appeared under the name Jonathon, promising to fund the remaining amount. Needless to say, 2Awesome Studio was thrilled by the generous pledge and took to Twitter to spread the good news.

Who is Jonathan, Jonathan is our hero! We love you and we want to meet you in person! THANK YOU 7000k in a single pledge! #DimensionDrive

— 2Awesome Studio (@2AwesomeStudio) May 13, 2015

Sadly, around 30 minutes before the deadline, the pledge was pulled. Kickstarter had removed it because it had been found to be fraudulent. Apparently, “Jonathon” had made numerous similar troll pledges to various campaigns and 2Awesome Studio was the latest target. The fake pledge not only broke the small developer’s dreams, but it also may have led to legitimate potential backers deciding not to make a pledge because they could see that the goal had already been reached. And with just half an hour remaining between the pledge being removed and the end of the campaign, there wasn’t a lot of time for other pledges to be made.

Don’t know what to do now, mentally devastated 🙁 Don’t know what to do now #gamedev #indiedev https://t.co/b9lROaQQvz

— 2Awesome Studio (@2AwesomeStudio) May 13, 2015

A campaign that was looking like it might just succeed ended up getting stomped. It’s hard not to feel for 2Awesome Studio, especially since they clearly put a lot of time and dedication into their game. Over the years, Kickstarter has enabled tons of cool new projects to come to fruition, and while plenty of projects fail miserably, nobody should be subjected to this. 2Awesome Studio has received a flood of supportive messages over social media and has promised to bounce back.