What's an Indie Game?

[Lawlight]

Nuvendil said:

Lawlight said:

Those can still be indie as crowdfunded games has no obligation towards the people who donate. That's why they can decide to not release the game and just spend the money as they please.

Actually, the launching of a crowdfunding campaign is an act that constitutes a legally binding contract in most cases, in accordance with the Terms of Use of the platform.  Kickstarter is a good example.

Also, from a legal perspective, if a project entices people to send money to them for a project that they have no intentions of putting the money towards, that's textbook fraud, an illegal act.  

That is absolutely not true. Kickstarter even says that for refunds the pledger has to deal with the project owner.

It's only recently that people have started suing failed kickstarters and they're bring held accountable. But plenty of people took the money and left.

Example of failed crowdfunding projects:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/biggest-kickstarter-and-indiegogo-scams/