Haunts, however, was in a somewhat unique situation in that a large part of the early funding (some $40K or so) came from a development grant, in which the terms dictated that the game code and assets become open-sourced upon release of the project. Also, the programmers on the team expected to work for pay throughout the the extent of the project (the creator mentioned that none of the coders were willing, or prepared, to work in a "startup" environment). So, going off-schedule (and hence off budget) simply meant leaving the project.
The game is (essentially) alpha quality now, with the soundtrack, all art assets, and nearly all game features implemented, along with a level editor and (at least?) one demo level. The counterpoint is that it's *not* beta, with heavy level design and a fair bit of engine debugging presented as the first hurdles to progress, including scripting API bugs for level design.
That's the *real* naivete, in regards to the project lead. *All* games release late, and every software project has unforeseen nasty bugs to overcome. I've never seen software ship on time without bugs. Anywhere. It's not that I don't believe it's possible, I just don't think it will ever happen!
Anyway, software engineering principles aside, Haunts was already intended to BSD (or Artistic) license and release all the engine code and level scripting, and Creative Commons license all the music and artwork. This direction change means that they have to do so to even complete a game for the retail market as well as to deliver game downloads to Kickstarter backers. So, there is a fair chance that a heavily-moddable, crowd-sourced game may come of this. I'm hoping that the engine can be adapted for async turn-based games, and that the work we backers paid for will be leveraged like crazy for a bunch of nifty games in a similar style (yes, I backed it for $10, which is a pair of downloads).
I wish I could help them, as I love games, I love programming, and I love open source collaboration... but I've pledged my Linux engineering & consulting time to a small number of Kickstarter projects (QFI included), and I'd really be reneging on my commitment to these other projects if I stretched myself that thinly.
Software is notoriously difficult to scope; I agree with Bt that we may (will?) see this from a number of Kickstarters. How many other failures won't have a reasonable "open source" escape hatch, or won't be far enough along to make it worth it?
