KickTraq

To introduce our new show, Where Are They Now?, we set out on the trail of Maksym Pashanin, the man behind the infamous Confederate Express. (Read More)

It’s a bit of a tradition that whenever I interview someone for Cliqist I ask them to put together a brief haiku to describe them, their company, or their game. Since we’re celebrating the one year anniversary of Cliqist this week I figure it would be as good a time as any to look back at some of them. All the haiku’s were written by the person being interviewed, and are listed in the order in which they appeared on the site. Some are great, some not so much, but each is interesting in its own right. (Read More)

It looks like the Maksym Pashanin drama is coming to a close; or at least part of it is. The Desert Sun is reporting that the Confederate Express and Knuckle Club developer that holed up in an Airbnb rental with his brother by way of a loophole has left the property. (Read More)

It seems that every time a sketchy Kickstarter campaign launches there’s a small group of backers that are on the case to expose any potential improprieties. This hardcore group of sleuths go to great lengths to dig up dirt on rogue developers and their shady campaigns. In light of the recent Maksym Pashanin situation involving Knuckle Club we thought it appropriate to finally talk to one of these Kickstarter Cops; and who better than Ahmad Khan? Who’s that? Ahmad was a central figure in the blow-up of the Knuckle Club and Areal campaigns, so we thought it appropriate to speak with him about his motivations and objectives. (Read More)

A story caught a good deal of national attention this month after a sneaky AirBNB guest decided to overstay his welcome by establishing residency in the home thanks to California’s squatter’s rights law. As it turns out, the renter is none other than a notorious Kickstarter scam artist named Maksym Pashanin, and today Kickstarter has cancelled his latest project. (Read More)

In Palm Springs, California, a man booked a vacation condominium for 44 days, saying that he would be in town on a business trip. After 30 days, he gained rights as a tenant under California law, and refused to pay rent or to leave. When the story broke, he was discovered to be an indie game developer who has failed to deliver a Kickstarter-funded project. That’s when the justice of the sharing economy kicked in. Kind of. (Read More)

No one can prove with 100% certainty that the person who left a glib comment on the Kickstarter page for the game Confederate Express was Maksym Pashanin, game creator and alleged AirBNB squatter. However, the comment did prompt backers to declare the project a “scam” and demand refunds. (Read More)

A cautionary tale about renting your home out to strangers for some quick, short-term cash on CNN has ties to video games. According to this CNN report, Cory Tschogl rented out her 600-square-foot condo in Palm Springs, California to two brothers, which CNN describes as video game developers - more on that later. The two brothers, Maksym and Denys Pashanin from Austin, Texas, rented the Palm Springs condo for 44 days, paying for 30 days of their stay in advance. They found the condo via online rental service Airbnb. (Read More)

It looks like the drama of the Confederate Express and Knuckle Club Kickstarters is continuing. Maksym Pashanin, the man behind the spritetastic strategy game Confederate Express, as well as being confusingly involved with 2D beat-em-up Knuckle Club, is involved in some even less savory behavior. (Read More)

Home / Features / Editorials / Knuckle Club & ConEx The Latest Kickstarter Scams? Not So Fast. Knuckle Club & ConEx The Latest Kickstarter Scams? Not So Fast. Posted by: Nathaniel Liles in Editorials, Features July 21, 2014 0 knuckleclublogo Knuckle Club & ConEx The Latest Kickstarter Scams? Not So Fast. By Nathaniel Liles I was approached by our Editor in Chief today about an article surrounding the latest “scam” Kickstarter had to offer. Articles like this are great. They certainly don’t exist to shame Kickstarter as a whole, they just help create a community of backers that know when a campaign looks fishy. (Read More)

Remember Confederate Express? It’s the great looking isometric tactical RPG that raised about $40,000 last November. Since destroying their original funding goal the team behind ConEx have only posted two updates, a little frustrating but not necessarily unheard of. (Read More)

Hey guys! First of all, as our Kickstarter campaign comes to an end, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our backers! You have been very helpful with your support and feedback, and we are extremely grateful for the opportunity you... (Read More)

Kilobite’s Maksym Pashanin recently took some time to answer a few quick questions for us. Who exactly is Maksym Pashanin? He’s one of the guys behind the very promising isometric zombie rpg/shooter Confederate Express. As we’ve covered previously Confederate Express seems to be separating itself from the crowded zombie and pixel markets with the high quality of its artwork, the moody environments, and the unique RPG elements that feature, among other things, permadeath, crew management, and the ability to upgrade and modify your equipment. As you might expect from a description like that Confederate Express sailed passed it’s initial $10,000 funding target almost as soon as it hit Kickstarter in mid October Confederate Express, the project is now closing in on $32,000 with 7 days left in the campaign. (Read More)

Hi everyone! We have finally finished animating our quick tech demo to showcase some of the elements of Confederate Express. It features physics, destructible environment and object lighting. So far it needs a lot of optimization, but already just a... (Read More)

Hi everyone! We have finally hit our goal!!! After overwhelming support of our backers and hundreds of kind comments, we can finally say that Confederate Express will become a reality! We are extremely grateful to everyone who had faith in our... (Read More)

Confederate Express, a just-announced tactical RPG from indie developer Kilobite, will feature all of my favorite things: permadeath, zombies and 2D sprite graphics. It is almost completely funded after just a week on Kickstarter thanks to some very impressive art and a seriously rocking trailer soundtrack. (Read More)

Hi guys! The project is doing really well, and so far it has collected over 75% of our initial goal! We are almost there, and very excited about the outcome! We want to thank everyone who pledged and left great feedback on our page. We added the FAQ... (Read More)

Hey guys! We decided to write this quick newsletter to post some additional information about our progress, and still coming up in the next update we have got some exciting information on character skills and core gameplay elements. Please stay tuned... (Read More)

Speaking russian? Click here for a translated version! Hey everyone! First things first: we wanted to thank all of our backers for supporting our project. It was really heartwarming to see people believe in our game so much to donate over 40% of our... (Read More)

I tend to shy away from videogame Kickstarter campaigns that don't show much gameplay or that seem too early in development, but what little we have of the tactical RPG Confederate Express is just too good not to share. (Read More)

In the near future of Confederate Express, a strategy RPG from Kilobite, technology has finally granted humanity with the immortality through the use of a computer chip. Unfortunately something has gone wrong, and those who do somehow die stay alive as zombies due to a malfunction of the chip. Now, with the world under the veil of an accidental zombie apocalypse, it's your job to ensure the delivery of packages and parcels. Wait. What? (Read More)

For some unknown and completely bizarre reason, the Kickstarter page for Confederate Express doesn’t have more images and more gifs. Go on; take a moment to have a look at that page, and you’ll see some spinning character models and some speech bubbles. This is not good enough. The gif police will be coming. When you have an indie game that looks, might I say, rather juicy, you should be shoving those images in people’s faces. I did. Look at that one above. That’s some tasty eye sauce right there. (Read More)