Kickstarter dumpster fire alert!!!

Posted in 3 sections by backer Tom Jones:

"THE TALE OF OVERTURN: RISING SANDS

Greetings backers and curious onlookers, here is my analysis on the events surrounding the creation and crowdfunding of this game. Pieced together from various comments, connections, internet links and some basic deduction and human psychology, and then knitted together based on my own experience. A caveat first, I am a political and philosophical analyst of good repute, but not a forensic analyst; so I am outside my field and could well be wrong. This is my take anyway, and allowing for the current circumstances I am unafraid to make judgement calls about the Foxtales developers.

The story starts with Humayun Syed a talented dreamer with ambitions of making a game. He is a thiry four year old unemployed ex-student, likely from a family background well enough to do that he secured further education Indonesia. He has some learning difficulties and is dyslexic, and is claimed to be a poor English speaker, however he is a fan of Stephen King books and claimed to have had higher aducation in a foreign university in a non-Urdu speaking country. It is possible that this data is connectable as Syed could enjoy Stephen King books in his native language and as audio books. The international higher education versus learning difficulties plus a claim at poor English is less easy to resolve, however the claim to be an alumnus of Universitas Trisakti, Jakarta, Indonesia could well be bogus. Trisakti University is a well respected techical university which the artistically minded Syed would likely seen a likely fit, but it is far enough away as to not raise suspiscions.

Pakistan is a different culture to the west, false credentials are not considered scandalous in most circumstances. If fact if one has not got an actual degree, not passing oneself of as a graduate from somewhere is consider to indicate a lack of acumen rather than honesty. Falsified resumes are the norm rather than the exception and are usually not punished if exposed so long as the employee can handle his job.

Thus with the information at hand I am prepared on balance to assume that Syed has poor english language skills and that his claim of Universitas Trisakti education is questionable, though I am open to suggestions otherwise.
Syed is nevertheless computer literate, and has a technical education in computer graphics (not listed as an available course of study at Universitas Trisakti), possess a genuine artistic talent and a strong imagination.

Some three years ago the unemployed Syed began creating his game. The development of his IP was carried out with limited materials and assets.

https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/021/700/955/ec0ecec7fd410979fffa81d823b8cb96_original.jpg…

He made an original game with a basic ruleset, however he doesnt speak much English he needed help or was convinced by associated to accept help in this regard.

https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/021/700/957/acab38b0ef110bf55fed176934a48afe_original.jpg…

Note how prototype versions of the game used a square grid and a fully developed, if crude terrain system. We will come back to that later.

PART 2
Some eighteen months later in steps Arafat Hifazat. We know even less about Hifazat than we know about Syed, however we know he is fluent English speaker, probably bilingual and has possibly connections to the UK based on his diction. Hifazat's main relevant strengths are that he is decisive and has reasonable writing skills. Seeing an opportunity he was able to convince Syed to become his partner in this gaming venture. Unlike Syed Hifazat was not unemployed, or remained out of work to fulfil his dream of games design and likely only added a portion of his time to the project.

It is also with Hifazat that the scam begins. Syed was clearly the orginator of the intellectual property of Overturn, yet Hifazat claimed to be the games designer and story writer. I do not beleive this. Syed had already created a 3d modelled world for his game, and evidence of characterisation. This could not have occured in a vacuum. Hifazat offered to flesh out syeds vision with good English prose and Syed graciously offered to accept his status as a partner and 'game writer'. Hifazat probably had creative influence on the orginal storylike of Drish Barahir and the Oasis Lands, but it was most likely Syed's vision. Hifazat needed a way to cement his place as partner. He achieved this by writing the rules for Syed.

Sadly Hifazat does not match Syed's talent, his writing skills are good but not professional quality, ans his main skill was as an opportunist grifter, not a game designer. As the plagiarised ruleset was properly formatted for printing, it was not put together in a hurry. Arafat Hifazat in all likelihood plagiarised Massive Darkness in order to justify his position as a partner, otherwise Syed had evidently produced the vast majority of the work, and the plagiarism was initially intended to deceive Syed.

There is no reason why Syed after spending a significant time, purportedly three years, producing the game, with it's own basic rulset based on a square grid movement system, to accept a stolen copy-paste ruleset for the published copy.

After 'creating' the ruleset Hifazat offered his services as 'communications manager' for the project, again to cement his position as a team partner. He proved woefully inept at that position, insulting backers who opposed him and acting in a patronising manner to those who supported him. Some evidently did and found him highly plausible. Frankly from the profile we see so far I would not be surprised if Hifazat has some psychopathic tendencies.

We do not know who made the videos for Overturn, they might have been professionally outsourced, but it is likely that Hifazat also made them. We do already know that he is a fluent English speaker, and his claims of outsourcing rulebook translation to temporary worker do not add up. This is a man with small conscience.

PART 3
The third member of the team is Burhan 'Tippu' Kazim, we know the least about him as he had no hands on involvement in games development that we know of, being the business side of Foxtales. Sadly this is also why we know little about him. Foxtales is directly linked with Edgecliffe Systems, a company of interest to authorities in Canada for operating as a Canadian business proxy from Pakistan with a questionable history of business dealings and tax irregularities. Kazim may or may not be Azhar Saleem, the two are nevertheless connected. Kazim is at a minimum responsible for fraudulently masquerading Foxtales as a Canadian company, a serious deception as and of itself, and the patterns of Foxtales actions bear similarity to known scams allegedly connected to Edgecliffe Systems.

Kazim was also responsible as project manager for Foxtales for the pricing irregularities and the overdevelopment of the Kickstarter strectgoal strategy, though in fairness these actions are as much likely to be caued by inexperienced as fraud. It is not known if Kazim was actually trying to make a game, and since Kickstarter's timely intervention we will never know. However Edgcliffe Systems has had its name associated with short duration cons and using the distance between Edgecliffes paper location and its actual jurisdictional location as a shield.

It is anyone guess what Kazim may have done with backers details and money, but it is not improper to suggest that should the project appear to be undeliverable, Foxtales might have cut and run early rather than spend all backers resources on completion.

All in all, Overturn: Distant Sands was doomed from the start. Humayun Syed had no measn to support the project and his young family without help, and his choice of partners were inclined to shortcuts and sharp practice. However when the internet began to have suspiscions about the validity of Overturn, and both Hifazat and Kazim burned tier internet identities and ran, Humayun Syed stayed. His social media profile is still active, as is his games developer account on BoardGame Geek, which is not a place to be if you are a Foxtales developer right now. While his partners fell into silence syed began to plead to backer on Facebook that he was not a scammer but a games developer.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php…

Under the circumstances I believed him, and was willing to give him the benefit of a review when I first heard his plea. I made no mention of this during the campaign becaue it was important to stick with the undiluted message that Foxtales were likely scammers.

However it is partly for Humayun Syed's benefit that I have written this overview. Yes I am opposed to Foxtales and everything it stood for, but I recognise that he did some excellent work on it, exploited by other short sighted graspers eager for quick money or a larger share than they deserved.
I do think it is not too late for Humayun Syed to make a future for himself in games development, and I leave this record here in the hope that he is given a fair hearing in the future and possibly a second chance.

Likewise I see no future for Arafat Hifazat in games development, and I can only hope that Syed can separate his IP from the rest of Foxtales and appeal for a developer to employ him and take on his project and his vision."