My recollection is the plan was to use the kickstarted funds to put together a tech demo, then raise funding to turn that into a game. That second part never happened for a few reasons; mainly, it is not as easy for a semi-famous author to raise money as people think.

Of course that's on Stephenson, and he acknowledges it. He didn't understand the investment market. It probably wasn't a great plan in retrospect. But this seems like an odd place to complain when a risky investment doesn't pay off like you'd like.