72k can keep you alive on sub-standard living conditions, but it will not keep a team of 6-7 talented programmers and artists alive for very long. Not even for way below market pay and working in a garage.

And a single person just cannot turn out something close to a AAA title.

Definitely not. I'm getting at the issue of employees versus founders. I'm responding to the commenters less than the OP. A lot of people are implying that the 72k would be spent on wages. If that was the expectation, then that's part of the failure.

I have friends who've launched XBLA games on much, much less working full time out of a basement. During development, they could barely pay rent. Afterwards, they buy new houses.

I feel like people don't take real risks any more, and seem to misunderstand what actual ownership of the outcome looks like.

Sign of the times?

And the issue of AAA ... well... Get a simple game or playable demo going and build off of that rather than shooting for the stars. Or did we lose site of what an MVP is, too? Sounds like the OP did.

Don't forget that they get a good chunk less than 72k. You gotta factor in KS' cut and the cost of obtaining and shipping the physical rewards.

I feel like a lot of people underestimate the work/cost involved in physical rewards. I remember reading a game devs blog post about the subject.

Definitely not enough cash.

Overwhelmed by rewards seems to be a common failure on KS. The list he rattles off in this case is quite extensive, and the postage cost is all that's preventing it from being sent. I wouldn't be surprised if they have 10k into rewards alone, especially when you account the time spent developing them.