Kickstarter has pulled the plug on the funding campaign for RAW, a sandbox MMORPG inspired by Grand Theft Auto Online and Rust. 

As reported by PCGamesN, the crowdfunding company axed the campaign after finding creator KillerWhale Games had been dishonest about its financial and creative ambitions. 

It's an incident that might serve as a lesson to other devs hoping to conquer Kickstarter by pledging to deliver the impossible (or at least improbable), although that hasn't stopped other video game projects from being delivered half-baked or beyond late over the years.

“Our rules and guidelines ask that creators seek to raise the amount of money needed to bring a project to completion and fulfill all rewards," said a Kickstarter representative.

“This creator stated in an update that they would need to raise additional funds outside of Kickstarter to complete the game. We require projects to be honest and clearly presented, and this project failed to meet that standard.”

RAW had amassed $193,332 from 3,983 when the campaign was suspended, easily beating its funding target of $78,818. 

In the project FAQ, KillerWhale curiously admitted it would be impossible to realize its ambitions with $78,818, but explained its has other sources of funding. The dev team also conceded that the entire campaign was bundled together in a hurry, both of which are confessions that hardly inspire confidence. 

"Of course we need a lot more than $79,000. The minimum comfortable amount is about $300,000. We said earlier that there will be several fundraising campaigns," reads the FAQ. 

"We had a very tight deadline to prepare our Kickstarter campaign. You might think: 'You have been developing the game for 2.5 years and could not prepare properly for such an important event?' Yes, unfortunately we didn't have a chance to prepare as we could. This is due to delays, timing forecasts mistakes, and several serious life circumstances."

Although Kickstarter has shelved RAW on its platform, KillerWhale has suggested it'll be turning to Indiegogo in the hopes of securing funding there.