GRIFTBATCH W21GAMING

DreamWorld

Two-person YC W21 team raising on a Kickstarter 'infinite open-world MMO' exposed as cut-and-paste vaporware with a security-broken demo.

$65k+ (Kickstarter)

Capital Raised

6+ YRS

Lifespan

~$65k Kickstarter on a 2-person team with no shipping history

Body Count

AUTOPSY REPORT

Pitched a 'next-gen Minecraft with generative AI.' KiraTV and PC Gamer confirmed the trailer footage was stitched-together assets from other games, the team allegedly DM-bombed Fortnite/Minecraft players to recruit, paid community moderators in Uber Eats credit, and the demo server lacked basic auth — allowing remote code execution on player machines . A Hacker News thread titled 'DreamWorld (YC W21) – The Scam MMO that got funded' (item 26872830) became a load-bearing artifact in the case that YC stopped vetting under volume pressure. Two-person team. ~$65k Kickstarter on zero shipping history.

DAMAGE: ~$65k Kickstarter on a 2-person team with no shipping history

TIMELINE

2020Founded by Bellack and Kaplan

2021-Q1Joins YC W21

2021-03Kickstarter raises ~$65k

2021-04PC Gamer / KiraTV / Hacker News exposés land

SOURCES

→ PC Gamer: DreamWorld 'Infinite Open-World MMO' Kickstarter Fiasco → Hacker News: 'The Scam MMO that got funded'→ YC directory: DreamWorld

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Satirical project. Not affiliated with Y Combinator. All information from public records.