The brothers behind two video game Kickstarters, one backed and one not, appear to be the duo who have threatened to sue a homeowner after turning their 44-day Airbnb rental into a squatter's rights claim in Palm Springs, California.
A woman rented her 600-square-foot condo to someone in May on a 44-day contract through lodging rental website Airbnb. But when the Airbnb contract ran out the man staying there with his brother refused to leave, according to homeowner Cory Tschogl. Under California tenant law, the man has rights as a tenant after he stays in a home for 30 days. Airbnb told Tschogl that they would help her with legal support.
According to Business Insider, Tschogl said that the name of the person still staying in her home and refusing to leave is Maksym and that he listed his home address in Austin, Texas. A neighbor told a local television station that the man's full name is Maksym Pashanin. Neighbors also confirmed to the station that the man in a video for a video game Kickstarter is the man living in the home.
Maksym Pashanin is also the name of a self-described game developer who launched a $10,000 Kickstarter in 2013 to fund a pixel-graphic adventure game called Confederate Express. That Kickstarter was successfully funded on Nov. 20, 2013, for $39,739 with an estimated delivery date of June 2014.
But more than a month after that self-defined release date, Pashanin said that the studio he founded in 2013, Kilobite Inc., was undergoing a restructuring that delayed the game. As an apology he offered backers a reward pack for Knuckle Club, another game being developed by Kilobite. But there was a catch: Knuckle Club was also a Kickstarter game seeking funding, this time $25,000. And the current pledge is just $674 with 21 days to go.
Four days later, Pashanin wrote in an update that the delay was caused by a company buying Kilobite and then telling them they wanted Knuckle Club completed first.
According to state records in Florida and in Texas, Kilobite Inc. was incorporated first in Florida on Aug. 13, 2013, and then in Texas on Dec. 11, 2013. The Florida records list Maksym Pashanin and Denys Pashanin as the principals. The Texas records just list Denys Pashanin. According to Whois records, Maksym Pashanin is the administrator of the Kilobite site, but the phone number given goes to a recording for someone named "Dennis."
Messages left on the voicemail and the provided email address for Pashanin were not answered. If they do respond to request for comment we will update this story.
Reached for comment Thursday afternoon, Andreas Inghe, who is listed as a team member on Confederate Express on the Kickstarter page, said he too hasn't heard from the brothers.
"I have had no real connection with the 'team' besides making one track for their game demo (and a few unreleased ones) that is up on the Kickstarter-page," he wrote. "I have been waiting for months for an update on when I could start making more music for them, considering that they had officially put me on the Kickstarter page. I am still waiting (have been waiting for almost a year), but I don't know what to think anymore. It all seems a bit fishy. But I could be pleasantly suprised in the end, or not. I hope it will go as planned!"