There are a few possible exceptions to that like Phoenix Point but Julian firmly shot his reputation to pieces by taking Epic's money, even though he also gave any refund asked for afterwards because he no longer needed any of the backers' cash.

The X-Com crowd was loyal enough to him up until that point they would have carried his pet project through fire but after burning them the wrong way it failed to rise even once, let alone subsequent times as per the game title might suggest.