As a backer, this makes me kind of sad, but it's a remarkable story for all sorts of reasons. The one that I would seize upon is that the game actually looked (and still looks) pretty solid. Set aside the following: (1) he probably conned some good pixel artist into doing the art; (2) the lighting and physics effects were all faked; and (3) the features were all fanciful. Even when you do that, and even when you glance scornfully at some of the lamer sounding features (like modable weapons; but maybe I'm just not the right audience for that kind of thing) and little things (like the misspelling of "resurrect"), the basic game design all seems really good to an amateur like me: the stats, abilities, and perks seem simplified but meaningful, the lore seems pretty solid, the premise is cleverly anti-epic, etc. It basically reads and looks like someone who has a pretty decent understanding of what would make a good game; even assuming that the aesthetics are all the work of a conned artist (
i.e., assuming that this Maksym guy didn't actually provide art direction himself), he still had to find the right artist to con and give at least rough descriptions of what he wanted.
I mean, in order to steal $30k from a bunch of dupes, he basically went out and designed a neat looking hybrid of X-Com 3 and Jagged Alliance with distinctive visuals and a consistent tone. Even if he didn't get past the rough outlines of the game, that still seems like a relatively hard way to make $30k compared to squatting in someone's home and running a hydroponic marijuana grow site (which I assume is why her electric bills have skyrocketed).
--EDIT--
By way of reference, consider this example, whereby a fraudster stole millions on a fake rip-off version of 24:
http://boingboing.net/2005/09/25/dhs-the-series-the-s.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfuoUZWV-kk
While that fraud was much more elaborate, the actual content was (I think) significantly inferior to that of Confederate Express. Put otherwise, no one who seriously liked shows such as 24 would watch that trailer (which is mostly stock footage) and react, "Wow, that looks amazing!" The fraud worked by targeting victims who were not the audience for the show and wanted to be "investors." By contrast, Confederate Express was a good enough pitch that fickle fans fell in love with it.