Saijee: I saw your exchange with a Japanese guy on Twitter. I think there was a bit of a language barrier issue, so I'll give a clearer interpretation of what he was trying to say.
This all seems to center around your insistence of moving ahead with the crowdfunding campaign despite knowing it goes against the guidelines, because you believe they are outdated.
That may very well be true, but it seems that ZUN sees no reason to change them as of yet, or even hint at it. He could have very well been thinking about that very carefully after his Atlanta visit, but could not have found the time to do it. He's a very busy man with a family, which is probably why he didn't answer your initial e-mail in a timely manner. He probably receives hundreds of such e-mails every week, many of them from projects of a far bigger scope than yours, so it's possible he's only more receptive to face-to-face meetings. Regardless, that gave you no reason to go ahead with the indiegogo thing.
Putting your game on indiegogo was an unwise move for two reasons: 1. Crowdfunding goes against the very spirit of doujin works. I've already covered that so I'll skip it. But the other, possibly equally important reason 2 is that you put it on a site that is not your own and has no affiliation with Touhou at all. ZUN doesn't want Touhou fanworks in public places because you'll catch the attention of people who have no idea what Touhou or doujin is, and you'll possibly create misunderstandings such as your game is an official Touhou game, you're stealing someone else's property, etc. That is the reason why ZUN only allows Touhou games to be sold at Comiket/Reitaisai-type events or stores that already deal in Touhou games, because its patrons will already have an understanding that your game is a derivative work. Even if you say "based on the Touhou games", any random Joe could even assume that you were talking about some other game series you have made. A token "we have contacted ZUN" isn't going to cut it. You have to include the proper copyright information regardless, even if right now is just that apology.
It is true that following ZUN's guidelines is far more difficult outside of Japan. No one is denying that. But there have been successful Touhou fan events in Taiwan, China, and even the USA. Had you kept to showing your game and possibly sold demos at Touhoucon and maybe even anime conventions (assuming you could get permission), there would not have been any problems whatsoever. It was only when you thrust your game for all to see on the internet that you crossed the line.
No one wants to see you stop working on your game. In fact, if you can get a demo ready by Reitaisai, I will gladly help sell physical copies at my booth (if I get in) and even handle overseas distribution. The problem is that you seem think you have the right to use someone else's characters while willfully ignoring the relatively loose guidelines in place because they're "not fair". You have to work within the boundaries that have been laid out. If anything, doing so would've been even MORE impressive and reflected well on the western community, because it would've been proof that there are those who understand doujin culture despite not living in Japan. My advice is to end the crowdfunding drive immediately, apologize, and go back to what you've been doing. There's still time to save face and the hard work you've invested thus far.
I'll clarify any points I might not have gone into enough detail, but this is pretty much my final word.
And don't retort with anything idiotic like "you're not ZUN". I'm not meaning to toot my own horn, but I've been involved in the doujin scene, particularly the Touhou one, for nearly 6 years now, so I would like to think I know what I'm talking about. I'm not ZUN, but judging from past experiences and what other Japanese people are saying on Twitter, this is what the big deal is. Continue to ignore it, and worse case scenario (besides a lawsuit) is ZUN completely writes off everything east of the Pacific.
