Well you your friend can just complete the project then launch after you your friend is done done this would be a more transparent approach that won't raise any suspicion of extorting money form users
Totally understand why you'd say that, if you can come up with a way for me to prove he is in fact my friend besides KYC feel, free to share - I'll get him to make a post here for a start, as you can only have 1 account per IP address. In this case my friend is slowly paying for these drawings to be made. He has already put in his own money to get where he is now. I really don't think he's asking for unreasonable amount of money. 1 BTC at the current price will help but it's probably not going to be enough, he has already stated he will continue with his own funds regardless.