It is really beyond belief. With 3 million dollars, developing an oldschool point and click adventure game should have been piss easy for DF, as long as they have really kept it old school. They could have just used pixel art, cheap (but decent) voiceovers, simple animation, the only thing they should have focused on is writing and puzzles.
The problem is, and I can't fault DF for this, is that they always were an ambitious company. Not ambitious in the sense of making incredibly huge and complex games, but making unique games. Look at their games, each and every one of them was developed with unique artstyle, had some unique (even if not too groundbreaking) mechanics. It seems Tim felt obliged to make the game in a true Double Fine manner. He didn't want to make it like the adventure games of old (and that's his fault), but something unique.
