Broken Age - Double Fine's Kickstarter Adventure Game

[toro]

The Oct 2012 date was set when the target was to make a $300,000 game. Obviously since getting $3 million + the game has become bigger requiring a longer development time.

Obviously it doesn't matter anymore. They will not produce anything resemble Full Throttle, Grim Fandango or even Monkey Island.

Also the new game from Ron Gilbert (The Cave) is a piece of shit. The controls on PC are abominable.

 

[toro]

I've just lost my faith completely in this company. Let me resume the facts:

1) They had one of the most successful KS campaigns for a game. After 10 months of dicking around, they have nothing to show except a uber-lame screenshot or whatever the fuck it is.

2) They went with a Flash-like art style and another cliché story about teenager-boy-meets-girl instead of something like Manny and Meche. In other words, they take absolutely no fucking risks to create something memorable or at least different.

3) It seems that they spend more time filming a pointless documentary than working on the game. Pointless documentary is pointless, except for marketing purposes. The funds are taken from the KS campaign.

3) Despite the things above, they are doing a stealth funding campaign. Yes, this shit is hidden within their forums: http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/8374

4) Instead of working on the fucking game, they have time (2+ weeks) to make a special development sessions for prototypes. In the end they try to sell the unfinished prototypes: link

5) According to this article from RPS, Notch wanted to fund a sequel to Psychonaut, but he was floured when instead of ~2 mil $, Tim Schafer asked for 18 million $!!! (*he did, he is the CEO)

What the fuck happened to these guys ??

 

[GaffQ]

$18 million for a wacky little platformer is severely deluded, especially when the first Psychonauts cost $13 million and was a commercial failure.

 

[Modron]

I've just lost completely my faith in this company. Let me resume the facts:

1) They had one of the most successful KS campaigns for a game. After 10 months of dicking around, they have nothing to show except a uber-lame screenshot or whatever the fuck it is.

2) They went with a Flash-like art style and another cliché story about teenager-boy-meets-girl instead of something like Manny and Meche. In other words, they take absolutely no fucking risks to create something memorable or at least different.

3) It seems that they spend more time filming a pointless documentary than working on the game. Pointless documentary is pointless, except for marketing purposes. The funds are taken from the KS campaign.

3) Despite the things above, they are doing a stealth funding campaign. Yes, this shit is hidden within their forums: http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/8374

4) Instead of working on the fucking game, they have time (2+ weeks) to make a special development sessions for prototypes. In the end they try to sell the unfinished prototypes: link

5) According to this article from RPS, Notch wanted to fund a sequel to Psychonaut, but he was floured when instead of ~2 mil $, Tim Schafer asked for 18 million $!!! (*he did, he is the CEO)

What the fuck happened to these guys ??

Yeah I was expecting something along the lines of their classic games ala Maniac Mansion and instead got this thing that seems to be bound for iphones and the casual crowd. As far as the whole 18 million thing that is on par with modern game development Brutal Legend was 20 million, Obsidian said 25 million to make a proper BG 3 (lol at project eternity's ~4 million who knows how that will turn out lest they have secured a whole bunch of money outside the scope of KS), and double fine's smaller games have pretty consistently come in at around 4-6 million to make. The whole going back to point and click adventure game gave me some hope because those could be made with smaller teams and budgets.

 

[Aeschylus]

I've just lost my faith completely in this company. Let me resume the facts:

1) They had one of the most successful KS campaigns for a game. After 10 months of dicking around, they have nothing to show except a uber-lame screenshot or whatever the fuck it is.

That 'screenshot' was done maybe a month in. If you'd backed the KS (maybe you did, since you linked to the back forums? If so you're a bit oblivious...) you'd have seen quite a bit more that they've shared at this point.

2) They went with a Flash-like art style and another cliché story about teenager-boy-meets-girl instead of something like Manny and Meche. In other words, they take absolutely no fucking risks to create something memorable or at least different.

Not sure what you mean by 'flash-like' in this case. I don't love the art style they've shown either, but from what I've seen in the documentaries it's a rather unique direction, and doesn't look much like any flash game I've seen. Also, there's no real info about the story other than boy-on-a-spaceship and girl-on-some-clouds. It's not even known if they'll meet or not.

3) It seems that they spend more time filming a pointless documentary than working on the game. Pointless documentary is pointless, except for marketing purposes. The funds are taken from the KS campaign.

The documentary is awesome. Seriously, you should watch it when it comes out. Also, it's an entirely separate group, so I fail to see how the team wastes any time on it.

3) Despite the things above, they are doing a stealth funding campaign. Yes, this shit is hidden within their forums: http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/8374

I assume you're referring to http://www.doublefine.com/dfapay? I fail to see how it's much different from any other KS (like... all of them) that have continued offering pre-orders or Paypal contributions after the campaign ended. And it has its own page, it's not terribly stealthy.

4) Instead of working on the fucking game, they have time (2+ weeks) to make a special development sessions for prototypes. In the end they try to sell the unfinished prototypes: link

They apparently do this every year, and it's where most of their games come from, so... What's the big deal? It was obviously part of the schedule from the beginning.

5) According to this article from RPS, Notch wanted to fund a sequel to Psychonaut, but he was floured when instead of ~2 mil $, Tim Schafer asked for 18 million $!!! (*he did, he is the CEO)

Again, so? To make a full-fledged, "AAA" game, that is a pretty small budget. The budget for the original Psychonauts was around that range, and that was many years ago.

What the fuck happened to these guys ??

Uh, nothing? It's mostly just you being a troll/willfully ignorant.

 

[Kosmonaut]

Fanbois gonna fanboi, just like in the Obsidian threads.

 

[groke]

Also the new game from Ron Gilbert (The Cave) is a piece of shit. The controls on PC are abominable.

Man, you really seem to have a chip on your shoulder about this $15 puzzle game published by SEGA. It's a fucking platformer, of course the controls are going to be shit on a keyboard. This is nothing new, buy a goddamn gamepad (or if you're too afraid of the consoletard taint to use a gamepad, stop buying console games).

 

[LizardKing]

From what I've seen from the documentaries, Im disappointed.
I just can't believe they are struggling with the budget, since the game doesn't look special at all.
Plot is meh and the art direction sucks big time.
I've seen better looking indie games than this one.

 

[toro]

From what I've seen from the documentaries, Im disappointed.
I just can't believe they are struggling with the budget, since the game doesn't look special at all.
Plot is meh and the art direction sucks big time.
I've seen better looking indie games than this one.

I just can't believe they are struggling with the budget, since the game doesn't look special at all.

I just can't believe they are struggling with the budget, since the game doesn't look special at all.

fanboi check failed.

 

[toro]

Also the new game from Ron Gilbert (The Cave) is a piece of shit. The controls on PC are abominable.

Man, you really seem to have a chip on your shoulder about this $15 puzzle game published by SEGA. It's a fucking platformer, of course the controls are going to be shit on a keyboard. This is nothing new, buy a goddamn gamepad (or if you're too afraid of the consoletard taint to use a gamepad, stop buying console games).

I could buy a console as-well if I'm buying a gamepad for a game supposed to be (1) an adventure game and (2) developed for PC.

 

[toro]

... txt diarrhea...

Google: "see through rose-tinted glasses"

 

[Aeschylus]

... txt diarrhea...

Google: "see through rose-tinted glasses"

Google: "Trying way too hard."

 

[toro]

... txt diarrhea...

Google: "see through rose-tinted glasses"

Google: "Trying way too hard."

Not really. I was just surprised by the level of incompetence and greediness displayed by the DoubleFine in the last months. But let's wait until the shit will hit our monitors.

 

[FeelTheRads]

But let's wait until the shit will hit our monitors.

Race traitors should shut their whore mouths. Hilarious, shitting on every other Kickstarter while backing Obshitian.

 

[Jaesun]

You sure told them. Feel those rads.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Hey, it's not my fault you wear your shame with pride.

 

[groke]

I could buy a console as-well if I'm buying a gamepad for a game supposed to be (1) an adventure game and (2) developed for PC.

How many adventure games have you played that involved regularly jumping over spike pits? This is a slightly less shit Limbo, it's not Double Fine's problem you have unmanageable expectations.

As far as I can tell, you're angry because you fell for marketing doubletalk.

 

[Pyke]

To be honest, I don't know why they didn't stick with the $400 000,00 game, and consider the rest of the budget as 'pre orders'. I don't see how development of a 2D Point and Click Adventure Game has gone into the multiples of millions.

The amazing thing about Adventure Games games is the simplicity of game design. It really allows you to very easily divide up a game among various disciplines, and get the best possible outcome quickly. The hardest part is the design document, which shouldn't have even been a part of the original budget.

The people that supported the kickstarter supported a $400 000 game, NOT a 3 MILLION DOLLAR game.

Its happened on a few KS's already where budgets were too small, and the developers too greedy. Either shooting for a lower target to ensure they got 'some' money, or expanding the game way beyond the original scope.

What they should have done was throw $600 000 a the $400 000 project, and gotten it out before the deadline they originally set, and use the balance of the money to fund the sequel/different IP.

At the end of the day, Its too easy to spend someone elses money.
I will say that I'm interested in seeing the documentary, so I can see exactly what they have spent all that money on.

 

[almondblight]

I think Kickstarter has given us a good insight into the bloated budgets of most studios. Sure, Primordia, Stasis, Gemini Rue, etc., were made on a shoestring budget, but if you wanted a bit of a graphical upgrade for them and a bit more gameplay supposedly you'd need $4 million or something. Vogel and VD can make their games with investing ~$10-20k, and the KoTC guy did it in his spare time, but if you want better graphics/a deeper game? It's going to cost a thousand times more, $10 - 20 million.

I thought Fargo was exaggerating when he said that developers usually piss away ~95% of their budget, but maybe he was right.

 

[toro]

As far as I can tell, you're angry because you fell for marketing doubletalk.

I will not deny the fact that I'm angry about this shit. But in this case, I would call this the sane behavior instead of parroting "Everything is fine", "Everything is following a plan" ...

 

[Irenaeus]

I much dislike this art direction. This is extremely off-puting to me (childish, big-headed characters). After hearing in this thread how little progress they are making and how the game is going to look, I say I'm lucky that I didn't chip in, even with his awesome kickstarter movie. I'm fond of the Tim Shafer persona, but the tought of the psychonauts looks was the real turn off to me. I miss Monkey Island, Full Throttle more realistic style. You could say that Day of the Tentacle had an extremely cartoony art and I love that game, but that should be the style of that game, an exception in the genre. The problem comes when childish art becomes the norm, as seem to be the case in his new game. So... backing away slowly into the shadows...

 

[commie]

I laugh at the fools that forked our their money to fund this shit.

I on the other hand bought a $250 pack of magic beans from a rainbow eyed visionary who goes by the acronym MCA.

 

[Irenaeus]

I on the other hand bought a $250 pack of magic beans from a rainbow eyed visionary who goes by the acronym MCA.

My MCA magic beans cost $77.

 

[Jarpie]

I wonder if quite a lot of people will turn out to be disappointed how DFA's adventure game will be as they won't get the game in vein of Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throtle etc. but instead will get half-"flash" and half-adventure game by the looks of it what they are doing. Like someone said earlier in this topic that they seems to be doing pretty generic story which makes me wonder if Schafer is doing the game just with left hand.

 

[groke]

As far as I can tell, you're angry because you fell for marketing doubletalk.

I will not deny the fact that I'm angry about this shit. But in this case, I would call this the sane behavior instead of parroting "Everything is fine", "Everything is following a plan" ...

I'd understand if this was actually related to DFA, but The Cave is a budget title released by a major publisher. It's not any worse than Stacking or the other dumb post-Psychonauts Double Fine games.