Broken Age - Double Fine's Kickstarter Adventure Game

[evdk]

DF inability to manage finances properly.

I'm not sure if this is actually true, or if (for instance) inXile have just kept more quiet about their alternate sources of funding.

OK then, DF's perceived inability to manage their finances properly.

Pedant.

 

[J_C]

DF inability to manage finances properly.

I'm not sure if this is actually true, or if (for instance) inXile have just kept more quiet about their alternate sources of funding.

OK then, DF's perceived inability to manage their finances properly.

Pedant.

But even if that's the case, the game still can be a good adventure game. The fact that they try to gather more funds to make the game a great game, and not just rushing out half baked is a sign that they want to make a good game and don't want to disappoint the backers.

 

[evdk]

But even if that's the case, the game still can be a good adventure game. The fact that they try to gather more funds to make the game a great game, and not just rushing out half baked is a sign that they want to make a good game and don't want to disappoint the backers.

It's a sign that they had no idea what they were going to produce back then. True, the unexpected runaway success of their campaign has probably force them to scrap even those things they might have had, but it seems that they weren't able to budget what they eventually set out to create properly.

 

[J_C]

But even if that's the case, the game still can be a good adventure game. The fact that they try to gather more funds to make the game a great game, and not just rushing out half baked is a sign that they want to make a good game and don't want to disappoint the backers.

It's a sign that they had no idea what they were going to produce back then. True, the unexpected runaway success of their campaign has probably force them to scrap even those things they might have had, but it seems that they weren't able to budget what they eventually set out to create properly.

I can agree with this, but I think bad financial management doesn't equal a bad game. Just look at Logic Artists, who also mismanaged their funds, yet they made a great game. You can say that DF is a professional company, and they should know better, and you would be right. But it is still the business part of the development, they are doing good and well on the game development part.

 

[Frusciante]

People had different expectations based on Tim's Lucas Arts work, true, but I don't think that mere dislike for the art direction is the source of the dislike -

Why would people have different expectations? Were people really expecting grim dark or photorealistic from a Tim Schafer game? I would say that all of the Lucas Arts adventure games had stylized graphics, some would even say cartoony graphics.

the lack of any solid gameplay examples is much more damning

So would you rather have some story spoilers or some puzzle spoilers?

as well as the fact that the game appears to be targeted at children

I dont know, many of my friends said the same about monkey island and even Grim Fandango (purely based on how it looked). I dont agree with this but I guess this is pretty subjective and I understand that some people feel this way.

and DF inability to manage finances properly.

This is true. However they are very open about it, I mean they could have left these parts out of the documentary.

Also I think all game projects experience problems like this. It seems to be a common factor in game development. So I find it interesting to see how they deal with problems like this etc. But I guess this might come as a shock to you if you're not interested in this stuff and/or you're pretty naive about kickstarters and game development in general.

 

[jfrisby]

People saw the art style and didn't like it. In their book, this means shit. Yeah, retarded, but we are on the Codex afterall. Also because they didn't show much gameplay, they think it will be shit. Again, retarded, but this is the Codex.

People had different expectations based on Tim's Lucas Arts work, true, but I don't think that mere dislike for the art direction is the source of the dislike - the lack of any solid gameplay examples is mch more damning, as well as the fact that the game appears to be targeted at children and DF inability to manage finances properly.

And Metro just doesn't like hipsters.

It's the non-nonchalant "Oh, Ron Gilbert isn't important" thing too, and the fact that they seemed only to have played Botanicula & Machinarium of any modern adventure games. The little we know of the plot seems a bit like an uninspired framework to use the dull user-submitted "ideas for crazy rooms" they solicited in their forum. We don't know how long the game is or whether there's a lot they're not telling us, but it sounds like a cartoon game version of Spike Jonze Where the Wild Things Are movie, complete with squiggly-lettering in the trailer. The documentary is 5th-grade reading level low-content fair that hasn't really offered much of the insight promised, and took some ridiculous amount of backer money to make (~$500k? They keep getting a percentage of incoming donations/Humble Bundle stuff).
and The Cave, especially the marketing which ruthlessly focused on how it's an adventure game -- it's hard to blame Gilbert or Sega for the problems with this game when they seem like core reoccurring DF problems.

 

[DalekFlay]

Why would people have different expectations? Were people really expecting grim dark or photorealistic from a Tim Schafer game? I would say that all of the Lucas Arts adventure games had stylized graphics, some would even say cartoony graphics.

Where the fuck did you pull grim dark and photo-realistic out of? No one expected that ffs. We expected a game like the Lucasarts originals Schafer worked on. Whether he promised that directly or not he certainly implied it and the backers were operating off nostalgia for those games, not their undying love for modern shit like Costume Quest.

I'm not one of the more disappointed, I'll wait and see how it looks and plays when it comes out, but I don't blame people for expecting the game to look a LOT different from how it does. If you notice it's the nostalgia-stroking projects that make a lot of money on kickstarter. People want another Wasteland, another Torment and yes another Day of the Tentacle. Schafer has said "fuck that noise" and made something that appears to be incredibly different in look, tone and production value. I don't blame nostalgia-focused backers for being suspicious.

The fact they had to ask for more money on top of the amount they got, when honestly they could have made something with the technical aspirations of the Blackwell games in AGS and everyone would have been THRILLED, is kind of sad.

 

[felipepepe]

Broken Age looks like it was made for Tim Schafer's 10 years old daughter, not for the people that backed it on Kickstarter hoping for a new Day of the Tentacle/Full Throttle/Grim Fandango.

 

[Metro]

Just an FYI Schafer had almost nothing to do with Costume Quest. Also agreed with Felip. Double Fine has turned into a fairly arrogant company. But they're in for a rude awakening if they continue down this track as their next few Kickstarters will outright fail.

 

[Jaesun]

People constantly bitch about the art but but while that is part of an adventure game, what about the mechanics and story and other stuff?

I don't off hand like the art (I think it is OK), but if he can pull of a good story and some good mechanics I'll like it.

 

[ghostdog]

Basically, the only real reason people bitch is the art. I don't like it. People can be OK with it, but nobody really likes it, except hipsters.

But in order to look very legit about your bitching and get more KKK points you have to find other stuff like financial crap nobody really cares about, or bitch about not getting specific details about the story and puzzles in a fucking adventure game. Also putting up planks with "It's the end of Kickstarter !!, REPENT !!!" and shouting it in the streets, is always appealing.

 

[J_C]

It's the non-nonchalant "Oh, Ron Gilbert isn't important" thing too, and the fact that they seemed only to have played Botanicula & Machinarium of any modern adventure games. The little we know of the plot seems a bit like an uninspired framework to use the dull user-submitted "ideas for crazy rooms" they solicited in their forum. We don't know how long the game is or whether there's a lot they're not telling us, but it sounds like a cartoon game version of Spike Jonze Where the Wild Things Are movie, complete with squiggly-lettering in the trailer. The documentary is 5th-grade reading level low-content fair that hasn't really offered much of the insight promised, and took some ridiculous amount of backer money to make (~$500k? They keep getting a percentage of incoming donations/Humble Bundle stuff).
and The Cave, especially the marketing which ruthlessly focused on how it's an adventure game -- it's hard to blame Gilbert or Sega for the problems with this game when they seem like core reoccurring DF problems.

I don't know what you are smoking but the documentary is very well done and has lots of content. What do you wan to see? How people modell stuff in Maya? Yeah, that would be interesting!

 

[Metro]

ZOMG THE DOCUMENTARY!!!!!!!! 10/10! Gaming's Werner Herzog Moment!

 

[felipepepe]

Basically, the only real reason people bitch is the art.

There's the tone of the game as well. From what we've seen so far, it clearly has a "motivational/educational" tone; you play as unique snowflakes that don't know their place in the world and are confused as they grow up... very far from a badass biker trying to save his gang or teenagers traveling through time to save the world from a purple tentacle. LOOM had that more introspective tone, but you still were a weaver casting cool spells and fooling dragons.

 

[Zed]

It's the non-nonchalant "Oh, Ron Gilbert isn't important" thing too, and the fact that they seemed only to have played Botanicula & Machinarium of any modern adventure games. The little we know of the plot seems a bit like an uninspired framework to use the dull user-submitted "ideas for crazy rooms" they solicited in their forum. We don't know how long the game is or whether there's a lot they're not telling us, but it sounds like a cartoon game version of Spike Jonze Where the Wild Things Are movie, complete with squiggly-lettering in the trailer. The documentary is 5th-grade reading level low-content fair that hasn't really offered much of the insight promised, and took some ridiculous amount of backer money to make (~$500k? They keep getting a percentage of incoming donations/Humble Bundle stuff).
and The Cave, especially the marketing which ruthlessly focused on how it's an adventure game -- it's hard to blame Gilbert or Sega for the problems with this game when they seem like core reoccurring DF problems.

I don't know what you are smoking but the documentary is very well done and has lots of content. What do you wan to see? How people modell stuff in Maya? Yeah, that would be interesting!

actually that would be interesting.
a roundtable discussion about "ohno will we make it with this monies?!" and some weak-gened hipster intern drawing some godawful bullshit is interesting?

 

[Metro]

I'm Bobbin, are you my mother?

 

[J_C]

It's the non-nonchalant "Oh, Ron Gilbert isn't important" thing too, and the fact that they seemed only to have played Botanicula & Machinarium of any modern adventure games. The little we know of the plot seems a bit like an uninspired framework to use the dull user-submitted "ideas for crazy rooms" they solicited in their forum. We don't know how long the game is or whether there's a lot they're not telling us, but it sounds like a cartoon game version of Spike Jonze Where the Wild Things Are movie, complete with squiggly-lettering in the trailer. The documentary is 5th-grade reading level low-content fair that hasn't really offered much of the insight promised, and took some ridiculous amount of backer money to make (~$500k? They keep getting a percentage of incoming donations/Humble Bundle stuff).
and The Cave, especially the marketing which ruthlessly focused on how it's an adventure game -- it's hard to blame Gilbert or Sega for the problems with this game when they seem like core reoccurring DF problems.

I don't know what you are smoking but the documentary is very well done and has lots of content. What do you wan to see? How people modell stuff in Maya? Yeah, that would be interesting!

actually that would be interesting.
a roundtable discussion about "ohno will we make it with this monies?!" and some weak-gened hipster intern drawing some godawful bullshit is interesting?

Have you used a 3D modelling program at all? Or have you seen them? Watching somebody working with it is boring as hell.

 

[Volrath]

Basically, the only real reason people bitch is the art.

There's the tone of the game as well. From what we've seen so far, it clearly has a "motivational/educational" tone; you play as unique snowflakes that don't know their place in the world and are confused as they grow up... very far from a badass biker trying to save his gang or teenagers traveling through time to save the world from a purple tentacle. LOOM had that more introspective tone, but you still were a weaver casting cool spells and fooling dragons.

It seems to be a game for gigantic raging faggots.

 

[Metro]

Well at least Jaesun and J_C will be happy.

 

[felipepepe]

Have you used a 3D modelling program at all? Or have you seen them? Watching somebody working with it is boring as hell.

Bullshit.

 

[Infinitron]

What I'd like to know is, is anybody on the Internet complaining about Broken Age other than the Codex and (I imagine) 4chan? Are there any delicious flamewars on adventure game forums?

 

[DalekFlay]

Basically, the only real reason people bitch is the art.

There's the tone of the game as well. From what we've seen so far, it clearly has a "motivational/educational" tone; you play as unique snowflakes that don't know their place in the world and are confused as they grow up... very far from a badass biker trying to save his gang or teenagers traveling through time to save the world from a purple tentacle. LOOM had that more introspective tone, but you still were a weaver casting cool spells and fooling dragons.

This.

Also the art style and mood/tone of the game is one hell of an important factor for a point and click adventure, more so than perhaps other genres by a large margin.

 

[Aeschylus]

What I'd like to know is, is anybody on the Internet complaining about Broken Age other than the Codex and (I imagine) 4chan? Are there any delicious flamewars on adventure game forums?

Not really, no.

The Codex's id just naturally trends towards the negative, and seeing as there is basically nothing known about the game other than the art style and some incredibly vague plot points, the void where opinion and criticism would go is filled by bitching and unsubstantiated statements.

 

[toro]

For Double Fine, Kickstarter is just one way to gather funding for their next "dream game". For inXile and Obsidian, it's the way to make the game the Kickstarter backers want.

Josh Sawyer has something to say about this bullshit:

 

[J_C]

Have you used a 3D modelling program at all? Or have you seen them? Watching somebody working with it is boring as hell.

Bullshit.

This just proves my post. :D The only thing that made this video watchable is the music. Maybe if you are a 3D animator fan, you like that video, but I assume not many people did.