Broken Age - Double Fine's Kickstarter Adventure Game

[Infinitron]

Also, on a completely subjective basis, I am not getting any of that "Old School Adventure(TM)" vibe from Broken Age, "the kind that publishers are no longer willing to fund". It looks to me like one of the any other random DFA titles or any other fancy indie adventure released in the last couple years. I don't see what makes it "Old School" and stand out from the crowd and especially not what makes it cost so damn much and 800%+ over-budget.

I didn't follow the conception of the game very closely so I don't know how it came about once KS was over. Was it a concept Tim had in mind for a while before the KS? It isn't particularly inspiring from a glance. Disappointing even, considering all the ruckus about "no more old school games because publishers".

Schafer doesn't want to make old school games. He wants to make weird games. It just so happens that publishers dislike both, so they're easy to confuse.

 

[villain of the story]

Well, Pathologic is a weird game, The Void is a weird game, both in a brilliant way. None of DFA/Tim Schaffer games are really weird (including GF), though some are oldschool, some brilliant and some, both.

 

[J_C]

. There is nothing genius about it, it's just bad design.

.

No, it is not bad design. You just have to set a minimum walk spead, and the problem you mentined is solved.

Also, on a completely subjective basis, I am not getting any of that "Old School Adventure(TM)" vibe from Broken Age, "the kind that publishers are no longer willing to fund".

Hand drawn 2D graphics. Check. Moving from scene to scene in the enviroment. Check. Point and click interface. Check. Challenging puzzles. (Presumably) check. This is as old school adventure as any. You are mixing up not liking the art style and the graphics with not being a point and click adventure.

Or what did you expect. Parser based input?

 

[Jarpie]

For some reason, I always thought Tim Schafer was pretty much the Terry Gilliam of video games, in a "weird" kind of way. But at least Gilliam didn't ask for my money for Lost in La Mancha, which is how this game is shaping up to be if he doesn't get his brains sorted.

In what sense? I don't see much similarities between Gilliam and Schafer, IMO Gilliam does quite a bit more eccentric films than Schafer does games. AFAIK only three films by Gilliam have been even remotely disasters from production stand point; The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was folded due crazy storm destroying the location and sets and Heath Ledger died part-way of shooting Parnassus, not sure about Baron Munchausen but afaik the problems on it weren't due Gilliam but nonexistant organisation.

Terry Gilliam's reputation as being "problematic director" is imo very much undeserved. I'd say that Tim Schafer has more in common with Kevin Smith except Smith's films haven't been productional mismanaged (near) disasters.

 

[Jarpie]

Also, on a completely subjective basis, I am not getting any of that "Old School Adventure(TM)" vibe from Broken Age, "the kind that publishers are no longer willing to fund". It looks to me like one of the any other random DFA titles or any other fancy indie adventure released in the last couple years. I don't see what makes it "Old School" and stand out from the crowd and especially not what makes it cost so damn much and 800%+ over-budget.

I didn't follow the conception of the game very closely so I don't know how it came about once KS was over. Was it a concept Tim had in mind for a while before the KS? It isn't particularly inspiring from a glance. Disappointing even, considering all the ruckus about "no more old school games because publishers".

I don't think Schafer has it in him to make point'n'click adventure games like those ones he did with LucasArts. Broken Age looks more 'hipstery' and made for more modern sensibilities, along with the story which seems more "fairy taley" and not "wacky" like they did in LucasArts, also everything I've seen from Broken Age gives me the impression "Playing it very safely".

People who expects p'n'c adventure game in the vein of LucasArts' games will be very disappointed.

 

[ghostdog]

What's this crap about Kevin Smith ? Tim Shaffer wrote and designed Day Of The Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts all games (or at least ) in my book.

 

[Jarpie]

What's this crap about Kevin Smith ? Tim Shaffer wrote and designed Day Of The Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts all games (or at least ) in my book.

The similarity with Kevin Smith is that both puts on their own persona and mainly sells stuff on that, and neither can no longer make the stuff they did - which Kevin Smith has admitted that he couldn't do a film like Clerks even if he tried. Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango were very much the games what someone does when they are in their early 20s or early 30s.

 

[Aeschylus]

Comparing Tim Schaefer to Kevin Smith is a bit unfair. Say what you will about his management skills, but Tim Schaefer has been directly involved in some capacity in the following games: Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brutal Legend. All but one of those were pure gold. The man trades on his reputation and consistently high-quality output, not just his personality.

It remains to be seen whether or not he can still produce at that level, as this is only his 2nd game since Psychonauts. To be honest, all judgements of the game at this point (positive or negative) are going to be superficial as there is really no information to go on other than the art style and a vague story outline.

 

[Rahdulan]

Banner Saga says:

We released a truly free demo hoping to make some extra cash for development, and got brutalized for it. But without that income and development time our single-player game wouldn't be as good. Some people will never understand this.

It's because people are idiots. I mean, it's not like developers said they would release free MP component of the game first or anything, right?

 

[evdk]

the story which seems more "fairy taley" and not "wacky" like they did in LucasArts

He's making a game for his kids to enjoy. Of course, by the time this will finally be released they may be old enough to enjoy even DotT style games.

 

[Jarpie]

Comparing Tim Schaefer to Kevin Smith is a bit unfair. Say what you will about his management skills, but Tim Schaefer has been directly involved in some capacity in the following games: Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brutal Legend. All but one of those were pure gold. The man trades on his reputation and consistently high-quality output, not just his personality.

It remains to be seen whether or not he can still produce at that level, as this is only his 2nd game since Psychonauts. To be honest, all judgements of the game at this point (positive or negative) are going to be superficial as there is really no information to go on other than the art style and a vague story outline.

Like I said, the similarity IMO with the two is that both did very highly acclaimed media by their respective target audiences, and as I see it they can't replicate what they did in the 90s because they are no longer the same people any more, and that's not the only reason; Monkey Islands, DotT, Full Throtle and Grim Fandango are the games of the 90s made with the 90s sensibilities.

Do you think someone would actually make game like DotT nowdays? early 90s were the time of that kind of wacky stuff, same as film like French Connection is the child of it's own era. People who are expecting Schafer to do another game like he did are only fooling themselves, same with PE, T:ToN or Wasteland 2 if they expect them to be closely modelled after IE-games, PST or Wasteland - they will have similarities but they can't be the same.

 

[ghostdog]

Meh Kevin Smith is highly acclaimed ? He made one really good movie and that's it, he went downhill from then on. That's why Aeschylus is saying the comparison is unfortunate. Shaffer continued releasing great games up to 2005. (I haven't played brutal legend so I can't comment on that).

Anyway I don't think how can anyone expect Shaffer to make a similar game in story and style with one of his old ones, except for the mechanics, that in this case are for a point and click adventure game. All his adventure games so far are pretty different both in story and art style, and I'm sure that this has always been his intention.

The problem here that some people (including myself) don't dig the new art and also don't think that the main idea behind the story sounds very appealing. It's not that the game isn't similar to his old adventures because the question would be to which one ?

 

[index.php]

 

[Jarpie]

Meh Kevin Smith is highly acclaimed ? He made one really good movie and that's it, he went downhill from then on. That's why Aeschylus is saying the comparison is unfortunate. Shaffer continued releasing great games up to 2005. (I haven't played brutal legend so I can't comment on that).

Chasing Amy and Dogma are very well liked and even Clerks 2 is considered good and I stand by my point, 2005 was 8 years ago which is a long time, especially when it comes to creative medium and people can change a lot in 7-8 years.

Anyway I don't think how can anyone expect Shaffer to make a similar game in story and style with one of his old ones, except for the mechanics, that in this case are for a point and click adventure game. All his adventure games so far are pretty different both in story and art style, and I'm sure that this has always been his intention.

The problem here that some people (including myself) don't dig the new art and also don't think that the main idea behind the story sounds very appealing. It's not that the game isn't similar to his old adventures because the question would be to which one ?

Maybe so, but since he is designing the game to be "kid friendly" I expect the puzzles be watered down and easy, which will disappoint backers who expects it to be as tough as the games of the 90s. It might be as long as the earlier games, or maybe the story is better than we think but I get the distinct feeling from the art-style, animations and the story synopsis that it'll be too compromised and trying to cater too many crowds. Maybe he's not doing it consciously, or even at all but we'll see when it comes out but I always try to lower my expectations.

"Pessimist never gets disappointed" -finnish proverb.

 

[Aeschylus]

Maybe so, but since he is designing the game to be "kid friendly"

Out of curiosity, where does this assertion come from? Other than the scene in the documentary where he asked his daughter's opinion on the art for the girl, I've seen no particular mention that the game is aimed at being kid friendly.

 

[Infinitron]

Maybe so, but since he is designing the game to be "kid friendly"

Out of curiosity, where does this assertion come from? Other than the scene in the documentary where he asked his daughter's opinion on the art for the girl, I've seen no particular mention that the game is aimed at being kid friendly.

Well, the main characters are kids. That does lead people to make assumptions. Maybe it's an unwarranted Animation Age Ghetto type of thing, maybe it isn't.

 

[Aeschylus]

Out of curiosity, where does this assertion come from? Other than the scene in the documentary where he asked his daughter's opinion on the art for the girl, I've seen no particular mention that the game is aimed at being kid friendly.

Well, the main characters are kids. That does lead people to make assumptions. Maybe it's an unwarranted Animation Age Ghetto type of thing, maybe it isn't.

So are the characters in Psychonauts, and DoTT (well, teenagers) and those were not particularly aimed at kids. I was just curious if there was some evidence of this that I'd missed.

 

[Infinitron]

Out of curiosity, where does this assertion come from? Other than the scene in the documentary where he asked his daughter's opinion on the art for the girl, I've seen no particular mention that the game is aimed at being kid friendly.

Well, the main characters are kids. That does lead people to make assumptions. Maybe it's an unwarranted Animation Age Ghetto type of thing, maybe it isn't.

So are the characters in Psychonauts, and DoTT (well, teenagers) and those were not particularly aimed at kids. I was just curious if there was some evidence of this that I'd missed.

My impression was that the DoTT characters were college students (dorm roommates?)

 

[Aeschylus]

Hm, yeah that's probably true. They were teenagers in Maniac Mansion. Anyway, I'll assume that the idea that the game is 'kid friendly' is largely impressionistic based on the art and characters. I don't really get that vibe, but I suppose it could be the case.

 

[buzz]

It might also be the impression given from his recent track record, with that Sesame street game and some stuff for kinect.

edit: Not that I find the "kid friendly" argument any viable in the first place. I played Monkey Island and DotT as a kid and the later was exactly pretty cartoony and "kid friendly". Schafer's games always reminded me of the type of cartoons that both kids and adults can enjoy (Animaniacs). I'm actually more worried that the game will be too serious or something like that.

 

[jfrisby]

I think Gilliam has a bit more actual artistic credibility than Schafer - I always thought the Tim Burton comparison was a bit better: made some neat stuff in the late 80s/90s, has been trying to sell out in increasingly painful, garish, ways since. Wackiness, everything feels the same tone-wise, people buy figurines.

 

[trustno1code]

Maybe so, but since he is designing the game to be "kid friendly"

Out of curiosity, where does this assertion come from? Other than the scene in the documentary where he asked his daughter's opinion on the art for the girl, I've seen no particular mention that the game is aimed at being kid friendly.

Well, the main characters are kids.

It might also be the impression given from his recent track record, with that Sesame street game and some stuff for kinect.

The Kinect thing he did (after Brütal Legend), but that Sesame Street game was led by Nathan Martz, one of their programmers.

 

[buzz]

American McGee is the gaming's Burton .

 

[Dexter]

Eh, I can give you that I'd probably have liked a game in the style of LucasArts better (Monkey Island, DotT, Sam & Max, Grim Fandango) and this game does look to be somewhat designed to conform to new "sensibilities" and as previously said be something that his daughter might want to play.

But in the end, it's very hard to tell what it'll become and most of it might be up to the writing and characterization since you could do a game about almost anything (A guy that wants to be a pirate, tentacles that want to take over the world, a dog and a lagomorph or something inspired by the Mexican "Day of the Dead") and it also very much depends on just that if these concepts prove to be something interesting or not.
A lot of those would have sounded (and looked) shit too without any context.

Even some of the very early concepts and dialogue tests were kind of funny, if they can build on that this'll be alright: http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/7122/
(Unfortunately they didn't allow sharing it anywhere outside of there: https://player.vimeo.com/video/43566303 )

Talk to me again after I've actually played the game, since presuming if it is going to be good or shit based on a few screenshots and vague gameplay from the documentary isn't exactly going to lead to great results.

 

[PlanHex]

Everybody seems to be going on about them being kids, but aren't they a bit tall to be kids?
They look more like they're somewhere between 15-18, older than the kids from Psychonauts anyway.
'Course, that's barely in not-kids territory, but seems appropriate for the coming-of-age story that I assume this is.

Is it that the art style looks kid-friendly?