Broken Age - Double Fine's Kickstarter Adventure Game

[Infinitron]

I wouldn't say they're on par. DFA is a bit behind. Tim said he'll finish the writing soon,

Maybe I misunderstood in the documentary, but didn't they say that they finished the writing?

We shouldn't forget that DF made a whole new engine for their game, and as it was seen in the first part of the documantary, that was quite a bit of work. The other teams use Unity. Also DF has other projects they must handle, while inXile and the Shadowrun guys only handle one projects AFAIK. Not that I want to find excuses to DF, but they are not lazy, as some might suggest.

Hmm. What I'm wondering is how the Shadowrun guys are coping with the whole "preproduction problem" thing that inXile has to deal with. Do their writers have nothing to do now?

Then again, it's a smaller team and a smaller game so maybe it's easier for them to find work for everybody for the entire duration of the project.

 

[ghostdog]

Maybe I misunderstood in the documentary, but didn't they say that they finished the writing?

I believe in the last documentary Tim said "I'm almost finished with story/dialog". I'm too lazy to check it out.

Hmm. What I'm wondering is how the Shadowrun guys are coping with the whole "preproduction problem" thing that inXile has to deal with. Do their writers have nothing to do now?

Then again, it's a smaller team and a smaller game so maybe it's easier for them to find work for everybody for the entire duration of the project.

Isn't the guy who's writing the story the shadowrun creator anyway ?

 

[Infinitron]

Isn't the guy who's writing the story the shadowrun creator anyway ?

That too.

 

[Globbi]

Still, making the documentary and making the game was the main purpose of KS campaign, more so than finishing a good quality game.

An over-rationalized argument and if this is really the case, it means that DF's list of priorities is wrong.

Nah, relax, they got their priorities just right. Documentary being one of original purposes of KS is a fact. It is important part of the project's budget and it will remain so. They do, however, want to finish a good quality product and they are putting more money in the project. Original assumptions was that it would be funded entirely from KS money but they are willing to put all company's income and reserve into it if needed. Tim also said that most backers would most likely want a good quality game and they trust him to make decisions about it. Everything seems to be right.

 

[J_C]

Still, making the documentary and making the game was the main purpose of KS campaign, more so than finishing a good quality game.

An over-rationalized argument and if this is really the case, it means that DF's list of priorities is wrong.

Nah, relax, they got their priorities just right. Documentary being one of original purposes of KS is a fact. It is important part of the project's budget and it will remain so. They do, however, want to finish a good quality product and they are putting more money in the project. Original assumptions was that it would be funded entirely from KS money but they are willing to put all company's income and reserve into it if needed. Tim also said that most backers would most likely want a good quality game and they trust him to make decisions about it. Everything seems to be right.

Plus it is not DF who is doing the documentary, they hired a company (2player Productions). Apart from a few interviews, DF doesn't have to sacrfice its time to make the documentary. They concentrate on the game as usual, it is just 2player Productions is filming them and once in a while making an interview about the design process.

 

[kaizoku]

Good points by ghostdog and JC.

I'm just not sure about the engine part.
Both SRR and DFA use Moai (or whatever it's called). And inXile went with unity.
I don't know how much work had to go into each thing to get a game prototype running.

As for overall "production capabilities", IMO inXile comes out on top, with HBS second, and DF last.

 

[Aeschylus]

Yeah, I got kind of mixed messages from the documentary. Partway through it said that the writing was almost done, then later that producer lady said that the design was completely finished. I dunno.

Also, I think people underestimate how long it takes to make a quality 2d adventure game. Not defending DF not being able to schedule themselves in particular, but those things are a lot more work than anyone might expect.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

I dunno, looking back at DFA's original pitch, in light of everything that's happened since then, I kind of get the feeling that Double Fine don't really care that much. I mean, fundamentally, the studio was having problems keeping afloat, so they tried this kind of risky idea to help a bit, and it ended up being hugely successful. I guess neither Schafer nor Gilbert really strike me as people with a huge passion for classic adventure games, not anymore at least. With the RPG kickstarters, and a few others (most notably Chris Roberts), I get a strong "This is what we actually want to do, help us!" vibe, while with DFA, the new Elite, and such, it's more like "Hey, wouldn't it be nice if...".

I'm not really a fan of classic adventure games though, and this is a very general impression, so you're welcome to prove to me how wrong I am.

 

[tuluse]

I get the impression that Schafer likes to tell stories through video games and adventure games were the best way to do it when he started so that's what he did. I don't think he has an attachment to pnc adventure games in the same way Fargo wants to make isometric RPGs, but I do think he likes them and likes working on them.

 

[FrancoTAU]

This could be all blown out of proportion, but it would be a mind fuck if an adventure game by industry vets is the first big Kickstarter failure. Especially over all the RPGs. I mean, the Shadowrun guys were a small studio of nobodies and it looks like they made a much more complex game on time and on budget. Banner Sage were 2 mid level Bioware designers/artists I think. I don't mean failure in a the game doesn't even get made kind of way. Just if it turns out to be shitty, buggy or half finished.

 

[Kosmonaut]

Well, it seems that Ron Gilbert has left Double Fine.

 

[evdk]

Well, it seems that Ron Gilbert has left Double Fine.

After the buying of LucasArts by Walt Disney in 2012, the rights to the Monkey Island series became the company's property. Ron Gilbert as been quoted in November 2012 as not being optimistic about the franchise's future, believing that Disney might abandon the franchise in favour of Pirates of the Caribbean,[12] however, in December 2012, he was also quoted as wishing to contact Disney, hoping to "make the game he wants to make"

Hmmm...

 

[Kosmonaut]

Well, it seems that Ron Gilbert has left Double Fine.

After the buying of LucasArts by Walt Disney in 2012, the rights to the Monkey Island series became the company's property. Ron Gilbert as been quoted in November 2012 as not being optimistic about the franchise's future, believing that Disney might abandon the franchise in favour of Pirates of the Caribbean,[12] however, in December 2012, he was also quoted as wishing to contact Disney, hoping to "make the game he wants to make"

Hmmm...

http://grumpygamer.com/2304836

For the short term, Clayton Kauzlaric and I have been toiling away on another iOS side project that I'm going to focus on over the next few months. It's called Scurvy Scallywags in The Voyage to Discover the Ultimate Sea Shanty: A Musical Match-3 Pirate RPG. I'll post some screen shots in the next few days.

 

[evdk]

Oh.

 

[Stabwound]

Well, this is turning out worse than expected. Agreed with FrancoTAU that it would be hilarious if this were the first big kickstarter to just outright fail. This is looking pretty embarrassing.

 

[Dexter]

What exactly screams "failure" to you people?
It seems to be one of the projects with some of the best art and concepts so far and seems to be the furthest along aside from Shadowrun Returns.
I just don't know if I will be able to warm up to the themes they've chosen for it, but I'm rather optimistic.

And Gilbert wasn't working on DFA, he was working on "The Cave".

 

[Metro]

Lol, fucking Gilbert. He developers one game for a company then leaves. Prior to DF he was with Hothead to pump out Deathspank and then bolted. Some of you ride Double Fine's nuts way too hard. Other than Psychonauts they haven't put out anything spectacular. Stacking? Costume Quest? Brutal Legend? Cave? Iron Brigade? And now they're taking longer to put out an adventure game than Fargo and company have taken to put out Wasteland 2 -- and yes, a CRPG is a lot harder to develop, code, and write.

 

[J_C]

Other than Psychonauts they haven't put out anything spectacular. Stacking? Costume Quest? Brutal Legend? Iron Brigade?

Those were all good games just FYI.

And now they're taking longer to put out an adventure game than Fargo and company have taken to put out Wasteland 2 -- and yes, a CRPG is a lot harder to develop, code, and write.

I don't know where do you get this from. They will release DFA sooner than Fargo W2.

Some of you ride Double Fine's nuts way too hard. Other than Psychonauts they haven't put out anything spectacular

Yes, and inXile made great games. What were those exactly?

 

[ghostdog]

What bugs me is that in the beginning Ron Gilbert was shown as a major collaborator in the DFAventure and it turned out he had absolutely nothing to do with it, he was only there to make his Cave game.

 

[Stabwound]

Yeah, I haven't been keeping a close eye on this but I thought he was involved with the game. He was in a bunch of the KS videos and now he apparently didn't even do any work on it?

Not that it matters.

 

[J_C]

What bugs me is that in the beginning Ron Gilbert was shown as a major collaborator in the DFAventure and it turned out he had absolutely nothing to do with it, he was only there to make his Cave game.

Where did you get that from? He even slammed the door into Tim's face in the pitch video. :D As I see it, he never contributed anyting to DFA, and nobody told otherwise. We would have seen him working in the documentary.

 

[ghostdog]

Where did you get that from? He even slammed the door into Tim's face in the pitch video. :D As I see it, he never contributed anyting to DFA, and nobody told otherwise. We would have seen him working in the documentary.

It was never specifically stated, but from the very first video where he talked with Tim about the upcoming kickstarter, it looked like he would be working with Tim in the project. And yeah afterwards he never showed up in any of the documentaries so it obvious he was there initially only to create some buzz for the project.

 

[HanoverF]

This episode was a bit time disjointed because of Amnesia Fortnight, I think it was bearded Tim that said writing was almost done so that could have been from late November/early December. Then The Cave launched at the end of January, so there's some stuff from early Feb?
I wonder if they asked Gilbert to help with DFA after the cave or it was all he was contracted for. Kinda odd timing, I suspect Ron just wants to do his own thing, and DoubleFine wasn't able to find a publisher/deal to make that happen.
DFA was somewhat failure proof, playing with the house's money and all that, but now they're pumping some money into it from some Korean deal and sales of Brutal Legend so a failure will cost them money, but I doubt it will fail. If nothing else the excellent documentary will drum up some sales.

 

[kaizoku]

I think Ron left because his job was done. Or he decided to leave because his project didn't sold very well. Or maybe it was always meat to be.


As for DFA activities, my take is that he and Tim had discussions, but he was never deeply involved with it.
It was really never implied otherwise.

A Musical Match-3 Pirate RPG

I still don't know WTF this is supposed to be.

 

[toro]

Despite my previous comments, I'm sad to see Gilbert leaving. And this is not a good sign for DF cause it's really confusing.