Broken Age - Double Fine's Kickstarter Adventure Game

[Castanova]

There's just no reason that an adventure game should cost more than $3 million. Under no circumstances. You need to draw 50-100 backgrounds, at most 50 characters and animations. You need a programmer to program the engine for like 6 months. And you need designers/writers working for, say, 3 months. How does that exceed $3 mill? Unless they're doing some seriously groundbreaking shit with this game, then they fucked up real, real bad.

 

[Zed]

There's just no reason that an adventure game should cost more than $3 million. Under no circumstances. You need to draw 50-100 backgrounds, at most 50 characters and animations. You need a programmer to program the engine for like 6 months. And you need designers/writers working for, say, 3 months. How does that exceed $3 mill? Unless they're doing some seriously groundbreaking shit with this game, then they fucked up real, real bad.

if you use hipster trash to draw you some really fucking ugly artwork, it'll cost you more.

 

[Whisky]

I had a bad feeling about this one when I realized Schaefer was spending more time talking about the documentary than the actual game. Kind of glad I didn't donate.

 

[ghostdog]

Well, at least with all these fuckups the documentary will become even more interesting.

 

[Taxnomore]

Definite evidence that game designers are not managers, should never be trusted with large amounts of money or in charge of any budget, and gives a perfectly good reason for the piss poor pay they generally receive in the mainstream industry.

 

[evdk]

Well, at least with all these fuckups the documentary will become even more interesting.

Their gonna whitewash the hell out of their fuck ups, guaranteed. At most you will see some tearful admission about how their artistic vision crashed hard face first into the concrete slab of financial reality, how that is unfair and how their wonderful backers have supported them in their hour month years of need.

 

[J_C]

Definite evidence that game designers are not managers, should never be trusted with large amounts of money or in charge of any budget, and gives a perfectly good reason for the piss poor pay they generally receive in the mainstream industry.

I will take a creative designer (who can occasionally make a good game, even if not on time) over a manager (who makes banal shit boring stuff because that is what the most profitable) any time.

Anyway, if you fuckers can do anything else but bitching, I recommend watching the latest documentary. There is some interesting stuff about design, a few seconds of gameplay here and there, and the discussion about the whole early access-breaking up the game problem. I don't want to sound even more apologetic as I'm already are, but it clearly seems that they don't take this issue lightly, and try to solve it as the best they can.

 

[Metro]

Next KS should be to fund the operation to get J_C's nose out of Schafer's ass. Seriously, fuck their documentary -- the irony of them pondering why they're running out of money in a documentary that cost them $400k is overwhelming. Borderline intentional trolling at this point.

 

[keppj0nes]

Yeah that docu episode where their financial advisor lady was telling Tim they need to figure out alternate ways to get money, and he was just playing with something on her desk, was when I decided to completely stop watching the episodes.

 

[CSM]

Next KS should be to fund the operation to get J_C's nose out of Schafer's ass. Seriously, fuck their documentary -- the irony of them pondering why they're running out of money in a documentary that cost them $400k is overwhelming. Borderline intentional trolling at this point.

Plus: "let's spend two weeks on unrelated other shit instead of working on our game".

 

[Rahdulan]

There's just no reason that an adventure game should cost more than $3 million. Under no circumstances. You need to draw 50-100 backgrounds, at most 50 characters and animations. You need a programmer to program the engine for like 6 months. And you need designers/writers working for, say, 3 months. How does that exceed $3 mill? Unless they're doing some seriously groundbreaking shit with this game, then they fucked up real, real bad.

Not to belittle adventures, but this puzzles me as well. You're developing a damn point & click adventure, not an RPG or something where you have a dozen(s) of underlying systems you need to develop and put into action. It's a POINT & CLICK adventure game. What stings the most is that they got, what; eight times the initial budget and they're still running into financial troubles? Although I fundamentally agree with J_C's statement about creative designers, I have a feeling this whole thing went something along the lines of "look, people are throwing all this money at us - now we can create any game we want!" and then reality hit them couple of months later.

 

[Metro]

Even the old LucasArts adventure games weren't epic landmark achievements. They were cool titles with good stories, nice artwork, and semi-challenging puzzles. Not like they split the atom.

 

[J_C]

Yeah that docu episode where their financial advisor lady was telling Tim they need to figure out alternate ways to get money, and he was just playing with something on her desk, was when I decided to completely stop watching the episodes.

How the fuck can anybody complain about a thing like this? Are you even human? Are you living in this world? I assume 99% of humanity does things like drumming on the table with fingers, or moving a pencil here and there while listening to others. You know, because our brain is capable of doing parallel things. Well obviously not yours, because you say things like that. Jesus, these are the comments that make my piss boil, when people are not even complaining about legit things, but like "he is wearing a blue shirt, I stopped watching the video right there". Go and jump off a cliff!

thing went something along the lines of "look, people are throwing all this money at us - now we can create any game we want!" and then reality hit them couple of months later.

Yeah, they pretty much said the same in the documentary. They saw this huge pile of money, and the decided to make a huge ass game. Too huge appearently.

 

[keppj0nes]

Yeah that docu episode where their financial advisor lady was telling Tim they need to figure out alternate ways to get money, and he was just playing with something on her desk, was when I decided to completely stop watching the episodes.

How the fuck can anybody complain about a thing like this? Are you even human? Are you living in this world? I assume 99% of humanity does things like drumming on the table with fingers, or moving a pencil here and there while listening to others. You know, because our brain is capable of doing parallel things. Well obviously not yours, because you say things like that. Jesus, these are the comments that make my piss boil, when people are not even complaining about legit things, but like "he is wearing a blue shirt, I stopped watching the video right there". Go and jump off a cliff!

Yeah it was meant to point out what Tim is doing when engaging in potentially important discussions on the direction of the finances of other people's money. Maybe he has massive ADD, brah, it seems that way.

 

[Metro]

J_C's shitposter status confirmed. I also like how his attempt to ignore me is foiled by people quoting my posts. Doesn't it just burn, J_C!??! Burn! BURN!

 

[J_C]

Yeah that docu episode where their financial advisor lady was telling Tim they need to figure out alternate ways to get money, and he was just playing with something on her desk, was when I decided to completely stop watching the episodes.

How the fuck can anybody complain about a thing like this? Are you even human? Are you living in this world? I assume 99% of humanity does things like drumming on the table with fingers, or moving a pencil here and there while listening to others. You know, because our brain is capable of doing parallel things. Well obviously not yours, because you say things like that. Jesus, these are the comments that make my piss boil, when people are not even complaining about legit things, but like "he is wearing a blue shirt, I stopped watching the video right there". Go and jump off a cliff!

Yeah it was meant to point out what Tim is doing when engaging in potentially important discussions on the direction of the finances of other people's money. Maybe he has massive ADD, brah, it seems that way.

I know what you meant, but not staring like a maniac to the woman talking doesn't mean that he doesn't give a rat's ass about the problem. I for one always flipping my pen between my fingers when I have a stressful, serious conversation in the office, but during that I'm fully dedicated to the other person. And I assume Tim wasn't fantasizing about a hot babe while listening to the woman, even if he didn't stare at her.

No offence, but you are just making up a shitty excuse to say something edgy. You could legitimally criticise a lot of things about DF, but this is just stupid.

 

[evdk]

No offence, but you are just making up a shitty excuse to say something edgy. You could legitimally criticise a lot of things about DF, but this is just stupid.

It's a piece of the puzzle, possibly meaning nothing by itself but in the light of everything else it's pretty easy to understand why would somebody find it damning. Or to look at it from another angle - nobody would care if their perception wasn't influenced by DF many financial fuck ups, but that is all DF's own fault and they should be aware of that when putting the scene in.

 

[SuicideBunny]

There's just no reason that an adventure game should cost more than $3 million.

voice acting by some random hollywood twats.

 

[J_C]

No offence, but you are just making up a shitty excuse to say something edgy. You could legitimally criticise a lot of things about DF, but this is just stupid.

It's a piece of the puzzle, possibly meaning nothing by itself but in the light of everything else it's pretty easy to understand why would somebody find it damning. Or to look at it from another angle - nobody would care if their perception wasn't influenced by DF many financial fuck ups, but that is all DF's own fault and they should be aware of that when putting the scene in.

I think what they said is more important, and it looked to me that everyone gave a lot ot thought of the problem and the possibilities, even if Tim played with something while listening to the others. At least they looked honest.

 

[Zed]

This isn't about honesty or ethics or anything like that. This is about being stupid as shit with money and having horrible management.

 

[DalekFlay]

Yeah, they pretty much said the same in the documentary. They saw this huge pile of money, and the decided to make a huge ass game. Too huge appearently.

Of course it all boils down to this. The only question seems to be how pissed off this makes a person. For some people they see it as epic irresponsibility and mismanagement and it pisses them off. For others it is creators not having the budget they need to create beautiful butterflies. And then all the mediums in-between.

There's really no debate here beyond how pissed you are they fucked up with other peoples' money.

 

[Mrowak]

Definite evidence that game designers are not managers, should never be trusted with large amounts of money or in charge of any budget, and gives a perfectly good reason for the piss poor pay they generally receive in the mainstream industry.

I will take a creative designer (who can occasionally make a good game, even if not on time) over a manager (who makes banal shit boring stuff because that is what the most profitable) any time.

So you'd take a good designer over a poor manager? No shit Sherlock.

Frankly I'd take a good manager over a bunch of well-meaning, talented designers who cannot organise their work efficiently (unless this is a very small project we are talking about).

I know the work as such people as managers, marketing guys and accountants is far less glamorous than a fucking designer or a programmer or an artist who actually do stuff that works, but if there is a lesson to be taken from this calamity, it teaches us that you actually need those people who constantly bitch about figures, deadlines and risk management because shit just won't get done without coordinating your resources.

And I am saying all this even though I don't represent any of the abovementioned professions. Over time you simply come to appreciate the damn fine work those "shadowy" figures do for your sake.

Anyway, if you fuckers can do anything else but bitching, I recommend watching the latest documentary. There is some interesting stuff about design, a few seconds of gameplay here and there, and the discussion about the whole early access-breaking up the game problem. I don't want to sound even more apologetic as I'm already are, but it clearly seems that they don't take this issue lightly, and try to solve it as the best they can.

They kinda woke up late. Fuck it, they really, really shouldn't have done that second Kickstarter. Now, whatever they say will ring hollow.

 

[J_C]

Definite evidence that game designers are not managers, should never be trusted with large amounts of money or in charge of any budget, and gives a perfectly good reason for the piss poor pay they generally receive in the mainstream industry.

I will take a creative designer (who can occasionally make a good game, even if not on time) over a manager (who makes banal shit boring stuff because that is what the most profitable) any time.

So you'd take a good designer over a poor manager? No shit Sherlock.

Frankly I'd take a good manager over a bunch of well-meaning, talented designers who cannot organise their work efficiently (unless this is a very small project we are talking about).

But with the DF we still have a very good chance for getting a good game, even if it's late, but you won't get anything good from a profit oriented EA manager. Managers can't produce good games at all. Designers can produce good games, even if there is a chance that they fuck up.

Imagine that there are two teams. Both teams have programmers, artists and shit, but team I only has manager types, while team II has a few good designers. From 10 out of 10 occasions, team I will produce a dumbed down, safe, popamole game, because that is the least risky and easy to do. Team II will try to make a good game and even if their fail at their attempt, they will get it next time.

 

[J_C]

This isn't about honesty or ethics or anything like that. This is about being stupid as shit with money and having horrible management.

Well it is easy for you to say how to run a medium sized game company.

 

[Branm]

Fuck me I wish I would of pledged a buck for this kickstarter. Just being able to go into the comments to flame the hipster fanboys still defending Double Fine.

You get quality posts such as these to flame:

Jörn Huxhorn about 1 hour ago

The amount of whining and rage is amazing.
I'm perfectly fine with the way Double Fine is handling the situation. The only regrets on my part about funding this project are that I only pledged at the $15 level while it would deserve that money for the documentary alone. I try to justify that small amount to myself by the fact that this was my very first Kickstarter campaign.

Peter Arentsen about 4 hours ago

Really people complaining about that double fine is putting more of their own money in DFA so they can create a better game. They want to deliver the best stuff they can not a small game anymore.

Peter Arentsen 8 minutes ago

@clockwisespin Really they are funding themselves to make the game bigger and you cry about it people cry about anything.
And I loved brutal legend even the rts part.

That Peter guy would be my prime target....