Tomorrow:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doublefine/double-fine-adventure/posts/718820#comments
Well folks, tomorrow is the day. Within 24 short hours, Act 1 of Broken Age will be in your sweet sweet hands. It’s been a complete honor to get to make this game in this way. In true game development fashion, it’s been a long and difficult process, but your relentless faith and enthusiasm has made every moment a real pleasure.
All of us at Double Fine know it’s only because of you that this game exists, and we cannot wait to hand it over.
So tomorrow, you’ll receive a Humble Bundle link to a page that will contain your Steam code and, if you backed at the appropriate level, the soundtrack download. As additional digital backer rewards are released—including the DRM-free build, HD documentary downloads, documentary soundtrack, and digital art book—those will be added to your Humble page, if they were included in your backer tier. Documentary downloads will arrive around the Act 1 release date, with spoiler blurs removed.
If you already have a Humble account, you will be able to add this page to your library for easy tracking in the future. If you don’t, making a Humble account is easy! Just go right here:
https://www.humblebundle.com/signup
When Act 2 is released, there will be a DRM-free version of the full game available on Humble, but Act 1 requires Steam to download. If you don’t have Steam, you can install it here:
http://store.steampowered.com/about/ Once it’s installed, add the game by launching Steam, clicking “Add a Game” in the lower left, selecting “Activate a Product on Steam…” and entering your Steam code when prompted.
A quick note about the documentary: All episodes starting with Episode 15 will assume full knowledge of Broken Age Act 1. Keep that in mind if you’re waiting to play until Act 2 arrives!
Marketing/PR Update
Right now we’re working on a press release that will go out tomorrow morning. This will announce the public ship date of the game and a new trailer showing off Vella, the female protagonist! Here it is for you to see a bit early, but please refrain from sharing it until tomorrow!
We’re also preparing to send out review codes to press, who will be under review embargo until January 27. This embargo also applies to any of you backers who are in the press or have blogs—
we are requiring all formal reviews be held until January 27 at 10am Pacific time (6pm GMT). The same time limit applies to the press as to backers; everyone is in the same boat! We’re trying to be as fair as possible given that backers will have access to the game before everyone else.
We’re also planning on cutting together a
montage of backer reactions to Broken Age Act 1, so if you’d like to participate in that, feel free to upload video of yourself speaking about the game to YouTube, and link it in this thread:
http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/11642/ Don’t get spoilery though!
For our part, we’ll be doing interviews and video appearances the week of the 20th to try and get the word out about the game, and are working on another launch trailer for the public ship date!
A Note On Spoilers
As you know, backers are getting access to Broken Age Act 1 before anyone else, so we request that you be sensitive to spoilers when discussing the game and releasing Let’s Plays and similar game footage.
To that end, we are requesting that
any videos you release of the game be cut off after the Sugar Bunting Maiden’s Feast in Vella’s world and upon meeting Marek in Shay’s world. (We don’t consider identifying these parts to be spoilers; you’ll know what we mean when you reach these points in the game.)
And to reiterate a previous point, episodes of the documentary from episode 15 on will assume the viewer has already played Act 1, and will be less cautious with story spoilers. If you wish to wait until Act 2 has been released to play the game, go for it—but we believe we’re shipping a complete and enjoyable game in Act 1, and we would encourage most players to just dig in!
Launch Plan
You may recall that at one point Broken Age was planned for release under the Steam Early Access program. This is no longer the case. For various logistical reasons, and because we believe Act 1 is a polished and satisfying piece of content in its own right, Broken Age will be a standard Steam release that includes a “Season Pass” granting access to Act 2 once it is complete. Anyone who has Act 1—either by being a backer, or by buying the game separately—will receive Act 2 as a free update when it’s ready.
This is something that will also be covered in the press release tomorrow, so please refrain from spreading the news now so all details can be shared together.
Can't wait to say that "I told you so!!!!"
! Did they say they're waiting until Act II is done before those go out?*
