Broken Age - Double Fine's Kickstarter Adventure Game

[Infinitron]

Is it too soon to say "I told you so"?

*Because I told you so.

Too soon, the game could still be good.

Yeah, and? I said "could", didn't I? They could have fucked up the budgeting and still made a good game.

 

[J_C]

Intersting shot about Steam sales. I don't think we have ever seen stuff like this. So, after the first few hours after launch, being 4th in the best sellers, they got this:

And they were happy with it.

Edit: later Tim annonced to the team that in the first few days, they made 800.000 dollars on it on Steam.

 

[toro]

Is it too soon to say "I told you so"?

*Because I told you so.

Too soon, the game could still be good.

Yeah, and? I said "could", didn't I? They could have fucked up the budgeting and still made a good game.

No spine at all. Whatever.

 

[Metro]

They're still pumping out documentaries?

 

[J_C]

 

[Infinitron]

Wow, hard numbers. Good on them for revealing that.

And now we have a baseline estimate to compare the profits of Wasteland 2 and other Early Access Kickstarter games.

 

[J_C]

It is a little dissapointing, that from the player's feedback, they gathered that the puzzle difficulty was good (except for the hardcore players), and they think they made a good choice with not using look at-examine-use actions. Also until january, they haven't had anything on Act II, they only started to work on it after shipping Act I.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Ooh, numbers, numbers are always good to see.

Intersting shot about Steam sales. I don't think we have ever seen stuff like this. So, after the first few hours after launch, being 4th in the best sellers, they got this:

I don't remember them ever being 4th. I actually went back in this thread, and we were all surprised that they were 10th on launch day.

At this point, I kinda just think that there's simply a larger audience for TB games (both RPG and Strategy) than for PnC adventures. So Infinitron, I don't think this is a good baseline for W2; SRR is probably a better one, and that appeared to have sold much better than Broken Age. Hell, Blackguards was selling about as well as the latter.

 

[Infinitron]

At this point, I kinda just think that there's simply a larger audience for TB games (both RPG and Strategy) than for PnC adventures. So Infinitron, I don't think this is a good baseline for W2; SRR is probably a better one, and that appeared to have sold much better than Broken Age. Hell, Blackguards was selling about as well as the latter.

Well, it's a lower bound. Certain people on the Codex were skeptical of the idea that Wasteland 2 had earned over a million dollars (if not millions) on Early Access. That now seems almost certain.

 

[felipepepe]

So, 87,142 backers and 70,947 units sold on Steam... 158,089 units in total. Meanwhile, Sword & Sorcery sold 1.5 million, Legend of Grimrock sold 600k, Organ Trail sold 251k and FEZ managed to sell 105k in just two days of Steam sales.

A pretty shitty result from someone with such name, hype and media leverage. And they still have to make Act 2... I wouldn't be surprised if they end up on a debt after all this.

That's what you get for being a company of jerks.

 

[pakoito]

Has anyone checked the latest project video update? It features our own Felipepepe as the villain of the story.

That's what you get for being a company of jerks.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

felipepepe does deserve a commendation for managing to make Tim Schafer himself butthurt.

 

[Boleskine]

Here's Tim on the red carpet...

 

[pakoito]

That Community Manager guy started at the same time of the 2PP videos. In all the videos he never seemed to click with anyone at the company. Poor fella.

 

[Bitcher1]

Moar liek Double Fine Standards, am I rite?

 

[m_s0]

And they were happy with it.

Those old-school point and click adventure games are a niche market, after all

I would've expected the numbers to be much higher than this, honestly.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

So, I gather that somebody won't get his refund?

But he managed to make the big boss manifestate his anger against his comments?

 

[felipepepe]

Only shows how he's aware that the failed. No one gets that butthurt over a refund request if they are satisfied with their game and feel confident on the result.

 

[Markman]

While I didnt get the game mainly cause I dont give a shit about adventure games,but I did follow the Brazilian tears drama, it is suprising that they sold only 70k copies of the game.
They raised twice the money in Kickstarter than they sold on Steam and it should be the other way around. They had coverage(even at VGX), hype, famous (voice)actors, money, the company reputation etc etc..
Is it piracy? The asking price? How did it fail so badly? How can unknown Daedalic make several games a year and probably outsell this game with each title?

 

[J_C]

Ooh, numbers, numbers are always good to see.

Intersting shot about Steam sales. I don't think we have ever seen stuff like this. So, after the first few hours after launch, being 4th in the best sellers, they got this:

I don't remember them ever being 4th.

Well I don't know for how long (maybe only for a few hours), but they were defeintely 4th. They show the Steam page on the documentary.

felipepepe does deserve a commendation for managing to make Tim Schafer himself butthurt.

Meh, Tim is always playing for laughs, he didn't look too butthurt on the video. Felipepepe on the other hand was full of butthurt during his refund crusade.

 

[Pyke]

Watching the new documentary now...and as a developer who is aiming for a very similar market...its completely fucking terrifying. That said, their pre-release alpha sales on Steam is pretty much what Im hoping STASIS makes in its entire run.

Listening to the dev's talking about not reading comments and stuff is SO true. You ONLY focus on the negative. Its hard not to take things personally when coming to art. You do put a bit of yourself - as clichéd as it sounds - into any piece of art you do (and I consider programming an art form). To have people negatively speak about it DOES hurt. It probably shouldn't, but it does.

Something that DF has managed to do with this project is to keep artists and programmers employed for almost 2 years. That's extremely commendable, especially when job security in the gaming industry is about as secure as wet toilet paper. Irrational Games had one of the largest gaming hits of the past decade and afterwards retrenched almost their entire staff compliment. Say what you want about Tim Schaefers game design skills, but from what I've seen in the documentaries his sole purpose is to keep his company going, keeping people employed in the jobs they love doing. And that's something that isn't often found.

 

[Metro]

They could employ a lot more people and make a lot more games if they moved their company about a few hundred miles eastward. Or hell, just out of the Bay area and into a smaller community.

 

[Aeschylus]

They could employ a lot more people and make a lot more games if they moved their company about a few hundred miles eastward. Or hell, just out of the Bay area and into a smaller community.

A few hundred miles east would put them in Yosemite, but point taken.

I'm not sure I can watch another episode of that documentary where they try to convince themselves they made a good adventure game. Although realistically they are probably correct that they made the right decision going for more casual gameplay if they actually want to make sales.

 

[Pyke]

They could employ a lot more people and make a lot more games if they moved their company about a few hundred miles eastward. Or hell, just out of the Bay area and into a smaller community.

I'm not certain about the demographics and areas in the States, so can only talk from my experience. I'm currently living in the most densely populated and most expensive part of South Africa to own a business in. It costs a good deal more to have a company here in comparison to other places around the country - but my company ( www.burn.co.za ) is directly linked to the building industry, and this area is where we have the highest concentration of architects and property developers. The truth is that while we could move our company to a cheaper area we wouldn't have as much stable work.
I assume that DF is in a similar situation. Broken Age is just one of their projects. From what I can see they run about 5 or so projects at the same time. I would probably say that 4 of those projects are dependant on their proximity to clients, producers, and contacts.

Relocating a company of 60/70 people is a mammoth task, especially when its far enough for people to actually have to relocate their houses and families. It would cost them a small fortune, and they may end up with even less work in an already super competitive industry.
Their location also gives them access to talent who move TO the bay area to find work.

There certainly are cons to having a company in an 'expensive' place, but more often than not the pro's outweigh them by far. DF seems fairly unique in that they have employees who measure their time at the company in terms of years and not just project to project. They must be doing something right if they have managed to survive for as long as they have.

I'm personally quite excited to see how they approach ACT 2 now that they have less money and an existing tool chain. It already looks like they are embracing their limitations (having a more subdued 'art jam'), and hopefully they will beef up the game play length with puzzles instead of cut scenes.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Irrational Games had one of the largest gaming hits of the past decade and afterwards retrenched almost their entire staff compliment.

What game are you talking about? Infinite?

That didn't sell as well as they were hoping apparently.