Broken Age
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''Broken Age'' is a
point-and-click adventure An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
developed and published by
Double Fine Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco, California. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double Fine's first two game ...
. ''Broken Age'' was game director
Tim Schafer Timothy John Schafer (born July 26, 1967) is an American video game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in July 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games '' ...
's first return to the genre since 1998's ''
Grim Fandango ''Grim Fandango'' is a 1998 adventure game directed by Tim Schafer and developed and published by LucasArts for Microsoft Windows. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered static background ...
'', and was released for
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,
macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
,
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
,
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
, Android,
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,
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, and
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platforms. The game was developed in two acts; the first was released on January 28, 2014 (two weeks earlier for Kickstarter backers), and the second was released on April 28, 2015. A retail version of the complete game for Windows, macOS, and Linux, published by
Nordic Games The Nordic Games were the first international multi-sport event that focused primarily on winter sports, and were held at varying intervals between 1901 and 1926. It was organized by Sweden's Swedish Central Association for the Promotion of ...
, was released on April 28, 2015. A
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version was released on September 13, 2018. ''Broken Age'' began under the working title ''Double Fine Adventure'' as a
Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
crowd-funded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance. In 2015, over was rais ...
project promoted by Double Fine and
2 Player Productions 2 Player Productions, Limited is a video production company based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2005 by Paul Owens, Paul Levering, and Asif Siddiky. The company produces content relating to video game culture and the process ...
in February 2012. Though originally a goal of only $400,000 was set to cover the costs of development and documentary filming, ''Broken Age'' became the largest crowd-funded video game project at the time, raising over $3.45 million from more than 87,000 backers within the month. It remains one of the highest-backed crowd-funded projects of any type, and its success helped to establish Kickstarter and other crowd-funding mechanisms as a viable alternative to traditional
venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...
and
publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
funding for niche video game titles. The game's development was chronicled by an episodic series of documentaries produced by 2 Player Productions.


Gameplay

''Broken Age'' is a
point-and-click adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based me ...
, where the player-controlled character can be directed to move about the screen, examine objects, and talk to non-player characters to learn more about the game world. The game features two playable characters, each located in seemingly separate worlds; the player can switch from one character to the other via the game's interface at any time, but otherwise these characters do not interact in any direct way. The game employs context-sensitive actions instead of using verb lists as early adventure games would use, as Schafer stated that in essence, "there really was always one verb, which was 'interact with'" and opted for the more modern approach. Each character has separate item inventories as they collect objects; items can then be used by dragging them onto context-sensitive areas on the screen or combined with other inventory items.


Plot


Act 1

''Broken Age'' tells the story of two teenagers with no immediately apparent connection, each "seeking to break the tradition in their lives". Vella Tartine (voiced by
Masasa Moyo Masasa Moyo is a Canadian television, film and voice actress. Filmography Film * '' Kingdom Come'' (2001) - Delightful Slocumb * ''Nosferatu L.A. '02'' (2002) - Laytesha (voice) * ''Paris'' (2003) - Golden Gate Bartender * ''Woman Thou Art Loose ...
) is a young woman living in the Badlands, a land ravaged by the Mogs, giant creatures that come from beyond a wall called the Plague Dam. Appearing every fourteen years, they are appeased by the sacrifice of young girls at a number of Maiden's Feasts held at various villages. Vella is chosen to be sacrificed to Mog Chothra at the feast in her hometown of Sugar Bunting (formerly a town made up of warriors named Steel Bunting) but concludes that if the monster could be killed, the rituals could be ended. She finds a way to escape the beast and ends up in Meriloft, a small colony which rests on a cluster of semisolid clouds. They are dealing with the aftermath of their own Feast, affirming her belief the rites are disastrous to their people and should be ended. She then finds her way to a nearby port town, Shellmound, where they are preparing for their own Feast. There she discovers the Dead Eye God's temple, which turns out to be an ancient spaceship, the Maloruna, half-buried by the sand. She is able to wake its pilot, Alex, from his three hundred year stasis, and he helps her to rig the ship's scanning system to fire a laser at Mog Chothra when he shows up for the Feast. Vella's plan works, and she is able to bring down the creature. Shay Volta (voiced by
Elijah Wood Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003) and '' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'' (2012). Wood ...
) is a young man and seemingly the only passenger on the spaceship Bossa Nostra (Bassinostra), an "incubator vessel". The ship's computer has two
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
s (A.I.s). The computer's diurnal A.I., named "MOM", acts as a mother figure to Shay, occupying him with infantile "missions" and boring routines, while preventing him from learning about or exploring anything farther than the outside of the ship. The computer's nocturnal A.I. acts as a father figure to Shay and is more understanding of Shay's desire for independence, but appears to be too busy to spend time with Shay. The computer tells Shay that he is part of ''Operation Dandelion'', a last-ditch effort by his home planet, Loruna, to protect him following the planet's destruction and to try to find a home for him. After a brief encounter with an unknown stowaway, Shay sneaks into the bowels of the ship, finding the stowaway to be a wolf costume-wearing being named Marek. Marek claims that, unbeknownst to him, a war is raging in the galaxy, and he needs Shay's help to save some innocent creatures who have been imprisoned in different areas of the galaxy as a result. Marek guides Shay through various missions against the computer's knowledge and control, trying to rescue a number of the creatures at each location, before they are discovered by an enemy force. During one of these rescues, Shay refuses to leave the last creature behind, causing the ship to be attacked, and trapping Marek underneath a pile of debris. In the ensuing chaos, Shay is knocked unconscious. Act 1 ends when Vella, going up to the downed Mog Chothra, discovers the monster is mechanical. Shay emerges confused from inside, revealing that in fact he was not in outer space, and he was unwittingly controlling Mog Chothra. Vella attempts to punch Shay but misses and falls into Mog Chothra's mouth. The mouth closes behind her, leaving them both trapped in each other's worlds, uncertain of what to do in their new surroundings.


Act 2

Shay, trapped outside Mog Chothra, realizes that the ship's "AIs" are actually his real parents; his father, Ray Volta, stuck outside with Shay, warns that his mother is still trapped within. As Ray tries to find a way back inside, Shay, recovered from his shock of the outside world, starts taking a look around when the ship takes off, stranding them there. Shay meets Alex, learning that he was a previous subject of ''Operation Dandelion''. Alex was born on his ship, the Maloruna, a Diamond Age Dandelion Cruiser. His parents never showed him any pictures of Loruna. They lived for about 20 years after the crash (280 years ago), and then died three months apart from each other; their passing was one of the reasons why he went into ''crysolation''. Before his ship's crash, Alex had a talking cello named Marek who told him to hack the controls and rescue innocent creatures, just like Shay, who realizes that they were really capturing girls. Shay offers to help repair Alex's ship to return to Loruna, where Alex believes Shay's ship is heading. Meanwhile, Vella (having accidentally reactivated the computer's autopilot) works her way into the ship and encounters Marek, who is still pinned under debris. Marek directs Vella to get into the control room as to stop Shay's mother, Hope Volta. Vella pretends that she is Shay to trick his mother into opening the door, but they are both quickly locked inside by Marek, who reveals himself to be Marekai, a member of a race called the Thrush. Marekai told Hope their world was dying so she went forth and found salvation, like many before her: their ships were the Mogs. It turns out Loruna is not a planet but an empire beyond the Plague Dam, as he directs the ship to deliver Vella there. Meanwhile, Shay makes his way through Shellmound and Meriloft to find parts to repair Alex's ship and go back to Loruna. He retraces Vella's journey and talks to the people with whom she interacted in Act 1 and her family, as they search for her. Back on Vella's side, Vella frees herself and Hope, and the true nature of ''Operation Dandelion'' is revealed: the Thrush, believing the rest of the beings on the planet to be filled with disease, barricaded themselves with the humans whom they govern beyond the Plague Dam, and over the generations, modified their normal human DNA to become "superior", but also lost certain traits necessary for survival. Project Dandelion has been used to send out uniquely attuned human children from their normal human population who could locate a special maiden via the Maiden's Feasts to "true" their bloodline. Vella was the one Shay selected amongst the other Maidens (who are alive but held captive), and the Thrush is planning on killing her to incorporate her genetics into theirs. Knowing her potential fate, Vella creates a bomb from the ship's power core to destroy the hangar where all the Mog ships are kept. After planting the bomb, Hope and Vella set their ship to escape. Meanwhile, with the repairs complete, Shay helps Alex reactivate his ship and they set a course directly for the Plague Dam, accompanied by Shay's father and Vella's family. Right outside the gate, the two ships collide and the Thrush starts attacking the ships, which are both stuck on autopilot. Shay and Vella work together to cause Alex's ship reactor to overheat, melting both ships together. Everyone but Shay escapes, and Vella and Hope encourage him to jump to safety; Shay jumps, just missing a ledge, but is saved by the noble sacrifice of one of his robots, Grabbin' Gary. The fused ships soon solidify, forming a bridge between the mainland and the Plague Dam. Shay and Vella finally meet. After a moment's hesitation, they smile at one another. Within the credit sequence, it is shown that the Thrush is deposed from power, the Plague Dam is demolished, and the humans of Loruna and the Badlands form a peaceful alliance. Many images in the credits include the notable people, animals, and machines shown throughout the game living much better lives.


Development


Announcement and fund-raising

''Double Fine Adventure'' was announced by way of a
Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
project initiated on February 8, 2012. The idea came after Double Fine's
Tim Schafer Timothy John Schafer (born July 26, 1967) is an American video game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in July 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games '' ...
was interviewed for 2 Player Productions' upcoming Kickstarter-funded documentary on the game ''
Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being ...
''. After the interview, Schafer and 2 Player discussed the idea of the production company filming a documentary about Double Fine as a future project. Double Fine had already had experience as a studio being filmed during development of ''
Psychonauts ''Psychonauts'' is a 2005 platform video game developed by Double Fine Productions. The game was initially published by Majesco Entertainment and THQ for Microsoft Windows, Xbox and PlayStation 2. In 2011, Double Fine acquired the rights for t ...
'' for an episode of G4 TV's ''
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'' series. When 2 Player completed the ''Minecraft'' project, around November 2011, they wanted to create a more in-depth documentary, recognizing that Double Fine had the right type of environment where such a documentary would be possible. The two studios began to work out the specifics of the project, but Schafer realized that publisher interference would make an honest portrayal of game development impossible. Double Fine lacked the resources to self-fund a game, and 2 Player lacked the ability to fund the film, so the two companies elected to crowd-fund the project on Kickstarter, a method Schafer had seen successfully used to raise much smaller amounts for independent game developers. The creation of a new game was initially considered "kind of as a sidenote" by Schafer to accommodate the documentary filming. The
adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...
genre was selected to offer the public a product that would not have existed without their support, and help to distinguish the project from the developer's publisher-financed work. Schafer, a veteran of
LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as ...
, has long been associated with adventure games, a genre that has long been stigmatized as commercially niche, particularly since the release of Schafer's own ''
Grim Fandango ''Grim Fandango'' is a 1998 adventure game directed by Tim Schafer and developed and published by LucasArts for Microsoft Windows. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered static background ...
''. In his pitch to the public, Schafer argued that funding for such a project would be very difficult to come by, stating "If I were to go to a publisher right now and pitch an adventure game, they'd laugh in my face." Ron Gilbert, another ex-LucasArts adventure game designer at Double Fine, has long expressed this sentiment, writing in his personal blog, "From first-hand experience, I can tell you that if you even utter the words "adventure game" in a meeting with a publisher you can just pack up your spiffy concept art and leave. You'd get a better reaction by announcing that you have the plague." Schafer explained that the game will not be "museum" or "nostalgia" work, but instead "It's going to be fresh and feel modern and feel like what the next game would have been if I'd made one straight after ''Grim Fandango''". The Kickstarter drive was launched in early February 2012 so that, regardless of its success, Schafer would be able to talk about it during the 2012 Game Developers' Conference in early March. Double Fine set the goal for the project at $400,000, with $100,000 allocated to the film production and $300,000 for the game. Although this was the largest goal of any gaming project yet on Kickstarter, it was the lowest budget the company had worked with, and a small fraction of the budget of the company's previous downloadable games, which cost around $2 million. Schafer admitted that a game made for this budget would be "hobbled," and that the budget was chosen because it was the absolute minimum he thought he could make an adventure game for. The two had originally envisioned a total $200,000 budget, a typical cost for an
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
game, but Schafer had doubts about whether Double Fine could deliver a game for such a low cost. Various incentives were given to those that pledged $15 or more, including the game itself, early
beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...
access to the game, access to private community areas to discuss the game, prints, and invitations to meet with the Double Fine staff. Further rewards were added through a second update two weeks into the effort, including digital soundtracks, physical copies of the game and documentary, and an art book. In launching the Kickstarter project, Double Fine claimed it was the first major studio to use the model for the funding of a game. Within nine hours, the Kickstarter project had exceeded the $400,000 goal. Within 24 hours, it had surpassed $1 million. As the funds raised approached $1.35 million, Schafer noted that the total had already exceeded the budget for ''
Day of the Tentacle ''Day of the Tentacle'', also known as ''Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle'', is a 1993 graphic adventure game developed and published by LucasArts. It is the sequel to the 1987 game ''Maniac Mansion''. The plot follows Bernard Bernoulli a ...
'' ($600,000) and was nearing the budget for '' Full Throttle'' ($1.5 million). Kickstarter stated on the day after its start that the Double Fine effort is the most successful to date, having attracted more backers than any prior effort in the site's history while others have noted it is the second project – the Elevation Dock project being the first – to achieve more than $1 million in funding through Kickstarter. The Double Fine project passed the $2 million mark on February 20, 2012, twelve days after fund raising began. The Kickstarter closed on March 13 with more than $3.3 million from over 87,000 backers, and with another $110,000 promised by premium backers such as
Days of Wonder Days of Wonder is a board game publisher founded in 2002 and owned by Asmodée Éditions, Asmodee Group since 2014. Days of Wonder distributes its games to 25 countries. It specializes in German-style board games and has branched out to includ ...
and
Alex Rigopulos Alexander Peter Rigopulos (born 1970s in Boxford, Massachusetts) is an American video game designer and musician, best known as the former CEO and current creative director of Harmonix Music Systems, a company he founded with Eran Egozy in 1995 ...
. Schafer stated that the total funding was nearly the same as the budget for their previous downloadable titles, '' Costume Quest'' and '' Stacking'', as well as his earlier LucasArts game, ''Grim Fandango''. The Kickstarter page was updated with the promise that additional funds would go to increased production values for the game and film, and deployment on additional platforms. A later update by Schafer affirmed that the additional funding will support development for the
macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
and
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
platforms and select
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and Android devices. Additionally, the game will have voice acting for the English version, and include text localization for French, German, Italian, and Spanish languages. Schafer also stated that a
digital rights management Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. ...
-free version of the game will be available after release. With the added funding for better production values, Schafer estimated it would likely take about a year to complete the game, missing their original anticipated October 2012 release. A release in the second quarter of 2013 has been estimated by Double Fine, later delayed to September 2013. At the 2013
D.I.C.E. Summit The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...
, Double Fine and
Ouya The Ouya ( ), stylized as OUYA, is an Android-based microconsole developed by Ouya Inc. Julie Uhrman founded the project in 2012, bringing in designer Yves Béhar to collaborate on its design and Muffi Ghadiali as VP of Product Management to ...
announced a partnership, assuring that the Ouya console would be the only gaming console for which ''Double Fine Adventure'' would be released on at its launch, in addition to versions for the personal computers. After the Kickstarter, Double Fine launched a "slacker backer" program, which would allow players to pre-order the game through their site at a fixed cost, giving them access to the documentary and beta versions of the game once they were released. The slacker backer option was also offered as part of the Double Fine
Humble Bundle Humble Bundle, Inc. is a digital storefront for video games, which grew out of its original offering of Humble Bundles, collections of games sold at a price determined by the purchaser and with a portion of the price going towards charity and t ...
in May 2013 for those that purchased the bundle at a fixed price tier.


Game development

''Broken Age'' began development under the codename "Reds", after Red's Place, following a Double Fine tradition of basing codenames on local
Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
bars. As Schafer had not written anything by the time development started, early efforts focused on creating a
game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...
, art style, and answering technical questions. The
open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
Moai game platform was chosen as the foundation for the game's engine. Nathan Martz, the technical director for Double Fine, stated that the open source nature of Moai allowed them to easily alter any aspect of the code base, while also supporting all of the targeted platforms. Programmers created a test game involving a red robot, while the artists created a mock-up test scenario to establish an art and animation style inspired by the fine art illustrations of lead artist Nathan Stapley, as well as to work out answers to basic interface questions. A sequence involving an unnamed lumberjack character and a cabin in the woods was created and the team decided to use a system of
skeletal animation Skeletal animation or rigging is a technique in computer animation in which a character (or other articulated object) is represented in two parts: a surface representation used to draw the character (called the ''mesh'' or ''skin'') and a hierarc ...
using segmented 2D characters. Once Schafer had established the basic storyline, involving the intersecting stories of a boy in a sci-fi world and a girl in a fantasy world, concept artists were gathered for an "art jam" to brainstorm and produce concept art for the game's creatures and locations. Schafer also asked the community for ideas, several of which were then illustrated by the concept artists. Schafer re-evaluated the state of the project in July 2013 and recognized that at their current rate, they would not be able to complete the game until 2015. For the first time in the company's history Double Fine decided to enlist the help of an outside studio, hiring SuperGenius to assist with art and animation. Double Fine also realized that they would run out of the Kickstarter funds before 2015, either requiring them to drastically cut back on the project or alter their release plans. Schafer opted to adjust the schedule and split the game into two acts, allowing them to fund the second act with money made from sales of the first. They had noticed that breaking the game into halves would fit naturally with events already occurring at the midpoint of the story, making the split relatively simple from a production perspective. The first playable version of the game was released on
Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
's Early Access platform in January 2014, allowing Double Fine to obtain revenue from sales to fund the remaining development while gaining additional testing input before releasing a final version of the first act. Initial backlash to this announcement led Schafer to clarify that they were not asking for more money to develop the title, and that "we are using our own money to deliver a bigger game than we Kickstarted". In the end, the first act was deemed complete and polished enough to graduate from Early Access on January 28, with the second half to be released as a free update later in the year. By February 2014, Schafer confirmed that they had obtained enough from sales of Act 1 to complete the development and release of Act 2. In October 2014, producer Greg Rice announced that Schafer had finished writing the second act and the game's finale. Though the second act was anticipated to be released in 2014, Schafer announced in November 2014 that they needed additional time to ensure the quality of Act 2 met expectations and pushed the release back to early 2015. Double Fine was able to use feedback from the first act's release to improve and alter some aspects of the second. One complaint of the first act was the simple nature of its puzzles, whose difficulty Double Fine increased for Act 2. The team also included a nod to a fan theory that had grown regarding the relation between Shay and Alex as a running joke in the second act. The game's finale was planned out from the start, before the game was split into Acts; Schafer said he had taken influence of the end credits of ''
My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten. The film—which stars the voice actors Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, and Hitoshi Takagi—tells the story o ...
'', which provides epilogue in the form of simple drawings alongside the running credits, to tell the fate of all the characters. He preferred this so that the narrative end of the game before the credits could be focused solely on Vella and Shay, instead of having each character appears to speak a line or so as to explain their fate. A retail version of the game, containing both acts, for Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms will be published through partnership with
Nordic Games The Nordic Games were the first international multi-sport event that focused primarily on winter sports, and were held at varying intervals between 1901 and 1926. It was organized by Sweden's Swedish Central Association for the Promotion of ...
, who had helped to bring retail releases of Double Fine's earlier games in 2014. The retail version will be released near the release of Act 2 for other platforms.
Limited Run Games Limited Run Games, Inc. is an American video game distributor based in Apex, North Carolina. The company specializes in the release of digital games on physical media, with the games being sold on their website. The company, founded by Douglas ...
will publish retail editions for the
PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
and
PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international territo ...
in June 2017. Several voice actors who worked on previous Double Fine games voiced characters within ''Broken Age'', including
Jennifer Hale Jennifer Hale is a Canadian-American voice actress. She is best known for her work in video game franchises such as ''Baldur's Gate'', '' Mass Effect'', '' Metal Gear Solid'', '' BioShock Infinite'', '' Metroid Prime'', ''Overwatch'', and '' Sta ...
,
Richard Horvitz Richard Steven Horvitz (born July 29, 1966) is an American actor and comedian, best known for his voice work in animation and video games. His voice credits include the original Alpha 5 on ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'', ''Power Rangers Zeo'' an ...
,
Nick Jameson Nicholas Jameson (born December 5, 1950) is an American actor, musician and producer, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Russian president Yuri Suvarov over three seasons on the show '' 24''. He currently resides in Reykjavík doing live c ...
,
Nicki Rapp Nicki Rapp (born September 4, 1972), often credited as Nikki Rapp, is an American voice actress known for providing the voices for Lili Zanotto in ''Psychonauts'', Morgan LeFlay in ''Tales of Monkey Island'', Lilly in '' The Walking Dead'' vide ...
, Ginny Westcott, and
Jack Black Thomas Jacob Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for his acting roles in the films '' High Fidelity'' (2000), ''Shallow Hal'' (2001), ''Orange County'' (2002), '' School of Rock'' (2003), ''E ...
. Other voice actors include
Elijah Wood Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003) and '' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'' (2012). Wood ...
,
Pendleton Ward Ward Taylor Pendleton Johnston (born September 23, 1982), known professionally as Pendleton Ward or simply Pen Ward, is an American animator, screenwriter, producer, director, and voice actor who has worked for Cartoon Network Studios, Freder ...
,
Wil Wheaton Richard William Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', Gordie Lachance in the film '' Stand by Me'', Joey Trotta in '' Toy Soldiers'', ...
, and
Masasa Moyo Masasa Moyo is a Canadian television, film and voice actress. Filmography Film * '' Kingdom Come'' (2001) - Delightful Slocumb * ''Nosferatu L.A. '02'' (2002) - Laytesha (voice) * ''Paris'' (2003) - Golden Gate Bartender * ''Woman Thou Art Loose ...
.
Alex Rigopulos Alexander Peter Rigopulos (born 1970s in Boxford, Massachusetts) is an American video game designer and musician, best known as the former CEO and current creative director of Harmonix Music Systems, a company he founded with Eran Egozy in 1995 ...
, the largest backer of the Kickstarter campaign, voiced a character that was designed in his likeness; Schafer decided to make the character effectively the same person Rigopulos was in both manner and appearance to minimize the amount of voice acting Rigopulos would need to do.
Days of Wonder Days of Wonder is a board game publisher founded in 2002 and owned by Asmodée Éditions, Asmodee Group since 2014. Days of Wonder distributes its games to 25 countries. It specializes in German-style board games and has branched out to includ ...
was the second-largest backer, and through them, Double Fine included the character of the conductor from Days of Wonder's '' Ticket to Ride'' games as part of one of Shay's mission rooms.
Peter McConnell Peter Nelson McConnell (born April 19, 1960), also known as Peter Mc, is an American video game composer and musician, best known for his work at LucasArts and for composing the soundtracks for every '' Sly Cooper'' game since the second insta ...
, who had worked with Schafer on many of his previous games, composed the music for ''Broken Age''. Initially McConnell planned to use only a small ensemble for the musical score but, as the game development progressed, he realized some parts needed a bigger orchestral sound. The score was ultimately recorded by wind and string ensembles in San Francisco and the
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an Australian orchestra based in Melbourne. The MSO is resident at Hamer Hall. The MSO has its own choir, the MSO Chorus, following integration with the Melbourne Chorale in 2008. The MSO relies on f ...
, with McConnell overseeing the latter recording session with mixer Jory Prum remotely from Fairfax, California. The score for the first act was released as a soundtrack album on the same day the first half of the game became publicly available. The soundtrack was released on vinyl in September 2016. During the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018, Schafer announced that ''Broken Age'' will be available on the Switch later that year, alongside the remastered version of ''Grim Fandango''.


Documentary

The development process of ''Broken Age'' was recorded by 2 Player Productions as part of the Kickstarter project. In 2011, Paul Owens of 2 Player Productions wrote an e-mail to Greg Rice and Tim Schafer of Double Fine Productions with a proposition of making a documentary series charting the development of a game from beginning to end. A part of the Kickstarter money was set aside for the documentary. The documentary was originally only available to backers, but as of March 2015, the company has started providing the episodes free of charge to YouTube. The documentary has received praise for being an honest, open look into the game's development process.


Reception

The game's first act was well received by critics, scoring 82/100 on
review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
.
Adam Sessler Adam Sessler (born August 29, 1973) is an American video game journalist, television personality and consultant. He is best known as the host for the video game review series ''Xplay'' and the editor-in-chief for G4's video game section. Upon hi ...
of Rev3Games gave ''Broken Age'' Act 1 a 4/5 calling it a beautiful game with wonderful and funny writing.
Justin McElroy Justin Tyler McElroy ( , born November 8, 1980) is an American podcaster, comedian, and former video game journalist. He is known for his work on podcasts (such as ''My Brother, My Brother and Me'', '' The Adventure Zone'', and ''Sawbones'') an ...
, writing at
Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...
highlighted the game's characters as "grounded while approaching absurdity and adversity with brave, heartfelt sincerity" giving the game a "kind of depth that's so often lacking in other 'funny' games". Within a month of the first act's release, Schafer confirmed that its sales would be sufficient to cover the remaining development costs for Act 2. Act 2, released more than a year later, received a similar response overall, with a Metacritic score of 73/100. Despite this, many critics saw the second act as a letdown following the success of the first: John Walker of
Rock Paper Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' (also rendered ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun''; short ''RPS'') is a UK-based website for reporting on video games, primarily for PC. Originally launched on 13 July 2007 as an independent site, ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' was acquir ...
praised the art and voice acting, but criticised Act 2 for its re-use of locations from Act 1 and lackluster ending, following up his review with a lengthy article expanding on his criticism of the story. Other critics had similar complaints, including Justin McElroy, who in an update to his initial Act 1 review, was disappointed by too much puzzling in the second half. He also echoed a common criticism of the frustrating difficulty of the puzzles, which many reviewers felt were much harder than in Act 1, especially if players tried to pick it up without replaying the first half.


Impact

The success of the fund-raising campaign established crowd-sourcing as a challenge to publisher funding (and control) for multimillion-dollar projects. John Walker from Rock, Paper, Shotgun was quick to point out that this doesn't pose a major threat to publishers on a large scale, but added that it would force publishers to ask themselves questions such as "Are we really in touch with our audience’s desires?". Johnny Cullen of
VG247 ''VG247'' is a video game blog published in the United Kingdom, founded in February 2008 by industry veteran Patrick Garratt. In 2009, CNET ranked it as the third best gaming blog in the world. History Founded in collaboration on 1 February 2 ...
compared the Double Fine Kickstarter to the release of
Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
's album ''
In Rainbows ''In Rainbows'' is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 10 October 2007 as a pay-what-you-want download, followed by a physical release internationally through XL Recordings and in North America ...
'', which the band had sold through their website in a pay-what-you-want model prior to a physical printing, without the interference of a music publisher. Cullen noted the model of crowd-sourcing has previously not worked for some game developers, and does not expect it to be a guaranteed success for future efforts, as he believes Double Fine is a unique studio with a dedicated fan base, aspects that are not shared by all developers. Initial commentary largely framed Double Fine as exceptional, citing Double Fine's reputation, experience with the under-serviced genre, and history of difficulty with publisher funding as reasons why Double Fine's case was unique. Initially, many remained skeptical that such a level of success could be replicated. Schafer further agreed that the success of the Double Fine Kickstarter would be somewhat difficult to replicate for other games, even for Double Fine, as it would require the project to be "a good story for people to get behind". Initial fears that this success would be isolated were allayed as new projects emerged. As the ''Double Fine Adventure'' campaign closed,
Brian Fargo Frank Brian Fargo (born December 15, 1962) is an American video game designer, producer, programmer and executive, and founder of Interplay Entertainment, inXile Entertainment and Robot Cache. Biography Early life A descendant of the family ...
of
inXile Entertainment inXile Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Tustin, California. Specializing in role-playing video games, inXile was founded in 2002 by Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo. The studi ...
launched a Kickstarter to fund development of the sequel ''
Wasteland 2 ''Wasteland 2'' is a post-apocalyptic role-playing video game developed by inXile Entertainment and published by Deep Silver. It is the sequel to 1988's ''Wasteland'', and was successfully crowdfunded through Kickstarter. After the postponement o ...
'', which met its target of $900,000 in funding within two days, and eventually raised more than $2.9 million. ''Double Fine Adventure'' brought in 61,692 new users to Kickstarter, and greatly increased the platform's visibility and viability for funding of games projects. Within the six weeks following the launch of the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter, the site raised more than $2.9 million in pledges (outside of the Double Fine project) for video game related projects, compared with $1.7 million total for the category in the prior two years, as well as increasing the amount of funding coming into projects of all categories. In October, '' Project Eternity'' surpassed Double Fine's funding record, further suggesting the crowd-funding model will continue to be a part of the gaming landscape. The success of ''Double Fine Adventure'' has had a particularly visible impact on the adventure genre, inspiring several other established adventure game developers to use Kickstarter as a means to return to the genre. In the months following its release, the creators of ''
Broken Sword ''Broken Sword'' is a series of adventure games. The first game in the series, '' Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars'', was released and developed in 1996 by British developer Revolution Software. Its sequel, '' Broken Sword II: The Smok ...
'', ''
Gabriel Knight ''Gabriel Knight'' is a series of point-and-click adventure games released by Sierra On-Line in the 1990s created by Jane Jensen. The titular character is an author and book store owner in New Orleans who is investigating a strange series of murde ...
'', ''
Leisure Suit Larry ''Leisure Suit Larry'' is an adult-themed sexual video game series created by Al Lowe. It was published by Sierra from 1987 to 2009, then by Codemasters starting in 2009. The first six ''Leisure Suit Larry'' titles, along with ''Magna Cum La ...
'', ''
Space Quest ''Space Quest'' is a series of six comic science fiction adventure games released between 1986 and 1995. The games follow the adventures of a hopeless janitor named Roger Wilco, who campaigns through the galaxy for "truth, justice and really cl ...
'' and ''
Tex Murphy Tex may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tex (nickname), a list of people and fictional characters with the nickname * Joe Tex (1933–1982), stage name of American soul singer Joseph Arrington Jr. Entertainment * ''Tex'', the Italian ...
'' have all managed to raise amounts in excess of Schafer's original goal of $400,000.


References


External links

* {{Authority control 2014 video games 2015 video games Android (operating system) games Coming-of-age fiction Double Fine games Episodic video games IOS games Indie video games Kickstarter-funded video games Linux games Lua (programming language)-scripted video games MacOS games Nintendo Switch games Ouya games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation Network games PlayStation Vita games Point-and-click adventure games Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Peter McConnell Video games featuring female protagonists Windows games Xbox One games Single-player video games