News

[Agentx]

Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter page:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/667 ... -adventure

Post on the Double Fine website:
http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments ... e_is_here/

Tim Schafer's Double Fine Productions is using Kickstarter to fund the production of a new point-and-click adventure game. As of posting, the total funding exceeds $1.2 million just as it has begun, already in excess of the original $400,000 funding target with still 32 days remaining.

It sets a considerable precedent where a major studio can turn to crowd funding instead of publishers and be this successful. With 32 days left and considerable publicity, the total has nowhere to go but up.

I'm not sure how excited we are supposed to be when the only thing known is the type of game it will be.

[icycalm]

That's pretty damn amazing, and an awesome way to continue evolving older genres without the developers being forced to risk their livelihoods on every single project they undertake. I've no idea if Schafer has anything left in him, and any good ideas (and collaborators) to help him evolve, or at least continue, the adventure tradition, but either way this funding method has a bright future ahead of it. It even does away with the piracy issue! And just to be clear on this, will they STILL be charging for the finished game (haven't looked at the links, but will probably do so later)?

There's just one correction I want to make to agentx's post:

It sets a considerable precedent where a major studio can turn to crowd funding instead of publishers

This phrasing lands your right in the hands of the "indie" bums. Get it into your head, dude: A GAME CANNOT BE PUBLISHED WITHOUT A PUBLISHER, OTHERWISE IT WOULDN'T BE PUBLISHED. So there's nothing wrong or bad or evil about publishers: none of us would ever have played A SINGLE game without them. You are just trying to say something different but don't know how to express it without at the same time directing negativity towards "publishers". So figure it out already.

[immersedreality]

Anyone who pledges $15 or more will get a free copy of the game on its release. How much the game will cost for those who don't contribute any money remains to be seen.

[Agentx]

I phrased that poorly, I meant where developers were not relying on external publishers (or their own money) for their funding. I wasn't trying to say anything bad about publishers even in that sense, I believe money with conditions isn't unreasonable with the sums involved. It is just cool seeing someone other than self-proclaimed "indies" using Kickstarter to fund a project they might not have gotten funded otherwise. Plus at now over 1.4 million dollars it has got to be one of the most successful kickstarters ever.

Just saw on a re-read that they'll be filming development as a serialized documentary, so it'll be great to see how the development pans out through that. I imagine that'll be where some of the excess money is going.

The $15 preorder gets you the game (and beta access) on Steam, and it looks like extra funds may go towards multiplatform development.

[icycalm]

agentx, you are going to have to learn how to post without duplicating things the person right before you has already said. I ALREADY TOLD YOU that you had misphrased your post, what's the point of telling me right beneath my post that "I PHRASED THAT POORLY"? I KNOW, I JUST TOLD YOU THAT. And no one cares what you MEANT to say -- people only care about WHAT YOU SAID. And I TOLD YOU what you said: you directed negativity towards "publishers", i.e., for example, towards Schafer's new publishing venture, which doesn't make any sense since the whole sense of your post seems to have been that you support Schafer's decision to start his own publishing business.

Just saw on a re-read that they'll be filming development as a serialized documentary, so it'll be great to see how the development pans out through that. I imagine that'll be where some of the excess money is going.

I.e. to a circus. Not a good omen for the project.

[dinopoke]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013- ... -adventure

Double Fine Adventure - now codenamed Reds - will only launch on one console, the Android-based curio Ouya.

As reported by Joystiq, Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman made the announcement at DICE today where she revealed that console manufacturer had partnered with both Double Fine and Words With Friends creator Paul Bettner.

Double Fine will bring both Reds as well as the already released The Cave to Ouya, while Bettner's Verse studio has two unannounced titles in the pipeline for the console.

While Reds will only launch on one console, it could come to other ones later, though Double Fine confirmed to Kotaku that the studio currently has no plans for that. And while Ouya will be the only console Reds will launch on, it will also be available on PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and other Android platforms.

Bettner sounded rather rapturous about the new console. "Ouya and Verse are nothing less than the return of console gaming," he declared. "The last big wave was mobile ... Words With Friends is the most played game across all mobile platforms... and yet I believe we're about to see another disruption even bigger than this last. Gamers want the App Store in their living room. Ouya will be the first to deliver it, and it's going to change everything. Again."

The Ouya will hit retail in June for $100.

Concept art:

concept.png (269.55 KiB) Viewed 16434 times

[Joshua]

What on earth is that guy on about? "The return of console gaming"? As if it got up and went somewhere? To PCs maybe. lol as if some casual nonsense the likes of which Bettner produces is going to bring about this "return".

"The last big wave was mobile" lol

Disappointing concept art for the new Double Fine game. (Not as bad as Stacking though.) Honestly, pretty much every 3D adventure game I've seen so far has been artistically disappointing. (Actually, I will say the same about modern 2D adventure games as well, like the Blackwell series. I still can't bring myself to play them.)

[Amor fati]

Game now titled "Broken Age".

brokenage_logo_new.png (182.56 KiB) Viewed 16377 times

Official site: http://www.brokenagegame.com/

[Amor fati]

Teaser trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWM4R5JsakE

[Texas]

http://www.vg247.com/2013/07/02/broken- ... uary-2014/

Double Fine Adventure has reassessed its plans for Kickstarter-funded adventure Broken Age and decided to release one half of the game via Steam Early Access.

The developer’s current plan is to release the first half of the game via Steam Early Access in January 2014, with the second half to arrive as a free update in April or May 2014.

This schedule will allow Broken Age to be delivered with only minor cuts to its current design; Double Fine had been looking at a 75% reduction in scope.

In a backer update posted on Kickstarter, Double Fine boss Tim Schafer said Broken Age’s design had become too ambitious even for the record-setting amount of crowdfunding the project drew in February 2012.

“Even though we received much more money from our Kickstarter than we, or anybody anticipated, that didn’t stop me from getting excited and designing a game so big that it would need even more money,” he said.

“So we have been looking for ways to improve our project’s efficiency while reducing scope where we could along the way. All while looking for additional funds from bundle revenue, ports, etc. But when we finished the final in-depth schedule recently it was clear that these opportunistic methods weren’t going to be enough.”

Looking at the time Double Fine would need to complete the project as Schafer envisioned it, the developer discovered that the full game would not be ready until sometime in 2015 – but Double Fine simply doesn’t have the money to fund such an extended development period. It would have to reduce the scope of the game by 75% if it could not find another source of funding.

“Asking a publisher for the money was out of the question because it would violate the spirit of the Kickstarter, and also, publishers. Going back to Kickstarter for it seemed wrong,” Schafer said.

“Clearly, any overages were going to have to be paid by Double Fine, with our own money from the sales of our other games.”

Unfortunately, the developer is not making enough from current sales to fund the project – but it did come up with the split release plan outlined above; sales of the Early Access version will fuel development of the second half.

Schafer ended his update by noting that the team has not been working slowly, and blamed himself for the delay and expense.

“It’s just taking a while because I designed too much game, as I pretty much always do,” he said.

“But we’re pulling it in, and the good news is that the game’s design is now 100% done, so most of the unknowns are now gone and it’s not going to get any bigger.”

[earthboundtrev]

http://www.siliconera.com/2014/01/10/do ... next-week/

Remember the “Double Fine Adventure,” the Kickstarter campaign that kickstarted Kickstarter? The result of that campaign, Broken Age part 1, is scheduled for release on January 14th, for the game’s backers, designer Tim Schafer announced via Twitter.

@TimOfLegend: Haven't shipped a game of my own in 4.5 years, an adventure game in 16, a point-n-click in almost 20. Next Tuesday is going to be exciting!

Part one will be made available via Steam Early access for people who supported the Kickstarter campaign.