Broken Age - Double Fine Adventure!

[tberton]

It's wildly different from Schafer's stuff (no dialog! very traditional almost non-gamey puzzles) but Machinarium is a very cool, atmospheric game that you can get on Steam. It has a sort of handmade aesthetic that sits well next to Broken Age.

 

I liked what Machinarium was going for, but gave up on it when I got stuck about an hour into it. When you're hint system is too obtuse for me to understand what I'm supposed to do, that's a problem.

[jmbossy]

Wow! First of, thank you all SO MUCH! You've all made a pretty comprehensive list, i'll try to tackle each one by one.

 

 

I think that Day Of The Tentacle (co-directed by Schafer) is a good intro to adventure games as well - it eases you into the full game slowly, and even if there are one or two unfair or tough puzzles, the game's logic and UI is pretty consistent and clear. And it's a brilliant game in general.

 

I hear very good things, and I will definitely check this one out if I manage to get my head around the genre. The 'goofiness' of a game shouldn't be a valid deterrent for me, and i'll obviously need to gain a more experienced opinion; but for the time being it would just slow my interest in a game, and consequently the genre.

 

 

It's wildly different from Schafer's stuff (no dialog! very traditional almost non-gamey puzzles) but Machinarium is a very cool, atmospheric game that you can get on Steam. It has a sort of handmade aesthetic that sits well next to Broken Age.

 

I've honestly never heard of this one, but it looks and sounds like it can be exactly what I need to get more of my foot in the door.

 

 

You're doing yourself a disservice if you don't play Kentucky Route Zero.

 

That was legitimately great. I didn't expect that to be a very well regarded game, but if you think i'd benefit from it I'll pick it up next time its on sale. Thanks

 

 

Beyond that, Sam And Max Hit The Road and *cough* the two Dan And Ben adventures that I worked on are good adventures with a similar sensibility.

 

I'd love to play the Dan and Ben games, based purely on the fact a thumb in some way contributed. I'll keep an eye for it to be at a price I'm willing to pay

 

 

I also liked Primordia from Wadjet Eye Games.  It's got lots of traditional adventure game stuff, but also lots of logic puzzles and a dark, gritty tone.  Plus the main character is voiced by Logan Cunningham, the narrator from Bastion and Transistor. 

 

that sounds right up my alley! its on the (getting fairly long) list

 

 

 

ALSO, not sure if its an adventure game per se, but I know Chris Remo holds Jordan Mechner in pretty high regards, is The Last Express something I should keep in mind?

[sclpls]

It's wildly different from Schafer's stuff (no dialog! very traditional almost non-gamey puzzles) but Machinarium is a very cool, atmospheric game that you can get on Steam. It has a sort of handmade aesthetic that sits well next to Broken Age.

 

I was listening to the Idle Thumbs podcast where you guys talked about Machinarium (I adore that game) because I was revisiting the podcast where you guys talked about calculator Mario games. It was funny that you guys, while clearly positive about the game, were disappointed by how it was this really short, contained experience. I suspect you wouldn't have that reaction today.

[Nappi]

I would second not starting with Grim Fandango. Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle are both great. I would personally recommend The Curse of Monkey Island (MI3), if it wasn't so hard to obtain at the moment. Even though the puzzles in Machinarium were a bit too "traditional" for my taste, the game is worth checking out for the art style and one of the best soundtracks of all time alone (I mean just look and listen to

).

 

I wouldn't personally recommend starting with The Last Express since the game mechanics (namely the way in which the game handles time) are so nontraditional. Definitely worth checking out at some point, though.

[jmbossy]

I've been playing with the Machinarium demo on steam; this game's aesthetic is perfect to me. It has character but its still restrained (at least so far).

I really like a lot of the interface stuff as well. Very clean, but intuitive.

[sclpls]

Yeah, Machinarium has one of my favorite art styles I've seen in a video game. I like the game's puzzles too, which always felt logical to me, and were typically challenging, but not too challenging.

[sclpls]

Also you can get the game on GOG for $5 right now...

[Dewar]

Machinarium was free on PS+ at some point, not sure if it's still on that list or not.

[syntheticgerbil]

But that's also interesting to me. Backers aren't the ones complaining, because they've been in on the schedule from the beginning. And if you're not a backer (not calling you out specifically, juffowup!) then why would any of this bother you? You haven't paid any money and can safely wait for reviews before ever investing in this game.

 

The only thing I'm worried about is if the company makes any profit on this game at this point plus I hope there's enough money to still get those physical rewards out at the end of the project. I'm starting to even wonder how many discs the Two Player Productions documentary is even going to fit on, even if it's blu-ray I feel like a lot of the stuff isn't going to appear on disc, especially the side quests. It can't be cheap to press a bunch of multidisc blu-ray sets.

[thorn]

The only thing I'm worried about is if the company makes any profit on this game at this point plus I hope there's enough money to still get those physical rewards out at the end of the project.

 

From memory, they said that the money for the physical rewards has been partitioned away from the rest of the Kickstarter money. The game's budget was calculated based on what was left after it had been taken out.

[Chris]

Some of those people probably only showed up this July to hear Tim say "won't be releasing the complete game until 2015," and feel pretty unhappy.  

 

Maybe they've gotten better at messaging this stuff, (maybe Remo is helping?) but it feels crummy to be told that if you are interested in this video game and you want to know what year it might come out, you have to give us thirty bucks.

I don't know where any of this is coming from. Part 1 comes out in January, Part 2 comes out a few months later. The Wikipedia page, which one doesn't need to be a backer to access, has the same information. The only mention of 2015 on there was that Tim recognized that at one point in development, the current rate of progress would have led to the game coming out in 2015. So, that's why the team changed the process instead of not changing it. The game has never had a release date of 2015.

[elmuerte]

Besides... Broken Age cannot come out in 2015, because that's the Year of the PS3.

[BigJKO]

I don't know where any of this is coming from. Part 1 comes out in January, Part 2 comes out a few months later. The Wikipedia page, which one doesn't need to be a backer to access, has the same information. The only mention of 2015 on there was that Tim recognized that at one point in development, the current rate of progress would have led to the game coming out in 2015. So, that's why the team changed the process instead of not changing it. The game has never had a release date of 2015.

:tup:

[Twig]

I don't know what's happening, but I just wanted to re-express my anticipation for this interactive video entertainment experience. Soon. SOON.

 

I'M EXCITED!

[BigJKO]

Yes! It is coming so soon! Aaahh, I'm so excited!!

[elmuerte]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-LbvFckptY

[Merus]

I think that Day Of The Tentacle (co-directed by Schafer) is a good intro to adventure games as well - it eases you into the full game slowly, and even if there are one or two unfair or tough puzzles, the game's logic and UI is pretty consistent and clear. And it's a brilliant game in general.

 

I tried Day of the Tentacle for the first time recently. It is hard as balls. It has a very specific, bizarre logic to it that I think is a little unfriendly to newer players.

[Ben X]

Really? It was my first adventure game and even at a young age I got into the swing of it pretty easily. Most of the puzzles made sense and seemed well signposted to me. People might have problems with the logic if they haven't watched enough Looney Tunes, though!

[juffowup]

I don't know where any of this is coming from. Part 1 comes out in January, Part 2 comes out a few months later. The Wikipedia page, which one doesn't need to be a backer to access, has the same information. The only mention of 2015 on there was that Tim recognized that at one point in development, the current rate of progress would have led to the game coming out in 2015. So, that's why the team changed the process instead of not changing it. The game has never had a release date of 2015.

 

Ugh... after scanning the entire wikipedia entry several times, I found the little box in the corner with 'release date'.  

 

[sidles away sheepishly.]

[BigJKO]

[elmuerte]

The new episode is quite spoilery, as it contains a lot of content in the form of visuals, sound, voice, and talk.

[Merus]

The new episode is quite spoilery, as it contains a lot of content in the form of visuals, sound, voice, and talk.

 

On the other hand, it comes out in two weeks and at this point in order to get a decent picture of what is being done you have to show parts of the actual game. Backers basically nominated to be spoiled at least a little bit, in return for seeing how the game was made. That's including just enough detail on characters, locations and story beats that they can't go into it blind.

 

I acknowledge there were people who backed because they wanted to buy a Tim Schafer adventure game so much they were willing to buy it before it was even created but I suspect these people are probably saving the documentary for after the game comes out. Seeing the sausage get made was not the attraction.

 

But damn, it's coming together nicely, it looks like. Sure hope it is!

[Erkki]

As I've avoided all but the couple of first episodes, I can now soon play the game and then have a marathon of watching the making of Or do the videos also spoil part 2?

[Moosferatu]

No, nothing from part 2 is spoiled.

[elmuerte]

well.. except for the part that there will be a part 2