ThunderPeel2001

Broken Age - Double Fine Adventure!

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They should be MORE open. I think Double Fine Adventure's biggest flaw is that 100% of open development is behind the backer paywall. Right now they're being open exclusively with backers, but being open to your financiers is nothing new, whether they're more traditional like a publisher or VC investor, or something new like a Kickstarter backer collective. Being open to those people is not strange; in fact, they (including backers) usually demand it.

A world where the Broken Age documentary episodes and other content was occasionally day and date released to the public, and where all the rest of the content was time delayed a few weeks, would probably be pretty aimilar to our current world in most ways, but the public conversation about Broken Age would be healthier and more informed. (Also maybe even more people would buy the game -- those backer exclusives are great enthusiast marketing that can't be seen by anyone but people who already bought the game! In a way that's really cool, but it's also kind of a waste.)

 

The only thing I'd point out is Kickstarting is emphatically not the same thing as investing. It's charity but with an attached promise of some "gift" for donating. A fancier version of when NPR gives you tote bags for donations. Kickstarter gifts are usually products which I think is what leads to the confusion of identity for backers.

 

I agree (if that's what you're saying) that documentary episodes should be open to anyone who wants to watch them. I backed the project but haven't watched a one. I'm sure there's plenty of potential buyers who might get swayed after watching all the behind the scenes stuff that's going into the game. I'm not entirely sure that withholding information is as economically beneficial as everyone sincerely believes it is.

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The only thing I'd point out is Kickstarting is emphatically not the same thing as investing. It's charity but with an attached promise of some "gift" for donating. A fancier version of when NPR gives you tote bags for donations. Kickstarter gifts are usually products which I think is what leads to the confusion of identity for backers.

I agree (if that's what you're saying) that documentary episodes should be open to anyone who wants to watch them. I backed the project but haven't watched a one. I'm sure there's plenty of potential buyers who might get swayed after watching all the behind the scenes stuff that's going into the game. I'm not entirely sure that withholding information is as economically beneficial as everyone sincerely believes it is.

I did not say investing, I said financing. Investing is one type of financing, kickstarting is another, but both have financiers who would like very much to know how you're spending their money.

Isn't that system mostly a reflection of being the leading edge of the KS revolution? In hindsight, having more than just backers involved makes a lot of sense. But 2 years ago, promising all that as exclusive to people willing to blindly give you money also seemed like a brilliant way to get them to pay then.

For sure. Massive Chalice, their second Kickstarter project, is 100% public and it's great.

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I certainly wouldn't be averse to a world where all game development is 100% open. But I wonder how disastrous it would be for some companies.

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I did not say investing, I said financing. Investing is one type of financing, kickstarting is another, but both have financiers who would like very much to know how you're spending their money.

For sure. Massive Chalice, their second Kickstarter project, is 100% public and it's great.

 

Ah whoops, my bad for conflating the terms.

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They should be MORE open. I think Double Fine Adventure's biggest flaw is that 100% of open development is behind the backer paywall. Right now they're being open exclusively with backers, but being open to your financiers is nothing new, whether they're more traditional like a publisher or VC investor, or something new like a Kickstarter backer collective. Being open to those people is not strange; in fact, they (including backers) usually demand it.

A world where the Broken Age documentary episodes and other content was occasionally day and date released to the public, and where all the rest of the content was time delayed a few weeks, would probably be pretty aimilar to our current world in most ways, but the public conversation about Broken Age would be healthier and more informed. (Also maybe even more people would buy the game -- those backer exclusives are great enthusiast marketing that can't be seen by anyone but people who already bought the game! In a way that's really cool, but it's also kind of a waste.)

 

Agreed. Massive Chalice doesn't seem to have had any of the problems that Broken Age had.

 

Also, I totally loved this game, even never having played a LucasArts adventure game before. The writing was great (although I agree about the dialogue trees being kind of stilted - especially how they would kick back to the original branch if you were nested in them), the art was beautiful and the puzzles were clever.

 

I only got a little bit stuck at a couple points and there were times where I wish the game hadn't pre-empted me, but more often I would realize what I should be doing right as it was happening, or I would realize a solution to one puzzle while I was doing another. Multiple times I smiled upon realizing the solution to a puzzle and only once or twice did I resort to just guessing. I think that's how it should go in these games.

 

So who's everyone's favourite character? For me, it's Spoon and the Yarn Pals. They were consistently making me laugh.

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I just realized Act II will probably be Vella interacting with Spoon and the yarn pals... And poor Shay will have to face real danger for once, I'm rather excited now! :3

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Maybe it's because

I completed Shay's arc in its entirety before really starting Vela's

but does anybody agree that this is Schafer's best story structure and theme/game structure symbiosis to date?

I mean, Vela's ending was just not any twist: it cast a completely different light not only on what I did as Shay, but also on the tiny bits of lore I was exposed to. And it's made even better by the lack of flashback; they respect the player enough to pace the last cinematic in a way that allows enough and mental space to let us come to that realization in parallel. Awesome I'm curious how people who play Vela and Shay in short bursts experienced it.

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Remember how the tentacles looks like hands to Shay? Maybe he was never in space and Knife is OK.

But seriously, the fact that the tentacles things are "Boom Boom hands" to Shay make it very suspicious. Not to mention the exterior of the ship doesn't look like Mog Chothra to him, I really don't think he was ever in space.

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It just got to me that the Shay puzzle where you had to pick up these creatures to save them are actually the girls. Shay is the Mog Chothra. Remember how there were 2 things going bad in Shay's story? That was Vela.

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I completed Vella's story first, but about halfway through it I switched to Shay for a while.  I played Shay long enough to go through his "missions" once then went back to Vella.  My first thought upon completing her story was that the person she finds on the spaceship (whose name I can't remember) was an older version of Shay who had changed his name or identity for some reason.  The idea that futuristic Shay's story actually took place in the past relative to Vella's was intriguing to me.  Then as I played Shay's story I began to see what was going on.  I immediately realized while "rescuing" the creatures that they were the sacrifice girls and that in some way I was either controlling Mog Chothra from space, or I was Mog Chothra and that Vella was the one setting off the alarms.

 

I think what I'm most interested in learning about in the next act is how the sacrifice girls are connected to the ship's computer since Mother was a sacrifice herself.

 

Also every time I heard the name Marek, I mentally added Bronstring to the end.

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Oh man, I hadn't considered that Mom was a Maiden's Feast sacrifice. That makes sense given her story.

 

Interesting to see that most people completed one side and then the other. I alternated between them two or three times, completing Shay's first.

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Also every time I heard the name Marek, I mentally added Bronstring to the end.

 

And the beginning.

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I immediately realized while "rescuing" the creatures that they were the sacrifice girls and that in some way I was either controlling Mog Chothra from space, or I was Mog Chothra and that Vella was the one setting off the alarms.

Holy crap! I totally missed the significance of that until you pointed it out. I will say that I predicted the twist ending pretty much from the first moment that Tim described the two characters and what they're trying to acheive. Now to see if my other prediction comes true in Part 2. :P

 

On the whole, I thought it would be a bit longer; I had figured that the entire game would be about the same length as a 90s Adventure game. Assuming the two parts are about equal length, I think it was a fair bit shorter. That might be because - as someone else said a few pages ago - I never really got stuck. It's a rare Adventure game that doesn't make me frustrated enough to resort to a walkthrough, so I guess that's a good thing. Wouldn't have minded if it was slightly more challenging, though.

 

Goddamn, it really is beautiful though. And I really liked the way they used parallax and zooming to give the locations depth and extend the area that we're able to explore. Good characters, and the dialogue in Vella's world made me crack a smile a fair few times.

 

There were a few minor graphical glitches; the main character's necks occassionally popped over their faces. And one time Shay's mouth ended up at the back of his head. The only major annoyance for me was the way it handled savegames. There seems to be no way to load games without quitting back to the main menu. And there seems to be no way to quit to the main menu without saving. And saving while quitting to the main menu is always an autosave, so you could easily overwrite the save game you want to load.

 

That's just a bugbear for me, though. Overall, I think it's great.

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I had a few glitches where things were well to the right of where they should have been, most worryingly the result of the final puzzle on Vella's side sinking into the ocean half off-screen while the disturbed water was correctly centred.

 

I started with Shay's half, went to the point where it became clear Vella's half was important, did Vella's half until I got bored in Shellmound, then finished Shay's half, then Vella's.

 

It was on the easy side, but I think I would have gotten frustrated if the puzzles were harder, given how little hinting was going on. I don't particularly relish staring at the screen, trying to work out what on the screen is the piece of the puzzle I did not realise was a piece. I'm far more willing to be patient with systemic puzzle games like Braid or DROD because I can be assured that I have all the tools necessary to solve the puzzle, I just have to work out how to apply them.

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Can someone hint me for Vella's puzzle with the guy hanging in the roots

 

OH MY GOD THAT WAS SO SIMPLE

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Can someone hint me for Vella's puzzle with the guy hanging in the roots

 

OH MY GOD THAT WAS SO SIMPLE

 

Yeah, that one took me a while too.

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I'm most interesting in hearing what Zeusthecat has to say about the game. Having been popping his cherry with numerous classic LucasArts adventure games recently, he hasn't got the lifetime of expectations and experience we have. In many ways, it's just another 2013/2014 adventure game for him. I'd love to see how he feels Broken Age compares. Are the puzzles really that easy compared to the classics? Have we all just forgotten how obvious adventure game puzzles seem the moment you solve them? Do the mechanics feel better or worse than the smorgasbord of attempts LucasArts took?

 

What say you, divine feline?

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Ungh, I'm really enjoying this so far, but there's a bug where I can't switch back to Vella after finishing Shay. I'm pretty much stuck. I came very close to finishing Vella.

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Naaaww, it's such a short game anyway, no problem just playing it again when it's fixed. They're aware of the issue, no use bothering them even more,

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Question: I finished Shay first. Is the ending slightly different if you finish Vella first? It must be, right?

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I'm pretty sure it's same ending, they are both happening at the same time and while they are influencing each other's story, I don't think you can change anything in the story by playing the characters in a certain order.

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There was one thing that kinda bugged me about the interface and I'd be interested to hear if anyone else felt the same way. When you do the actions that skip cutscenes in other adventure games (double clicking the mouse or simultaneous left-and-right click) the game detects it and tells you to press the spacebar. If they're detecting the action, why not just skip the cutscene and not force me to move my hand on to the keyboard?

 

I also found it strange that there was an option to skip cutscenes but not individual dialogue lines.

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I have to say, the idea of being able to seamlessly switch between two characters is a stroke of genius.  If the puzzles ever get hard to the point that you get stuck, you can jump over to the other hero and give your brain some time to think about the other problem subconsciously.

 

I wasn't super into the intro sequence with Shay.  I feel like they were laying on the monotony a bit thick.  A combination of the music, the atmosphere and the repetitive sequences just pushed it a bit over the top for me.  They succeeded at communicating the feeling of boredom effectively, but that's not really what I wanted to experience at the start of the game.  I feel like playing Vella first is a better intro.

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