Broken Age

[wilco64256]

So now it's out and people are playing it, what's the reaction like? I haven't had a chance to play it myself yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

[HitBattousai]

The reviews have been generally very positive from the critics and gamers thus far, with the general consensus downsides of the game being the relatively short length of Part 1(supposedly about four hours) and that the game is apparently too easy for some.  Haven't played it myself yet though, waiting until it comes out on Android.

[radoskal]

is the game actually out out? or is it just an early access sort of thing?

Also what did people expect, this is from the makers of Costume Quest, a fun light hearted childhood romp not a Myst level ultra mega brain twister.

[HitBattousai]

Schafer is also known for Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, Full Throttle, and Day of the Tentacle, among other games, so a harder style of adventure game isn't foreign to him.  I'm not being critical of his choice myself though, he wants to cater to a wider audience and focus more on telling a story.  That said, some gamers are more into the puzzles so if they feel that way that's valid too.  Just depends on what you prefer.

The first episode of the game is officially available to the public for PC, Mac, and Linux, with mobile versions of the episode to come out a little later.

[wilco64256]

OK I've played through Act 1 now, and while I did enjoy it, I do have a few comments on it. No spoilers here.

The good:

The art was very nice.

Voice acting was excellent.

Story was interesting, I am definitely hooked to see how the rest of it plays out.

The bad:

You can't ever skip through single lines of dialog. It baffles me that they couldn't implement this. You can only skip entire "topics" via pressing spacebar.

I never felt challenged to any degree at all. There wasn't even a point where I was doing the "try everything on everything" routine. Others may disagree with this, but I felt like every solution to every puzzle was extremely obvious. It only took me around 3 hours to get through the whole thing.

Topics were frequently available in an illogical order. I won't spoil anything, but on several occasions I had topics I could ask NPC's about that the player controlled character couldn't possibly have known about at that point. Minor annoyance but should have been very easy to prevent.

I didn't find the game particularly funny. I was expecting some really good humor from this group, but felt like they never really delivered on that.

The ugly:

And here it is - I never at any point felt like this was a three million dollar game. Don't get me wrong - it's a solid game and plenty of fun, but I'm not seeing anything tremendously complex to justify the amount they spent to get to this point. Everything about the game seems relatively simple to me - no verb actions of any kind, just single-click or drag to accomplish everything, no way to die, no serious challenges, no alternate paths.

So it's unfortunate, but all the time I'm playing I'm sitting wondering "How did this cost so much to make?" And that's a bummer.

[HitBattousai]

If I had to guess, I imagine at best about half of that budget went into making the game itself, then the other half into promotions, making the game's multiple versions, and hiring Elijah Wood probably cost a decent chunk of change. 

[Intendant S]

And here it is - I never at any point felt like this was a three million dollar game. Don't get me wrong - it's a solid game and plenty of fun, but I'm not seeing anything tremendously complex to justify the amount they spent to get to this point. Everything about the game seems relatively simple to me - no verb actions of any kind, just single-click or drag to accomplish everything, no way to die, no serious challenges, no alternate paths.

So it's unfortunate, but all the time I'm playing I'm sitting wondering "How did this cost so much to make?" And that's a bummer.

I felt the exact same way after playing it. I thought it was still a great adventure game, but it was nowhere near worth the 3.4mil they raked in.

[wilco64256]

If I had to guess, I imagine at best about half of that budget went into making the game itself, then the other half into promotions, making the game's multiple versions, and hiring Elijah Wood probably cost a decent chunk of change.

While I can understand some marketing costs, and a healthy chunk to Elijah (though honestly this is the first I've heard of him doing a voice for the game, and off the top of my head couldn't tell you who he voiced, nothing really stood out to me THAT much), I'm doubtful of it costing all that much to make the additional versions of the game. Unless they built their own engine from scratch and had to do some serious R&D, it's pretty clear the game was designed from the outset to be an easy port to touch devices.

[HitBattousai]

Elijah is the lead boy half of the equation.  Jack Black is also in there though I don't know as what.

[MangoMercury]

I donated to the Kickstarter so long ago, I don't remember which email address I did it on or my password.  So not played yet :|

[HitBattousai]

Talk to them with your list of e-mail addresses and I imagine they'll hook you up.  Having played through the game now, I pretty much agree with the consensus strengths and weaknesses of part one.  The general charm of the game is enough to put it over the top of the issues for me to being a very good game, but I do wish it wasn't geared quite so much towards the casual audience.  I understand why that's the case, but maybe adding a more challenging mode for more hardened adventure gamers would be nice.

[Numbers]

I feel like adventure games these days should have difficulty settings; an easy mode for a casual audience, like the kind who would play TellTale's Jurassic Park, a normal setting for something along the lines of Monkey Island, and a hard setting for something like the first Darkseed. I'm at a loss as to how this could be implemented, but it seems like the only way to make everyone happy.

[jannugimes]

broken age is one of the funniest and most creative games i've played in a long time. the puzzles aren't too tricky, but they nearly stumped me a few times, and only the first half of the game is out right now so it's understandable that it wasn't that hard. the visuals are gorgeous and so the soundtrack is phenomenal. if you're looking for a carbon copy of monkey island 2 then you're going to be disappointed, but if you're looking for a well-written, engaging, funny adventure game, then broken age is one of the best out there