fumanstan

Has nothing to do with criticizing a company for wanting more money, and everything to do with the way the entire project has been run. It might be faulty logic on my part, but I'm fine with that since for me this goes back to the previous discussion where if Double Fine needed the money, they should have taken the $3 million and produced the game they should have in the first case without expanding it to something they couldn't manage.

Jay G.

If you weren't bashing them for wanting more money, you probably shouldn't have mentioned "wanting more money" in your criticism of it.

Are you referring to the game, or the documentary, or both? Because the documentary has been releasing on a regular schedule the whole time, well past the original time frame predicted for developing the game.

If you want to criticize the game for taking too long and them spending too much money to develop it, that's fine. I don't see how that applies to charging money for a download of the documentary though.

fumanstan

A company wanting to make a profit isn't anything wrong; I criticize Double Fine for wanting/needing more money in the scope of the Kickstarter project where they earned more then enough to cover their initial estimates, by FAR. Same goes for the documentary, which is part of said project.

I don't think it's difficult to think of everything collectively, nor should they be separated.

Jay G.

You do understand how Kickstarters work, right? The game/documentary wouldn't be available for free for everyone even if the game had been released on time and on budget. A $10 download option for the documentary was likely always in the cards.

Assume for now that both the game and documentary are firmly in the black; is it ok now for them to charge $10 to people for the documentary?

fumanstan

No, I have zero idea how Kickstarters work. Please Tim, explain?

Jay G.

So you've conceded?

fumanstan

If that makes you feel better, sure Like I said, you seem intent on arguing on behalf of this project to no end, so I'm fine with that.

Jay G.

I could say the same about you and criticizing the project, but I'm more interested in arguing the issue at hand instead of ad hominem attacks. If you have any additional reasoning to add to your criticism of the $10 documentary download, I'd be interested in hearing it.

shizawn

Act 2 will be out on April 28th.

Full game for PS4 and Vita also releases on the 28th.

Jay G.

Playthrough of the first 12 minutes of Act 2, with commentary by Tim Schafer:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/03/...afer-ign-first

They're up to episode 8 of the documentary on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVwg...-WKk3D&index=2

There's 18 episodes so far, so if they keep releasing episodes every Tue & Thu, then episode 18 will be released on Youtube on April 28, the launch day of Act 2.

fumanstan

Reviews are coming out, and despite my feelings on how terrible Double Fine has been with this project, looking forward to finishing this up. Very positive reviews so far.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/broken-age-act-2

I got an email about it being available 24 hours early the other day but won't get time to really play it until maybe this weekend.

Decker

I got the email, but it looks like if you already had the first part on Steam, you can just download or update to get the full game without downloading or redeeming anything else. At least that's how it was for me.

And the game is $17.50 now on sale at Steam (and will be that same price tomorrow on PSN for PS Plus Members (PS4, PS Vita Cross-Buy). So congrats to those of you who bought this game three years ago -- you got to play the full game a day earlier and saved $2.50!

Jay G.

Don't forget having access to the documentary episodes during those years. BTW, 18 of the 19 episodes are up on Youtube now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVwg...-WKk3D&index=2

shizawn

Finished this up a few minutes ago. Act 2 certainly does ramp up the difficulty, and I had a struggle with one of the puzzles in particular, though once I figured it out, it made sense. I was probably overthinking it.

I've warmed up to the art direction, and the voice acting and music are excellent, but I still expected more from the game itself.

The Questyen

Just finished up Broken Age. I can't remember ever having such a different reaction from the first part of a game to the second part. Act 1 was great. Act 2 didn't even take me 30 minutes and I was ready to stop playing it. I slogged through and finished it but enjoyed pretty much none of the second act.

Jay G.

It's 50% off at Humble Store right now. You get both a DRM-free copy and a Steam key:
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p...age_storefront

Jay G.

Just finished the game. The puzzles are definitely harder, and there were several points I was stuck the two big ones involved the same object...



Overall, I liked the story of Act 2, but for me some of the puzzles halted me in my tracks for a few days until I looked them up. I found the spoiler-free walkthrough on IGN helped me by just looking up enough of a hint for a puzzle to get me through it.
http://www.ign.com/wikis/broken-age/...e_Walkthrough)


Episode 19 of the documentary is up on Youtube. It's double-length at about an hour and goes through everything up to the release of the game. A 20th episode is forthcoming, I'm guessing to cover the fallout after releasing the game.

Jay G.

Pretty long piece about Double Fine in general, and Broken Age in particular:
http://www.polygon.com/features/2015...fer-broken-age

Also, an opinion piece on how Double Fine has never had a massive hit:
http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/21/863...afer-marketing

starseed1981

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this one but I didn't even finish the first act. I was bored out of my mind the whole time.

shizawn

Just received my boxed copy of the game. Very reminiscent of the old LucasArts boxes. Took quite some time to finally ship, but as I understand it, the majority of the delay was due to 2Player remastering the documentary.

Anyway, glad to finally have it.