Other than for the previously reviewed crowdfunded Point'n'clicks Gibbous and Thimbleweed Park I'm actually happy I didn't back the Broken Age Kickstarter, because it would probably have distracted me from the beauty of this adventure.
Though Ron Gilbert later stated he was only at Double Fine to finish The Cave, the promotion clip suggested his involvement in my opinion and I have a hunch Broken Age grew out of the initial pitch with the money that got thrown at them. I'm not even sure though the disappointed had been old adventure aficionados like me, or if it was a newer generation hardly in touch with Grim Fandango and rather entitled to be edgy about not receiving another Brütal Legend.
The Broken Age Kickstarter became a milestone for independent funding in the gaming industry and it might be mandatory for an actual business to have that kind of backing to produce a Point'n'click adventure after Tim Schafer himself expanded his creative freedom at Lucas Arts to a point hundreds of thousands sold copies of Grim Fandango weren't enough to not call it a flop. You'd either need enthusiasts willing to trash away their lifetime 24/7 at almost no guaranteed pay or you've got to keep your business running and I understand that, appreciating every ambitious work in the genre.
For the only $300k initially asked to create the Double Fine Adventure, it might have been even possible to have a representative majority take part in deciding over the game's direction, but with the millions from 87000 backers within a month, what might have become a simpler Point'n'click more likely to be catering to the fans took on a life of its own. Opinions are like arse holes, everybody's got one. And so creating a game everyone would love seems almost impossible to me.
Even though Tim Schafer says in the documentary (now available free on YouTube) having the money takes away the pressure from him, it turns out to be a feeling of responsibility towards future crowdfunding in the industry. With worldwide media attention due to the surprise success they had on Kickstarter with over 70% of newly registered accounts to participate, Broken Age became a singular chance to show the world adventures are relevant.
With the backing, there was also a chance to address a new generation of gamers with a product good enough to convince them and with broad success pave the way for more genre titles to come. I myself probably wouldn't have seen this or that Tim Schafer actually progressed since the Monkey Island games. I might have wished for him to turn back to the good old times before Grim Fandango that I didn't even notice on release and shied away from ever since I hated the controls of Monkey Island 4 that used the same engine.
To be fair, with Deck 13, Wadget Eye and Daedelic for instance there have been other publishers keeping the genre alive, at least as a european phenomenon. Being featured in popular Let's plays by streamers like Gronkh might have helped acquiring fresh blood, too, but none of that was enough to determine if majors turn down Point'n'clicks for a reason. So much so that even I, as a fan in Germany, thought they just had ceased existence until a few years ago.
What some critics also seem to forget is Double Fine didn't just collect the millions and were able to use them on the project. As far as I know Kickstarter gets a cut and money flowing into a company usually has to be taxed sooner or later. They also had to ship a bunch of pledge rewards. Then just running a place with employees to enable the creative process eats away another part of the cake. So they might have gotten away with a simpler product on that budget, but ended up looking for more funds and released Broken Age in two parts to roughly keep a schedule at all.
It will always be a bumpy graph for announcement, hype, disappointment and finally the reasonable level of appreciation and I think Broken Age deserves more than the rushed bashing it received so often. I must add here, that I played the German dub, that doesn't drop as prominent names such as Elijah Wood, Jack Black or Wil Wheaton, who later even invited Tim Schafer to his TableTop format on YouTube. It's also said the translation had to be cut in places due to length of the animation. I can't tell if it was for the good, but I very much enjoyed the results.
And here it's about the actual game, finally, but it's going to be hard to not give away too much before you've played Broken Age and you really should. I will try my best to review it without spoilers and if I'll drop information, it is meant to create an image in your head, but not to reveal crucial twists.
I don't compare this coming of age story to Maniac Mansion specifically, but with the two parallel stories of a boy and a girl, I imagine this could have a similar adventurous effect on the kids of today like it had on us, when we played the Lucas Arts adventure without ever really finishing it at that time. It was fun enough to roam that old house with characters older than us to be someone we would like to impersonate, but not too old to be too absurd. It was about exploring the environment in a way reality wouldn't allow safely.
At first sight, I found the art of Broken Age gorgeous and repulsive at the same time, because I'm that age when you acknowledge the character style as a thing, but especially girls with matchstick thin extremities like in Miraculous and those big eyes aren't really my idea of aesthetic. The fact Schafer's daughter actually decided which "princess" they used might explain the choice and knowing my niece, out of any adventure games I have, Broken Age would be the one I'd introduce her to the genre with.
We could stop here and say this isn't a product for us, but is it? Broken Age didn't feel like being in the wrong place like Pokemon does sometimes for instance. Growing old on not growing up I'd like to say I prefer to consume stuff aimed at kids that transports the comforting feeling from my own childhood over newer productions I don't have any nostalgia for. But I appreciate an included metaphorical level you might not actively acknowledge as a youngster.
I liked very much how Schafer makes it appear as if you pick one of the two protagonists, but then both sides are essential to the story and you can click on the icon to either play teenage girl Vella in some random badlands or the teenage boy Shay on a spaceship. Whilst Vella grows up destined to become the ritual sacrifice at a maiden's feast, Shay seems stuck on groundhog days of playing the hero for his wool puppets and is beginning to look for his purpose in life, just as Vella is putting the ritual in question and would like to defeat the monster.
Double Fine tried to avoid many flaws of previous Point'n'click adventures and so hitboxes for hotspots are quite generous. The number of items to pick up and combine is rather small, so you will not end up hunting pixels. In fact, I even had the impression Broken Age was designed with tablets in mind, especially because you can pick between the way you drag and drop.
What couldn't be avoided is having to go back and forth on the screens and practically the only times I felt stuck was, when what I wanted to do wasn't wrong per se, but the game expected me to go somewhere else first and maybe finish a dialogue to be able to proceed.
I would describe the puzzles as increasingly challenging, because Broken Age welcomes the players very warmly to then require more clues between the stories and it is mandatory to keep track of them. This incline also occurs due to feedback chapter one was too easy.
I did not find any impossibilities though. The game always allows to somehow unveil required information again, so you can't mess up by trying. It's recommended to keep track of information though and I ended up taking photos and short videos with my phone, when back in the day I would have used a pencil. You might not have played older adventures, but Broken Age is actually designed quite well if you expect more than an interactive storybook.
I know, today better Point'n'clicks often have a log to keep track of these things, but that just proves the point that genre games evolved even in the last ten years. If you don't want to get involved into playing at all, then maybe you're better off watching along with a YouTube video, like some people discovered for them to be representative for a game and I don't mind if you're doing so. It's just like when we gathered as viewers at a friend's place back then. But it's not the same feeling of actually finishing the game yourself.
What I understand might have bothered players back then is the cliffhanger. With the luxury of the complete edition I was able to transition seamlessly into the second chapter, which to me only carried on after an expected paradigm shift, that basically applies Plato's cave allegory to adolescence. And it's actually bizarre how protective parents keep their children from recognizing consequences of their behavior, when they simultaneously follow a belief that heavily affects the future of the kids they're trying to keep safe.
Children are born to point out our mistakes and so Broken Age tells a story way beyond the teenager protagonist's Initiation. It might also reveal other layers intertwined with each and everything and will be interpreted and explained with a narrative. It's like the concept of god lies and lives or dies within us. The community of believers will decide for instance if a catastrophe was a sign of a vengeful being, wiping sinners off the earth, or if it was the merciful, showing his kindness by saving the pure.
Not having followed the entire development of Broken Age I can't judge on false promises Tim Schafer might have made. I understand at least, that quite a few backers had a different image in mind of what product they could expect. It's possible this ambivalent conflict even influenced the writing of this adventurous story, which is encapsulated accordingly.
After ten years though, maybe it's time to forget about a possible grudge. Let's focus on the good parts and the possibly good intentions behind a decision that, like stated above, could never have met everybody's expectations anyway. So here's a captivating tale you could pass on your love to the genre with to a new generation.
Broken Age can be a great game for adults and kids alike and though it hints what might happen after by still sketches during the credits inspired by My Neighbor Totoro, there's still enough space to discuss the plot and form an adequate conclusion that may be applied as wishes for the personal future as well.
I must admit I haven't played Grim Fandango to this day, but now I regret not having bought the remaster again, when it was on sale. I should really give it a shot, at least to see if my reservations had been justified. Opening up as parochial I've acted all those years means something, doesn't it?
Maybe it won't become my uttermost personal favorite, but Broken Age is a brilliant story driven Sci-fi/Fantasy adventure nonetheless. It was a fresh take on the genre, juvenile but grim and it pioneered financing for more fantastic games we wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
Though Ron Gilbert later stated he was only at Double Fine to finish The Cave, the promotion clip suggested his involvement in my opinion and I have a hunch Broken Age grew out of the initial pitch with the money that got thrown at them. I'm not even sure though the disappointed had been old adventure aficionados like me, or if it was a newer generation hardly in touch with Grim Fandango and rather entitled to be edgy about not receiving another Brütal Legend.
The Broken Age Kickstarter became a milestone for independent funding in the gaming industry and it might be mandatory for an actual business to have that kind of backing to produce a Point'n'click adventure after Tim Schafer himself expanded his creative freedom at Lucas Arts to a point hundreds of thousands sold copies of Grim Fandango weren't enough to not call it a flop. You'd either need enthusiasts willing to trash away their lifetime 24/7 at almost no guaranteed pay or you've got to keep your business running and I understand that, appreciating every ambitious work in the genre.
For the only $300k initially asked to create the Double Fine Adventure, it might have been even possible to have a representative majority take part in deciding over the game's direction, but with the millions from 87000 backers within a month, what might have become a simpler Point'n'click more likely to be catering to the fans took on a life of its own. Opinions are like arse holes, everybody's got one. And so creating a game everyone would love seems almost impossible to me.
Even though Tim Schafer says in the documentary (now available free on YouTube) having the money takes away the pressure from him, it turns out to be a feeling of responsibility towards future crowdfunding in the industry. With worldwide media attention due to the surprise success they had on Kickstarter with over 70% of newly registered accounts to participate, Broken Age became a singular chance to show the world adventures are relevant.
With the backing, there was also a chance to address a new generation of gamers with a product good enough to convince them and with broad success pave the way for more genre titles to come. I myself probably wouldn't have seen this or that Tim Schafer actually progressed since the Monkey Island games. I might have wished for him to turn back to the good old times before Grim Fandango that I didn't even notice on release and shied away from ever since I hated the controls of Monkey Island 4 that used the same engine.
To be fair, with Deck 13, Wadget Eye and Daedelic for instance there have been other publishers keeping the genre alive, at least as a european phenomenon. Being featured in popular Let's plays by streamers like Gronkh might have helped acquiring fresh blood, too, but none of that was enough to determine if majors turn down Point'n'clicks for a reason. So much so that even I, as a fan in Germany, thought they just had ceased existence until a few years ago.
What some critics also seem to forget is Double Fine didn't just collect the millions and were able to use them on the project. As far as I know Kickstarter gets a cut and money flowing into a company usually has to be taxed sooner or later. They also had to ship a bunch of pledge rewards. Then just running a place with employees to enable the creative process eats away another part of the cake. So they might have gotten away with a simpler product on that budget, but ended up looking for more funds and released Broken Age in two parts to roughly keep a schedule at all.
It will always be a bumpy graph for announcement, hype, disappointment and finally the reasonable level of appreciation and I think Broken Age deserves more than the rushed bashing it received so often. I must add here, that I played the German dub, that doesn't drop as prominent names such as Elijah Wood, Jack Black or Wil Wheaton, who later even invited Tim Schafer to his TableTop format on YouTube. It's also said the translation had to be cut in places due to length of the animation. I can't tell if it was for the good, but I very much enjoyed the results.
And here it's about the actual game, finally, but it's going to be hard to not give away too much before you've played Broken Age and you really should. I will try my best to review it without spoilers and if I'll drop information, it is meant to create an image in your head, but not to reveal crucial twists.
I don't compare this coming of age story to Maniac Mansion specifically, but with the two parallel stories of a boy and a girl, I imagine this could have a similar adventurous effect on the kids of today like it had on us, when we played the Lucas Arts adventure without ever really finishing it at that time. It was fun enough to roam that old house with characters older than us to be someone we would like to impersonate, but not too old to be too absurd. It was about exploring the environment in a way reality wouldn't allow safely.
At first sight, I found the art of Broken Age gorgeous and repulsive at the same time, because I'm that age when you acknowledge the character style as a thing, but especially girls with matchstick thin extremities like in Miraculous and those big eyes aren't really my idea of aesthetic. The fact Schafer's daughter actually decided which "princess" they used might explain the choice and knowing my niece, out of any adventure games I have, Broken Age would be the one I'd introduce her to the genre with.
We could stop here and say this isn't a product for us, but is it? Broken Age didn't feel like being in the wrong place like Pokemon does sometimes for instance. Growing old on not growing up I'd like to say I prefer to consume stuff aimed at kids that transports the comforting feeling from my own childhood over newer productions I don't have any nostalgia for. But I appreciate an included metaphorical level you might not actively acknowledge as a youngster.
I liked very much how Schafer makes it appear as if you pick one of the two protagonists, but then both sides are essential to the story and you can click on the icon to either play teenage girl Vella in some random badlands or the teenage boy Shay on a spaceship. Whilst Vella grows up destined to become the ritual sacrifice at a maiden's feast, Shay seems stuck on groundhog days of playing the hero for his wool puppets and is beginning to look for his purpose in life, just as Vella is putting the ritual in question and would like to defeat the monster.
Double Fine tried to avoid many flaws of previous Point'n'click adventures and so hitboxes for hotspots are quite generous. The number of items to pick up and combine is rather small, so you will not end up hunting pixels. In fact, I even had the impression Broken Age was designed with tablets in mind, especially because you can pick between the way you drag and drop.
What couldn't be avoided is having to go back and forth on the screens and practically the only times I felt stuck was, when what I wanted to do wasn't wrong per se, but the game expected me to go somewhere else first and maybe finish a dialogue to be able to proceed.
I would describe the puzzles as increasingly challenging, because Broken Age welcomes the players very warmly to then require more clues between the stories and it is mandatory to keep track of them. This incline also occurs due to feedback chapter one was too easy.
I did not find any impossibilities though. The game always allows to somehow unveil required information again, so you can't mess up by trying. It's recommended to keep track of information though and I ended up taking photos and short videos with my phone, when back in the day I would have used a pencil. You might not have played older adventures, but Broken Age is actually designed quite well if you expect more than an interactive storybook.
I know, today better Point'n'clicks often have a log to keep track of these things, but that just proves the point that genre games evolved even in the last ten years. If you don't want to get involved into playing at all, then maybe you're better off watching along with a YouTube video, like some people discovered for them to be representative for a game and I don't mind if you're doing so. It's just like when we gathered as viewers at a friend's place back then. But it's not the same feeling of actually finishing the game yourself.
What I understand might have bothered players back then is the cliffhanger. With the luxury of the complete edition I was able to transition seamlessly into the second chapter, which to me only carried on after an expected paradigm shift, that basically applies Plato's cave allegory to adolescence. And it's actually bizarre how protective parents keep their children from recognizing consequences of their behavior, when they simultaneously follow a belief that heavily affects the future of the kids they're trying to keep safe.
Children are born to point out our mistakes and so Broken Age tells a story way beyond the teenager protagonist's Initiation. It might also reveal other layers intertwined with each and everything and will be interpreted and explained with a narrative. It's like the concept of god lies and lives or dies within us. The community of believers will decide for instance if a catastrophe was a sign of a vengeful being, wiping sinners off the earth, or if it was the merciful, showing his kindness by saving the pure.
Not having followed the entire development of Broken Age I can't judge on false promises Tim Schafer might have made. I understand at least, that quite a few backers had a different image in mind of what product they could expect. It's possible this ambivalent conflict even influenced the writing of this adventurous story, which is encapsulated accordingly.
After ten years though, maybe it's time to forget about a possible grudge. Let's focus on the good parts and the possibly good intentions behind a decision that, like stated above, could never have met everybody's expectations anyway. So here's a captivating tale you could pass on your love to the genre with to a new generation.
Broken Age can be a great game for adults and kids alike and though it hints what might happen after by still sketches during the credits inspired by My Neighbor Totoro, there's still enough space to discuss the plot and form an adequate conclusion that may be applied as wishes for the personal future as well.
I must admit I haven't played Grim Fandango to this day, but now I regret not having bought the remaster again, when it was on sale. I should really give it a shot, at least to see if my reservations had been justified. Opening up as parochial I've acted all those years means something, doesn't it?
Maybe it won't become my uttermost personal favorite, but Broken Age is a brilliant story driven Sci-fi/Fantasy adventure nonetheless. It was a fresh take on the genre, juvenile but grim and it pioneered financing for more fantastic games we wouldn't have gotten otherwise.