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First Look at Broken Age: Episode 1 #941750
02/23/14 05:45 PM
02/23/14 05:45 PM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,644
southeast USA
Jenny100 Offline OP
GB Reviewer Glitches Moderator
Jenny100  Offline OP
GB Reviewer Glitches Moderator
Sonic Boomer

Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,644
southeast USA
A First Look at Broken Age: Episode 1 by gremlin

What have we here?
Kickstarter is a new way of raising finance for all sorts of projects, physical, electronic or in software. It means that the old way of selling games via publishers who put the money up front to fund development is no longer the only way to get things done. People and companies that do crowd-funding well (for this is what this new way is known as) can get their project out in front of a buying public long before the game is made. But reputation is a fantastically important part of the gig. If you have a good one, raising funds from the public is relatively easy; they know they can trust the project to deliver, more often than not. But if you don't have a good reputation, funding is harder to achieve.
Some really big companies (in terms of reputation, if not necessarily size) have done this well: Cyan's next game, Obduction, is Kickstarter funded for example (disclaimer: I backed this one), as well as the next stories in the Longest Journey and Divinity series. (the second is a Darkside game that is well known on that board, but less well known amongst 'Boomers in general).
So, who's next? Tim Schafer, of various Monkey Island games, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, and Psychonauts fame, that's who. Double Fine (the company run by Schafer) have run a Kickstarter project to raise $400,000 for an untitled 'adventure game' and obtained over £3.3 MILLION as a result... no pressure then, though it's clear what people think of Schafer, et al, as a bet in terms of game development!
The upshot of this is that we now have Broken Age; the aforementioned 'adventure game'. Act 1 is currently available on Steam, with a free update for Act 2 when it's released later in 2014.



Notes from a short journey
Being an adventure game means certain tropes are almost inevitable: point and click interface, puzzles, an inventory and plenty of dialogue. Broken Age has all these. What it also has is two story lines. One for a boy named Shay, and one for a girl named Vella. They live in very different worlds, that you can switch between at any time via a button in the bottom right corner of the screen. I took the simple route of playing as far as possible through Shay's story before switching to Vella. In retrospect, I would probably benefit from trying again, but switching between the lines at different points. I'm not sure if there will be any difference, but the experiment should be carried out. (No small animals will be harmed during this experiment)
Vella and Shay both live animated lives in pre-rendered scenes, but with plenty going on in them. Shay lives on a space ship where he is completely molly-coddled by the automated systems, where Vella is much more free to roam in a world blessed or threatened (opinions appear to differ on this subject) by Mog Chothra.
Puzzles revolve around inventory items (as we've come to expect in adventure games) and devices. There's a teleported puzzle for Shay, and a inventory weight management puzzle for Vella - she's walking in the clouds, believe me, it makes sense in the circumstances. Really! It does.




Jumping to conclusions?
Tim Schafer's ability to create two contrasting worlds with compelling stories and leading characters is clearly undiminished since the time of Grim Fandango (considered by many, including me, to be something of a magnum opus in gaming), etc. I enjoyed Act 1 of Broken Age, and I'm certainly looking forward to Act 2, later this year. My only note of disappointment is that Act 1 only took about four hours to play, and I don't think I'm the world's fastest puzzler.

Re: First Look at Broken Age: Episode 1 [Re: Jenny100] #941751
02/23/14 05:49 PM
02/23/14 05:49 PM
Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 69,973
MaG Offline
Sonic Boomer
MaG  Offline
Sonic Boomer

Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 69,973
Thanks for the peek to the game, gremlin.

thanks Jenny.

Re: First Look at Broken Age: Episode 1 [Re: MaG] #941754
02/23/14 06:07 PM
02/23/14 06:07 PM
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 48,228
near Yosemite
Marian Offline
Global Moderator
Marian  Offline
Global Moderator
Sonic Boomer

Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 48,228
near Yosemite
Thank you, gremlin and Jenny. wave

Re: First Look at Broken Age: Episode 1 [Re: Jenny100] #941771
02/23/14 08:18 PM
02/23/14 08:18 PM
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 83,268
In the Naughty Corner
BrownEyedTigre Offline
The Sassy Admin and PR Liaison
BrownEyedTigre  Offline
The Sassy Admin and PR Liaison
Sonic Boomer

Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 83,268
In the Naughty Corner
Thanks Gremlin and Jenny!

Ana wave


Don't feed the Trolls
Re: First Look at Broken Age: Episode 1 [Re: Jenny100] #942023
02/25/14 04:08 PM
02/25/14 04:08 PM
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 6,391
Long Beach, Australia
flotsam Offline
Staff Reviewer
flotsam  Offline
Staff Reviewer
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 6,391
Long Beach, Australia
Nice one!


Quantity has a quality all of its own
Re: First Look at Broken Age: Episode 1 [Re: flotsam] #942033
02/25/14 05:38 PM
02/25/14 05:38 PM
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 16,783
Upper Arlington, Ohio
Space Quest Fan Offline
Graduate Boomer
Space Quest Fan  Offline
Graduate Boomer

Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 16,783
Upper Arlington, Ohio
thanks Jenny and Gremlin.


It's nice to be important but it is much more important to be nice.
Re: First Look at Broken Age: Episode 1 [Re: Jenny100] #942073
02/26/14 02:23 AM
02/26/14 02:23 AM
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 10,027
Greece
Haroula Offline
Adept Boomer
Haroula  Offline
Adept Boomer

Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 10,027
Greece
Thanks Gremlin and Jenny thumbsup


I change all my passwords to "incorrect". So whenever I forget, it says, "your password is incorrect".

Re: First Look at Broken Age: Episode 1 [Re: Jenny100] #942088
02/26/14 06:34 AM
02/26/14 06:34 AM
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 25,109
Marlborough USA
Kaki's Sister Offline
Sonic Boomer
Kaki's Sister  Offline
Sonic Boomer

Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 25,109
Marlborough USA
Fantastic! Thanks Jenny100 and Gremlin!


Gerry
Re: First Look at Broken Age: Episode 1 [Re: Jenny100] #942143
02/26/14 07:55 PM
02/26/14 07:55 PM
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 150
ipad_Lover Offline
Settled Boomer
ipad_Lover  Offline
Settled Boomer

Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 150

Sounds like a must play game to me!


I love playing adventure games like Gemini Rue on my ipad mini and Gray Matter on my PC Netbook.

Re: First Look at Broken Age: Episode 1 [Re: ipad_Lover] #942174
02/27/14 04:25 AM
02/27/14 04:25 AM
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 34,312
United Kingdom
Mad Offline
Sonic Boomer
Mad  Offline
Sonic Boomer

Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 34,312
United Kingdom
Thanks very much, gremlin and Jenny100 !! grin


Time : The Most Precious Commodity
Re: First Look at Broken Age: Episode 1 [Re: Jenny100] #942236
02/27/14 02:22 PM
02/27/14 02:22 PM
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 8,379
Arcadia (twin world of Stark)
venus Offline
BAAG Specialist
venus  Offline
BAAG Specialist

Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 8,379
Arcadia (twin world of Stark)
Thanks gremlin and Jenny. I really enjoyed the first half. Looking forward to the second. thumbsup


Interrogator: [True or false?] All mangoes are golden. Nothing golden is cheap. Conclusion - all mangoes are cheap.

Helena: Where are these mangoes?
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