Support NeoGAF

[thefro]

Enjoyed it... beat it in 3 hours 48 minutes. Ending was great as everyone else said.

 

[jett]

I've been thinking about the game more, and trying to figure out why the game feels so short even though there is quite an amount of visual assets, and I think ultimately, it lacks a high level of interactivity.

Consider this: not only are there more screens than puzzles in the game, but in each screen itself, there really isn't that much to interact with. Interaction can come in various forms, but in traditional adventure game lingo let's just use talk/look/take. I don't really think the game lacks in the take department, since most items which look like they can be taken, can be taken. Not a fan of red herring items either, so it's good the game doesn't have them. But there's quite a severe lack of look and talk options.

For look, let's take Shay for example. I'll just use one of the very first screens here - the one where he's sitting at the controls and you have to pick a mission at the start. I was really excited when I saw the screen because it was really detailed and there were all sorts of silly gadgets and stuff on the control panel. I wanted to mess with them or at least click and get reactions. But nope, you can't click on anything there. It's locked to the dialogue menu where you just pick a mission. That's disappointing because simply having fun distractions like that would increase the player's investment in the setting, and also provide fun diversions which pace them through the story in a slower way if they enjoy optional stuff like that.

For talk, I think Vella has a number of examples, but let's take the very first main screen - your house at the start of the game. There are five characters in the room, and there could be a good amount of interactivity if talking to characters about a topic can allow them to say things which open up other dialogue options with the other characters. This is something I find lacking in the dialogue throughout the game - I can't think of a single time where talking to other characters unlock additional dialogues with related characters even if it makes sense.

Playing a good point and click adventure game should involve the player being able to click on anything interesting on the screen and get unique responses whether they are related to a critical path or not. In Broken Age, it feels like a lot of the responses are generic in a given area, and there aren't many hotspots on a screen to begin with. That's probably the main thing which leads to the game feeling very easy and on rails, where you can easily breeze through the game, even though the content on the critical path isn't lacking. Simply with the lack of anything else to do other than to progress, it makes the game feel much smaller than the content represents.

This is pretty spot on. Depending on how Part 2 is I'd say it feels rushed, low on the content you expect to find in a traditional point and click. Low on worldly detail I guess, is the right sort of phrase. I guess iOS support is to blame for the lack of interactive buttons, of which there is just one. Then again, Tim did say he was going to try and defeat pixel searching, and he really did that. I never felt the need to click on every single pixel on the screen like I have done in other games in the genre, that's nice indeed. I also appreciated the logical conclusion to every puzzle, again, another objective of Tim's if I remember correctly. There's no crazy out there stuff. It leads to an easier game, but it also leads to a less frustrating one. Super looking forward to Part 2, hopefully it won't take too long.

One thing I absolutely don't like at all is that you can't skip individual lines of dialogue. Why you gotta do me like that Double Fine?

 

[BassForever]

Even early on in Shay's scenario, there's a lot of stuff which you can quickly skip past. I dunno if you did, but it's possible, unlike Vella's scenario. Right from the start, you can either let him keep sleeping or click to get up. That's a few lines there which can be skipped.

The choice of cereal is another one where there are a ton of ones if you keep rejecting them. If you don't pick the spoon up, he also keeps talking for quite a while, which is completely skipped once you do pick him up.

For the missions at the start, if you pick the Train one first, you can skip everything else if you know what you're "supposed" to do. On the other hand, if you play through each one normally, there are two variations of each (the first one where he's still playing along, and another where he's really sick of it).

Later on in Shay's scenario, getting the Knife early and using it on everything gets a fair bit of bonus dialogue as well.

I got the dialogue for letting him sleep (missed the memo I was supposed to wake him) and I did all the scenarios twice, heck I ended up doing the train 3 times once I realize the game wasn't moving on from that point unless I did something else.

For the cereal part I wasn't sure if Shay was in some kind of time lock or simulation thing so I always picked the "why not what does it matter" option as it felt more in line with how I perceived the character to be at that point.

 

[charlequin]

I guess iOS support is to blame for the lack of interactive buttons, of which there is just one.

I don't know why everyone says this. It's pretty trivial to implement the classic LucasArts-style multi-verb control system on a touchscreen.

 

[ToyMachine228]

This is running pretty badly on my computer. Which doesn't make much sense because my PC is only about a year old and everything else I've ever ran on it runs flawlessly.

 

[BassForever]

Finished it today, totally called the ending about 5 minutes into Vella's story (I completed Shay's first). Fantastic game can't wait for part 2

 

[eznark]

I thought he did the character quite well.

... unless you're just saying that on principle.

He sure was Will Wheaton.

Just finished. That was fine. Surprised at the rave reviews but it was totally fine. Why are people saying the ending was great? Like the guy above me said, seemed pretty obvious. I wish the puzzles had been more puzzly. They felt more like fetch quests where you didn't really have to figure anything out, you just had to find the object the quest giver was looking for.

I thought The Cave was a better game, all in all. Not as well written but the puzzles were much better.

 

[Zeliard]

Even early on in Shay's scenario, there's a lot of stuff which you can quickly skip past. I dunno if you did, but it's possible, unlike Vella's scenario. Right from the start, you can either let him keep sleeping or click to get up. That's a few lines there which can be skipped.

The choice of cereal is another one where there are a ton of ones if you keep rejecting them. If you don't pick the spoon up, he also keeps talking for quite a while, which is completely skipped once you do pick him up.

For the missions at the start, if you pick the Train one first, you can skip everything else if you know what you're "supposed" to do. On the other hand, if you play through each one normally, there are two variations of each (the first one where he's still playing along, and another where he's really sick of it).

Later on in Shay's scenario, getting the Knife early and using it on everything gets a fair bit of bonus dialogue as well.

I dunno, I did all of this stuff - inspected everything, tried to combine every item, tried to squeeze every bit of dialogue out, etc (which I do in every adventure game) - and Shay's part of the story still felt notably shorter to me. There are fewer characters to interact with, fewer items to combine, and fewer puzzles overall.

And there are a few things you can skip in Vella's story as well, like going back to Meriloft and using some of your new items on the NPCs there.

 

[BassForever]

Shay's side may be as long as Vella's, but Vella's side has far more gameplay to it if that makes sense. Within seconds you can move around as Vella and start your first bit of point and click fun finding the knife. Outside of the maiden sequence you're always in control of Vella doing traditional adventure game shenanigans until the end.

Shay's side spends the first 15-20 minutes in what might as well be a glorified cut scene doing missions, eating cereal, and talking to mom and dad. Then after Shay's first real puzzle of sneaking out of his room we get treated to more dialogue with merek and the arm minigame twice before we can FINALLY explore the ship nearly 30-40 minutes into his campaign.

Honestly Vella's campaign is more along the lines of what I imagined from a new age Schafer p&c adventure game. In the short run through her part 1 we see a wide variety of unique enviroments and characters in an almost alice in wonderland esque quest. Shay's side feels more like a prologue or set up to a main adventure that we never actually get to. I understand why Shay's side exists and the story really is quiet clever, but I would have been completely okay if the game had just been Vella running around various themed areas attempting to stop Mog Chothra and all the zany people and things she meets/finds along the way.

 

[duckroll]

Shay's side may be as long as Vella's, but Vella's side has far more gameplay to it if that makes sense. Within seconds you can move around as Vella and start your first bit of point and click fun finding the knife. Outside of the maiden sequence you're always in control of Vella doing traditional adventure game shenanigans until the end.

Yes, this is absolutely true. I dunno if its really more gameplay so much as just more polish in terms of the design feeling fulfilling. Vella's side definitely feels like they spent more time on it. While Shay's side has more repetitive design and less unique stuff. I don't think there's anything in Shay's scenario like Vella's entry into Meriloft, which was a full on cutscene with different camera angles, etc. It felt really cinematic and more in line with expectations of how an important scene in a major adventure game would be portrayed.

 

[Sober]

So I got my backer key, but it's technically "out of beta" now right? It's not labeled as Early Access, so I assume Act 1 is all good and I shouldn't have to worry about any beta "beta-ness"?

 

[duckroll]

There are some minor stuff which should get worked out by the time it's released for everyone at the end of the month, but it's mostly good. There are no weird bugs or incomplete stuff in the Act 1 content itself.

 

[Mistle]

Played a bit over and hour of Shay's story.

Really loving it. All I would have hoped it to be! Funny (honestly confused by people saying it's not funny enough D, interesting dialogue, great atmosphere and story, amazing art/animation, voice acting, etc etc. Puzzles are a bit on the easy side but they're very well constructed all the same. They're not bad puzzles, at all. I'm totally fine with the intro puzzles being easy but, as others have pointed out, I'd imagine doing two sets of intro puzzles may feel overly simple. Doesn't bother me too much though as Act 2 will be harder, and the rest of the game is already so great that it compensates.

Thought it was funny that, with no prior knowledge, immediately chose the train scenario and

Spoiler

made it fall.

Didn't do any other option, that was literally the first path I took. Was disappointed initially haha, as I thought I missed content, but the game was smart enough to let me go back over those areas later on so I was thankful for that.

Look forward to playing more, it's been worth the wait. I'm a huge fan of classic adventure games so this is a real treat for me. Also look forward to more documentary episodes.

 

[jett]

So, when is Act 2 coming out, more or less, anyway?

There are some minor stuff which should get worked out by the time it's released for everyone at the end of the month, but it's mostly good. There are no weird bugs or incomplete stuff in the Act 1 content itself.

The only error I encountered was a misplaced dialogue line in one of Marek's conversation, that was it. Prettay, prettay solid overall.

 

[BassForever]

I got some weird pop in once or twice and a game crash here or there but overall the game was pretty stable for a beta release.

 

[Hermii]

I finished it. I really enjoyed it. The ending kind of blew me away I did not see that coming.Cant wait for part 2.

 

[inm8num2]

Nice podcast interview with Tim at Joystiq.

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/01/17/super-joystiq-podcast-081-tim-schafer-interview-broken-age-ri/

 

[Midou]

So perhaps obvious question, but I'll put it in spoilers just in case, got to the end of the girl's path and

Spoiler

it looked like it just started again, do I just switch to the guy's path then something happens after both?

 

[inm8num2]

So perhaps obvious question, but I'll put it in spoilers just in case, got to the end of the girl's path and

Spoiler

it looked like it just started again, do I just switch to the guy's path then something happens after both?

The switch to Shay after finishing Vella's act was automatic for me. But yes,

Spoiler

after both acts are complete something will happen.

 

[ToyMachine228]

Any insight as to why this wouldn't be running well for me? Everything else I've ever run on my rig runs great.

EDIT: I solved my problem. I stopped running the game in windowed mode.

 

[ToyMachine228]

Just finished Act 1. While it had its moments, I wouldn't say it's great. While the idea behind it was to bring back point and click adventure games when all this started, playing it makes you realize that there are plenty of new and in my personal opinion, better, point and click adventure games out there and coming out now. The story being told is charming and is definitely what has me interested. That said, I think it might be better told as a 2-hour family movie. It feels a little drawn out and flat as a game.

 

[Fuz]

Kinda enjoyed it.
The art style is fantastic as is the direction, the soundtrack, the story, the characters and the voiceover. I'm really happy with all these.
The ending was pretty obvious to me at some point not too far in the game, probably because I played Shay first (didn't switch a single time).
But we have some nice questions about it open...

Spoiler

So, the monster appears every 14 years, Shay is supposedly 14... maybe Marek is probably 28 and a old offering who escaped from the hold? And since both Marek and Mother are weavers we'll get to see their village, maybe.
But still there's the question of the "why".

Can't wait to see how the story progress.

But I'm not happy with the extremely low difficulty (never ever got stumped, everything was always too obvious) which makes it more an interactive story than a "old school adventure" and the controls designed for tablets. Dragging is kinda annoying, and the lack of a variety of verbs to choose (a la Secret of Monkey Island or Fate of Atlantis) contributes to the general easiness and cheapens the experience.
Lack of hotspots - they would have helped with the low difficulty problem and feeling the world more alive - is quite annoying too.
It really does haven't anything of the "classic adventures" style that backers were promised.

All in all, I am kinda disappointed but don't regret backing it.

 

[mnz]

Well Broken Age is literally broken for me. I played the boy's campaign till the ende and then did "Save & Exit" to Desktop and now it starts with the boy standing in his bed and the dialogue from the beginning and I can't click on anything.

Anything I can do?

 

[Randdalf]

Well Broken Age is literally broken for me. I played the boy's campaign till the ende and then did "Save & Exit" to Desktop and now it starts with the boy standing in his bed and the dialogue from the beginning and I can't click on anything.

Anything I can do?

Post a bug report on the Double Fine forums.

 

[mnz]

Good idea, just did that.

 

[Tan]

Just finished it, I had played Vella first and didn't see the ending coming. Eh, I'm slow. Fun game but i'll echo some of the complaints people are having here--and the praise!

 

[Extra Sauce]

Can anyone throw me a spoiler-free hint for the

Spoiler

tinkering with the space weaver

segment? I tried all kinds of combination but I can't figure out how the

Spoiler

star chart to Prima Doom and honeycombs-like grid

fit together.

 

[jett]

Can anyone throw me a spoiler-free hint for the

Spoiler

tinkering with the space weaver

segment? I tried all kinds of combination but I can't figure out how the

Spoiler

star chart to Prima Doom and honeycombs-like grid

fit together.

Spoiler

Try to do it with in a different star system.

 

[zoozilla]

Just finished Act 1 tonight.

Really liked it - I started with Vella's story, then switched to Shay when I got stuck, switched again to Vella, etc. It was really nice to be able to do something else whenever I felt like taking a break from a puzzle. Switching between them also seemed to serve the narrative well, for me at least.

I think aesthetically I like Shay's world more.

Spoiler

The little honeycomb-shaped guys are ridiculously cute and funny. I liked finding them around the ship. I also loved when you can go back to the ice cream world when it's "off-duty." What the little knitted pals say when you use the spoon on the ice cream mountain is hilarious.

 

[zashga]

Finished this yesterday at around four hours. It's a lovely little game; very creative. Part of me wonders what we would've gotten if Double fine had only pulled in $300k or whatever the original Kickstarter goal was. Assuming the second act has similar length, an eight hour adventure is pretty good for what's still a relatively low-budget game.

I went back and forth between Shay and Vella a few times instead of just playing the scenarios sequentially, so the twist was kinda obvious early on. I'm OK with that, though, since it just raises further questions about why things are happening the way they are and what will happen next. Really looking forward to Vella's

Spoiler

inevitable conversation with Marek, and seeing what's become of the maidens in the cargo bay

. I'm a little less interested in Shay's story, but maybe that will change now that

Spoiler

he has more places and characters to interact with

. Either way, it was pretty interesting how distinct the two scenarios were in the first act. I wonder if there will be

Spoiler

more frequent cross-interaction

in Act 2 now that the initial secret is revealed.

 

[Skellig Gra]

Well Broken Age is literally broken for me. I played the boy's campaign till the ende and then did "Save & Exit" to Desktop and now it starts with the boy standing in his bed and the dialogue from the beginning and I can't click on anything.

Anything I can do?

I got this too, I just redid Shays part. Took like 5 minutes skipping all the dialogue and taking the optimal path.

 

[Skellig Gra]

I might have missed it but did anyone else think the

Spoiler

dead eye god was shay

?

 

[tipoo]

Full ending spoilers

Spoiler

I think the wolf is in cahoots with the mom and dad bot, I think it may even be what the dad bot does during the daytime, or one of the moms knitted creations. I wonder at if the mom and dad are as well meaning as they say they are. The once every 14 years for the Mog coming by is interesting - is Shay 14, by any chance? And was his homeworld actually destroyed, or were they actually always on Vellas world? Actually I think that's likely, as travelling through different systems just seemed like going to different villages to collect maidens. Perhaps the robots didn't find Vellas world suitable and are trying to find Shay a companion, but then that would still leave the every 14 years bit a mystery. I wonder if the Dead Eye God went through all the same stuff Shay did, being raised by the programs.

Oh, and how Merek was only concerned with Shays safety when shit went down, makes it seem very much like it was the mom-dad bot.

I might have missed it but did anyone else think the

Spoiler

dead eye god was shay

?

Until the final scene, yeah. Perhaps

Spoiler

he shared a similar backstory to him though, with the mom and dad?

 

[Madrugador]

Finished the game yesterday with my 10 year old sister and we loved it. She's a big fan of adventure games and Double Fine, so we were very excited since the beginning.

I liked Shay's story more

Spoiler

and Marek was an awesome character even when we were never sure about his real intentions.

Also, really liked the cliffhanger. My sister couldn't stop talking about it.

 

[paperboywriter]

so I have access to the beta but i'm not sure if I should wait for the full release. do you think there is going to be a major update untill then or in other words: is the beta more or less the release version?

 

[bigwinnerx]

so I have access to the beta but i'm not sure if I should wait for the full release. do you think there is going to be a major update untill then or in other words: is the beta more or less the release version?

Can you go another 4-5-6 months without reading anything about the story?

Part 2 will be a free update to complete the story.

 

[thefro]

so I have access to the beta but i'm not sure if I should wait for the full release. do you think there is going to be a major update untill then or in other words: is the beta more or less the release version?

I believe they've already put out two different updates since the Beta initially was released.

 

[Madrugador]

so I have access to the beta but i'm not sure if I should wait for the full release. do you think there is going to be a major update untill then or in other words: is the beta more or less the release version?

Gameplay wise, it's going to be the same so I say go for it now. Personally, I really enjoyed knowing I was one of the first persons that were able to play the game.

 

[Ninja Kn1ght]

I finished Shay's section of the game but now it seems to have glitched out. It loads the beginning of the game again but now he's just standing on the bed unable to interact with anything. Unfortunate, but the game was very charming otherwise.

 

[mclem]

Finished!

Intrigued by where the storyline is going. I did sort of guess that (ENDING SPOILER)

Spoiler

the characters would change places at some point

, but I'm still interested to see where they go with that.

A few very minor glitches when I've played - mostly z-sorting issues - but nothing unacceptable.

As for the length - didn't really feel it that badly. I, too, clocked in at just under four hours, and that felt like a good size; neither story outstayed their welcome. Each half felt like about three-quarters of an act of a classic Lucasarts adventure, which fits fairly nicely overall.


(And as I type it, I've just realised something about the storyline. That changes everything! I need to stick my head in the spoiler thread pronto.)

Compare Broken Age with the Ben and Dan games. While they obviously can't compete with the production values, there's a metric ton of descriptive text that's completely absent in Broken Age. It feels sparse in comparison.

I'd say that the production values are part of the reason for that - when you're dealing with just text, for the most part all you need to do is code up a witty line and add it in; you can do that at any point in development. Once everything's voiced, though, you can *only* work with voiced content - which means getting the voice actor in to produce the line. Inserting text is a *lot* quicker and easier.

 

[Dr. Kaos]

It took me about 4 hours to finish Act 1. I expect the full game to take double that.

I enjoyed the game as I thought I would. $30 for an 8 hour game of this quality

Spoiler

+ documentaries

was a bargain. People who paid $15 got a ridiculously good deal.

I am happy. This is proof that crowd funding games is the way to go! Thanks for not fucking this up, DFA!

 

[golem]

I might have missed it but did anyone else think the

Spoiler

dead eye god was shay

?

My guess is that they're

Spoiler

clones

 

[tipoo]

My guess is that they're

Spoiler

clones

Oooh, kind of like

Spoiler

Elysium

 

[Dog Problems]

Shay's part made me laugh more but Vella's had the most unique characters and environments.

 

[tipoo]

I really hope the two get to talk to each other at length in the next part. They both need lots of explanations.

 

[elektrixx]

Does this work with a controller?

 

[mclem]

Spoiler

The little honeycomb-shaped guys are ridiculously cute and funny.

Spoiler

For the record, they were named as 'Hexapals', IIRC

 

[mclem]

Just looked at the credits, I guess I'm not in them because I was a slacker backer

I need to look through the credits properly sometime, because I caught a glimpse of a few names I recognised (Plus my own, of course!). In particular, spotted Evilore and Shaneus, but also Carl Muckenhoupt.

 

[mclem]

There's just solid logic to the puzzles, and that's hugely important. And it's not that brand of silly adventure game logic, either.

I feel that they've also done a fine job subtly hinting at some of the puzzle solutions throughout the game's incidental and item dialogue, which only the best designed adventure games manage to do.

Once or twice I noticed that it was a bit heavy-handed, but usually it managed that balance just fine.

i.e. subtle:

Spoiler

upon using the fruit on yourself, Vella eats it, spits out the core and remarks "what a large pit" as a seemingly throwaway comment. But the word "pit" is in the player's mind now and when the Riddle of Yorn comes along, this should direct the thoughts into the right direction. Subtle, not too obvious, yet very deliberate.

Did anyone else approach this object the way I did?

Spoiler

I couldn't figure out how to get Gus down (amusing in hindsight, but that was the puzzle I was stuck on for the longest!). Vella talks about not wanting anything to do with unhooking his underpants, but the way he's hanging there's a clear, er, crevice to aim at. And Vella spits the pit...

For a fair while I thought that my positioning was simply wrong.

 

[krYlon]

Did anyone else approach this object the way I did?

Spoiler

I couldn't figure out how to get Gus down (amusing in hindsight, but that was the puzzle I was stuck on for the longest!). Vella talks about not wanting anything to do with unhooking his underpants, but the way he's hanging there's a clear, er, crevice to aim at. And Vella spits the pit...

For a fair while I thought that my positioning was simply wrong.

Now you see, I would have loved this to have been a puzzle in the game. That's more like classic Lucasarts