Status of the Double Fine Adventure

Stupot · Tue 12/03/2013 10:06:46

Wow, so they really had no intention of having him involved in DFA whatsoever. That was a little bit sneaky of them, was it not?

Greg Squire · Tue 12/03/2013 22:14:10

I don't think they ever claimed that there would be a lot of involvement from Ron. Even the main kickstarter video hinted at that when Tim went to talk to him and Ron shut the door on him. They did have him involved in a video that was shot before the kickstarter started. They may have gotten input from him here and there, but nothing they've shown publicly beyond that. Again I think they made it clear that Ron's involvement would be minimal (because of his work on The Cave).

I'm sad to see Ron leaving Double Fine, but I'm guessing his work on The Cave may have been contract work for him from the start. Also I don't think his leaving is going to cause a problem for the game, as the game design is done and his involvement would have been (and has been somewhat) in the design phase.

I'm also glad to see some progress being made. The last update gave me some hope that the project is moving along. Behind schedule and projected to be slightly over budget (like most games), but nothing that makes me "extremely worried". I know this project is extremely important to them (as it's highly visible and their reputation is on the line), so they are going to do all they can to make it happen.

Armageddon · Tue 12/03/2013 22:28:56

I really hoped we'd get more story stuff, they're too afraid to 'spoil' anything. Show us like, some gameplay, like the test footage with hispter lumberjack.

Armageddon · Tue 12/03/2013 22:31:30

Modify is broke for some reason... Anyways Ron left??? I never expected him to work on DFA but leaving Double Fine? He seems like a hard person to work with considering all the crap that went on at Hothead games.

Igor Hardy · Sun 24/03/2013 19:23:23

It's now called Broken... :O

http://brokenagegame.com

http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/69ck29/double-fine-adventure-double-fine-adventure--part-1

Stupot · Sun 24/03/2013 20:36:07

Quote from: Ascovel on Sun 24/03/2013 19:23:23
It's now called Broken... :O

http://brokenagegame.com

So they went for that one, then? It was either that, Worlds Apart or The Divide, none of which seemed overly inspired. It's great that things are clearly moving forward though, since the winter lull.

Greg Squire · Mon 25/03/2013 21:20:49

I kind of like "Broken Age". I think that one could grow on me. It is nice to see they are moving forward. Did they ever mention what the new release date was now? Originally it was going to be in April, but I remember them saying it would go past that.

Look's like they are still trying to get more pre-orders for the game on the new game site (http://brokenagegame.com). I'm guessing they hope this will makeup for the projected shortfall on the budget.

Igor Hardy · Thu 28/03/2013 23:37:56

The official website is now showing the game's trailer.

And the trailer for Jane Jensen's kickstarted Mobius also debuted at GDC:
http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/a4cum2/jane-jensen-s-moebius-exclusive-trailer

Armageddon · Fri 29/03/2013 02:13:59

The only thing I don't like about the trailer is the music, it seems like it's imitating Braid, and it's so close to that sound Braid has but they drop it before the notes get there. Also that last cut with the train is really bad and doesn't cut right with the music and blow animation.

Igor Hardy · Fri 29/03/2013 10:14:54

My own impressions are very good, but one thing that bothers me is that the music creates an air of mystery and tension, while the scenes that are presented seem rather straightforward and innocent. The closest to "creepy" that the scenes went was the girl feeling uncomfortable with her happy family and the fairly creepy faces of the toys in the train.

From the development point of view I like that the trailer is just an intriguing teaser and DF didn't bother with spending production time on some extravaganza, but are already back to working on the game itself. The behind the scenes documentary probably steals a lot of their time anyway.

Stupot · Fri 29/03/2013 10:19:33

I quite like the trailer. And it somehow makes me feel more comfortable with the name, which I didn't really like at first.

[I'd actually forgotten about Jane Jensen's project. That whole weird time-share-scheme-sounding Kickstarter was a (successful) mess]

Snarky · Tue 02/04/2013 16:57:24

I've been quite disappointed in how the art style for Broken Age is being received by adventure game fans.* Lots of "Too childish!!" and "Why doesn't it look like Monkey Island?!!!!"

Bagel's art isn't my favorite style in the world, but I had hoped people would be a bit more open-minded. Comments on mainstream sites seem much more positive.

* I'm mainly talking about Adventure Gamers here, and to a much lesser extent Adventure Treff. Most of the other forums I checked were either dead (Adventure Lantern, Adventure Island), or didn't seem to have any discussions about DFA (e.g. Mix'n'Mojo, AdventureClassicGaming). I also checked the forums for a bunch of adventure game companies, but didn't find anything relevant.

Anian · Tue 02/04/2013 17:48:59

I must admit, I was kind of disappointed by the art as well. Not because it does pull a bit much to a child's picture book, but mostly because the whole thing was kind of a huge shift of what I was thinking about this project. Naively I too thought 3 million dollars is rather a lot of money for this type of game, but DF is a studio full of full-time professionals and those people need to be paid regularly and they have to be kept busy along with all the costs of having a work space with all the tools they need...that kind of means they have rather little time to make this game and we really don't know how big this game will be in the end.
Also what I gathered from the videos, Schaffer has so much things on his back managing the company, even though he is kind of "living the dream", I really don't envy him that much.

What was kind of weird was hearing some "issues" that animators and others say they have to face and then seeing what the product looks like in the end (the small amount of gameplay they showed), which apparently means I really don't know anything, because some of those things I think a pro with experience and in that technique can do rather fast. Not only that, but they're working in an engine they customized and have previously worked in.

Now in general I like the style they went for, only thing is that anybody who, at any point, saw posters or sketches connected to DF products (Psychonauts, Brutal, Costume Q, Stacking) will see that it's the same style over and over again. And it is kind of a fairy tale illustration type of style, which I generally like, but this is now not a stylized sketch/illustration but the final look.
When they did the remake of MI, they did a similar thing with the character animation and while it looked ok, it certainly was missing some flow and details of hand animated work.

I do like the fact that the old Grim fandango maestro is on the job as well.

Snarky · Tue 02/04/2013 18:10:14

Sorry Anian. I'm having trouble decoding what you're actually saying about the art. You think it... looks cheap? Unfinished, more like concept art than the finished look?

Personally, it's that latter point I particularly like. I usually think concept art looks much more interesting than the final product (particularly when it's reduced to 3D polygons), and it seems like tools and tech are now at a point where more of that texture can be captured in the final game.

I do agree that some of the production problems they've mentioned surprised me. Particularly some of the crashes that cropped up in their internal playtesting, which sounded to me like engine (rather than scripting) bugs. Aren't their tools more robust?

Anian · Tue 02/04/2013 18:14:40

I like the style, but it kind of lacks impression of quality when animated.

Stupot · Tue 02/04/2013 18:35:41

I quite liked the fact that Schafer chose an artist whose art he likes and decided the whole game should be in that style. Bagels art is lovely. Is it what I would call 'game art'? Not really. But who am I to decide that? I think the art does somewhat reflect the (little) info we have on the floaty, spacey atmosphere of the game. So hopefully it will work well. A small thing I have noted though is that it doesn't look like a funny game. Not that I particularly want, or expect a funny game. It's just that Schafer and others have always said that there are jokes and that it is funny, but to me the art doesn't really reflect that in the same way that Grim Fandango, for example, did.

I also don't think the character animation is anything to write home about, but I do very much like the kind of parralax effect they have got going. It works really well.

I might be wrong, but I got the impression from the documentaries they originally hired Peter Chan to come up with initial concepts, asked Bagel to recreate them in his style, and then he very politely suggested that he would rather be coming up with concepts rather than colouring in somebody else's work. So I'm not sure how many of Chan's concepts remain in the final product and I'm scared to know how much Kickstarter money went into paying for him, haha.

ThreeOhFour · Tue 02/04/2013 19:06:49

Are you kidding me?

It's exactly how I thought/hoped a 2D adventure game by Double Fine would look. What, did people expect low res or something? I really don't get how anybody is surprised at how it looks.

Igor Hardy · Tue 02/04/2013 21:11:32

Me neither.

I actually wondered if it could be just one guy posting surprised comments under different nicks.

Trapezoid · Wed 03/04/2013 19:35:57

I like the art style. The animation is kind of off, though-- too tweeny.

http://davidoreilly.com/post/44683359919/timing
http://davidoreilly.com/post/44808009355/this-is-a-simple-motion-diagram-thing-i-made-when

Here's a couple neat links that illustrate how much of a difference frame timing makes in animation.

David Ostman · Thu 04/04/2013 10:46:33

I quite like the graphics even if it's not embracing me fully, so to speak.

The issues they are having on the tech side sounds like normal professional game development. I've worked with a few proprietary in-house engines and what most people don't realize is they are usually not as polished and nice to use as AGS or Unity. Usually they are in some kind of half-broken state throughout development patched together with band-aid until the last couple of months or so when someone finally realizes the game has to be released at some point. Also, there's quite often not documentation available, and if there is it's going to be dated and incorrect.

The impression I get from watching the videos is that their hearts aren't completely in it, but that is just the regular fatigue and burn out that's kicked in. Still, looking forward to playing the game! I'm sure it's going to be fun.