A new
Kickstarter update for Double Fine Adventure, aka
Broken Age,
outlines the current financial state of the game, but the update is for backers
only, and not viewable by the general public (thanks nin). The post lays out
some bad news about the game, as Tim Shaefer reveals that that in spite of
raising over $3.3 million for development, money is still tight, for as he puts
it: "that didn’t stop me from getting excited and designing a game so big that
it would need even more money." He explains further: "I think I just have an
idea in my head about how big an adventure game should be, so it’s hard for me
to design one that’s much smaller than Grim Fandango or Full Throttle. There’s
just a certain amount of scope needed to create a complex puzzle space and to
develop a real story. At least with my brain, there is." He describes their wake
up call when they projected they would not be done with the first half/episode
of the game until a year from now, which would mean they'd need to cut the
game's design by 75%. Realizing they couldn't go back to Kickstarter or a
publisher, nor could they afford to absorb the overages, Tim explains they
decided to release the game via Steam Early Access in January 2014
after some "modest cuts." Here's a bit on the plan:
We were always
planning to release the beta on Steam, but in addition to that we now have Steam
Early Access, which is a new opportunity that actually lets you charge money for
pre-release content. That means we could actually sell this early access version
of the game to the public at large, and use that money to fund the remaining
game development. The second part of the game would come in a free update a few
months down the road, closer to April-May.
So, everybody gets to play the game sooner, and we don’t have to cut the game
down drastically. Backers still get the whole game this way—nobody has to pay
again for the second half.
And whatever date we start selling the early release, backers still have
exclusive beta access before that, as promised in the Kickstarter.
I want to point out that Broken Age’s schedule changes have nothing to do with
the team working slowly. They have been kicking ass and the game looks, plays,
and sounds amazing. It’s just taking a while because I designed too much game,
as I pretty much always do. But we’re pulling it in, and the good news is that
the game’s design is now 100% done, so most of the unknowns are now gone and
it’s not going to get any bigger.