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Chairchucker posted:I haven't watched that I don't think. The documentaries don't really spoil the game as they focus more on telling a story about people making games with the game being the thing that drives that story. What spoilers there are is pretty much limited to a few seconds here and there of developers play-testing various parts of the game. Io_ fucked around with this message at 13:58 on Jul 3, 2013 |
# ? Jul 3, 2013 12:47 |
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# ? Apr 28, 2024 07:54 |
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I'd go so far as to say they explicitly avoid spoiling the game as much as possible (so far at least). Got a chance to watch the latest one now and the discussion over this recent announcement made me feel a bit more comfortable with it. I expected that they'd have to cut things somehow soon so I feel this comes to a decent compromise for it and even if the rest of the game is a bit delayed they won't have to compromise their 'vision' as much as they would if they tried to push out a single compacted product instead.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 13:49 |
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Man everyone raving about the documentary really makes me want to see it. Shame that as far as I can tell it's exclusive to the backers (didn't back myself) any plans to ever release it to the public?
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 13:49 |
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Darkhold posted:Man everyone raving about the documentary really makes me want to see it. Shame that as far as I can tell it's exclusive to the backers (didn't back myself) any plans to ever release it to the public? Just become a Slacker Backer for $30. http://www.doublefine.com/dfapay
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 13:55 |
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Darkhold posted:Man everyone raving about the documentary really makes me want to see it. Shame that as far as I can tell it's exclusive to the backers (didn't back myself) any plans to ever release it to the public? From memory 2 Player Productions have said they will make a dvd release available for sale after the game gets released.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 14:03 |
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Blodskur posted:Just become a Slacker Backer for $30. http://www.doublefine.com/dfapay BigFatFlyingBloke posted:From memory 2 Player Productions have said they will make a dvd release available for sale after the game gets released.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 14:20 |
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Kibayasu posted:I looked at their past products, saw a line of high quality entertainment that I enjoyed immensely, and made the decision to invest my money. I mean it's kinda like the poor saps who pre-ordered Duke Nukem Forever at Babbage's back in 2001. That's an extreme example, and I don't think Double Fine is capable of screwing up on the level 3DRealms did, but I'm really not surprised about the delays. Granted this is coming from the guy who misread the original release schedule and thought they were pushing for a release of last November, which turned out to be the schedule for early Alpha testing. VodeAndreas posted:I'd go so far as to say they explicitly avoid spoiling the game as much as possible (so far at least).
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 14:23 |
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Wait, I see people throwing around numbers in this thread [and in others], but do we actually have a real idea about the amount of money they need from early access beta Steam sales to finish part two?
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 14:32 |
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Great Rumbler posted:Wait, I see people throwing around numbers in this thread [and in others], but do we actually have a real idea about the amount of money they need from early access beta Steam sales to finish part two? No not really. It's not even entirely clear if the new form of release is more about buying money or time although they're obviously short on both.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 14:40 |
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Darkhold posted:Thanks for the link but Double Fine is a company I always want to like their games and never really do. Costume Quest was perhaps the closest I've come to really enjoying them. I'll have to wait until this game is actually out in the wild before I'll get it. The documentary is up to ten episodes now. Each like half an hour to an hour if it makes you feel better about the 30 bucks. It's kind of like Indie Game The Movie if you've seen that. I was going to say that it lacks the drama and suspense of an actual movie, but this is a Double Fine game. There is drama and suspense trying to get the game out the door.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 14:42 |
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Donnerberg posted:The documentary is up to ten episodes now. Each like half an hour to an hour if it makes you feel better about the 30 bucks. It's kind of like Indie Game The Movie if you've seen that. I was going to say that it lacks the drama and suspense of an actual movie, but this is a Double Fine game. There is drama and suspense trying to get the game out the door. I've been enjoying this documentary more with episode. Not to cheapen it, but it's almost like a reality show for nerds. I feel like I know these guys.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 14:50 |
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Great Rumbler posted:Wait, I see people throwing around numbers in this thread [and in others], but do we actually have a real idea about the amount of money they need from early access beta Steam sales to finish part two? What we know from the information released is that the "to make the game" money after the Kickstarter was ~$2.2 MM and that they made ~$1 MM from Brutal Legend PC sales. Since then there have only been vague statements like "the scope is bigger than the budget" and "If you ask me for a million I'll find you a million" (which I assume references Brutal Legend). If you want to play armchair accountant then you could guesstimate a figure based on a team of people (artists and programmers) on San Francisco salaries for the time they've said is needed to finish the game. If you take from now until, say, May 2014 you get the following Wild Assed Guess.: 12 months x 12-20 people x $10,000 = ~ $1,5 - 2.5 MM. Io_ fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Jul 3, 2013 |
# ? Jul 3, 2013 15:10 |
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You are forgetting the hugeass Humble Bundle solely focused to further fund the development of the game, and the "slacker backing" and pre order options, which have been available for quite a while now.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 15:14 |
BigFatFlyingBloke posted:What we know from the information released is that the "to make the game" money after the Kickstarter was ~$2.2 MM and that they made ~$1 MM from Brutal Legend PC sales. Since then there have only been vague statements like "the scope is bigger than the budget" and "If you ask me for a million I'll find you a million" (which I assume references Brutal Legend). Maybe I'm reading something wrong, but are you saying the salary of programmers in San Francisco is around $10,000? That can't be right.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 15:30 |
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10 grand per month.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 15:31 |
fronz posted:10 grand per month. Oh, of course. My mistake.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 15:32 |
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BigFatFlyingBloke posted:12 months x 12-20 people x $10,000 = ~ $1,5 - 2.5 MM. Unless I'm reading their latest update wrong, don't they only need 6~ months worth of funding [the gap between part 1 in January and part 2 in June]?
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 15:37 |
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Doesn't the guy (Justin?) say they need 6 million in the documentary? There is a scene where he says they need a million and they show Brutal Legend sale earning a million and then another million and they show the Humble Bundle sale and then he says they need 6 million and they show them all at a table describing this scenario.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 15:37 |
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From the point of view of a backer who hasn't been following the development very closely and is content to just play a cool game when it's ready, some of the reactions in here look ridiculously overblown. I don't even want to know what the backer forums look like. OH NO, the game is going to be out like 6 months later than planned. I guess I'll have to find something to do with my life before then.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 15:39 |
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maxnmona posted:From the point of view of a backer who hasn't been following the development very closely and is content to just play a cool game when it's ready, some of the reactions in here look ridiculously overblown. I don't even want to know what the backer forums look like. Yeah seriously this. Also the people who say this'll "ruin" KS and/or Double Fine- I guess Valve and Blizzard are just gutted shells of development studios now, considering how long each of them take to make video games and how many times they each go over estimated budget/developmental time. Like seriously, does anyone even remember the outrage over HL2 being pushed back release-wise for years? No, because it was a good game. If Broken Age gets released and is good, even if it's good with the caveat of being a "two halves" release, nobody will care. Does anybody give a poo poo, at all, about the fact that Starcraft II went from "one game" to "three installments", each of which is full-priced, of which only two have been released? Over three years? I honestly don't know because I don't play Starcraft, but the way it looks to me nobody gives a flying gently caress about that. All Double Fine is demanding is time- and honestly, just a bit more time, in the grand scheme of things. They're not gating content, they're not doing anything besides releasing the game episodically to make up a budget shortfall.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 15:55 |
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maxnmona posted:From the point of view of a backer who hasn't been following the development very closely and is content to just play a cool game when it's ready, some of the reactions in here look ridiculously overblown. I don't even want to know what the backer forums look like. It's more like, the first part of the game is going to be out 6 months later and who knows if we're going to get the second part or it'll end forever on a cliffhanger given Tim Schafer's gamble of getting the money for funding continued development with Steam Early Access money. I'm not "mad" because I've only paid $30 and I'm getting the documentary and a game, just as promised, but it's pretty irresponsible, and a lot of backers have likely invested a lot more than me, which makes their rage (even if it sometimes gets hilariously ) a lot more understandable. Also, while I doubt this will ruin crowdfunding in any way, it might well have an effect on the willingness of some people to back a project again. Double Fine's Broken Age is the project that started it all on the gaming side, and is one of those 2/3 projects that are intensely scrutinized. This update has already been extensively covered by the press, a cancellation/failure could be potentially.. well, "disastrous" is a dramatic way to put it, but it would have an effect on the KS landscape most likely.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 16:08 |
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Great Rumbler posted:Unless I'm reading their latest update wrong, don't they only need 6~ months worth of funding [the gap between part 1 in January and part 2 in June]? I just made a wild assed guess based on now until "sometime in the future" and chose May 2014. I did this because I don't really have much of an idea exactly how much additional funding they need and my interpretation was that £6 MM was the "don't cut anything" cost.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 16:10 |
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I think the real test of the crowdfunding thing will be Project Eternity.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 16:35 |
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maxnmona posted:From the point of view of a backer who hasn't been following the development very closely and is content to just play a cool game when it's ready, some of the reactions in here look ridiculously overblown. I don't even want to know what the backer forums look like. Occupation posted:Yeah seriously this. Also the people who say this'll "ruin" KS and/or Double Fine- I guess Valve and Blizzard are just gutted shells of development studios now, considering how long each of them take to make video games and how many times they each go over estimated budget/developmental time. Both of these posts seem to be implying that nearly every post before them are hysteric all-caps posts screaming about how Broken Age is DOA and Double Fine will go bankrupt in a month. Maybe that has happened somewhere but most of the posts in this thread are generally calm speculation on how this may effect Double Fine's immediate financial future and just how much success releasing on Steam Early Access can have. Also: Occupation posted:Yeah seriously this. Also the people who say this'll "ruin" KS and/or Double Fine- I guess Valve and Blizzard are just gutted shells of development studios now, considering how long each of them take to make video games and how many times they each go over estimated budget/developmental time. Can you think of one possibly very important distinction that Valve and Activision-Blizzard have that Double Fine doesn't?
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 17:13 |
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Megazver posted:I think the real test of the crowdfunding thing will be Project Eternity. I don't think any one game is the test, but rather it'll be the collective value of the top ten or so titles backed in the 18 months, which, unfortunately, will be difficult to truly measure since they're all coming out at very different times. And those ten probably won't have much effect on the games that make around $100k or less.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 17:48 |
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I'm in the boat where I've already got my money's worth out of the documentary, and in fact the documentary reminded me I don't particularly like point and click adventures, so I'm not too broken up about a delay. This sort of thing happens all the time under a publisher anyway, the only difference is you never find out about it. They're not asking for additional money from the original backers so I'm not seeing such a huge concern other than the expected disappointment with the delay. I think from the progress updates that Project Eternity will be delayed too. That's fine, the developers have to take it on themselves to come up with new ways to make up for the budget shortfall under this business model, and DF is doing just that in a pretty reasonable way.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 18:03 |
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From about an hour ago on Twitter:quote:Tim Schafer @TimOfLegend
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 19:24 |
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It's kinda amazing how gamers will vilify Bethesda and EA for cutting budgets and forcing devs to release games half-finished, and then start calling for the exact same thing when they're given the "power". Double Fine over-reaching and loving up a bit is disappointing, but I'd rather they take the time to release a game they're happy with. Honestly what do you think would've happened if they had gotten a publisher for Broken Age instead? Female protagonist: cut. work-heavy 2D art style: cut. An interesting and non-generic or pandering setting: cut. I'm happier waiting longer for games that are actually interesting and memorable. This modern trend of throwing trenches of people at a project so that it comes out in two years or less is producing some mighty sterile experiences. I'd welcome a return to the "when it's done" philosophy.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 20:20 |
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The Monarch posted:It's kinda amazing how gamers will vilify Bethesda and EA for cutting budgets and forcing devs to release games half-finished, and then start calling for the exact same thing when they're given the "power". Dude, your arguments are entirely irrelevant to the discussion here. Your post is a strawman on a sled zipping down a slippery slope. Are you a Senator of the US government? I don't think anyone's seriously vilifying Schafer&Co, we're just expressing our surprise at how out of sync the game's gotten with a budget that's been very clearly set from the start. It's more interesting than it is shocking, especially as these are about as veteran as you can get developers doing, literally, what made them famous in the first place. They're no strangers to a small project cycle. Drifter fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Jul 3, 2013 |
# ? Jul 3, 2013 20:23 |
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He's talking about outside of this thread with
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 21:37 |
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Do not even ask posted:He's talking about outside of this thread with It pains me, but we really need to put into our vocabulary different terms like PR release sites versus media information sites. It's sad that the best of all "news" sites for games approach (as a high benchmark) quality similar to Access Hollywood or TMZ, with the exception of, like, two. Also, His post was pretty strongly directed to this thread, or at least inclusive. But I see what you mean.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 21:44 |
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Drifter posted:Dude, your arguments are entirely irrelevant to the discussion here. Your post is a strawman on a sled zipping down a slippery slope. Are you a Senator of the US government? Tim's own emotions probably came into it, he so badly wants adventure games to be a thing again so he's willing to expand the scope and delay so he can release something truly amazing.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 21:47 |
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It's bad because it only took this update for people to get really pissed off, but they've been talking about the budget problems for a lot of episodes in the documentary already. Because DF is transparent with showing all of this its getting people super mad, because this kind of thing happens all the time. As its been pointed out already its pretty crazy that backers/non backers are acting as if they're the publisher demanding the game to be out already.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 21:48 |
Demiurge4 posted:Tim's own emotions probably came into it, he so badly wants adventure games to be a thing again so he's willing to expand the scope and delay so he can release something truly amazing. Well, Telltale's beaten him to the punch completely in both bringing back the classic style and changing what people think an Adventure game should be like(with the massively successful Walking Dead game), but from the very start of the project, he seemed determined to pretend that company doesn't exist.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 21:49 |
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Demiurge4 posted:Tim's own emotions probably came into it, he so badly wants adventure games to be a thing again so he's willing to expand the scope and delay so he can release something truly amazing. He's a writer "faking it" [really well] as a game designer and Adventure Games are the ideal type of game for someone who just really wants to tell stories.
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# ? Jul 3, 2013 21:50 |
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Lurdiak posted:Well, Telltale's beaten him to the punch completely in both bringing back the classic style and changing what people think an Adventure game should be like(with the massively successful Walking Dead game), but from the very start of the project, he seemed determined to pretend that company doesn't exist. To be fair, all of Telltale's games are just...bland and only kind of ok. I mean, I've never played Walking Dead, and I've heard that's better, but their Sam and Max and their Monkey Island games were not in the same ballpark as even Tim Schafer's worst game.
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# ? Jul 4, 2013 00:28 |
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maxnmona posted:To be fair, all of Telltale's games are just...bland and only kind of ok. I mean, I've never played Walking Dead, and I've heard that's better, but their Sam and Max and their Monkey Island games were not in the same ballpark as even Tim Schafer's worst game. Going to have to agree with this. Telltale's stuff was mostly ok to mediocre and they were looking like they were getting worse with that Jurassic Park game. It wasn't until The Walking Dead that they really stood out from the pack. E: You should play walking dead, it is really good. The REAL Goobusters fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Jul 4, 2013 |
# ? Jul 4, 2013 00:37 |
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maxnmona posted:To be fair, all of Telltale's games are just...bland and only kind of ok. I mean, I've never played Walking Dead, and I've heard that's better, but their Sam and Max and their Monkey Island games were not in the same ballpark as even Tim Schafer's worst game. I'm almost positive he's only referring to TWD with that post (or it's the only game that's relevant). The Walking Dead is really a game apart. You would do well to buy it and play it. blah blah blah NARRATIVE choices, not PLOT choices blah blah blah.
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# ? Jul 4, 2013 00:39 |
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Monkey Island was great from the standpoint of being Monkey Island and having the original cast back, but...yeah...nowhere near as good in the writing, puzzle, and art department.
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# ? Jul 4, 2013 00:51 |
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# ? Apr 28, 2024 07:54 |
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maxnmona posted:To be fair, all of Telltale's games are just...bland and only kind of ok. I mean, I've never played Walking Dead, and I've heard that's better The Walking Dead has my second favorite videogame story ever made. It's also the best interpretation of The Walking Dead oeuvre and comes closest to what Kirkman wanted the comic to be but ultimately couldn't end up realising. Seriously holy poo poo is TWD video game so good.
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# ? Jul 4, 2013 06:00 |