Broken Age Has Now Been Released – Letter From Tim

Exciting news for adventure gamers as Tim Schafer’s new game, Broken Age has just been released as a season pass. The game is perhaps one of the most anticipated games of all time, and had led a highly successful Kickstarter campaign which allowed it to carry on with its ambitions. In fact, for this very occasion, Tim has a letter for all fans:

From Tim,

Broken Age is an adventure game. Which is awkward, because everybody knows adventure games are dead. Well, most people do. It seems that nobody ever informed adventure game fans. They are under the impression that adventure games are alive and well. And through the magic of crowd funding, it looks like they may be right!

It’s been sixteen years since I’ve made an adventure game, almost twenty years since I’ve made a point-and-click, and just shy of two years since I dared the internet to force me to make one. Coming back to the genre has been like finding an old jacket in a box in your garage that you haven’t worn in twenty years but once you shake the dust off and put it on you realize it’s an amazing jacket and it still fits, and once you patch the holes in the pockets it could easily take a spot in your main jacket rotation. Oh, and also, in one of the pockets was three and a half million dollars.

But the industry has changed a lot in those years. Adventure games used to have a monopoly on things like story and character, as well as the best art and music in games. Now that other genres have caught up, it seems like that old monopoly is gone. But in coming back to adventure games I’ve realized that there is still something completely unique about them. It’s not about their feature set. It’s more about how you feel when you play them. The way your brain works as you explore and wrestle with an adventure game is different than any other experience, and it’s fun to wander those paths again.

And frustrating, sometimes, too. You get stuck, like stuck-stuck, and they’re designed to be that way. Sure, if you keep talking to characters, and examining objects, you’ll probably find the hint you need to get through. But sometimes, when it feels like you’ve exhausted every dialog tree and used every object on every other object, you have to turn away from it, walk the dog, take a break, a shower, a nap. And then, when you return, you somehow solve the puzzle in five minutes. Like magic. Don’t ask me how. I already told you: It’s magic.

(But if that magic doesn’t happen, feel free to email us for hints).

The game itself tells two parallel stories of a boy and a girl, Shay Volta and Vella Tartine. Two teenagers in radically different worlds facing strangely similar situations–Both yearning to break free from the life that has been decided for them.

The player can freely switch between Vella’s and Shay’s stories, helping them take control of their own lives, and dealing with the unexpected adventures that follow. (Switching between the two characters is also a great thing to do if you’re stuck.)

This game started two years ago when a modest kickstarter project to make a documentary about a game company added a small game to the deal. The response to that campaign surprised us all and we knew things were not going to be the same for a lot of people, especially us and our fans.

We’ve shared every step of the journey with our backers by engaging them in a discussion on our forums, and also through the excellent documentary by 2 Player Productions. I think the “Double Fine Adventure” is the most transparent game development process in games history.  This has made it exciting, and at times terrifying, but in the end any fears or doubts we’ve had have been swept away in an immense wave of goodwill and love from our backers. I hope, after playing this game, it’s clear to everyone that we took not just the money we got, but also all the love, and poured it right back into the game.

I hope you enjoy Broken Age! Thank you very much for playing!

Tim Schafer

I truly hope it can live up to the expectations, and you can expect a review from us in the upcoming weeks. The game costs £22.99 with the soundtrack and £18.99 without, and features an ensemble of talented actors such as Jack Black, Elijah Wood and Jennifer Hale. The game can now be purchased from Steam! Broken Age shows that adventure games still have that kick to them, and are still full of life. They aren’t going anywhere, fortunately.