Broken Age Needs More Money

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Broken Age Needs More Money


Tim Schafer has revealed that Broken Age will be split into two chapters, so the first half can be sold through Steam Early Access in order to fund the development of the second half.

When Broken Age hit Kickstarter as the Double Fine Adventure [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doublefine/double-fine-adventure] in early 2012, it had what appeared to be a hefty funding goal of $400,000. A month later, it had brought in more than eight times that amount from adventure fans eager for something new from Tim Schafer - over $3.3 million. Yet somehow, that now isn't enough; Schafer said in a message to backers today that blowing away the original funding target "didn't stop me from getting excited and designing a game so big that it would need even more money."

A long, hard look at the numbers made it clear that the only way the team would be able to get the game out the door more or less on time - it was on track to be fully release-ready sometime in 2015 - and within budget would be to cut the content by roughly 75 percent. "What would be left?" Schafer wrote. "How would we even cut it down that far? Just polish up the rooms we had and ship those? Reboot the art style with a dramatically simpler look? Remove the Boy or Girl from the story? Yikes! Sad faces all around."

Schafer said going to a publisher for funding was out of the question "because it would violate the spirit of the Kickstarter," and another Kickstarter round didn't seem right either. Thus the current plan to make some "modest" cuts to the game to have the first half ready by January, and then release it through Steam Early Access.

"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," Schafer explained.

"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," he wrote. "And whatever date we start selling the early release, backers still have exclusive beta access before that, as promised in the Kickstarter."

I don't know much about game development and hey, things happen, but no matter how you frame it, this looks a little dodgy. It's not as though Double Fine just barely made its goal; it earned more than eight times what it said it needed to make its game. And yet now it needs more - a lot more - to get it across the finish line. That just does not look good.

Schafer's message was originally sent only to Double Fine Adventure backers, but you can read it in full at Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/195509/Double_Fine_splits_Broken_Age_in_half_to_fund_completion.php].


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roguewriter

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May 9, 2011
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I gave you the money you asked for in the belief that I wouldn't need to provide more. Considering all the money the Kickstarter made it should have been enough. Now I'm supposed to give you more money for only half of the game (that's only in, essentially, beta) so the other half can get made and all because you got kind of full of yourself and spent more money making a game bigger than it should have been thereby stretching yourself too thin all because of your "big ideas"? Tim, you've done some amazing work, but, respectfully "(bleep) you."
 

Phrozenflame500

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Dec 26, 2012
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Uh, dude, you got your budget, work within it. It seems a bit silly to get 8 times your original goal and still not have enough. It reaks of bad management.
 

Agayek

Ravenous Gormandizer
Oct 23, 2008
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So, anyone else immediately think that this is anecdotal evidence that maybe it's not actually the publishers that are artificially inflating game development costs?

Is it really that hard to work within a given budget? Especially when said budget was 800% the size of what you originally expected to get?
 
Jan 9, 2011
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Great, here we go. A great opportunity for internet inhabitants to criticize someone as a fashion statement. Nothing quite like a bit of cheap mud-slinging to make you feel witty. Ignore the fact that a small developer has stretched themselves a bit thin simply because they're thinking big, and trying to deliver a better game. Never mind that the whole situation is actually being handled quite tastefully, and the details are freely given to you in a transparent manner. Turn a blind eye to the reasonable explanations behind this mistake, and overlook the fact that things are in fact being rectified here. No, don't bother taking any of this into consideration. Make your seething, incendiary comments because they make you cool. Keep talking crap, because it builds your reputation. Disparage and belittle others for the purpose of self-aggrandizement. Enjoy it.
 

BrotherRool

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Oct 31, 2008
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Agayek said:
So, anyone else immediately think that this is anecdotal evidence that maybe it's not actually the publishers that are artificially inflating game development costs?

Is it really that hard to work within a given budget? Especially when said budget was 800% the size of what you originally expected to get?
I think it's probably natural that left to themselves developers would almost always increase the cost of their budget. Especially since budget basically means paying people to work for them, no developer would ever want to cut their budget because that means firing people and I imagine most people like the idea of hiring even more people and spreading the work around even more. It's one of the useful job a publisher can do is having the motivation and business acumen to tell the developers to be more practical (along with pushing some of the bad companies to actually do their friggin' jobs, I'm looking at you Gearbox). But some of the publishers are probably terrible at their jobs and not able to constrain people (Or constrain people too much)
 

Furbyz

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Oct 12, 2009
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roguewriter said:
I gave you the money you asked for in the belief that I wouldn't need to provide more. Considering all the money the Kickstarter made it should have been enough. Now I'm supposed to give you more money for only half of the game (that's only in, essentially, beta) so the other half can get made and all because you got kind of full of yourself and spent more money making a game bigger than it should have been thereby stretching yourself too thin all because of your "big ideas"? Tim, you've done some amazing work, but, respectfully "(bleep) you."
Well, it explicitly says that you do not have to give more money.

"Backers still get the whole game this way - nobody has to pay again for the second half"

Your respectful "(bleep) you" is still entirely warranted, but you won't have to pay for the second half. It's kinda sad to see them get so high on success that their budget went entirely out of control. I'm hoping they'll use this as an object lesson for Massive Chalice, which I did actually back. Although, that's an entirely different situation seeing how Broken Age was made so expensive by making all these new art assets for everything, whereas Massive Chalice should, by its very nature of being a tactical rpg, reuse much of what they create quite often.
 

-Dragmire-

King over my mind
Mar 29, 2011
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Budget and scope. You have to scale one to the other. They want to get the budget to match the scope instead of scaling the scope to match the budget....

They need a better financial manager who knows when to tell the creative team they've gone too far. I hope this works out well for them but I feel this will negatively affect later kickstarters they are a part of as a result.
 

dumbseizure

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Mar 15, 2009
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MasterProcrastinator said:
Great, here we go. A great opportunity for internet inhabitants to criticize someone as a fashion statement. Nothing quite like a bit of cheap mud-slinging to make you feel witty. Ignore the fact that a small developer has stretched themselves a bit thin simply because they're thinking big, and trying to deliver a better game. Never mind that the whole situation is actually being handled quite tastefully, and the details are freely given to you in a transparent manner. Turn a blind eye to the reasonable explanations behind this mistake, and overlook the fact that things are in fact being rectified here. No, don't bother taking any of this into consideration. Make your seething, incendiary comments because they make you cool. Keep talking crap, because it builds your reputation. Disparage and belittle others for the purpose of self-aggrandizement. Enjoy it.
What?

No one is complaining to "look cool".

People are complaining because they wanted $400,000 to fund this game, they got 8 times that, and yet it still isn't enough?

Get off your high horse, there is no reason to defend someone who got 8 times the funding, and decided to let it all go to his head, and work outside of that budget.
 

Negatempest

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May 10, 2008
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Furbyz said:
roguewriter said:
I gave you the money you asked for in the belief that I wouldn't need to provide more. Considering all the money the Kickstarter made it should have been enough. Now I'm supposed to give you more money for only half of the game (that's only in, essentially, beta) so the other half can get made and all because you got kind of full of yourself and spent more money making a game bigger than it should have been thereby stretching yourself too thin all because of your "big ideas"? Tim, you've done some amazing work, but, respectfully "(bleep) you."
Well, it explicitly says that you do not have to give more money.

"Backers still get the whole game this way - nobody has to pay again for the second half"

Your respectful "(bleep) you" is still entirely warranted, but you won't have to pay for the second half. It's kinda sad to see them get so high on success that their budget went entirely out of control. I'm hoping they'll use this as an object lesson for Massive Chalice, which I did actually back. Although, that's an entirely different situation seeing how Broken Age was made so expensive by making all these new art assets for everything, whereas Massive Chalice should, by its very nature of being a tactical rpg, reuse much of what they create quite often.
from the way i read it, the statement sounded more like, 'By charging for the first half of the game for new customers of the game, backers do not have to pay for the second half.' in that case, yeah they messed up big time. remember, the purpose of the founding is for them to create the product within the budget. to go far out of budget is to bring distrust. and my best wishes on you recieving your product in time and functional.
 

RyQ_TMC

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Apr 24, 2009
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Having backed Broken Age and followed the process, I remember that they ran into financial trouble pretty quickly. Especially in the early phase, Tim seemed to basically go "I have INFINITE money, let's do it!" The news is a bit distressing, but I guess we should have seen it coming.

On the other hand, I think the way they handled it is quite good. They didn't try to back out of their commitment to the backers, and aren't going to charge anyone for the second part. Maybe they initially hoped that Slacker Backers would balance the books.

But one question... The video updates had quite a bit of complaining about the poor state of DoubleFine's finances. Tim saying that things were looking pretty bleak before the Kickstarter success. The project manager, I forget the name, often underlines how they are stretching their budget thin... Why then are they still based in San Francisco? They mention a few times that it's expensive to keep offices in SF, wouldn't it help to move to a cheaper place?

Anyway, here's hoping Brad Muir is better at planning than Tim Schafer.
 
Jan 9, 2011
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dumbseizure said:
What?

No one is complaining to "look cool".

People are complaining because they wanted $400,000 to fund this game, they got 8 times that, and yet it still isn't enough?

Get off your high horse, there is no reason to defend someone who got 8 times the funding, and decided to let it all go to his head, and work outside of that budget.
Just so you know, my post wasn't a response to any particular comment that's been made so far; it was made in advance, because based on how news like this is generally received, I can predict a lot of harsh, misinformed criticism to come.

Also, yes, Double Fine did indeed get eight times their goal, but don't you think that Tim's plans for the game might have changed in accordance with that? I don't think it's a matter of it 'going to his head'; it was a matter of him scaling everything up, and shooting much higher. Unfortunately for him, he shot a little too high, and now has to rethink and re-evaluate the whole project and its structure.

But I'm going to defend his intent on this one. I know that people will label him arrogant, careless, and ungrateful, but I highly doubt that was the case at all. Sure, this was a bit of a cock-up, but it was an honest cock-up. Things like this happen quite often with developers, especially the smaller ones. Heck, look at what happened during the development process of 'Amnesia'; Frictional Games cut it very fine on that occasion. These things just happen, and it's not worth getting angry over. It's occasionally the price one has to pay for having a set idea and an unwillingness to compromise it. It can cause budget complications, regardless of the amount of cash in the tank or where it came from.
 

viranimus

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Nov 20, 2009
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How did no one see this coming? Sad thing is if you would replace the name Schafer w/ Molyneaux you would practically have people jumping for joy. But because it is Schafer and that automatically bestows a wealth of undue cred of course this will get played up like some sort of tragedy.

Well I feel sorry for those who funded, but hope you can find a means to be satisfied with the half of game that will be delivered for your full investment.

Captcha: Hear hear!
 

lacktheknack

Je suis joined jewels.
Jan 19, 2009
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MasterProcrastinator said:
Great, here we go. A great opportunity for internet inhabitants to criticize someone as a fashion statement. Nothing quite like a bit of cheap mud-slinging to make you feel witty. Ignore the fact that a small developer has stretched themselves a bit thin simply because they're thinking big, and trying to deliver a better game. Never mind that the whole situation is actually being handled quite tastefully, and the details are freely given to you in a transparent manner. Turn a blind eye to the reasonable explanations behind this mistake, and overlook the fact that things are in fact being rectified here. No, don't bother taking any of this into consideration. Make your seething, incendiary comments because they make you cool. Keep talking crap, because it builds your reputation. Disparage and belittle others for the purpose of self-aggrandizement. Enjoy it.
No one is talking "crap", per se. Stop overreacting.

I hope you're not trying to excuse him managing to blow a terrifying amount of money that he raised without even finishing his project. Because that's not excusable, regardless of transparency. Transparency has a downside: We can see flaws such as "Tim Schafer is a bad financial manager".

If I collect money to, say, invest in a promising stock, and then tell my investors "I'm gonna be transparent, I need more money to invest your investments in a better stock", I'd be arrested.

Tim done goofed, and no amount of reasonable explanations will change that. So no, I'm not gonna talk crap, but I AM going to hold him accountable for his bad planning.

Real life doesn't go easy on my financial mistakes, why should I go easy on a freaking project manager for his?
 

Kiya

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Mar 22, 2012
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Evil Smurf said:
I'm a backer of this project, am I going to get the full game?
Yes - kickstarter backers will still get the second half in a free update

As far as I'm concerned, I got my kickstarter moneys worth just from the documentary videos showing the development process over the last year.
 

frizzlebyte

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Oct 20, 2008
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lacktheknack said:
MasterProcrastinator said:
Great, here we go. A great opportunity for internet inhabitants to criticize someone as a fashion statement. Nothing quite like a bit of cheap mud-slinging to make you feel witty. Ignore the fact that a small developer has stretched themselves a bit thin simply because they're thinking big, and trying to deliver a better game. Never mind that the whole situation is actually being handled quite tastefully, and the details are freely given to you in a transparent manner. Turn a blind eye to the reasonable explanations behind this mistake, and overlook the fact that things are in fact being rectified here. No, don't bother taking any of this into consideration. Make your seething, incendiary comments because they make you cool. Keep talking crap, because it builds your reputation. Disparage and belittle others for the purpose of self-aggrandizement. Enjoy it.
No one is talking "crap", per se. Stop overreacting.

I hope you're not trying to excuse him managing to blow a terrifying amount of money that he raised without even finishing his project. Because that's not excusable, regardless of transparency. Transparency has a downside: We can see flaws such as "Tim Schafer is a bad financial manager".

If I collect money to, say, invest in a promising stock, and then tell my investors "I'm gonna be transparent, I need more money to invest your investments in a better stock", I'd be arrested.

Tim done goofed, and no amount of reasonable explanations will change that. So no, I'm not gonna talk crap, but I AM going to hold him accountable for his bad planning.

Real life doesn't go easy on my financial mistakes, why should I go easy on a freaking project manager for his?
This. I backed the project for a pretty hefty sum, so I am glad that DF is not asking for more from the backers themselves, but the fact that they blew through the massive chunk of cash they already had is just so irresponsible it hurts.

I am fine with this project going a little over budget, as I am most things as long as the end result is worth it, but the fact that they made tons more money than they supposedly had budgeted for...and they still went over budget, is completely inexcusable. It reminds me of the people who win the lottery and end up in worse financial shape than they started in because they bought a new house and a Maserati and didn't think to budget for taxes.
 

RicoADF

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Jun 2, 2009
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Evil Smurf said:
I'm a backer of this project, am I going to get the full game?
According to the article:
"Backers still get the whole game this way - nobody has to pay again for the second half," he wrote."
the answer should be yes you get the full game, their just looking at how to get some extra funds by doing the early access option steam now has to bring in some extra funds.
 

dragongit

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Feb 22, 2011
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Oy... that's 3 million dollars+ however much you've gotten from humble bundles (which I think went over a million) and from other sales. I get you dont' want to dip into dangerous levels but thats quite a bit. And you only got 1.3 million for Massive Chalice? How the hell are you going to fund that if potentially 4 million isn't enough? though who am I to judge, I'll probably get it anyway if it isn't too expensive.