Broken Age

Overview

Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure game released by Double Fine Productions. The project was initially announced on February 8, 2012, through the website Kickstarter.com. Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions desired to create an old-school point-and-click adventure game, but due to lack of publisher interest in the genre, they chose to pursue funding through crowdsourcing.

The Kickstarter campaign proved to be an enormous success, raised roughly ten times the project funding goal. As part of the Kickstarter project pitch, the development of the project was documented by 2 Player Productions, who created a serialized video series chronicling the process. Additionally, project backers were given access to a private community forum to offer their input on the game's development.

Originally planned for a release on PC through Steam, greater-than-expected funding caused Double Fine to totally rethink their plans for the game, including expanding the scope of the game and adding releases on Mac, iOS, and Android devices. Additionally added were English-language voice acting and localized text in French, Italian, German, and Spanish.

The initial scope of the project predicted a release date in October of 2012, but due to the larger budget, more time is being taken to develop the game. During Episode 10 of the 2 Player Productions documentary, it was revealed that the game would actually be split into two parts in order to resolve certain funding issues that arose once the requirements of the full game's scope became evident.

Act 1 was released to backers on January 14, 2014 and was released to the general public on January 28, 2014. Act 2 was released on April 28, 2015.

Story

Details of the game, such as its official title and elements of its story, were unveiled at Double Fine's PAX East 2013 panel.

As described, the title "Broken Age" is supposed to invoke a sense of what occurs during the game. The game focuses on two parallel stories of children, a boy and a girl, who yearn to break free from the banalities of their respective lives and follows them as they attempt to alter their fates. The boy lives a solitary life under the care of a motherly computer, but wishes to break free, while the girl has been chosen as sacrifice to a terrible sea monster by her own village and decides to fight back.

Kickstarter Campaign

The project's original goal was to collect $400,000 in pledges by March 13, 2012; the minimum pledge amount required for the project to go forward, with $300,000 going toward the game's development and the remaining amount toward the documentary series. This sum was quickly met within nine hours of the announcement. Pledges continued to climb, eventually reaching just over one million dollars in its first day. All donated funds in excess of the target were put towards the game's development, as well as the documentary.

On February 24, 2012, Double Fine posted another update to the project's Kickstarter page, indicating that with the larger-than-expected donation amount, the scope of the project had changed. Because of this, Double Fine extended the development schedule beyond its initially stated scope, and they also indicated that some Kickstarter donation rewards would likely be sent out later than originally intended. The update also served as an announcement for new rewards for various donation tiers. Notably, everyone that donated at least $100 toward the game will now also receive a physical copy of the game on disc in addition to all other rewards and benefits previously promised.

On March 13, 2012, the Kickstarter drive officially closed with a grand total of $3,335,235 from 87,138 backers. Premium backers also pledged an additional $110,000 not accounted for on the Kickstarter page, for a total of $3,445,235.

On May 8, 2012, Double Fine announced the option to become 'Slacker Backers.' By making a $15 purchase through PayPal, individuals who wished to support the project but missed the Kickstarter deadline could secure a copy of the game along with the $15-tier rewards of the original Kickstarter.

On January 15, 2013, Double Fine added a couple of options for those who wished to further support the project. For the price of $40 for an unsigned copy and $60 for a signed copy, consumers could obtain a 13" by 19" art print by Majus, an intern who spent 3 months working on the project. Additionally, slacker backers could also send any other amount of money, functioning as a tip to the team. All these options were created for backers who wanted to pitch in a little more in the wake of a documentary episode where the project's financial struggles were somewhat detailed.

The Act 1 beta was released to backers on January 14, 2014 via distributed Humble Steam codes. Though the original intent was to also keep an embargo on reviews in place during the brief beta period, that embargo was lifted the same day.

System Requirements

PC

Minimum

• OS: Windows XP
• Processor: 1.7 GHz Dual Core
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia 260GTX, ATI Radeon 4870 HD, Intel HD 3000
• DirectX: Version 10
• Hard Drive: 1500 MB available space
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card

Recommended

• OS: Windows 7
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.2 GHz / AMD Athlon 64 2.2Ghz
• Memory: 3 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia 460, AMD HD 6850
• DirectX: Version 11
• Hard Drive: 1500 MB available space
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card

Mac

Minimum

• OS: Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or later
• Processor: Intel Core Duo
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Graphics: ATI HD 2600, Nvidia 9600GT, Intel HD3000
• Hard Drive: 1500 MB available space
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card

Recommended

• OS: Lion 10.7.X
• Processor: Intel Core i series processor
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: ATI HD 4670, Nvidia 285
• Hard Drive: 1500 MB available space
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card

Linux

Minimum

• OS: Ubuntu 12.0 LTS. Fully updated
• Processor: 1.7 GHz Dual Core
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia 260GTX, Radeon HD 2000, Intel HD 4000
• Hard Drive: 1500 MB available space
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card

Recommended

• OS: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.2 GHz / AMD Athlon 64 2.2Ghz
• Memory: 3 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia 460, AMD HD 6850
• Hard Drive: 1500 MB available space
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card