![broken age train broken age train](https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5550/12798599255_9ca2686086_b.jpg)
There are plenty of worse stories out there.īut I’m here to talk about Broken Age as a game, not a product. I have at least one prominent Early Access game in my Steam library that has completely lost my interest as game-breaking changes have made the game I originally bought unrecognizable and updates have slowed to a crawl.
![broken age train broken age train](https://trainingforclimbing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/growth-plates_Horst_small.jpg)
My thoughts are, perhaps, but plenty of studios have since come to abuse these tools, either releasing episodes that never finish or never delivering on crowdfunded projects. There are certainly questions to be asked about whether the two trends the game helped normalize - episodic game releases and crowd funding - are in fact positive contributions to games as a whole. The fact of the matter is, Broken Age shipped where many comparable projects have outright failed, even if it used a model that at the time was unconventional. Especially in recent years with horror stories of 100-hour work weeks, sketchy developers running off with Early Access profits, child gambling rings, predatory microtransactions, horribly buggy releases, and the whole host of actively unplayable games in many reputable online stores, a slight delay in release seems an almost laughable problem. In all, these are really pretty minor complaints as many people in the game development industry can tell you.
![broken age train broken age train](http://thegreatwesternmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/BrokenTrailBywater.jpg)
Some players were disappointed that the release date continued to be pushed back, while others were underwhelmed by the second act when it was finally released. The game was somewhat controversial in its release, coming out as a paid experience on Steam Early Access when only the first half was completed, despite gaining a far bigger budget than expected. As the company’s founder, Tim Schafer, gained a foothold in the 90s for his work on popular adventure games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, and Grim Fandango, this project quickly ballooned well beyond its original $400,000 allotment into nearly 3.5 million dollars. Back in 2012, indie game developer Double Fine announced that they were opening up a Kickstarter project to fund a small classic point-and-click-style adventure game. If you’ve heard of this game prior to playing it, chances are you know it as Double Fine Adventure or That Video Game Project Wot Done Broke Kickstarter.