Hey everybody,

There's a minor shitstorm a-brewin', courtesy of the announcement that 'Double Fine Adventure' - now known as 'Broken Age' - Kickstarter's darling game-dev-studio-rejects-traditional-publisher-funding project, will be delayed.

My first reaction was, 'aw, nuts'. (Actually, it was really 'did I back that one?' - I did.) My current reaction is 'so what'. Not in the traditionally-cynical fashion that phrase is used in, but an actual, genuinely curious one.

There's already the tried-and-tired first-posters with their 'see, Kickstarter has failed, you should have listened to me' rants. Then there's the just as vocal die-hard supporters. And then there's everyone else - like me - who sees this not as a failure, but as a growing point (though, admittedly, I will defend Double Fine more than spurn them).

First, the new dates - you can find them on any other article, but the short list is this:
- Act 1 (first half of the game), as Steam Early-Access Beta: January 2014
- Act 2 (latter half), as free add-on update to those who already backed / bought: April/May 2014
Not really all that terrible, right? The first release date was October 2012. ...okay, not great.

Maybe what people are more surprised at is how this came about following the spectacular success Broken Age had with Kickstarter; they aimed for $400k, they got $3.3M. Million. With an 'm'. A very tidy sum, and one that could easily be construed as adequate for the planned game, at the planned time. Consider, however, what a vote of confidence that shattered goal is - 8x the requested amount - then think about what someone with that excessive amount of money might want to do with the original plans. Expand, expand, expand. Suddenly, there's much more that you can do.

Now consider who is behind this - Tim Schafer and Double Fine have a fantastic legacy, especially in adventure games. Despite this, there's a lot of screaming that they've overextended themselves and taken what has been an almost-universally-positive against the publisher model and turned it into a disappointing failure.

Wait, what? There was (and still is, thankfully) so much excitement, and people have quickly turned around and jumped to bash the project any way they can. To them, I say, 'that's nice' and 'go away', and later, when I'm sure no one else except the NSA is listening, I may say some nastier things. Having seen Tim, in person, at PAX Prime 2012, I can confidently say he is a charismatic showman, and I really regret not making more of an effort to speak with him directly; and sure, I understand (and partially agree with) those that say he certainly did a good song-and-dance, and hyped it up something fierce. I can't say if that hype is (un)deserved yet, as the final product is not here.

Now, I'm going to go back to an old, tired counter-argument against those who despise Kickstarter, but only because I think it is absolutely true: when you pledge money, you are not an investor. You are not entitled to any return, and you have no claim to or against the project in question. You have made a donation, and those on the receiving end have no legal obligation to provide anything to you. You want to be indignant that you're not getting something, fine, that's your right. You might even be in the (moral) right in saying so.

Is that a shitty way to think about it? Absolutely - the standing Right-Things-to-Do(tm) for Kickstarter include making good on your promises of backer rewards, or some other restitution of the project fails or veers off-course. But I'd also argue that owning up to a delay, and laying out a reasonable plan to mitigate it, is just as good. Am I sad that I don't already have Broken Age? Yes, kind of; but I'll say as much this once, and then patiently wait for the rest to play out. I'd recommend that others do the same.

That's all for now.

Cross-post:
Desura