The official Double Fine thread (brought to you by J_C)

[garren]

There's actually seven games now they are officially making, and god knows on how much unannounced stuff they're working on.

Gang Beasts
Broken Age
Spacebase DF9
Grim Fandango remake
Massive Chalice
Hack and Slash
Costume Quest 2

 

[ghostdog]

At around 10 minutes, he talks about an instance where using "Pull" instead of "Use" with an object does something. Interesting how he didn't learn much from replaying his game, Broken Age going as far as not even having a Use/Observe thing FFS.

Just look at Maniac Mansion. Multiple characters, multiple routes, non-linearity, and a game with a shitload of "let's find out all the crazy things we could do". Sure maybe the game lacked focus a bit, but it's the kind of amazing first attempt talented individuals like Ron Gilbert can make. Monkey Island 1 & 2 may have perfected the art of storytelling/humor/puzzles, but they were not even close to being as ambitious and visionary as MM and the same applies for any other Lucasarts game.

DoTT precisely because it was one of Tim's first attempts and it took inspiration from Manic Mansion, also has more complex and ambitious mechanics, like multiple characters and the swapping of items to solve puzzles through the various time periods. Full Throttle was significantly less ambitious and simpler and it's probably his most simple and easy Lucasarts adventure. Full Throttle was also his biggest selling game, so taking an even more casual route with Broken Age isn't so unexpected.

 

[J_C]

There's actually seven games now they are officially making, and god knows on how much unannounced stuff they're working on.

Gang Beasts
Broken Age
Spacebase DF9
Grim Fandango remake
Massive Chalice
Hack and Slash
Costume Quest 2

Oh yeah, I forgot Costume Quest 2. At least that will be released in 2 months, because they specifically make it for Holloween. But the others...sigh, who knows.

I don't believe I say this, but maybe they should shrink the company to the half of its current size, and only work on 2 projects at max. I know that laying off people is awful, and Tim doesn't want to do it, but I don't know how long can they put game prototypes on early access just to make money.

Oh, and another thing. The last Amnesia Fortnight produced some interesting games. Dear Leader, Mnemonic were nice, I don't know why didn't they continued those, instead of this Gang Beast shit. Or maybe they are also developing those behind the curtains.

 

[Metro]

Double Fine announced their latest game. It is Gang Beast.

It is multiplayer only. It is in alpha phase. It is on early access. And it looks stupid.
Sigh...Double Fine, why are you doing this to me? How can I be a fanboy of you, if you make crap like this? Maybe you should finish a game first, instead of putting out game after game after game on early access. You work on Broken Age. You work on DF9, the Grim Fandango remake, you work on Massive Chalice and you work on Hack and slash. And from those Massive Chalice and DF9 look very good, but instead of putting the resource there to finish it, you start this. It is clear that you badly need the money, but maybe you could get more money if you ship a finished product, than from Early Access. DF9 looks super cool, I bet it would sell well if you finish it, instead of keeping it in early access.

Shit company makes another shit game. Film at 11.

 

[Explorerbc]

I don't know, every double fine game I've played recently feels like this : Unique setting and interesting ideas, but the shallow gameplay never lets me enjoy them fully.

Stacking ? Nice aesthetic, very interesting gimmick with the babushka dolls, but at the end it got kinda repetitive for me

Costume Quest ? Cute game, liked the halloween theme a lot, combat was too easy / simple and again got repetitive

Brutal Legend ? Awesome metal setting , great soundtrack , jack black etc , but you had to do essentially the same thing over and over again

I don't have extremely high hopes for anything they make, especially non-adventure games . They will probably be ok-ish to good but not great.

Edit: Oh also Iron Brigade was so mediocre I only played the first two levels before uninstalling

 

[buzz]

the wrestling game looks like it could be funny a bit, but it would probably get old really fast.

I don't think having more projects is necessarily bad, as long as you scale the resources for them properly. I'd rather have them make 5/6 decent/meh games with small budgets rather than a giant turd with big budget like Broken Age. They should've done that from the beginning with all the cash they got from KS, making 2 or 3 adventure games on a smaller scale than half of a mediocre one with star VAs and stupid shit.

 

[trustno1code]

I don't think they're actually developing that though, just publishing ("Double Fine Presents" is that publishing label they'd started recently), like with Escape Goat 2 or that Mountain thing. These guys are making it.
You're slipping J_C.

 

[J_C]

I don't think they're actually developing that though, just publishing ("Double Fine Presents" is that publishing label they'd started recently), like with Escape Goat 2 or that Mountain thing. These guys are making it.
You're slipping J_C.

Sigh, you are right. Sorry Tim, sorry for doubting you!

But my point stands, they should really finish their games, because they work on too many projects at the same time.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Oh yeah, I forgot Costume Quest 2. At least that will be released in 2 months, because they specifically make it for Holloween.

i wonder if it cost them another couple mil to make.

 

[J_C]

Here is the PAX panel about Grim Fandango:

 

[J_C]

Oh, and Hack 'n Slash just got released by the way. And Double Fine being awesome and all, they released the source code with it, so it will be 100% moddable.


Sigh...It must be very taxing and exhausting to be this awesome and great like Tim and Double Fine.

 

[felipepepe]

Double Fine makes bettrer adventure games in their trailers and free webgames than they do for retail...

 

[pakoito]

Double Fine announced their latest game. It is Gang Beast.

It is multiplayer only. It is in alpha phase. It is on early access. And it looks stupid.
Sigh...Double Fine, why are you doing this to me? How can I be a fanboy of you, if you make crap like this? Maybe you should finish a game first, instead of putting out game after game after game on early access. You work on Broken Age. You work on DF9, the Grim Fandango remake, you work on Massive Chalice and you work on Hack and slash. And from those Massive Chalice and DF9 look very good, but instead of putting the resource there to finish it, you start this. It is clear that you badly need the money, but maybe you could get more money if you ship a finished product, than from Early Access. DF9 looks super cool, I bet it would sell well if you finish it, instead of keeping it in early access.

Shit company makes another shit game. Film at 11.

This game is actually made by some chaps from UK, DF is just publishing it. Source: drunken conversations with them in local get together.

Also, best twitter handle ever: https://twitter.com/FatKnack

 

[J_C]

Double Fine announced their latest game. It is Gang Beast.

It is multiplayer only. It is in alpha phase. It is on early access. And it looks stupid.
Sigh...Double Fine, why are you doing this to me? How can I be a fanboy of you, if you make crap like this? Maybe you should finish a game first, instead of putting out game after game after game on early access. You work on Broken Age. You work on DF9, the Grim Fandango remake, you work on Massive Chalice and you work on Hack and slash. And from those Massive Chalice and DF9 look very good, but instead of putting the resource there to finish it, you start this. It is clear that you badly need the money, but maybe you could get more money if you ship a finished product, than from Early Access. DF9 looks super cool, I bet it would sell well if you finish it, instead of keeping it in early access.

Shit company makes another shit game. Film at 11.

This game is actually made by some chaps from UK, DF is just publishing it. Source: drunken conversations with them in local get together.

I think you are mixing it with something (with Gang Beast?), this is a full on Double Fine game, they prototyped it in an Amnesia Fortnight IIRC. The guy in the video is a DF lead dev and it is his game.

 

[pakoito]

Well, there's picture proof and stuff, maybe they just flew to UK for that small event (?)

Check that guy's twitter etc. He's from here.


EDIT: Yes, I meant gang beasts, you're the one mistaken.

 

[GrainWetski]

http://boneloafery.com/ is not Double Fine.

This game existed before Double Fine decided to publish it as a full on game. It's been out as a free game with little content for a while.

 

[J_C]

Well, there's picture proof and stuff, maybe they just flew to UK for that small event (?)

Check that guy's twitter etc. He's from here.


EDIT: Yes, I meant gang beasts, you're the one mistaken.

What? If admittedly you meant gang beasts, then you are the one mistaken, because I'm talking about Hack 'n Slash. And that's a DF production. I know that Gang Beast is not DF.

http://boneloafery.com/ is not Double Fine.

This game existed before Double Fine decided to publish it as a full on game. It's been out as a free game with little content for a while.

 

[pakoito]

Whatever, J_C, whatever.

 

[buzz]

That PAX conference/interview about developing Grim Fandango was pretty sad.
I mean, they had similar budget to Broken Age, wrote an engine from scratch, had to go through lots of technological and bureaucratically problems and so on ... and still made the better game back then.

Like that little story about Peter Chan working as a freelancer from some other place and having to send his shit by postage. Imagine the hassle they went through with that shit, or the difficulty in making the music back then, compared to now.

This is imo the biggest "decline" of modern gaming development. Not making the games more casuals or money-grubbing schemes like DLCs, but the fact that developing video games has become more and more expensive in terms of money, time and manpower during the ages, DESPITE having every available tool at their disposal.

 

[pakoito]

If they hadn't gone with creating their own Moai-based engine + tools and kept the scope by using something their team had available and knew, even flash, they could have delivered something of the same quality in less time. And that's not even my own opinion, just 20/20 hindsight.

The best part is that thanks to those 3.3 million they have their own multiplatform crowd-paid proprietary engine to use in more games. I do believe they should free it instead of just collaborating to a repo that has become stagnant (community-driven).

 

[felipepepe]

So, this just happened on twitter:

10k per hipster per month... oh god.

 

[pakoito]

24 months development cycle because they took an alpha framework and put more than a year of work to get the asset pipeline working.

 

[felipepepe]

I wonder if that includes Tim's own salary, that is probably much higher than 10k.

 

[J_C]

Whatever, J_C, whatever.

A simple "sorry, you are right J_C" would have suffised.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2

 

[GrainWetski]

$10k per month? Wow, he sure showed them!

What a tool he is.