Double Fine Looks Back At 10 Years Of Broken Age

Double Fine Productions started a Kickstarter campaign in 2012 to create an adventure game.

At the time, the idea was that the adventure genre was dead – at least in the eyes of major publishers. Double Fine founder Tim Schafer who worked for LucasArts on point-andclick adventure games, believed there was still an audience that could be served by a brand new game. Double Fine is a good idea. And why not go directly to the source – the fans – for the game’s funding?

Double Fine pitched the project, describing it as a smaller one. The company asked for $400,000 from fans – specifically $300,000 to make the game and $100,000 to allow documentary crew 2 Player Productions to film the development. Double Fine will also publish a documentary that will allow transparency about how fan money was used. 

The Kickstarter launched on February 8, 2012. It exceeded its initial goal in just a matter of hours. Over $1,000,000 was raised in the first day. By the close of the campaign a month later it had raised $3,336,371. 

At least two things can be proven from the Kickstarter success story: 1. The adventure genre has still got some life. And more importantly, crowdfunding was – to some degree – a completely viable option for game developers to use for project funding, bypassing the standard process of pitching projects to publishers and trying to raise funds. 

Broken Age is a 2D adventure-come-of-age game that tells the stories of Vella (and Shay) Double Fine saw the project grow from a small one to a huge success. The Kickstarter campaign took years, and it cost Double Fine more than they originally requested. 

The result was 2 Player’s 20-part, 12-hour long Double Fine Adventure documentary, one of the most complete and transparent looks we’d ever had into how games get made – at least until it did it again in early in 2023 with PsychOdyssey, showing the making of Psychonauts 2. 

Sometimes it wasn’t easy. Game development never is. It is not an easy road. Double Fine AdventureThis allowed anyone to watch the process of Broken Age from their own home. The Kickstarter backers were able to see how their money was used. This allowed them to express their opinion, even if it was negative, on how the company managed business. They often spoke out loudly about their views. Gamergate, which was an anti-gaming harassment campaign that targeted women and minorities working in the video game industry at the time, occurred during this period. Broken Age, its documentary and the joy it brings, is full of passion, beauty, and love. But there’s also a lot pain and struggle. 

It’s been more than 10 years since the last time we revisited. Double Fine AdventureFeels like you are watching the birth of Double Fine. The company revisited crowdfunding several times, most notably with Psychonauts 2. It still films almost everything inside its walls. Microsoft has now acquired Double Fine from the company. It doesn’t need to pitch people or publishers. 2 Player was integrated into the company and serves as an internal documentary crew. This is likely to make projects more detailed than they were ten year ago.  

There was so much that is the same as there’s been for Double Fine. We gathered current and former Broken Age lead and 2 Player staff to talk about the process. Over many hours and drinks, they had a frank, honest, and personal chat about what went right, wrong, and everything in between. In addition to discussing their thoughts and feelings ten years later, they also discussed how it affected them professionally and personally. The final part of the conversation is about what it all meant for Double Fine. 

James Spafford deserves our special thanks