Broken Age
A Kickstarter-funded point and click adventure following two teenagers, released in two halves.
Where Broken Age comes up1 episode or test
- 1Act one teaches rulesNo puzzle used the other character's info
- 2Almost a year passesPlayers live with act one's rules
- 3Act two hides the answerVella's scarf pattern sits in Shay's story
- 4Players had no reason to lookKids never meet or communicate
From Mark Brown, Game Maker's Toolkit
What was said about Broken Age
Broken Age act two hid a puzzle answer where players were never taught to look. Act two hides the pattern for Vella's scarf in Shay's story, though the two kids never meet and cannot communicate. Act one never had a puzzle that used the other character's information, so players had no reason to check there.
Mark Brown of Game Maker's Toolkit calls this "unfair, unreasonable, and - I say - poorly designed." The game raised $3 million on Kickstarter and shipped in two halves almost a year apart, so players had a long gap between learning act one's rules and meeting act two's break from them.
Point and Click Puzzle Design
Raised $3 million on Kickstarter and shipped in two halves almost a year apart. Act two breaks its own logic, hiding Vella's scarf pattern in Shay's story even though the kids never meet and act one never used cross-story clues.
Broken Age act two hid a puzzle answer where players were never taught to look. Act two hides the pattern for Vella's scarf in Shay's story, though the two kids never meet and cannot communicate. Act one never had a puzzle that used the other character's information, so players had no reason to check there.
Mark Brown of Game Maker's Toolkit calls this "unfair, unreasonable, and - I say - poorly designed." The game raised $3 million on Kickstarter and shipped in two halves almost a year apart, so players had a long gap between learning act one's rules and meeting act two's break from them.
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