Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure video game developed and published by Double Fine. Broken Age was game director Tim Schafer's first return to the genre since 1998's Grim Fandango, and was released for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One platforms. The game was developed in two acts; the first was released on January 28, 2014 (two weeks earlier for Kickstarter backers), and the second was released on April 28, 2015. A retail version of the complete game for Windows, OS X, and Linux, published by Nordic Games, was released on April 28, 2015. A Nintendo Switch version was released on September 13, 2018.
Broken Age began under the working title Double Fine Adventure as a Kickstarter crowd-funded project promoted by Double Fine and 2 Player Productions in February 2012. Though originally a goal of only $400,000 was set to cover the costs of development and documentary filming, Broken Age became the largest crowd-funded video game project at the time, raising over 3.45 million dollars from more than 87,000 backers within the month. It remains one of the highest-backed crowd-funded projects of any type, and its success helped to establish Kickstarter and other crowd-funding mechanisms as a viable alternative to traditional venture capital and publisher funding for niche video game titles. The game's development was chronicled by an episodic series of documentaries produced by 2 Player Productions.
Game-play
Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure game, where the player-controlled character can be directed to move about the screen, examine objects, and talk to non-player characters to learn more about the game world. The game features two playable characters, each located in seemingly separate worlds; the player can switch from one character to the other via the game's interface at any time, but otherwise these characters do not interact in any direct way. The game employs context-sensitive actions instead of using verb lists as early adventure games would use, as Schafer stated that in essence, "there really was always one verb, which was 'interact with'" and opted for the more modern approach. Each character has separate item inventories as they collect objects; items can then be used by dragging them onto context-sensitive areas on the screen or combined with other inventory items.
Plot
Act 1
Broken Age tells the story of two teenagers with no immediately apparent connection, each "seeking to break the tradition in their lives".
Vella Tartine (voiced by Masasa Moyo) is a young woman living in the Badlands, a land ravaged by the Mogs, giant creatures that come from beyond a wall called the Plague Dam. They are appeased by the sacrifice of young girls at a number of Maiden's Feasts held at various villages. They appear every fourteen years for those maidens. Vella is chosen to be sacrificed to Mog Chothra at the feast in her hometown of Sugar Bunting (formerly a town made up of warriors named Steel Bunting) but concludes that if the monster could be killed, the rituals could be ended. She finds a way to escape the beast's attack and ends up in Meriloft, a small colony which rests on a cluster of semisolid clouds. They are dealing with the aftermath of their own Feast, affirming her belief that the rites are disastrous to their people and should be ended. She then finds her way to a nearby port town, Shellmound, where they are preparing for their own Feast. There she discovers the Dead Eye God's temple, which turns out to be an ancient spaceship, the Maloruna, half-buried by the sand. She is able to wake its pilot, Alex, from his three hundred year stasis, and he helps her to rig the ship's scanning system to fire a laser at Mog Chothra when he shows up for the Feast. Vella's plan works, and she is able to bring down the creature.
Shay Volta (voiced by Elijah Wood) is a young man and seemingly the only passenger on the spaceship Bossa Nostra (Bassinostra), an "incubator vessel". The ship's computer has two artificial intelligences (A.I.s). The computer's diurnal A.I., named "MOM", acts as a mother figure to Shay, occupying him with infantile "missions" and boring routines, while preventing him from learning about or exploring anything farther than the outside of the ship. The computer's nocturnal A.I. acts as a father figure to Shay and is more understanding of Shay's desire for independence, but appears to be too busy to spend time with Shay. The computer asserts that he is part of Project Dandelion, a last-ditch effort by his home planet, Loruna, to protect Shay (the only survivor of his race following the planet's destruction) and try to find a home for him. When Shay sneaks into the bowels of the ship, he finds a stowaway named Marek wearing a wolf costume. Marek claims that, unbeknownst to him, a war rages in the galaxy, and tells Shay that he needs his help to save some innocent creatures who have been imprisoned in different areas of the galaxy as a result. Marek guides Shay through various missions against the computer's knowledge and control, trying to rescue a number of the creatures at each location before their position is discovered by an enemy force. During one of these rescues, Shay refuses to leave the last creature behind, causing the ship to be attacked, and trapping Marek under a pile of debris. In the ensuing chaos, Shay is knocked unconscious.
Act 1 ends when Vella, going up to the downed Mog Chothra, discovers the monster is mechanical. Shay emerges confused from inside, revealing his belief of being in space was merely part of an illusion and he was unwittingly controlling Mog Chothra. Vella attempts to punch Shay but misses and falls into Mog Chothra's mouth. The mouth closes behind her, leaving them both trapped in each other's worlds, uncertain of what to do in their new surroundings.
