QCF: Broken Age Act 1

oing on adventures was something my siblings and I always did when we were children. Exploring paths in the wooded area in our backyard, creating imaginary monsters to battle under incredible odds. However in the process of growing up, those adventures seemed less real and were replaced with responsibilities and an absence of our galaxy-saving endeavors. Adventure is a key component in Broken Age, the runaway Kickstarter success created by some of the most influential minds in the adventure game genre. Does Double Fine live up to the expectations and pedigree of their past games, or is this adventure something we all have grown out of?

To answer that question, first we should look at how this game came into being. Double Fine wanted to develop and publish an adventure game that was reminiscent of their classics titles such as Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango. However with current trends and lack of interest from most publishers, Tim Schaffer and company wanted to instead have direct support from their dedicated fans and the gaming community. A Kickstarter campaign asking for $400,000 to fund the project concluded with over $3.3 million dollars contributed, raising over $1 million dollars in the first day alone.  Double Fine was going back to a genre that have made companies like Telltale a household name. Thankfully with Act 1 of Broken Age, the company was able to create a great experience and a return to form for fans new and old.

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PPR 55

On this episode of Press Pause Radio we hold hands and venture through the great unknown, as we discuss the history and relevance of strategy guides and walkthroughs. Thankfully we brought along a few "guides" on the trip as well. Matt Clark, a freelance writer featured on MTV, 1up, GamePro and many other publications joins us along with Zy, a top contributor on GameFAQs and writer of several walkthroughs as we contemplate on whether guides and walkthroughs are still needed in gaming today. We will also talk about Double Fine's success on Kickstarter and the upcoming release of the PS Vita. Thanks for listening to the show, and please make sure to check out the site for upcoming articles and reviews currently in the works. 

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The Community Factor

Communities -- collective forces of people who work and support each other towards a common goal, and as a result, create a social and integral bond in through every day living.

The Video Gaming community is an anomaly in so many ways, even today. The community has served as a fundamental that trades off between being strength to stigma to every single individual who participates in it actively, myself included. Labels can range anywhere from juvenile or vindictive, to supportive and trustworthy, and little has been done to find a consistency -- until recently.

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