After raising $3.3 million in a record setting Kickstarter campaign for Double Fine Adventure, since named Broken Age, Double Fine has revealed it has run out of funds. In an update letter sent to Kickstarter backers Tim Schafer announced the company plans to split the game into two chapters, selling the first chapter as part of the Steam Early Access program to fund completion of the second chapter. Kickstarter backers who contributed enough to receive the full game will gain both chapters for no extra charge.

We were always planning to release the beta on Steam, but in addition to that we now have Steam Early Access, which is a new opportunity that actually lets you charge money for pre-release content. That means we could actually sell this early access version of the game to the public at large, and use that money to fund the remaining game development. The second part of the game would come in a free update a few months down the road, closer to April-May.

So, everybody gets to play the game sooner, and we don’t have to cut the game down drastically. Backers still get the whole game this way—nobody has to pay again for the second half.

And whatever date we start selling the early release, backers still have exclusive beta access before that, as promised in the Kickstarter.

I want to point out that Broken Age's schedule changes have nothing to do with the team working slowly. They have been kicking ass and the game looks, plays, and sounds amazing. It's just taking a while because I designed too much game, as I pretty much always do. But we're pulling it in, and the good news is that the game's design is now 100% done, so most of the unknowns are now gone and it’s not going to get any bigger.

Gamasutra: Broken Age Split In Half

Broken Age (add to watch list)

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