Game News Broken Roads Released

[Infinitron]

Tags: Broken Roads; Drop Bear Bytes; tinyBuild

​

Review roundup:

Checkpoint Gaming 6/10
Eurogamer 2/5
Gamepressure 4/10
GamesRadar+ 2.5/5
God is a Geek 7.5/10
Hardcore Gamer 3.5/5
IGN 4/10
PC Gamer 64/100
PCGamesN 4/10
Press Start Australia
Rock Paper Shotgun
RPG Fan 76/100
Shacknews 6/10
TheGamer 4/5
Try Hard Guides 9/10
WellPlayed 5/10
Xbox Tavern 4/10​

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1403440/Broken_Roads/
https://af.gog.com/en/game/broken_roads?as=1649904300

 

[agris]

Eurogamer 2/5
Gamepressure 4/10
Hardcore Gamer 3.5/5
PC Gamer 64/100
Press Start Australia
Rock Paper Shotgun
RPG Fan 76/100
Xbox Tavern 4/10

 

[Mortmal]

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...serve-more-attention-updated-jan-2020.106945/
It deserves mention there i think. Maybe too soon for commercial failure?

 

[Tyranicon]

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...serve-more-attention-updated-jan-2020.106945/
It deserves mention there i think. Maybe too soon for commercial failure?

It was the 120th top most wishlisted game on steam. It's not obscure at all.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I have never cared for post-apocalypse games. It's one of the main preferences here though, so I'm surprised by how tepid the interest in this game has been. It looks like it should be a codex darling.

 

[Mortmal]

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...serve-more-attention-updated-jan-2020.106945/
It deserves mention there i think. Maybe too soon for commercial failure?

It was the 120th top most wishlisted game on steam. It's not obscure at all.

With Baldr's Squid Isekai at 121th, yes not obscure.

 

[jaekl]

Woman on the trailer thumbnail of a post apocalyptic game and not even any cleavage? They deserve to fail.

 

[King Crispy]

If you're going to name your game Broken Roads, it had better be generally bug-free.

 

[Tyranicon]

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...serve-more-attention-updated-jan-2020.106945/
It deserves mention there i think. Maybe too soon for commercial failure?

It was the 120th top most wishlisted game on steam. It's not obscure at all.

With Baldr's Squid Isekai at 121th, yes not obscure.

BSI didn't even break top 1000 wishlists. Probably not even 2000.

Anything within 200 has hundreds of thousands of wishlists.

They marketed this thing a lot.

 

[rubinstein]

If you're going to name your game Broken Roads, it had better be generally bug-free.

seeing the game is having problem with

missing dialogues

from eurogamer review: It's possible that I don't know how much I've missed because of bugged parts of the game not firing. When I contacted the developer's PR to check, it was agreed that I may have missed some dialogue, but also that there will be more added after launch. Maybe in the world where everything was where it was supposed to be, it would be a very different feeling game, and one where the ending didn't feel so bizarre and out of nowhere. But looking at what's present, instead of speculating on what's absent, I think it's more likely that whatever went wrong happened long before I ever booted up the game.

maybe it should have been called 'broken nodes'

 

[dubLEs]

Seems like the whole thing only takes around 7-10 hours per run.

 

[InspectorRumpole]

If you're going to name your game Broken Roads, it had better be generally bug-free.

Something something bug-free game set in Australia-something something.

 

[Baron Tahn]

No surprises here. Good on an indie team for trying I guess.

As an Australian in what you would call the 'arts industry' this is frustrsting as hell because we basically dont have such a thing (as a creative arts industry). From the reviews it looks like they tried and failed, something I see all too often with the lack of any infrastructure for games like this here. Mobile trash? No worries. Take a risk on a real game? Git farked mate.

Then again it also grinds my gears knowing that with ten minutes I probably could have done better at designing a narrative/world building for this. Too late now, of course, but ffs if there are any other Aussies round here thinking of doing something similar, for the love of all that is holy send me a dm!

 

[Jack Slash]

Reviews and forum posts in French and Russian complain that the localization has been done with machine translation and little to no human revision. I hate when publishers do that, yet indicate the language support on the Steam page.

 

[luj1]

Some of the reviews were "revealing" to say the least:

The Victorian Government contributed to the funding through its Assigned Production Investment Games program, as part of a larger initiative that distributed $550,000 across ten projects (Happy Mag). Meanwhile, Screen Queensland, representing the Queensland Government, allocated more than $1 million in total development funding for seven digital games projects, including "Broken Roads."

How dare you charge $31 for 7 hours of game play after receiving such grants.

The whole game was a scheme lmao

 

[agris]

From the reviews it looks like they tried and failed, something I see all too often with the lack of any infrastructure for games like this here.

In the main art for their game, they clumsily hung a bag over the woman’s chest to hide her breast. It looks like she’s awkwardly carrying her colostomy bag.

I don’t think the problem is “lack of infrastructure”.

 

[jaekl]

From the reviews it looks like they tried and failed, something I see all too often with the lack of any infrastructure for games like this here.

In the main art for their game, they clumsily hung a bag over the woman’s chest to hide her breast. It looks she’s awkwardly carrying her colostomy bag.

I don’t think the problem is “lack of infrastructure”.

I think it's actually a knee pad, she may be kneeing her tit or stepping over a toxic male who was rudely getting in the way of her progress

 

[Machocruz]

As an Australian in what you would call the 'arts industry' this is frustrsting as hell because we basically dont have such a thing (as a creative arts industry).

They all work for George Miller.

 

[Tweed]

Can't blame it on taking government cheese now, can you?

 

[Baron Tahn]

Some of the reviews were "revealing" to say the least:

The Victorian Government contributed to the funding through its Assigned Production Investment Games program, as part of a larger initiative that distributed $550,000 across ten projects (Happy Mag). Meanwhile, Screen Queensland, representing the Queensland Government, allocated more than $1 million in total development funding for seven digital games projects, including "Broken Roads."

How dare you charge $31 for 7 hours of game play after receiving such grants.

The whole game was a scheme lmao

This is indeed the problem. Australia gives no fucks for supporting these industries, theres no movie or game 'industry' the really be a part of, which is what I meant by infrastructure - so all of us have to lean on grant funding to make things.

So if you look at those numbers, Drop bear recieved around one tenth of 550k and a seventh of 1 million (AUD, which is worth pretty much bottlecaps to use fallout parlance) to try and develop a game. Im no maths lad but I know that wouldnt be enough for anyone to be quitting their day job unless its one guy full timing it for a few years.

 

[Roguey]

Some of the reviews were "revealing" to say the least:

The Victorian Government contributed to the funding through its Assigned Production Investment Games program, as part of a larger initiative that distributed $550,000 across ten projects (Happy Mag). Meanwhile, Screen Queensland, representing the Queensland Government, allocated more than $1 million in total development funding for seven digital games projects, including "Broken Roads."

How dare you charge $31 for 7 hours of game play after receiving such grants.

The whole game was a scheme lmao

I don't follow the logic here. Sources of funding and how many hours it takes to complete a single playthrough (I understand there's supposed to be a lot of reactivity) don't factor into the price of a game at all. If it's garbage for $31, it'd be garbage for $1.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

The critics don't care for it, that means it's good right?

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

This is pretty crazy.

 

[luj1]

Some of the reviews were "revealing" to say the least:

The Victorian Government contributed to the funding through its Assigned Production Investment Games program, as part of a larger initiative that distributed $550,000 across ten projects (Happy Mag). Meanwhile, Screen Queensland, representing the Queensland Government, allocated more than $1 million in total development funding for seven digital games projects, including "Broken Roads."

How dare you charge $31 for 7 hours of game play after receiving such grants.

The whole game was a scheme lmao

I don't follow the logic here. Sources of funding and how many hours it takes to complete a single playthrough (I understand there's supposed to be a lot of reactivity) don't factor into the price of a game at all.

If it's garbage for $31, it'd be garbage for $1.

What does that even mean? If it's garbage for $31, it'd be garbage for $1? Sounds like you're making up bullshit excuses

This game is 7 hours long, gameplay is horrible and none of the systems are well implemented. It's basically a govt subsidized documentary about Australia, but you shills will defend anything

 

[Haba]

Australia will never recover from this.