Braid
Latest
Braid comes to the Mac
You have to admit: for all of the gaming woes that the Mac faithful has suffered, there's fortunately never been a shortage of great indie games for us to play. Aquaria made it to our platform, World of Goo appeared pretty early on, and now Braid, Jonathan Blow's terrific deconstruction of Super Mario Bros., has appeared on OS X thanks to the kind folks over at Hothead Games. The game has won more awards than you can count, but I can personally tell you it's great, as I played the XBLA release when it first arrived. It's a classic 2D platformer in the vein of Mario with a very important twist: you can reverse, slow, and replay time throughout the various levels. That twist results in an extremely artistic game that takes apart the original Mario story and ends up with something very much more beautiful and sad."Artistic"? "Beautiful"? "Sad"? Can I say these things about a videogame? Of course I can -- Braid stands in a class of its own as an experience that uses art and gameplay together to tell quite a story. If you're a fan of innovative games or just great interactive experiences, and haven't played through it yet (it's fairly short, maybe six hours at the most), it's definitely worth a look. The Greenhouse is selling the Mac or PC versions for $14.95.
Mac users: It's time to play Braid
Mac owners can now travel back in time to August of 2008, thanks to Hothead Games. The developer's Mac port of the time-bending platformer, Braid, is now available, allowing Mac users to experience the authentic feeling of playing one of 2008's most unique games for the first time. (That is, if you didn't already play it on a Windows partition or something.)The press release says that this is "the first in a unique collaboration between Hothead and other top-notch independent developers to bring their award-winning titles to new gaming platforms," although the company's PC release of The Maw predates this by several months. Braid is now available for immediate download via Penny Arcade's Greenhouse store for $14.95.
Braid II totally rips time a new one
Sorry, your high-res photo is in another castle Oh, April Fools, how funny you can sometimes be. This year's April issue of Game Informer had one of the more comical tricks in Braid II, the magazine's featured cover story. It would appear that Tim has spent his time between the first game and its sequel in the gym, totally getting ripped. With his delts and pecs in order, he can now finally set out to do what he always wanted to do: make time his bitch.
Braid's Tim makes time for Super Meat Boy
Meat Boy isn't the only fleshbag to make an appearance in Super Meat Boy for WiiWare. Turns out that Braid's Tim will also be an unlockable character. How did these two indie darlings collide and not produce so much heat as to create an insta medium-rare hamburger? Turns out that Super Meat Boy's Edmund McMillen also did the character design for Tim -- so, you know, it's only natural he'd make an appearance in this game ...Much like Tim, Super Meat Boy still has plenty of time to release details and potentially offensive ads before its launch later this year.[Via ThatVideogameBlog]
Braid soundtrack now available (with remixes!)
We love how just a scrap of music can put you in the mood to play a game. Who can listen to the Oblivion or Halo themes and not get the itch to pick up a controller? We don't know, but they're stronger than us by far.After 15 minutes of listening to the recently compiled Braid soundtrack, we're dying to take the game for another run, maybe even track down all those stars that we've been neglecting. Oh, and don't miss the two new remixed tunes, which take advantage of the game's time-twisting theme with hypnotic results.[Via Braid blog]
Braid PC has hidden bonus: a level editor
Jonathan Blow has revealed that message board rumblings of a hidden level editor within the PC version of his award-winning independent title, Braid, are true. Replying to chatter on the Steam forum [Via Destructoid], Blow revealed documentation for the editor would be released following an update to the game (which went live late yesterday) and "when more people have played/finished the game." In the meantime, initial editor information has been posted by Blow on the official Braid blog to help gamers get started.The Braid PC level editor will allow gamers to extend the life of the puzzle title, with the potential to add "up to [another] full game," Blow wrote. The developer/survivalist also revealed future plans to add image importing from Photoshop into the game, allowing aspiring Braid designers to put their own graphics into their creations. %Gallery-5074% [Via ShackNews]
Braid PC demo past due, now present on Big Download
A brief announcement is in order. Now that Braid is neither 'cool' nor 'in,' all the haters are allowed to like it. Yes, Braid is out of the limelight so it's now officially okay for you to both play and enjoy it. Furthermore, for those that don't have a 360 and aren't quite ready to plunk down the cash for the PC version, which releases today, you can grab a free demo from our brethren at Big Download.It's okay. Forget about Jonathan Blow, walking around like he owns the place. Just play the game and enjoy it, free of any social influence. You can even act like you knew how good it was the whole time. We won't tell anyone.
PC version of Braid travels ten days into the future
Bad news for PC-owning wannabe time benders: the PC release of Braid has been delayed past its original March 31 date, according to a post on the official Braid blog. Fortunately, a typo in the announcement lets you experience a mysterious temporal puzzle right now!Creator Jonathan Blow said that he is "delaying it slightly, til August 10th." But a delay of over four months isn't "slight!" What is going on here? He goes on to apologize for making people "wait an extra 10 days." But ... August 10 isn't ten days away from March 31! What a crazy puzzle!%Gallery-5074%SPOILER: He meant April 10.
GDC09: Braid, the $200,000 idea
Things GDC 2009 taught us: Indie games aren't always cheap. During the "Braving the Stormy Waters of XBLA and PSN: Smaller is NOT Easier" panel, Jonathan Blow revealed that his critical hit, Braid, cost $200,000 to develop. Blow admits that development cost cuts could have been made, but his spending was to ensure a quality product. To maintain a high level of quality, Blow hired an actual artist instead of attempting to draw himself. Another large chunk of the budget? Survival. "A lot of that money was spent because I didn't want to live in a shack somewhere," Blow told the audience. According to the creator, development only requires a few essentials: "a PC, a dev kit and enough money to live on for the time it takes to develop. "If you can live for three years at your Mom's house, you can make a game for free," Blow joked. Wait... what'dja you say about our Mama?!
XBLA Awards: Braid can't rewind loss to Castle Crashers
Castle Crashers recovered from a 4-month gimp to be crowned the Xbox Live Arcade "Game of the Year" in the second annual community voting awards. Somewhat surprisingly, Castle Crashers also managed to nab "Best Co-op Mode" despite being virtually unplayable online for four out of its seven months in release. On its way to top honors, The Behemoth's beat-em-up notably beat out its fellow indie nominee, Braid, which was famously dismissed by an American youth spokesperson.Braid's losing streak continued in the "Best Single Player Game" category, which was claimed by Orange Box cutout Portal: Still Alive (oh right, it has "exclusive" challenge maps), but Jonathan Blow's timeless effort did mange to win "Best Innovation" amid stiff competition. (We were certain Kefling's innovative "use of Avatars" was a shoo-in.)The complete list of awards and recipients is posted after the break.
Xbox Live Arcade February chart toppers
Based on info gleaned from Major Nelson's weekly Top Ten lists (sans data from the week ending February 2), GamerBytes has compiled a list of the top selling Xbox Live Arcade titles in February. Topping the charts is the EA Sports Freestyle-branded arcade game, 3-on-3 NHL Arcade with strong showings from the pricey R-Type Dimensions and Braid (following an end of the month Deal of the Week sale). Most surprisingly was the interest in Minesweeper Flags, which hovered within the top ten for two weeks in a row -- even though every Windows PC ships with a version of the game! Not faring as well last month were Death Tank (the Sega Saturn Duke Nukem 3D mini-game remake of Death Tank Zwei, priced at 1200) and Exit 2, which both failed to capture much attention upon release. The Maw was a notable entry, firmly holding onto a spot all month following a January release (which GamerBytes notes is a rare feat for XBLA releases). Of course, the most important thing to take away from this is that none of the aforementioned titles were Peggle, which is everyone's new virtual cocaine. We bow to our Unicorn masters.
CoD: WaW tops Xbox Live this week, Braid sales surge thanks to price cut
Another week in Xbox Live activity goes down in history, and snatching the crown for most played during the week of February 23 is none other than Call of Duty: World at War. Been there, done that, we know, but in more exciting news, the Braid price drop really helped the game out, propelling it to be the top-selling Arcade title this week. Enjoy manipulating times, folks, and be sure to cruise past the break for the rest of this week's stats.
PC Braid also launching on Steam March 31
We were jazzed to hear that Jonathan Blow's introspective chrono-manipulative platformer Braid would be making its way onto PCs via Stardock's digital distribution service Impulse -- though we wondered why Blow hadn't set up a wider launch platform for the computerfied adaptation of his XBLA indie hit. Hothead's agreement to bring the title to Macs was a step in the right direction, but we've just received word of a huge movement to further propagate the plight of Mr. Tim -- a Valve presser just confirmed that Braid is on its way to Steam.It'll be hitting the popular digital distribution platform on March 31 (the same day as Impulse's Braid launch) at a price point of $14.99. That's a whole four cents more expensive than the title's cost on Impulse. Man, isn't that just like Valve? Always trying to nickel and dime penny and four-penny the little man.
Hothead Games to bring Braid to Mac, The Maw to PC
Xbox Live is a wonderful place. Without it, we would have never discovered diamonds in the rough such as The Maw and Braid. Thankfully, these games are getting the red carpet treatment and rolling out to other platforms, courtesy of Hothead Games.Hothead games will first bring Jonathan Blow's Braid to Mac gamers everywhere. Also, the company is currently working on getting Twisted Pixel's The Maw to "multiple as-of-yet-unannounced digital distribution platforms and services." Steam, anyone? We don't have a date yet as to when Hothead will be offering these titles to their respective platforms, but we'll update as soon as we know.
Discounted Braid re-launches XBLM's Deal of the Week program [update]
Update: Major just posted official information regarding the Deal of the Week program. Click here to get informed.Major Nelson just revealed that the Xbox Live Marketplace Deal of the Week program will be coming back this Monday, February 23.The announcement was made during Major's latest podcast (at around 62 minutes in), where we were also informed that Jonathan Blow's Braid will be discounted to 800, which is $5 cheaper than the upcoming PC version. The value-priced Braid will be available for purchase off the XBLM this Monday and will remain 800 until Sunday, March 1.Microsoft plans on releasing new Deal of the Week content each and every week for the foreseeable future, including content from Ninja Gaiden II and PGR4 as well as the Xbox Original of Fable. Note that all Deal of the Week offers will only be available to Xbox Live gold members. Silver members pay full price.
Braid PC price rewound to $15
Jonathan Blow has cast his reign on your Braid: The PC version of his acclaimed puzzle slash poem game will now cost $14.95, a full five cents cheaper than the Xbox Live Arcade edition. Initially priced at $20 by Stardock's Impulse distribution platform, Braid PC is due for release on March 31st. All pre-orders will reflect the new price. Writing on his blog, Blow winds some of the controversy down, candidly explaining that the $20 tag seemed reasonable compared to similarly priced PC games, such as World of Goo and Crayon Physics Deluxe. Since the XBLA release was "nicely profitable," however, the designer has decided to shrug off the higher price -- which has proven to be "unpopular in certain areas of the Internets." We feel kind of bad about sending those death threats now.
XBLA darling Braid lands on PC March 31st [update]
Earlier this afternoon, PC game publisher Stardock revealed plans for the March 31st release of the acclaimed puzzle-platformer, Braid, on its Impulse digital distribution platform. Pre-orders start today and come with a 33% price increase, bringing the game to a (not so) nice and round $20. Last summer, the 1200 XBLA release of Braid drew criticism from thrifty gamers the world over for its notably high price point at the time (how far we've come!). At the height of the criticism, developer Jonathan Blow explained the reasoning behind the controversial price as a means to assure that he broke even, writing on his blog, "I had to guard against the Space Giraffe problem," referring to Jeff Minter's critically acclaimed XBLA title that released for 400 and sold "only 19k copies." He further expounded on his point to 1UP last year, stating, "If those are the only people who like the game [a niche group], then I'd basically be bankrupt."However, considering the enormous success of Braid (both critically and commercially) on XBLA over the last eight months, we're left wondering why the price tag has been upped and if the game's outspoken creator has something to say about it. We've asked Mr. Blow for comment.Update: The price has now been lowered to $14.95.
Braid's Jonathan Blow working on a 2D RPG
If you enjoyed the older Final Fantasy games but always wished they included more navel-gazing reflections on love, loss and (possibly) the atomic bomb, brace yourself for stellar news: Jonathan Blow, the mind behind last year's surreptitious hit chronoplatformer Braid, recently mentioned in a Gamasutra interview that he's currently working on a new 2D role-playing game. He revealed few details, but did mention that dialogue is "very closely related to the core mechanic" of the game. Consider us intrigued.However, don't get your hopes up quite yet -- by Blow's own concession, the guy's got the attention span of a fruit fly. He explained that he's worked on several projects since wrapping up Braid, teasing, "you never know. Next month, it could be a Pac-Man clone or something." Ah, yes -- a Pac-Man clone, in which the circular, titular hero takes copious amounts of drugs and is chased by the ghosts of his past in a futile attempt to reclaim the affections of his female, bow-headed counterpart. Hey, we're down with that too.[Via X3F]
Blow wanted new Braid theme to be free
Whoever said "the best things in life are free," apparently didn't know any Xbox Live content managers. Indie developer Jonathan Blow of Braid fame says he wanted the newly released premium theme for his critically acclaimed title to be free. The content is priced at the standard 250 ($3.12 USD) rate. "We want to make it free, but Microsoft doesn't like giving things out for free," Blow wrote on the Braid blog. Those who decide to purchase the theme may take solace in the fact that the entire package is comprised wholly of artwork from the game and not text. "You can be secure in the knowledge that you own one of the few Premium Themes that is not an advertisement," Blow wrote. According to Blow, his original idea was to give away codes for the theme to celebrate its release but Microsoft voted against it. Instead, Blow has 20 codes for Braid itself and is currently holding a Name That Game contest on the Braid blog to select winners.[via 1UP]
Joystiq's Top 10 of 2008: Braid
<< BACK (6) COMMENT NEXT (4) >> People exhibit different reactions upon playing Braid. Some, like Soulja Boy, show a child-like appreciation for the unique implementations of time manipulation in the game. It's hard not to smile, or let out a laugh, when your character gets hit by a demented Goomba and you rewind -- only to repeat the same mistake. The gameplay is incredibly accessible, and does a great job of teaching players new tricks as they progress forward. Slight alterations of the time mechanic make Braid feel consistently new and fresh.There are others, though, that delve much deeper into the tale that Braid weaves. There are numerous interpretations on various forums, all with different answers to some of the game's most challenging questions: What is the princess running away from? What is the main character's fatal mistake? What is the true meaning of the princess?
