Tag Archives: braid

Talking at GDC 09 in San Francisco, Braid creator Jonathan Blow has revealed that the rather superb puzzler cost around $200,000 to make.

However, he reckons if he lived in squalor whilst creating it, he could have cut costs even further:

“Also, a lot of that 200k was spent because I didn’t want to live in a shack somewhere… It doesn’t require $200,000 to make a game,” he said.

“It requires a PC, a dev kit and enough money to live on for the time it takes to develop, plus extra time because it will always slip. If you can live for three years at your Mom’s house, you can make a game for free.”

More over at EG.

Steam has quite a few indie games on sale now through Sunday – some are only $4.49.

Loads of demos are available too, in case you have a fear of commitment or just wanna try something new.

Here’s some of what’s on offer:

• And Yet It Moves
• Between
• The Graveyard
• The Path
• The Maw
• Musaic Box
• Osmos –Demo
• Retro/Grade– Demo
• Zeno Clash
• Caster
• Monster Trucks Nitro
• Harvest: Massive Encounter
• Mayhem Intergalactic
• Braid
• Space Giraffe
• Obulis
• Larva Mortus
• Mevo and The Grooveriders
• COIL
• Mightier
• Dyson – Coming Soon

Pricing ranges from the previously mentioned $4.49 and $17.99.

Go play something.

Braid developer Jon Blow has told UK mag Total PC Gaming that his next project will be a complete departure from his time-bending smash.

“I’ve got a lot of projects that I’m always thinking about, and I’ve got one that I’ve started that’s very different in almost every way from Braid,” he said.

Despite Blow’s apparent desire to get away from Braid, the game’s been good to its creator.

“[Braid has] made more money for me than if I had been working in a high-paying job for all the time I was developing the game,” he said.

“It has been very profitable.”

Thanks, NowGamer.

In probably the largest shock in PC gaming news history, Braid was confirmed as a Steam release today.

The newest version of Jon Blow’s time-warping puzzler is out on March 31, and will cost $15.

Braid will be available for 800 MS Points today, as opposed to the normal 1,200, Nelson’s confirmed.

After the successful run the deal of the week had last December, we’re bringing it back on a regular basis. Starting Monday, February 23rd Xbox LIVE Gold members will receive a discount on a different piece of content each week (Arcade games, Game Add-Ons, Xbox Originals.)

With this announcement of the program, I am also able to give you a tip on what the first deal of the week will be.

Braid the award winning Xbox LIVE Arcade title normally 1200 points will be available for Gold Members in all Xbox LIVE regions starting Monday for only 800 points, a 33% savings.

Get the time-bending puzzler for new low, low price from 1.00pm GMT today.

Developer Jonathan Blow’s announced a drop of $5 to the PC version of Braid, as seen on his blog.

“Yesterday, Stardock announced that they would be selling Braid at the end of March for $19.95,” he said. “This price has proven to be unpopular in certain areas of the Internets, so I’ve reduced it to $14.95.

“Pre-orders from Stardock have not been charged yet, so if you pre-ordered at $20 you will still get the game for $15.”

Go Blow. The PC version of his time-warping puzzler’s out on March 31.

Offworld’s reporting that the PC version of Braid will release on March 31 for $20.

It’ll appear on Stardock’s Impulse distribution platform for definite, but don’t be too shocked if Steam gets a look in as well.

Thanks, IndieGames.

Jonathan Blow, the man whose melodically beating heart birthed XBLA title Braid, is unsurprisingly working on something new. Speaking with Gamasutra, Blow dubbed his latest a 2D role-playing game.

“Yeah. It’s an RPG right now, a 2D RPG that I’m working on,” he said.

However, the game’s destiny is far from set in stone.

“You never know,” he added, “Next month, it could be a Pac-Man clone or something.”

If Braid was Mario after a make-over from Blow’s agency of the avant garde, then Pac-Man clone might be stretching it a little.

A whole lot more through the link. Seriously, thing’s a monster.

By Nathan Grayson

The latest entry on the Braid game site says that it would have loved to not have charged a penny for the new Braid theme on Xbox Live Marketplace but as “Microsoft doesn’t like giving things out for free,” they kind of had to.

“Unfortunately, we had to charge the standard Premium Theme price of 250 Microsoft Points,” says the blog.

“We want to make it free, but Microsoft doesn’t like giving things out for free. But if you do buy it, you can be secure in the knowledge that you own one of the few Premium Themes that is not an advertisement — there is no text in the Braid theme anywhere. (Seriously, Microsoft, what is with the Subway: Eat Fresh Theme?)”

Some people don’t know they were born, obviously.

Braid launched last year to critical acclaim and a PC version is set release “February-March.”

By Mike Bowden

Jonathan Blow’s Braid will release on PC in “February-March 2009,” the developer’s said on his blog.

Blow had originally planned to release the platformer’s new version this year, but… didn’t.

“I had originally announced the release date for the end of 2008, but for various reasons, this hasn’t happened,” said Blow.

“Once we slipped into mid-October and all the big Christmas-season blockbusters started coming out, it just seemed like a bad idea to schedule Braid for that time period, as it seems likely it’d get released and then disappear.”

More through there.

Time Magazine has published its top ten video games of the year, with GTA IV at number one.

“It’s a grade-A shoot-’em-up that doubles as an interactive novel and triples as a sly critique of American consumer culture,” says the piece.

Jonathon Blow’s platformer Braid comes in at number two, while LittleBigPlanet takes third.

The full top ten:

1. GTA IV
2. Braid
3. LittleBigPlanet
4. Rock Band 2
5. Gears of War 2
6. Dead Space
7. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
8. Hunted Forever
9. FieldRunners
10. Spore

Full thing through the link.

By Mike Bowden

According to this Wall Street Journal piece, XBLA platformer Braid cost developer Jonathan Blow $180,000 of his own money.

The game’s already sold around 30,000 units – probably a lot more by now – at 1,200 MS Points per throw, so that wasn’t the silliest investment he ever made.

More through the link.

According to this official Braid blog post, the platformer is now the best ranked game ever released on XBLA, with a Metacritic average of 92 percent.

Designer Jon Blow also quotes a VGChartz figure there, which is generally unwise, claiming the game has sold around 28,500 units in the past week, describing the number as being in the “right neighbourhood.”

More through the link.

Braid designer Jonathan Blow has hit out as XBLA regulations, saying that restrictions on the service are damaging the quality of its games.

“They removed some of the requirements for XBLA games, but there are still a lot of requirements, and I believe that, at least for a single-player game like my game, the vast majority of these requirements are unnecessary,” he told Gamasutra.

“I put in a tremendous amount of work meeting all these requirements, when I could have put that work into the actual game, and made it even a little more polished, little bit better.”

More through the link.

Speaking on Braid’s official site, developer Jonathan Blow’s said that he’s not overly keen on Microsoft setting the price for the game at 1,200 MS Points, but he’ll suffer it.

My feeling was that Microsoft would price the game at 1200 no matter what I said; however, I never pushed them to that point. Late last week, Microsoft and I had a conversation where we talked about a bunch of issues and I agreed on the 1200 point price.

There are good reasons why I picked 1200 instead of 800 (I thought about writing them up today, but I’m not sure it’s really appropriate; I might, though, tonight. We’ll see how I feel about it later.)

The Reader’s Digest version is, I would have been perfectly happy with a launch price of 800 points. At 1200 points I am less happy, but I am okay with it.

You’ll make more money, dude. Try not to worry too much. Just keep focus on the helicopters and hookers. Thanks, Destructoid.

The Major’s announced that Braid is now available for download on Live. Eurogamer gave the arty platformer a 10 this morning, so at least try the demo. The full game’s 1,200 MS Points.

We could almost use words like “lovely” and “pleasant” to describe this. It’s the start of indie darling Braid, and it all looks very nice. The platformer’s being developed by Jon Blow, and will release this year for PC and XBLA. See for yourself.