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[FightyF]

Anyone here get 100% of everything in Braid without resorting to any FAQs?

My status:

Spoiler

all puzzles and only 2 stars...from reading some of the non-spoilered stuff, it looks like I have to start all over to get some of the other stars? Also, are there ways to get more of the story (besides cueing the female singer to get alternate text from teh red books?)?

 

[NameGenerated]

Got this earlier tonight because I wanted to see more of what was in the demo. Fuck world 4, I must not use FAQs.

That is all.

 

[Atilac]

I found this link, it describes the story in detail and highlights certain underline meanings to the games texts.

MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR BRAID

This guys interpretation blew my mind.

 

[jetjevons]

I'm mid-way through World 5. This game is so brilliant. I'm totally stuck on one piece but I know that it just a matter of perception and time. So far this is my GOTY.

I really hope I don't have to resort to an FAQ. Haven't so far.

 

[Brakara]

Thinking about the dollar figures, the 250k was the publisher budget which is how much they gave him. If Blow had to borrow 180k on his own, that would mean the game cost $430,000 to make.

It's not that easy. Here's what Blow says about it:

For me to truly break even (i.e. not be financially punished for choosing to make this game), I would have to earn back:

(1) The testing, localization and ratings board submission advance that was put forth by Microsoft. (This is a significant chunk of money.)
(2) All the money I paid other people to work on the art, sound, and extra programming. (This is A LOT).
(3) Replace the savings I spent for cost-of-living, buying software and hardware, and stuff like that, during the years spent developing Braid.
(4) Pay back other misc debts that accrued during this time due to me being broke and / or focusing money on finishing the game (e.g. the taxes I did not pay last year.. that’s sizable).
(5) If I hadn’t been working on Braid, I would have had a job for those years, so… years worth of income at a reasonable-to-high-end job. (Realistically speaking, this part is just not going to happen — I used to do game technology consulting and bill at a very high hourly rate. So rather than expecting to make that, my attitude is just, to make *something* reasonable).

And how you calculate how he makes any (potential) profit on Braid:

Take the total number of copies sold, multiply that by $15.
Multiply that by a fraction higher than .5 but less than .8.
Subtract two big numbers from that.
If the result so far is positive, divide it by two.
Subtract two or three more big numbers.

http://braid-game.com/news/?p=303#comment-2567

 

[Francias Castiglione]

I posted this one before, but I updated it as it's cropped better now

...and a new one I just made (cropped).

Those are awesome, would make an awesome Summer/Winterboard theme if anyone has the know-how.

 

[PhatSaqs]

When all those people on forums complain about the price of XBLA game, what they don’t realize is that almost everyone is losing money on these games. (It’s just economy of scale; if only 60,000 people buy a game, and it costs $10, not enough money ends up in the developer’s hands to justify anything but making shovelware.)

Just awesome

 

[Bizzyb]

The music in the game is magical.
As is the art. The gameplay is ok and I really like the funky time aspects the use later on

 

[Jme]

That news is from a couple a days ago as I posted it from his Blog. I've updated the sales in here yesterday I believe. it was 46,299 on the MP taking into account free acounts put it around 41,000. From the Wall Street Journal it said he put in 180k of his own money, but I believe he borrowed some as well. The guy that signed BRaid said it cost less than 250K to make however. With those sales minus a liberal 300k in costs there would be a profit now somewhere around 134k. If it cost him 250k, that is 180k of his own money and 70k borrowed the profit margin would be closer to 184k as of yesterday. It has only gone up from there since then.

Another factor that should be counted is lost revenue. In that same WSJ article he also mentioned that he either quit or cutback hours on his dayjob - so he wasn't making money for several months, which in his personal finances should be counted as a loss on top of the expenditures. I'm sure he will be profitable from Braid. I just hope that it's enough to be profitable + secure funding for another game + a little spending money for Blow, he deserves it.

 

[FrankT]

Another factor that should be counted is lost revenue. In that same WSJ article he also mentioned that he either quit or cutback hours on his dayjob - so he wasn't making money for several months, which in his personal finances should be counted as a loss on top of the expenditures. I'm sure he will be profitable from Braid. I just hope that it's enough to be profitable + secure funding for another game + a little spending money for Blow, he deserves it.

Yea, I saw his calculations from above. I'm getting to the point that I'm not sure he believes in that. I don't know, it would seem that just from reading that XBLA games may not even be worth it for most because all that is involved. This is probably even more so with the new system I guess. If in the end they do not turn a profit for the developer one has to ask themselves is it really worth it in the end. Perhaps it just his tone and how he has carried on about this issue I guess. Kind of getting the smallest violin in the world sort of feeling at this point.

 

[dock]

Thinking about the look of this some more, I think the muddy black ambience is one of the reasons why people have problems with the character artwork in Braid. The way that many of the colours on the characters drop off to black in a linear fashion, whereas most appealing 2D art introduces warm or cool tones into the shading. Same with the highlights going straight to white rather than passing through some attractive hue shifts. It's part of what makes it look slightly grotesque.

 

[Zoe]

Just awesome

Is that just for XBLA or across all platforms? PJRacers broke even on PSN, and I can't imagine that one (relatively) lighting up the charts.

 

[Evander]

actually, i'd argue there is.

Spoiler

it could act as a deterrent. a warning that you're gonna have to spend time redoing something entirely plus additional work for no added benefit except to say you 'completed' the game.

How is that a GOOD reason?

And I don't beat games so that I can run aaound telling other people I beat them. I play them because I enjoy them.

 

[hobart]

I found this link, it describes the story in detail and highlights certain underline meanings to the games texts.

MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR BRAID

This guys interpretation blew my mind.

This is pretty dead on. All of his claims are supported via concrete evidence within the game. Well thought out... great research. I'm convinced this is exactly what the game is about.

 

[RiskyChris]

How is that a GOOD reason?

And I don't beat games so that I can run aaound telling other people I beat them. I play them because I enjoy them.

Do you ever plan on beating the game, completely? As in, do a speed run?

If so, then damn, the game expects you to beat it at least twice!

 

[Evander]

What the hell is the problem? Restarting AT WORST is about an hour of 60 puzzle pieces plus 2 hours for that bullshit (which you can spend entirely unattended).

Obviously it isn't that big of a problem, because I did it. If it was some kind of gamebreaker, I would have just quit.

All I said is that it is the one thing holding Braid back from being a perfect game.

Do you ever plan on beating the game, completely? As in, do a speed run?

If so, then damn, the game expects you to beat it at least twice!

I don't understand. Do you have a problem admitting that maybe this game isn't absolutely entirely flawless?

 

[RiskyChris]

I don't understand. Do you have a problem admitting that maybe this game isn't absolutely entirely flawless?

I think you're getting worked up too much over the wrong issue.

I don't see any problem with restarting the game for an optional quest.

Is Super Mario Bros. inherently flawed because if you die you have to start over?

Edit: I just disagree when you say it's a flaw. You're entitled to that opinion.

 

[Evander]

I think you're getting worked up too much over the wrong issue.

I don't see any problem with restarting the game for an optional quest.

Is Super Mario Bros. inherently flawed because if you die you have to start over?

Super Mario Bros. isn't a game centered around the collection of unique items.

Also, in remakes, you were able to quit out of levels, I believe, so apparently Nintendo did find that to be a flaw.



Honestly, though, I'm not the one getting worked up here. I stated that I love the game, and the only problem with it is having to start over. I'd say it's the folks who aren't willing to recognize that thee could possibly a single flaw in the entire game who are getting a bit worked up.

 

[Kreed]

I found this link, it describes the story in detail and highlights certain underline meanings to the games texts.

MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR BRAID

This guys interpretation blew my mind.

This is the best interpretation of the story I've read, especially after seeing

Spoiler

the ending you get once you collect 7 stars.

 

[sonicmj1]

I found this link, it describes the story in detail and highlights certain underline meanings to the games texts.

MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR BRAID

This guys interpretation blew my mind.

It's an impressive collection of evidence, but I'm not convinced.

Spoiler

There are definitely allusions in the game, including the incredibly obvious direct quotes from the first tests of the bomb. But what does that have to do with everything else in the game? With the castle in the end? With the vast majority of books before the chapters?

Just consider World 2's "Time and Forgiveness". It's all about Tim's relationship with 'the princess', and about a desire for forgiveness for mistakes made in their relationship with each other. It states explicitly that the princess was captured because of the mistakes Tim made. The final book (and the accompanying picture) relates them lounging together, naming birds, an ideal world where their mistakes are all forgiven.

What does this have to do with the atomic bomb? Is the princess nuclear power, and Tim a scientist working toward it? Was the mistake he made unleashing the bomb? Is the garden some idyllic future where everything is powered by nuclear energy, carbon free and therefore nature-friendly? Even if you can cobble some kind of sense out of it, you're reaching.

I'm not saying that everything said should be taken literally, but I'm almost certain that the story of this game, however you take it, doesn't lend itself to such a direct, linear, causal interpretation. The game does not relate a single conventional chain of events.

 

[Wurm]

The forced restart to get that specific Star is the one flaw I consider the game to have, which is why I found it so disappointing at the time.

Star spoilers:

Spoiler

Blow should have either enabled a "break the puzzle apart" button, or if that would have messed with stuff too much, simply had the bottom of the star be part of the whole image and rotating and placing that finished puzzle image would have created the Star. As it is, its the one star I will always spoil people for if they say theyre starting the hunt for the Stars, because otherwise there is no way they could figure it out.

I wasn't on board with the

Spoiler

Atom Bomb

theory about the story at first, but I definitely am more so now. But I still consider that only a facet of the several stories you could derive from the game.

 

[RiskyChris]

Star spoilers:

Spoiler

Blow should have either enabled a "break the puzzle apart" button, or if that would have messed with stuff too much, simply had the bottom of the star be part of the whole image and rotating and placing that finished puzzle image would have created the Star. As it is, its the one star I will always spoil people for if they say theyre starting the hunt for the Stars, because otherwise there is no way they could figure it out.

Spoiler

Except for the fact that you have to know you need to restart the game, that star isn't terribly difficult to figure out. Why would they put a half-ledge between world 2 and 3?

 

[soldat7]

I refuse to get help on Crossing the Gap.

I REFUSE!!!

Spoiler

It's impossible I swear it is.

 

[sonicmj1]

I wasn't on board with the

Spoiler

Atom Bomb

theory about the story at first, but I definitely am more so now. But I still consider that only a facet of the several stories you could derive from the game.

This, I'll agree with. It's one direction to which the general themes of the game could be interpreted and adapted, but to say the game 'focuses' on this would be overselling it.

 

[INTERNET]

I refuse to get help on Crossing the Gap.

I REFUSE!!!

Spoiler

It's impossible I swear it is.

Haha do you dare highlight

Spoiler

you'll at least need a helper

 

[Evander]

Star spoilers:

Spoiler

Blow should have either enabled a "break the puzzle apart" button, or if that would have messed with stuff too much, simply had the bottom of the star be part of the whole image and rotating and placing that finished puzzle image would have created the Star. As it is, its the one star I will always spoil people for if they say theyre starting the hunt for the Stars, because otherwise there is no way they could figure it out.

Agreed.

 

[RiskyChris]

I refuse to get help on Crossing the Gap.

I REFUSE!!!

Spoiler

It's impossible I swear it is.

Spoiler

You haven't even seen the hardest part of that level yet.

 

[soldat7]

Haha do you dare highlight

Spoiler

you'll at least need a helper

Spoiler

I just need that last puzzle piece on that level. It's just BARELY out of my reach. I dropped the goomba dude down and he's walking underneath the piece, but try as I might, I simply cannot jump that far...must use shadow somehow...can't figure out...ARGH!!!

I'm at the very end of that level...that piece is just so high.

*cries*

Spoiler

You haven't even seen the hardest part of that level yet.

I only need that last tantalizing piece. That's it...*cries more*

What a brilliant game.

 

[Mega Man's Electric Sheep]

For me, that was the only puzzle in the game I didn't like, as it involves a game mechanic that is needed nowhere else, and I never would have thought of doing it. I'm glad I cheated on that one.

 

[sonicmj1]

For me, that was the only puzzle in the game I didn't like, as it involves a game mechanic that is needed nowhere else, and I never would have thought of doing it. I'm glad I cheated on that one.

I didn't cheat, but I stumbled upon the answer by accident. It really is based on something you're never taught or need to use at any point earlier in the game.

It's cool once you figure it out, though.

 

[soldat7]

For me, that was the only puzzle in the game I didn't like, as it involves a game mechanic that is needed nowhere else, and I never would have thought of doing it. I'm glad I cheated on that one.

Jeez. Time for me to start thinking outside the box a bit more...

 

[VanMardigan]

I liked the demo, but certain things bugged me about it that I need answered before I spend the $15:

-There is a puzzle in the demo smack-dab in the middle of a level, where you mess around with the pieces, I'm not supposed to have all the pieces to that in the demo, right?

-There are puzzle pieces in the demo that seem like they are a double-jump away or at least seem to require more than I have access to in the demo, is that correct? Specifically, there are two pieces in the demo right above doors that I can't jump up to, with no enemies in sight to jump off of. Again, I just need to know that this is only the demo version that makes it so I'm missing whatever it takes to get them.

-The above also applies to the room where you have to kill all of the goomba-like creatures. I simply cannot jump up to the higher ledges, and even jumping off of enemies isn't enough, I'm hoping I'm missing a double-jump powerup or something.

-Is the entire game based around going back and forth between the levels or is it more linear? I was kind hoping for self-contained levels.

 

[Won]

I liked the demo, but certain things bugged me about it that I need answered before I spend the $15:

-There is a puzzle in the demo smack-dab in the middle of a level, where you mess around with the pieces, I'm not supposed to have all the pieces to that in the demo, right?

-There are puzzle pieces in the demo that seem like they are a double-jump away or at least seem to require more than I have access to in the demo, is that correct? Specifically, there are two pieces in the demo right above doors that I can't jump up to, with no enemies in sight to jump off of. Again, I just need to know that this is only the demo version that makes it so I'm missing whatever it takes to get them.

-The above also applies to the room where you have to kill all of the goomba-like creatures. I simply cannot jump up to the higher ledges, and even jumping off of enemies isn't enough, I'm hoping I'm missing a double-jump powerup or something.

-Is the entire game based around going back and forth between the levels or is it more linear? I was kind hoping for self-contained levels.

Every piece you see in the demo is accessible. Looks like your brain will busy today.

Edit: Oh and the first world is the only world with a puzzle that demands backtracking into a previous level. Everything else is self-contained.

 

[tanod]

I didn't cheat, but I stumbled upon the answer by accident. It really is based on something you're never taught or need to use at any point earlier in the game.

It's cool once you figure it out, though.

I figured it out by accident too. After 45 minutes of trying.

 

[Jme]

For me, that was the only puzzle in the game I didn't like, as it involves a game mechanic that is needed nowhere else, and I never would have thought of doing it. I'm glad I cheated on that one.

False; you actually use it heavily to obtain

Spoiler

a star

.

 

[crowphoenix]

I absolutely suck at this game. Getting the puzzle pieces on world 3 is some of the hardest stuff I've done in a while.

 

[Brakara]

I refuse to get help on Crossing the Gap.

I REFUSE!!!

Spoiler

It's impossible I swear it is.

Heh, try completing the whole level in 29 seconds (like the #1 guy on the speed run leaderboard). Now, that's impossible.

 

[Gary Whitta]

I posted this one before, but I updated it as it's cropped better now

...and a new one I just made (cropped).

Awesome, thanks!

PARTY TIME!

 

[Jme]

Heh, try completing the whole level in 29 seconds (like the #1 guy on the speed run leaderboard). Now, that's impossible.

29 seconds? What the mother fuck... There must be a different way to reach that last piece to accomplish this feat. I thought times in the 0:40's were the best possible... To shave off another 11+ seconds? I just dont see it...

 

[hobart]

So... I've collected all but 2 stars:

Spoiler

the 2 hour one and the final one I've yet to do

and I must say that even AFTER I looked it up to see how it was done...... it is still one of the most satisfying plat-forming feats I've ever gone through.

Can't wait to finish this game to 100%. Really looking forward to speed runs.

 

[radjago]

And how you calculate how he makes any (potential) profit on Braid:
http://braid-game.com/news/?p=303#comment-2567

Braid was self-published, right? So the cut for self-published XBLA games is somewhere between 50-80%?

 

[dark10x]

The music in the game is magical.
As is the art. The gameplay is ok and I really like the funky time aspects the use later on

If you enjoyed the music you should check out http://magnatune.com/

It was mentioned on one of the Braid sites and is where Blow licensed the music from. There is a lot of beautiful music available on there including the albums from which Blow selected the music for Braid.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Braid was self-published, right? So the cut for self-published XBLA games is somewhere between 50-80%?

Yeah, I think that's what he was referencing by the .5-.8 range.

 

[Mr Killemgood]

Which means it's more than likely 70%



If anyone doesn't know, that good-faith loan that MS gave JB is most likely the reason that Microsoft has changed the pricing structure for their newer games - Instead of loaning the funds to do the certification(s), they are instead requiring a cut of the profits.

 

[funkmastergeneral]

So I just got the game and I beat world 2 (is there a world 1?) but I could only get about half the puzzle pieces, I think this game is too hard for me =/ The music is really cool though

 

[MirageDwarf]

Braid is now at #8 on Metacritic All-time high scores list for 360.

Pretty impressive for downloadable title to get so many good reviews.

 

[TxdoHawk]

Nope, that was the first (and only) game I compared it to in my head.

I can kind of see that...and man, I loved Chip's Challenge, as ridiculously hard as it was.

 

[funkmastergeneral]

I can't figure out any of these fucking puzzles wtf. definitely not worth 15 dollars

 

[Son of Godzilla]

Oh my goodness, this is so much better than I thought it'd be. I'm halfway through World 4 and just....... Hot daaaaaaaamn.

Just wondering though. Can you complete every puzzle as you come to it? I saw someone demo this game and they said something to the effect that stuff early on is meant to be returned to, but I'm starting to have serious doubts.

 

[FrankT]

I can't figure out any of these fucking puzzles wtf. definitely not worth 15 dollars

:lol

Braid is now at #8 on Metacritic All-time high scores list for 360.

Pretty impressive for downloadable title to get so many good reviews.

Very impressive.