Braid (computer game)

Braid

Studio

Number None Hothead Games ( Ports )

Publisher

Number None Microsoft Studios (Xbox 360) Avanquest Software ( Retail ) Mumbo Jumbo ( Retail ) Rondomedia ( Retail )

Senior Developer

Jonathan Blow

Erstveröffent-
lichung

Xbox 360:

August 6, 2008
Microsoft Windows:

April 10, 2009
macOS:

May 20, 2009
PlayStation 3:

November 12, 2009
Linux:

December 14, 2010

platform

Xbox 360 , Microsoft Windows , macOS , PlayStation 3 , Linux

genre

Brain teaser , platformer

Subject

Time manipulation

Game mode

Single player

control

Game controller , keyboard and mouse

system advantages
preconditions

Windows XP or newer, Pentium4 1.4 GHz, 768 MB RAM, 128 MB graphics card, 200 MB storage space, DirectX 9.0c

Download , CD-ROM

Braid ( German Zopf ) is a computer game by indie game developer Jonathan Blow in collaboration with webcomic artist David Hellman. It was released in 2008 for Xbox 360 and subsequently for Windows , macOS , PlayStation 3 and Linux . In Braid is a puzzle game in the form of a 2D - side-scroller - Jump 'n' runs . The puzzle elements are based on the fact that you can turn back time almost at will, which requires intuitive and unconventional solutions. Braid was honored for innovative game mechanisms at the Independent Games Festival in 2006 and received further prizes after publication.

description

The game is made up like a classic two-dimensional platformer and at first glance shows a lot in common with Super Mario Bros. The character is Tim , a male with a suit, red hair and a red tie. Tim can run and jump, climb up and down ladders, vines and bars, pick up keys to doors and carry them around (but not put them down), and operate switches to move platforms; Opponents are defeated by jumping on them. The special feature is the ability to rewind the time level-wide at the touch of a button, as often as desired, as far as desired (until entering the level) and at higher speeds. It is also possible to fast-forward and stop the time.

In five worlds this ability must be used to collect twelve puzzle pieces each . The parts are distributed over the different levels , and each part has to solve its own puzzle in order to reach it. The jump 'n' run maneuvers are only used for execution, the foundation of the puzzles is always time manipulation . Depending on the world, one receives additional, facilitating or aggravating possibilities to influence space and time. There are no other power-ups and no character development .

The game does not contain a multiplayer function. It is controlled on the computer with the keyboard and with the assistance of the mouse , alternatively with the Playstation 3 controller or Xbox controller . It is not possible to adapt the control. Attached is a level editor that allows access to some time effects that do not appear in the actual game. After playing through the game for the first time, races are unlocked in several levels, in which you have to collect all the puzzle pieces of a level within a time limit.

Game developer Jonathan Blow at the GDC conference (2007)

Game world

The overview map of the game is Tim's house and its forecourt, shown as a longitudinal section (like a doll's house ). There are various rooms in the house that represent the access to the six worlds. In each of five rooms there is a large, initially empty picture on the wall, on which the puzzle pieces of a world appear. To reach the last world in the attic, all puzzles must be put together correctly. Behind each room there is a “cloudy” room that contains the entrances to the levels of a world. There are three to seven levels per world, which follow one another linearly and can be reached directly from the cloud space as soon as you have entered them for the first time from the previous level. With a few exceptions, the levels themselves are classically to be run through from left to right, whereby scrolling to the left is almost always possible and upwards and you can or must always go back. Apart from the last level there is no auto scrolling .

Each world has a name that is related to the text boards, the special ability and the graphic design of the levels. A special feature is that you start in world 2, while world 1, which chronologically plays before all other worlds, can only be entered last.

action

Braid does not follow a classic linear narrative. Unlike in most video games, Braid doesn't start in the first level either, but goes backwards, i.e. H. played through from the end to the beginning without the player being aware of it at first. In each cloud room there are several text panels that make it clear at the beginning that Tim is looking for a princess who was kidnapped by a monster because Tim made a mistake that he is trying to fix. The action-related aspects within the level are limited to the fact that the princess cannot be found there. In the further course the text panels provide complex, vague to incoherent perspectives on Tim's motivations, the princess and Braid themselves.

After a long journey, Tim succeeds in penetrating a last world called "1" (presumably stands for first world). There the time runs backwards, whereas the rewind function lets the game run forwards. In the last section, Tim reaches the princess, who can break free from her pursuer, the supposed monster. The two try to escape together, whereby the princess flips several switches to allow Tim to move forward. Arrived safely in her castle, she falls into bed from exhaustion. Tim climbs up the facade to her bedroom window. Suddenly the player loses control of what is happening, the game rewinds and it is shown how the scenario really went. The princess wakes up and sees Tim at her window. She panics and fled, flicking switches to block his way with traps, which Tim managed to escape. At the last second, she jumps into the arms of her supposed pursuer, who now turns out to be her savior, and escapes with his help. The evil monster the player was supposed to save the princess from was in reality Tim all along. The player regains control and now has to leave the level without Tim being able to fix his mistake. After an epilogue, Tim steps through a door and finds himself at the beginning of the game, where he can try again to fix his mistake without success. It now becomes clear that the entire game is a single cycle.

In an alternate ending, Tim can prevent his mistake by making a new one. There he touches the princess, from whom he was always spatially separated by walls and traps, for a brief moment. Then it explodes like an atomic bomb and disappears from the time frame. Tim can now move freely in the last section without the rescuer appearing. So he changed the past. After the player has got through the epilogue, he finds himself again at the beginning of the game, where he realizes that the error can ultimately never be fixed and the cycle can ever be broken.

There is mounting evidence that there are several metaphorical interpretations; Topics raised are forgiveness, regret, and correcting mistakes. The save-the-princess storyline gets a completely unexpected twist in world 1, after which you learn that the princess to be found (also) is an example for every (unreachable) goal that you can set yourself. Among other things, the development of the atomic bomb , toddlers in front of a candy shop window and stalkers and their victims are shown.

The original English texts have been translated into several languages , the game does not support speech output .

Game mechanics

A new player learns to rewind time after touching an opponent. A Mario- like death animation is running , but before it is over, the game stops and you have to rewind. As a result, there is no life to be lost, which is unusual for jump 'n' runs. In addition, the rewind function makes it possible to overcome challenges that would be considered extremely unfair in a traditional platform game. Although skill is required to control the character, you can reproduce any situation as often as you want by rewinding for a few seconds and try it out until it works.

A few situations in the game are irreversible in the time reversal, the level may have to be re-entered in case of failure. The player is made aware of these special puzzles by corresponding level names. Furthermore, two levels contain bosses that have to be defeated before you can move on, apart from that it is usually not a problem to get to the next level. The puzzle pieces do not have to be collected in any fixed order, but puzzle pieces that can be found later have to be used for purposes other than those intended.

The puzzles to reach the puzzle pieces include multiple jumps on opponents for more height, key transport through opponents, fast rewinding or time-delayed actuation of switches.

Colored auras occur very often , which can affect opponents, objects or Tim himself and which thus remain unaffected by time manipulation. This is z. B. used for puzzles that work with synchronization of different things, or for objects that you can keep despite the time lag.

Apart from that, the time manipulation affects everything in one level, including background animation, music and of course the actions and movements of Tim and the opponents. With the expanded capabilities of later worlds such as coupling the flow of time to Tim's movement in space, generating an alternative reality or slowing down time locally, the above puzzle topics are varied and taken to extremes. In the last world, time runs backwards, and the final level involves cooperating with a computer-controlled character .

A constellation of stars can be seen in front of Tim's house, which represents the constellation Andromeda and which marks when one of eight particularly well-hidden stars is found. All eight together open up a view of a picture of the tied princess , the stars do not serve another function.

graphic

The real work on the graphic design did not begin until the summer of 2006, after the working game with generic, primitive graphic elements was awarded at the IGF . Blow engaged David Hellmann for the graphic design of the backgrounds. Over the following year, Blow and Hellmann worked together to develop the final look of Braid. This also included a redrawing of the foreground elements and the game character Tim, which was designed by Edmund McMillen and whose design was interpreted by Hellmann.

The foreground elements are richly detailed , varied and painted vividly . The backgrounds have multiple scrolling levels and animations that create a spatial impression; they are sometimes rich in detail, sometimes artistically abstract and generally less sharp than the foregrounds. The whole design looks very picturesque . In terms of design, there is no focus on opponents or other characters, although here too there is a wealth of detail. For more movement in the image and a link between the foreground and background, particle effects are specifically used, e.g. B. for blowing grass, flames or water.

music

Blow decided to use licensed music from the Magnatune label for several reasons . Braid contains eight instrumental pieces by various artists, mainly with harp , piano and cello .

publication

Braid was first released for Xbox 360 on Xbox Live Arcade on August 6, 2008 and was released eight months later on April 10, 2009 for Microsoft Windows on download platforms such as Steam and GOG.com . On May 20, 2009, a version ported by the Hothead Games studio for macOS followed. Braid has been available for PlayStation 3 on the European PlayStation Network since December 17, 2009 ; in the USA, it has been available digitally since November 12, 2009. A port for Linux appeared on December 14th . Although Braid is primarily distributed as a downloadable title by Number None, European publishers such as Rondomedia and Avanquest are releasing a retail version of the game on CD-ROM .

reception

Even if active time manipulation appears as an element in several even older video games, for example in Blinx , the Sands-of-Time-Saga or TimeShift , Braid is the first commercially successful game in which this is the main mechanism around which all puzzles are created were. It is praised that Braid focuses on time-manipulated puzzles and exploits the inherent complexity of this game mechanism rather than adding more elements without exploiting its potential.

Another highly praised point is Braid's exploration of the video game medium itself. This begins with multi-layered quotes from classic games and the often following break: A game situation looks well-known from other games, but with Braid it requires a very unique, often surprising solution. This culminates in the fact that Braid hardly allows adaptation into another medium: There is no linear, narrative action and the time manipulation that is practiced leaves little room for conventional dramaturgy.

The price in relation to the shortness of the game was partially criticized, while the abundance and density of new ideas is argued against. The fluctuating quality of the text panels in the cloud spaces and their incoherence per se was also criticized. The successful combination of plot and level design in the last world is emphasized, while in the rest of the game both hardly make reference to each other.

Critify.de rating (average of all German magazines): 94 (Xbox 360), 87 (PC), 91 (PS3)

Awards

In addition to the prize for the pre-release version at the Independent Games Festival 2006, Braid was nominated for example at the 2008 Xbox Live Arcade Awards in several categories and won there in the category “Best Innovation”. Braid received a Metascore of 90 or 93% at Metacritic and came fourth in the best XBox 360 games of 2008. At the Game Developers Choice Awards 2008 by GameSpot , it was also nominated in several categories.