I bought it and enjoyed it, and appreciated the commentary.
But I was a bit irritated by performance issues I experienced with the time bubble later in the game. They eventually got patched, but considering the amount of rants Blow has about performance (+ the fact the game is not actually new), it kind of soured me on it a bit. I guess his attitude eliminated any sense of good faith I would have to a developer releasing something with bugs.
Pretty sure it was a memory leak or similar related to the slowdown of the audio in vicinity of the bubble, it definitely became worse the longer you played. Whatever it was got fixed though.
The market for games is just radically different than it was in 2008. Braid had very high production values and a reasonably low price tag at a time where "quirky indie 2D puzzle platformer with interesting aesthetic and a mystery" wasn't yet a cliche. An indie game that got some traction could be hugely profitable. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore, although that might change if the position of the big studios continues to erode.
Braid is from the long bygone era where indie games were few and far between, steam was a closed platform, and you had to smooch up to journalists, the clique, IGF judges, attend conventions and grind your way up to being noticed by the closed platforms of the time.
Now your just a dude like the rest of them. Puzzle games are not known for the replay value. And replaying a puzzle game when theres so many amazing spanking new and not so new unplayed games... nah
Braid is sort of an evergreen game that new people are going to continuously discover for decades, and periodic refreshes are probably a good idea, but I would not expect it to ever be a big seller again.
Yeah. I can't help thinking that Braid 2 (maybe including a HD upgrade for Braid in the bundle) would have sold much better. Puzzle games are notoriously non-re-playable.
a similar thing happened to some flash games a couple years before that… I remember playing a tower defense game that the dev claimed was pulling in 6 figures a month with just a banner ad. People saw that and started making their own TD games.
Hard to really get a sense of tone from text quotes of a cynical game dev, but I got the feeling that he comes across as entitled to sales. For a remaster of a game from 2008. Sorry, but you cannot expect "a million" sales for a project like that... doesn't this guy have like 2 or 3 games "close to release" for like a year now? Maybe he'd do better to release one of those. I'm not sure you get to feel snobby about "dogshit sales" when you release 2 games in 16 years.
If you actually watch the video, he does not come across entitled to sales. He comes across as someone who is disappointed that his product didn't do better, and someone who is worried about his company like most small business owners.
Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Blow, but this clearly wasn't just a cash grab -- it sounds like a decent amount of time and money went into the remaster. I think it's fine for him to be personally upset that it didn't do better, especially because people's livelihoods are on the line. That's not the same as feeling entitled to sales.
- Lack of marketing. The first time I'm hearing of a Braid remaster is from the creator bitching about its poor sales.
- Lack of replayability. Most people who played it the first time are probably satisfied with their playthrough and not convinces that they need to go through it again.
- Lack of value add. The game went on sale all the time on Steam, XBX, PSN, etc. I'm pretty sure I got the Steam version on a Humble Bundle for a few bucks, and I believe I had the PS3 or PS4 version as a free game on PS+ one month. Given that I could never muster the interest to finish the original game (which I can still happily play on Steam, mind you), I'm not sure why I'd want to buy the game again.
I think this was a miscalculation on the team's part that there would be sizable interest in a remaster. I mean I enjoyed World of Goo back in the day, too, but I don't feel like I need a remaster of that, either.
Then again, this is the guy that IIRC put all of his earnings from Braid directly into The Witness's development (essentially making it another make-or-break title even after Braid's success), so you get the feeling that however talented a developer he might be, maybe the guy needs someone above him to spot-check his financial decisions.
It's a legendary indie game in part because everybody played it. It was in the Humble Indie Bundle 2 in 2010, which means its market value approached "free copy in a Cracker Jack box" at that point. Braid 2 might have sold better.
Myst was legendary too, and sold very well. Let's be real, it wasn't actually that fun, but we had other reasons to enjoy it at the time (in my case, I was learning production rendering). It too would sell like "dogshit" today.
It’s famous but is not that unique compared to everything else that came out since. It doesn’t have a crazy dedicated community like Diablo, wing commander, doom, etc.
Jonathan made a comment a year or two ago that the studio needed cash to complete their new game and "there's a few obvious things we could do", or something along those lines.
My impression is that Braid: Anniversary Edition was one of those "obvious things" to do in order to generate revenue.
So creatively it feels like it didn't really need to exist, it seems more like it was mainly intended as a revenue raiser.
I think it would have been better to create a real sequel to Braid.
As everyone has said, attention and free time is limited these days. People who loved the original may have little interest in playing it again with minor changes, but might have bought a sequel.
I liked the original and bought it on day 1 (or at least week 1), but I have zero time to play a remaster...
This is the Steam page after skipping over what someone who played the original already knows
> A FRESH COAT OF PAINT
This is the game you remember, with all the original challenges and the same haunting, evocative score — but repainted pixel by pixel so that each carefully rendered world comes to life in high resolution. New visual details, animated brushstroke effects and revamped sounds add to the immersive experience.
> GO (DEEP) BEHIND THE SCENES
Explore the most extensive developer commentary ever put into a game, with over 15 hours of recorded insight and conversation from developer Jonathan Blow, artist David Hellman and more members of the "Braid" creative team. Navigate it by visiting a new in-game world, which also contains new puzzles and redesigns of classic puzzles.
It doesn't even list how many new puzzles and note that some of the puzzles are redesigns.
It doesn't include a new mechanic or anything just what I would assume are harder puzzles. (The original IMO got into grindy territory due to many rooms being slow to do and requiring resetting if you messed up the platforming at all)
Remakes that have replay value get people to have another go at a game that like and thus can do okay.
But puzzle games don't work like that as everyone who played the first is going to feel the core gameplay loop is a chore since the discovery aspect is dead.
Slay the Spire for example is cheap and bonkers fun for hundreds of hours, likewise many great small games I've enjoyed (FTL, Carrion, ...). I think as games go, Braid got enough money relative to its "actual fun-level" or something (obviously subjective).
I suppose if it was easy and fast to swap out the old textures for the new ones?
Odd that Blow would assume giant sales for the game. It barely registered in my radar, plus it was a big hit on release. I wasn't really looking to buy it again. It's a puzzle game, I remember playing it for months back in the day, but I now know the solutions.
I forget the exact issue but there was something about the PC version not having the feature of being able to remap controls on a gamepad, and one or two of the mapped buttons being very much not to my taste on my xbox360 controller, that made me give it up after a little while. If the anniversary edition adds control remapping I might revisit it.
It is entirely different market nowadays. You really have to stand on your own feet and catch the attention of enough people... It is simply not enough to be lucky to be on store...
Blow has a reasonably large audience as a game dev thinkfluencer. I think he might have overestimated what % of a Twitch or YouTube audience is willing to go actually pay money for commentary from the same person.
40 new levels? That's pretty huge. I'd never even heard about this edition, and I'm someone who immensely enjoyed the original. A name like "Anniversary Edition" makes it sound like they made minor tweaks such as improved graphics or something. Shouldn't they have just named it Braid 2?
It's like a DVD commentary track, it's for super fans.
Whatever you think of the merits of the game itself, historically, it's an important game and one of a few that came out around the same time that allowed games to be treated seriously as an art form by critics in the sense that the gameplay design itself was seen as an artistic expression rather than just the music or other art assets.
There's a lot to criticize about the game, but it's definitely a game that's worthy of a commentary track.
Braid is a very good game and commentary from good game designers is extremely good.
I mean JB does seem to be someone who enjoys hearing himself speak but he is also an exceptional game designer so… yeah it’s good. It’s not just a texture swap.
> when asked how many of his development team are working on the compiler for programming language Jai, Blow replied: "None, because we can't afford to pay anyone because the sales are bad."
Context: jblow is a well known dev figure working on Jai, a programming language. He hasn't quite reached the fame level of carmack, but has a sizeable following
Considering the money he made from Braid alone (let alone The Witness, which back then he claimed that it was about to surpass Braid's sales) - $4m mentioned at some point - i'd say the mistake would be his expenses.
$4m alone (again, let alone his other games) would be enough to retire and make languges, engines and whatever else he wanted.
That's certainly the pragmatic call, but while admittedly I'd never heard of Braid or his other games before he started showing up my YT feed, his takes on programming culture are very opinionated and compelling. He could have focused on making games and lobbing criticisms like so many of us do, but he chose to act. I'd say that's worth something.
Has anyone used Jai? What do you think? I used to watch a bit of his programming videos, but I'm definitely not a PL professional. I just think it's super cool to create one's own PL and dogfood it. I wish I could do that for PL and OS (am reading Showstoppers!).
I hear praise all the time from people in the private Beta, specially about its metaprogramming capabilities and how fast compilation can be.. Shame I haven't been able to test it yet.
I can appreciate the transparency of it, but talking about it in these terms can’t help sales. You are sort of doing the reverse of social proof on the purchase by saying people think it is dog shit.
From what I have read, most games have their biggest sales immediately after release. Winding down to basically nothing within a year (minus the unknowable viral popularity trigger). More eyes on him is unlikely to alter the financials.
Readit News
But I was a bit irritated by performance issues I experienced with the time bubble later in the game. They eventually got patched, but considering the amount of rants Blow has about performance (+ the fact the game is not actually new), it kind of soured me on it a bit. I guess his attitude eliminated any sense of good faith I would have to a developer releasing something with bugs.
Now your just a dude like the rest of them. Puzzle games are not known for the replay value. And replaying a puzzle game when theres so many amazing spanking new and not so new unplayed games... nah
a predictable outcome really
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A new quirky indie 2D puzzle platformer with interesting aesthetic and a mystery from someone who did it once would be of high interest.
The problem is tons of his user base already played Braid and puzzle games aren't replayable.
- Lack of marketing. The first time I'm hearing of a Braid remaster is from the creator bitching about its poor sales.
- Lack of replayability. Most people who played it the first time are probably satisfied with their playthrough and not convinces that they need to go through it again.
- Lack of value add. The game went on sale all the time on Steam, XBX, PSN, etc. I'm pretty sure I got the Steam version on a Humble Bundle for a few bucks, and I believe I had the PS3 or PS4 version as a free game on PS+ one month. Given that I could never muster the interest to finish the original game (which I can still happily play on Steam, mind you), I'm not sure why I'd want to buy the game again.
I think this was a miscalculation on the team's part that there would be sizable interest in a remaster. I mean I enjoyed World of Goo back in the day, too, but I don't feel like I need a remaster of that, either.
Then again, this is the guy that IIRC put all of his earnings from Braid directly into The Witness's development (essentially making it another make-or-break title even after Braid's success), so you get the feeling that however talented a developer he might be, maybe the guy needs someone above him to spot-check his financial decisions.
Define "decent"
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My impression is that Braid: Anniversary Edition was one of those "obvious things" to do in order to generate revenue.
So creatively it feels like it didn't really need to exist, it seems more like it was mainly intended as a revenue raiser.
I think it would have been better to create a real sequel to Braid.
As everyone has said, attention and free time is limited these days. People who loved the original may have little interest in playing it again with minor changes, but might have bought a sequel.
I liked the original and bought it on day 1 (or at least week 1), but I have zero time to play a remaster...
> A FRESH COAT OF PAINT This is the game you remember, with all the original challenges and the same haunting, evocative score — but repainted pixel by pixel so that each carefully rendered world comes to life in high resolution. New visual details, animated brushstroke effects and revamped sounds add to the immersive experience.
> GO (DEEP) BEHIND THE SCENES Explore the most extensive developer commentary ever put into a game, with over 15 hours of recorded insight and conversation from developer Jonathan Blow, artist David Hellman and more members of the "Braid" creative team. Navigate it by visiting a new in-game world, which also contains new puzzles and redesigns of classic puzzles.
It doesn't even list how many new puzzles and note that some of the puzzles are redesigns.
It doesn't include a new mechanic or anything just what I would assume are harder puzzles. (The original IMO got into grindy territory due to many rooms being slow to do and requiring resetting if you messed up the platforming at all)
Remakes that have replay value get people to have another go at a game that like and thus can do okay.
But puzzle games don't work like that as everyone who played the first is going to feel the core gameplay loop is a chore since the discovery aspect is dead.
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Odd that Blow would assume giant sales for the game. It barely registered in my radar, plus it was a big hit on release. I wasn't really looking to buy it again. It's a puzzle game, I remember playing it for months back in the day, but I now know the solutions.
Did they?
The original was authored at, I think, 720p. Totally reasonable to remaster at 4K and release for new audiences to enjoy.
Sadly it failed to reach that new audience. The games industry is beyond brutal and in dire straits right now.
> Braid: Anniversary Edition launched in May and adds 40 new levels, as well as over 15 hours of commentary.
... 15 hours of commentary?
To be fair I've only just heard of Braid but commentary is not something I look for in a puzzle game. Sounds awful, really
Whatever you think of the merits of the game itself, historically, it's an important game and one of a few that came out around the same time that allowed games to be treated seriously as an art form by critics in the sense that the gameplay design itself was seen as an artistic expression rather than just the music or other art assets.
There's a lot to criticize about the game, but it's definitely a game that's worthy of a commentary track.
I mean JB does seem to be someone who enjoys hearing himself speak but he is also an exceptional game designer so… yeah it’s good. It’s not just a texture swap.
Context: jblow is a well known dev figure working on Jai, a programming language. He hasn't quite reached the fame level of carmack, but has a sizeable following
$4m alone (again, let alone his other games) would be enough to retire and make languges, engines and whatever else he wanted.