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Braid (XBLA/PC/PSN/Mac) |OT|

GhaleonEB

Member
Dude, don't do that. :\

Also: I'm working on getting the
star in
2-2.
The cloud needs to move fast. I'm almost through all of 1up Yours and it's still not there!
:lol
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Zeliard said:
Is that the huge Braid spoiler that it seems to be?
Not really. The first level in the game is World 2, then you unlock 3-6.
World 1 is last, since it puts a lot of stuff in context. That and what comes after.
 

Struct09

Member
The ending = wow

I didn't think I was emotionally invested until that final scene.

I really liked the game, but I'm left wanting more puzzles. I solved all of them, and really enjoyed most of them.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
Stuck at world 6

One of the first lvl's :

lots of fireballs and I got the switch, got all the puzzle pieces except the last one, which is why I had to move the platform upwards. Now I'm stuck in this hallway of death with constant fireballs coming at me ( although slowly ). I placed the ring at the entrance of the "hallway"

Any hints?
 

GhaleonEB

Member
MMaRsu said:
Stuck at world 6

One of the first lvl's :

lots of fireballs and I got the switch, got all the puzzle pieces except the last one, which is why I had to move the platform upwards. Now I'm stuck in this hallway of death with constant fireballs coming at me ( although slowly ). I placed the ring at the entrance of the "hallway"

Any hints?
You need to put the ring on top of the canon firing the fireballs to give yourself enough time. But how to get up there?
 

MMaRsu

Banned
GhaleonEB said:
You need to put the ring on top of the canon firing the fireballs to give yourself enough time. But how to get up there?

Grrr how to get up there indeed :p. I was thinking about doing that earlier but it seemed impossible :p. Time to rewind!

^^
 

Jme

Member
AndyIsTheMoney said:
i played it and beat it. it was enjoyable solving the puzzles. however i was listening to podcasts while i beat it, so im kinda lost on the storyline. Ive been browsing this thread and it seems like most of you dont understand it either. can anyone piece together the storyline for me?

Tim <3 Princess
 

jetjevons

Bish loves my games!
Beat World 2. On to 3. Their are some really ingenious puzzles in there. I love that feeling looking at a puzzle piece and thinking "that's impossible" then as you study the scenario and pick up the details you slowly start to put it together. Then the ah-ha! moment then having to actually execute on your plan.

I just hope it doesn't get too hard.

Not sure about the story but from the first two pictures it looks like our Tim is a bit of an
alcoholic
.
 

Dartastic

Member
R0nn said:
I still have to figure out a lot about the story though. There's so much subtlety and depth to it. Compared to other games, this is an entirely different ballgame. About the ending:
I was wondering how everyone managed to get all the alternate takes of every book during the epilogue. I discovered two, one of which I wasn't able to read because the text was too high up. Also, what's up with the green books with no text in them? Is that stuff unlockable?

Just beat it. Holy CRAP. I too, an wondering about how people solved the spoilerie bit. I'm stumped on the
one right before the room with the green floor
 

hulot

Member
Just beat it, haven't been following the spoilers. About the ending:
The metaphor of the princess, in the end (in reality) she's running away from Tim right?
 
Dartastic said:
Just beat it. Holy CRAP. I too, an wondering about how people solved the spoilerie bit. I'm stumped on the
one right before the room with the green floor

Think about that connection. That area is only divided by scrolling.
 

radjago

Member
Has anyone else seen the glitch in 4-2?

Flip the switch and climb up the ladder and get as close to the enemy as you can without dying and jump straight up. You'll hit your head on the barrirer and get stuck mid-air and the sound for jumping on an enemy will start to loop. If you move out of it, the frame rate drops to nothing everytime the sound loops until it eventually fades out. If you stay for a minute or so, it will boot you back to the world 4 story screen.

It doesn't affect gameplay, but it was interesting to find.
 
42:15.22! I did it!

I might try to break 40 minutes now... Unfortunately the leaderboards are going to be meaningless after a few days when perfect runs are easily copied.
 

kathode

Member
Can anyone give me a nudge on 3-1 ("There and Back Again"). There's some sort of wall blocking the door to the puzzle piece. It looks like the door slides up and down somehow but I cannot figure out how to get it to move.
 
kathode said:
Can anyone give me a nudge on 3-1 ("There and Back Again"). There's some sort of wall blocking the door to the puzzle piece. It looks like the door slides up and down somehow but I cannot figure out how to get it to move.

Hint:
When you enter the level, the gate is up. It operates based on time.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
radjago said:
Has anyone else seen the glitch in 4-2?

Flip the switch and climb up the ladder and get as close to the enemy as you can without dying and jump straight up. You'll hit your head on the barrirer and get stuck mid-air and the sound for jumping on an enemy will start to loop. If you move out of it, the frame rate drops to nothing everytime the sound loops until it eventually fades out. If you stay for a minute or so, it will boot you back to the world 4 story screen.

It doesn't affect gameplay, but it was interesting to find.

Wow just tried it, pretty big bug. Strange that they didn't find that...
 

GhaleonEB

Member
So, I'm trying to get the
key
on 4-7. I just found a description on how to do it and I can't believe what it requires. SPOILERZ

1. Climb the first ladder and walk to the right. Stand beside the cannon.

No problem, I can do this.

2. Jump off and kill the creature walking at the bottom of the screen, then quickly reverse to stand back next to the cannon.

3. As soon as the creature pops out of the cannon, jump on him.

4. Start tapping reverse, because you want to stay in the air so that you can double-jump off of another creature.

5. As soon as the next creature pops out of the cannon, stop tapping reverse and jump on him -- you'll jump higher.

6. You should bounce off the top of the screen and land on a platform over head.

I spent a good 10 minutes before I successfully got the double-jump to land on the platform above. Yay! Star, here I come!

7. Then you will jump off and now you have to try and get the goomba to get up there with the key, to do this you have to stand next to the cannon and jump off so that the key is floating and from there let the goomba pick up the floating key and while he is doing this you have to rewind time and use your body to hit him up to the platform above with the key. then just reverse time to get up there with him.

Wait, what WHAT!?! I need to jump off to the left. Then get the key to stay put in the goomba's firing arc. Then kill the goomba and jump where I want to nudge him. The rewind in perfect time so that my reversal bumps the goomba up top with the key?

I just spent 15 minutes and I can neither get the key in the right spot, OR nudge the goomba up top. Holy crap!

Is that right? Has anyone done this, and can they advise my incapable mind on how to do this? 0_0
 

poweld

Member
This game is made of win. Once I started solving some of the tougher puzzles, I got this true feeling of satisfaction. Glad I didn't get spoilers on any. The
levels with the shadow were spectacular!
 

Wurm

Banned
GhaleonEB said:
So, I'm trying to get the
key
on 4-7. I just found a description on how to do it and I can't believe what it requires. SPOILERZ

You dont have to give the key to the Noomba as it jumps from the cannon. Just make sure that when you go up to the hidden area initially you have the key up there as well. Just get the Noomba up there, rewind yourself and the key should be there ready for your new helpful little friend to munch upon..
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Wurm said:
You dont have to give the key to the Noomba as it jumps from the cannon. Just make sure that when you go up to the hidden area initially you have the key up there as well. Just get the Noomba up there, rewind yourself and the key should be there ready for your new helpful little friend to munch upon..

Okay, so how do I get him to bounce up there? I've manged to get him to bounce off my rewinding self about a half dozen times, and he never comes close.

And thanks, BTW. This is driving me NUTS.
 
GhaleonEB said:
Okay, so how do I get him to bounce up there? I've manged to get him to bounce off my rewinding self about a half dozen times, and he never comes close.
When I did it, I rewound myself to bounce him up to the platform to the right, then I let him land on me again, and then I jumped up underneath him to give him the final boost.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
rohlfinator said:
When I did it, I rewound myself to bounce him up to the platform to the right, then I let him land on me again, and then I jumped up underneath him to give him the final boost.
You are awesome.

Also, I give up.
:lol
 

rod

Banned
this game is a mindfuck. i had never heard of it till a few days ago. i love it. it gets me giddy for more psn/xbla original games
 
Re: Ghaleon
I can't believe this star, is this the hardest one in the game? I noticed a long time ago that the goomba would get stuck up in the sky when I got him to jump on me, and I just now got the star. Insane.
 

poweld

Member
rod said:
this game is a mindfuck. i had never heard of it till a few days ago. i love it. it gets me giddy for more psn/xbla original games

Well, it only came out on Monday...

Just finished. Man, I did not foresee the ending twist. Really enjoyed that. Truly a masterful idea, to have you create, unwittingly, the final / only cinematic. Hats off to the creators.
 
Man, I "finished" the game and figured I could read spoilers now but I'm like "What the fuck?!?" to half of this shit.

Looks like there's still work to be done.

:D
 

FrankT

Member
Currently, Braid is receiving excellent reception from game reviewers and critics. Both Metacritic and Gamerankings have Braid rated at 92/100:

That’s a pretty good score. In fact, Braid is the highest-rated Xbox Live Arcade game of all time (out of about 150 games!) Geometry Wars 2, released a week prior, is the second-highest. There are some strong games coming up in the next few weeks, so we’ll see if these positions hold.

But 92 is not just a good score for a Live Arcade game; it’s a good score for any game. In fact, Braid is currently the 10th highest-rated Xbox 360 game of all time — including all AAA high-budget games:

If Braid receives just one more Metacritic point, it will jump to 8th place on this list. (Eran and Alex: Let’s get ready to rumble!)

Of course, it’s possible that Braid’s rating will go down, too. Time will tell!

I don’t want any of this to seem like bragging. I do want it to serve as a clear and useful data point: an indie game made by a very small team can compete with giant games that had huge budgets at their disposal. (I don’t know how much Mass Effect cost, but it surely was a lot. Just licensing the Unreal Engine 3, before even hiring anyone or doing any work to create a game, cost probably 3x-5x Braid’s budget.)

This is important — I have been a proponent of indie and experimental game development for a while, but the attitude toward it always seems to be that they are interesting toys, but not real games. Well, perhaps that is changing. And perhaps some of the indie developers out there who are making cheap clones of PopCap games will realize that if, instead, they go out on a limb and do something interesting and different and important to people, their work will be recognized.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, about sales. They are surprisingly good!

I have noticed people on forums looking at the number of entires in the leaderboards and multiplying that out to get a total income for Braid. That doesn’t work, for a number of reasons. There are thousands of free copies of the game given out to the press, and once someone buys an XBLA game, other profiles can play from the same xbox and they get leaderboard entries. So the leaderboard is always an overestimate.

------------

This is a very good sign, for a few reasons! First of all, it means that in addition to getting recognition from critics, Braid is also being played by a lot of people. We’ve all heard of games that are critically-acclaimed but that hardly anyone plays. That doesn’t seem to be happening with Braid so far. But, that could change — a lot depends on what happens to sales on Wednesday when Bionic Commando: Rearmed is released on XBLA. Will Braid’s sales keep up, as with Geometry Wars 2, or will they drop off?

But right now, Braid is selling as well or better than any massive highly-anticipated XBLA game by a major publisher. So, that is very cool. I would like to thank everyone out there who purchased a copy of Braid, for supporting independent and experimental game development.

People have asked me how many sales Braid needs in order to be profitable. The answer is, a lot more than it has gotten so far. (There are many reasons for this, which I may be motivated to talk about in the future). However, things are looking promising now — if Braid keeps selling, I’ll be able to afford to make the next game, and that will be good.

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

He quotes VGC as pretty close to sales estimates right now, but I took out the line. I hope it does continue to sale so we do in fact see the next game.
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
Jtyettis said:
http://braid-game.com/news/?p=303#comments

He quotes VGC as pretty close to sales estimates right now, but I took out the line. I hope it does continue to sale so we do in fact see the next game.
JB has an interesting way of blogging. It's like it pains him to go into the less than ideal realities of his craft, and so he will only discuss them if he absolutely has to. Yet he always says something that piques people's curiosity about them, and so ends up discussing them anyway.

Well, the only way Braid will stop selling is if people stop talking about it. Maybe David Hellman could make some comics tied to the Braid universe in some way. Then people can continue talking about it long after they've finished the game. I also expect a lot of love when game of the year awards come out.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Jtyettis said:
http://braid-game.com/news/?p=303#comments

He quotes VGC as pretty close to sales estimates right now, but I took out the line. I hope it does continue to sale so we do in fact see the next game.
It's worth noting as well that the 28.5k figure is pretty close to the leaderboards as of the end of yesterday (which is when he said data would be through). Braid was at 33k listed on the leaderboards this morning (and nearly 40k right now). So while an over-estimate, I don't think they are that far off.

This surprised me:

People have asked me how many sales Braid needs in order to be profitable. The answer is, a lot more than it has gotten so far.
Hopefully it keeps chugging along.
 

Chris R

Member
so is there a good list of every single
star
in the game?

I want to go and get them all, but still will probably try to get a decent speed run in as well...
 

FrankT

Member
GhaleonEB said:
It's worth noting as well that the 28.5k figure is pretty close to the leaderboards as of the end of yesterday (which is when he said data would be through). Braid was at 33k listed on the leaderboards this morning (and nearly 40k right now). So while an over-estimate, I don't think they are that far off.

This surprised me:


Hopefully it keeps chugging along.


Yup, either way with this measurement it has done another 7k since then so were looking at least 35.5k at least.

$532,500 @35.5k in 4 days. I would say it has a pretty good chance at being a $1,000,000 title.
 
I may sound like a nutter, but story analysis:
First of all, from a GameFaqs user EngyResurrected:

"Time travel as literal

Maybe I took all the text too literally, but my first impression was that Tim developed the ability to go back in time (manifested in a ring) through some absolutely bizarre research in order to go back to a certain point in his life in order to fix the mistakes he made with the girl he always pined for. Suddenly he's Mr. Perfect. Who says you don't get a second chance to make a first impression? If something he says isn't as suave as he'd hoped for, *rewind*, and how about this?

He was already in a relationship with a woman who loved him, but he never got over this girl from his past. He threw away everything away with the woman who loved him to chase after some idealized fantasy he had of this girl from years ago - if only he could take back his mistakes, she could be together forever.

He disappears into the past, finally given the opportunity to undo the mistakes that kept him from his Princess. He knows the right line to pick her up, the right drink to buy her, the right toast to make, the right restaurant to take her to. He is everything the Princess could ever want.

But people are aware of this ring of his. They're wary of him. He's artificially perfect. His ability to say the right thing all the time is calculated, a result of trial and error. They distrust him. And the Princess, who he created this thing for, is no exception. She knows he's not perfect. He's covering up his flaws. She can't handle being in a relationship with somebody who doesn't make mistakes.It's like she's not even in a relationship with a real person. She leaves him... for the man she wound up before Tim tried to intervene with the natural flow of life.

So what now? The Princess is out. And if he tries to start over again with the woman who actually loved him, wouldn't that essentially be trying to erase another one of his mistakes? Maybe mistakes are meant to be made, so that we can learn from them. He can't go back. Now he has nothing. And so he starts over. This whole experience has taught him so much about human nature, and relationships. He begins to pick up the pieces and starts life anew.

It seems a little contrived and a bit too literal. The ring is just this big obvious symbol for marriage, but I can't work marriage in with everybody's distrust of him over this ring, and the specific mention of hiding his mistakes in the folds of time."

Now my view:
While it seems too literal to me I found it quite interesting.
Maybe Tim did find a way to go back in time. Look closely at the painting for world 5, there are two boys that have the same clothing and bag. It also looks as if one is hiding from the other.
Also, the references to the Trinity Atomic Test in the Epilogue could be used as a reference of Tim's time-travel discovery that could have grave implications in their use on the world.

I personally think the game could be a metaphor for learning from our mistakes, and uses the atomic arms race as an example as a lesson we must learn from.
It's even possible that Tim worked on the Manhatten Project (Trinity Atomic Test) and the princess is a metaphor for the world.
The scientists (Tim) think they are doing a necessary/noble thing for the sake of the world (Princess) but in doing so end up becoming the 'monster' that threatens it (her).
The game uses time control as a metaphor for learning from our mistakes.

A direct quote from scientists working on the Trinity test is found in the epilogue:

'He kneeled behind a bunker in the desert, he held a piece of welder's glass up to his eyes and waited.
'On that moment hung eternity, time stood still. Space contracted to a pin-point. It was as though the earth had opened and the skies split. One felt as though he had been privileged to witness the Birth of the World...'
Someone said 'It Worked', someone else said 'Now we are all sons of *****es''.'

Now from Wikipedia:
Robert Oppenheimer watched the demonstration, he later said that a line from the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita came to mind:
[11][12]
Test director Kenneth Bainbridge replied to Oppenheimer, "Now we are all sons of *****es.

Other translations of the Hindu scripture replace death with time.
I am become Time, the destroyer of worlds.


Other possible references to the atomic test throughout the game/epilogue/alternate book text:

'He worked his ruler and his compass. He inferred. He deduced. He scrutinized the fall of an apple, the twisting of metal orbs hanging from a thread.'

'The light would be intense and warm at the beginning, but then flicker down to nothing, taking the castle with it; it would be like burning down the place we've always called home, we're we played so innocently as children. Destroying all hope of safety forever.'

'For Tim this would be momentous, sparking an intense light that embraces the world.'

'He cut rats into pieces to examine their brains, implanted tungsten posts into the skulls of water starved monkeys.'

Also, it's not a quote, but on the world 6 puzzle it depicts Tim standing buy something burning (my GF also pointed out candles in the pic) in what looks like an alley and in the corner you can see a WW2 style 'Uncle Sam' poster.

Also, there are a few references to Manhattan, and the nickname for the Trinity Atomic Project was the Manhattan project. The project HQ was originally located in Broadway, Manhattan (broadway is also specifically mentioned in the game).

I think it's multi-layered. There is clearly a suffocating relationship story on the surface, but I think there are some grand themes at it's heart.

What do you guys think?
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Linkzg said:
Blow doesn't seem like a very humble person at all.
His blog posts can come across like that. He strikes me as someone who is very intelligent and has just emerged from years of focused work on what he thinks is a very good game. I think people in that situation tend to lose sight of how close they are to the project and can sound over-confident and even cocky. He's clearly proud of his baby and feeling vindicated from when it was under the radar. He said he had something to prove with this game, and having proven it, there's plenty of chest thumping going on. The reviews and press have probably just reinforced that. Can't say I blame him.

Interviews with him actually reminded me of Jonathan Franzen around the time The Corrections came out, for similar reasons.
 

McBacon

SHOOTY McRAD DICK
JordoftheDead said:

I don't think Tim worked on the Atom Bomb. The books in the epilogue are even more disjointed and incoherent than the other worlds; one talks about the Trinity Bomb, one talks about a kid looking in a sweet shop, one talks about a dude stalking a chick in NY. Plus, they all have red covers, when Tim's books have green.
 

tanod

when is my burrito
I was playing the demo and I just couldn't put it down and I had to finish so I loaded up my account with $25 in points and now I have to figure out what to to do with the other $10. Maybe geowars 2, pacman, or mutant storm reloaded. Anyways:

Well, I managed to get all of the puzzle pieces and finish the game. Holy fuck! What a ride.

The only puzzle piece I had real trouble aka wanting to bash my head through a wall was the
Shadow
level where there is a single piece hanging on a platform right above the door at the end of a section. After literally 30-45 minutes of trying, I accidentally figured out that what you need to do is
bump the whatever that thing is with your head up into the air, rewind and jump off of him.
. When I finally got it, I was like "Fuck you game, that was so fucking clever." It just so happens to be the only time in the game you have to do that.

I'm hearing people talk about
stars
so I'll have to look what I got but after getting through the game completely unaided, this is probably one of the most satisfying game experiences I've had this year.
 
tanod said:
I was playing the demo and I just couldn't put it down and I had to finish so I loaded up my account with $25 in points and now I have to figure out what to to do with the other $10. Maybe geowars 2, pacman, or mutant storm reloaded. Anyways:

Well, I managed to get all of the puzzle pieces and finish the game. Holy fuck! What a ride.

The only puzzle piece I had real trouble aka wanting to bash my head through a wall was the
Shadow
level where there is a single piece hanging on a platform right above the door at the end of a section. After literally 30-45 minutes of trying, I accidentally figured out that what you need to do is
bump the whatever that thing is with your head up into the air, rewind and jump off of him.
. When I finally got it, I was like "Fuck you game, that was so fucking clever." It just so happens to be the only time in the game you have to do that.

I'm hearing people talk about
stars
so I'll have to look what I got but after getting through the game completely unaided, this is probably one of the most satisfying game experiences I've had this year.

When you play it for
stars
, start a new game. There is one of them which is impossible without starting a new game. You will lose whatever you have collected when you start a new game. So better do it before you start collecting.
 

acm2000

Member
what a beautiful beautiful game, and the music is wonderful, i will get this when it (hopefully) enters arcade hits for 800 points
 

PacoDG

Member
acm2000 said:
what a beautiful beautiful game, and the music is wonderful, i will get this when it (hopefully) enters arcade hits for 800 points

Looking at the games that are considered "Arcade Hits" compared with what were some of the top selling XBLA games ... I would go with, don't hold out anymore than tomorrow when you can get one of those $15 1600 ms point cards from Target.
 

Iksenpets

Banned
PacoDG said:
Looking at the games that are considered "Arcade Hits" compared with what were some of the top selling XBLA games ... I would go with, don't hold out anymore than tomorrow when you can get one of those $15 1600 ms point cards from Target.

Yeah, all the arcade hits are '06 games (minus Puzzle Quest), so I wouldn't count on waiting for games to drop in price.
 
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