Kotaku
Some of us here at Kotaku Tower are a little divided on Braid: I had a discussion with another editor who declared that the story ruined it for him, since it "reads like a prepubecent boy wrote it." Ouch! As I referenced in a recent essay, I enjoyed Braid a lot, though I felt the story was trying a little hard in spots (which I suspect is why the aforementioned critic wasn't a fan). But despite my sometimes strident opinions on Jonathan Blow, the game's creator, and my apparent propensity for managing to irk the man with practically every post I make about Braid, I liked the setup of the game and was always looking forward to discovering what new mechanics a level would bring. Chris Dahlen has a different take on the Braid game mechanics: maybe they make you think too hard? Kinda like calculus:
I started fumbling my way through instead of actually understanding the exact solution and executing it flawlessly. I beat the boss at the end of the branching-paths level but I'm still not sure how I did it. This again reminds me of taking a math exam and writing down some random number because I kind of figured that was the answer, but couldn't crisply explain it. There are plenty of games that you can win just by randomly mashing buttons - say, any number of fighting games - and everyone's played an adventure game where you combine the plunger with the rubber ducky and the shoelace and somehow manage to fish the key out of the grate, but the only reason you threw all that crap together is that it was the only stuff left in your inventory.That said, Braid has little tolerance for half-assedry.
I personally didn't find it maddening, since there's no penalty for screwing up and it's pretty easy to hop back and forth between levels if you find yourself hideously stuck (sometimes it's better to just come back later). The experimentation was what made the game fun for me; if I couldn't 'crisply' explain how I did something, did it really matter? I've come through more than one boss battle or game level on little more than luck and just managing to survive; since Braid doesn't have a death penalty, 'managing to survive' isn't a concern, and that luck can lead to happy accidents that will allow you to understand exactly how to manipulate the controls.
Braid: More Fun Than Calculus! [Save the Robot]
Comments
What more would you expect from a guy named Jonathan Blow?
I liked the band Braid. "Age of Octeen" and "Frame and Canvas" were both pretty great.
What are we talking about again?
@chinesedentist:
That brings me back. That old "Chicago" sound was so hot back in the mid-late 90's (Hum, Castor, Shiner, Braid, Compound Red, Dianogah, C-clamp, Absinthe Blind, Burning Airlines, American Football).
Games like Braid, Locoroco, Katamari and others aren't made out of story, but gameplay. We should focus in that.
What's the story? I kind of want to hear about it and why it could seem like a "prepubecent boy wrote it."
I think...calculus..will haunt me forever...oohh god derivatives!
@Drake Lake: I don't think it's the story so much as the style, which is a little (sometimes a lot) overwrought at times.
The story 'is' ancillary to the game play, since you really only see it at the very start of a world and the very end, but it's an important frame.
Calculus was fun. Chain rule ftw!
Linear Algebra, on the other hand...
Interestingly, the word "calculus" does occur in the story. But Chris hasn't gotten to that part yet.
The first time I played through Braid, I ignored the story entirely. It isn't forced on you, and if you want to you can walk right past it, which I did since I was pressed for time.
I had an amazing time playing the game. The puzzles are all original and fun; they make you think in a way that you are not used to thinking. In this aspect I would relate it to Portal, where a typical player will start out a bit confused but by the end they are proficient in the gameplay mechanics.
The prime difference between the two is that Portal really pushes the player through heavy training with the mechanics, while Braid shows you the basic mechanics and then lets you figure things out on your own, which means that Braid will be more up the alley of people who don't mind tinkering around to find a solution.
That being said, Braid is the best single player Xbox Live game I have ever played. When it's finally release I'm going to buy like 5 copies.
No. Not the rubber ducky. The ducky-floatation device, the rope, and the broken pliers to get a key off of the third rail.
Also, NOTHING is more fun than calculus. Except root canals.
I love the Longest Journey reference. Nice one. :)
In some ways, I kind of wish the story was told not through words....it just felt a little tacked on.
Granted, it's wonderfully tacked on with superglue and you can hardly see the crack in between the GAME and the STORY.
It's almost seamless!
But it's still tacked on. So hmm.
I love you Braid anyway.
Calculus, my luscious mistress, who i cant seem to pleasure
translation: I cant pass the damn thing
Anyways linking a V-game to calculus probably hurt it..
I fukken LOVE calculus! As a matter of fact I am working through Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis at this very moment- FO FUN!
I must check out this Braid.
Oh, and please bear in mind that math most literally IS a game despite its many applications.
Oh, and one more thing - did you know that Braid Theory is a branch of Topology. I really think I'm on to something here.
@Ashurahori:
Couldn't agree more. These titles keep generating massive interest, but mainstream developers would usually rather sell us a movie.
From what I've seen, the music is really fantastic and soothing, and the game seems to be simple (at least at first)yet still experimental and fresh from a gameplay standpoint.
If it is a little pretentious from a story perspective, that is fine with me. I'd rather someone shot for the sky and aim too high than low ball everything and not even try.
I imagine that the gameplay likely isn't at the calibur of a Nintendo though of course. Game designers, just like musicians and painters don't jump from desciple to master within the span of their first work. I expect it to have many rough edges.
seems like a good little game though.
I am offended on the behalf of Calculus. If you're not having fun, then you're doing it wrong!
On the other hand, if Braid really is more fun than Calculus... well, I don't think I'll have ever snatched up an XBLA game so quickly.
Maggie, I'm holding you personally responsible if you lied to me.
Now if only Blow can make a game that's more fun than combinatorics!
So sick of hearing of this game and the egomaniac who created it. Why do we get a Braid/Blow post at least once a week, yet a game that is at least an order of magnitude cooler since it's actually out - Noitu Love 2 gets no mention whatsoever when it is released?
@theALLseeingEYE: It's not that it's 'pretentious,' per se, the prose style is just a little mawkish. There are newer builds circulating that have some tweaks, so I'm curious to see that.
@DarkFalzX: Then don't read the post(s). Problem solved!
@Comatose Turtle: Hey, don't shoot the messenger. It is fun though. The last 'math' class I had to take was logic, and it's fun like that - figuring out a puzzle. Then again, I thought writing proofs was great fun. So take my 'math' suggestions at face value - I'm a historian, dammit. ;)
Wait, so now I'm an egomaniac? Why is that?
@DarkFalzX: I'm just taking a guess, but probably because Blow goes out of his way to talk about Braid, and game development and design, and says interesting things, where Sandberg... doesn't so much.
Now, don't get me wrong, I thought Noitu Love 2 was an awesome game; I'm on my third playthrough and fully expect to go back for a fourth and fifth and so on in the future, and I hope to see more games from Sandberg. And Blow's 'interesting things' here are just things which get people talking and thinking about stuff, not necessarily game-releases or earth-shattering declarations... but really, those interesting things are probably more newsworthy than yet-another-indie-game-release. As great as some of them are.
@FallingStance: Haha... those kids'll say anything when they think the person they're talking about isn't listening.
Hmm, the style of the writing seems so ancillary to the really interesting bit which is parsing the reality. I wonder if there is really a definitive narrative, or if it should itself be taken as an adaptive construct. I will give Braid this, most fun I've had with a 2D platformer in a long time, and it sure as hell has made me think more than any platformer I've ever played.
Nothings better than Calculus! Case and Point: While learning about Derivatives, I leaned over to my friend and whispered, "What is the Derivative of Optimus?" He and I busted out laughing and disrupted the entire class.
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