Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid, explains why it was priced so, commenting on the official Braid blog he had to "guard against [...] the Space Giraffe problem." He offers up the low priced, low selling (just 19,000 downloads) psychedelic shooter as an example of how pricing came back to bite the developer in the ass (specifically the wallet).

He writes that Space Giraffe for XBLA already had a built-in audience of Jeff Minter followers, something Braid does not.

"There is a significant possibility that Braid would have been the next Psychonauts or Beyond Good and Evil (critically acclaimed but nobody played it)," Blow contends "Even at $10."

He later puts the cost into more tangible terms, commenting that "If it were just a matter of my own money, I wouldn’t care so much, but I ran out of money while developing Braid and had to borrow a lot — so I owe people a lot of money. That makes the nature of the decision a little different."

That decision, it sounds like, may not have been entirely Blow's to make. He theorizes that Microsoft would have priced the title at 1200 MS Points regardless of his wishes to go lower.

I'll be buying the game when it's released on Xbox Live Marketplace early tomorrow morning, despite having free access to it right now. I would recommend you do the same. But only if you like awesome games with a great sense of humor, fantastic gameplay mechanics and stunning artwork.

Recent Braid Review and Preview [Braid Blog - thanks, Mike!]

For those unfamiliar with Gridrunner++, demos for the PC and Mac are currently available at Llamasoft. For those who can't be bothered with the half-dozen clicks required to run it, the game is a "twitch gaming shoot 'em up" featuring "glorious, retina scorching, psychedelic themed parallax scrolling levels." It sounds like Robotron. It's fun. Go play it.

iPod touchness [Jeff Minter's LiveJournal]

Fuckwittery. Gotta remember that one. Funny.
Minter Makes Shirt [YakYak]

Poor Jeff. Lay off him already, Giraffe haters! If you love Space Giraffe, though, show Minter some love. Maybe a nice fruit basket or hand knit yak hair sweater would cheer him up.

stage one [Jeff Minter's LiveJournal via 1UP]

The dishes are done, man! Jeff Minter announces on his Live Journal earlier this week that Space Giraffe has finished its testing phase which means it is going to be out soon. It also features some screenshots of how he did on his own game throughout different levels (practice makes perfect!).

For all of you who haven't been paying attention, here's a quick review before the test:

Space Giraffe is a psychedelic shooter in a similar vein to previous title Tempest 2000. However, the similarities end on the surface, and the developer is keen to point out that this is a different and unique game.

You can score a copy of Space Giraffe very soon on Xbox Live Arcade for a mere 400 points, which is probably a better buy (at 230 points) than trying to get your Robbie Williams fix after finding out he's the youngest man to make the Sunday's Times Rich List.

Sigh. "Oh, Robbie ..." (elbows on table, hands on head) . Kim Phu

Space Giraffe Finished [Eurogamer]

Jeff Minter: Game developer, sheep owner and naughty dude. Gamasutra has a big interview with Minter in which he explains where the name for his upcoming game Space Giraffe came from, why he didn't return Jallard's email and about the time he was asked to make a game for sheep. Onwards!

...the weirdest request I've ever had in making games was when I was once offered by a research place in Wales to develop video games for sheep. I guess it was some study into the cognitive abilities of sheep. I couldn't take it up because I was busy with other stuff, but I was genuinely asked to make video games for sheep.

And so, that's how "Does Jeff Minter Dream of Electric Sheep?" didn't become a reality. Bummer! Brian Ashcraft

Jeff Minter Sheep Game [Gamasutra]

Good news! Our favorite naughty developer Jeff Minter has finished designing all the 100 levels that make up his Xbox 360 title Space Giraffe. Over at LiveJournal, Minter writes:

I'll be continuing to play over and tweak the levels until everything is completely finished, but all the main levels are now pretty much done. ...and then next week will be dedicated to the bonus round. If I can get that nailed in a week then I'll be a happy ox and on schedule for gameplay complete end of March as I hoped }:-)

Not only does Minter like naughty stuff, but also emoticons. Insightful! Brian Ashcraft

Levels finished [LiveJournal via 1Up]

Laptops make good porn banks. Just ask llama obsessed game designer Jeff Minter. He was giving a keynote at the Independent Game Summit at GDC. Insert Credit's Brandon Sheffield reports:

[Minter] was showing the audience his old games. He misplaced the game Gridrunner++ ...so he was searching through his file tree — exposing for a moment on the large screen a folder entitled 'naughty.' That's my greatest fear for presenting, let me tell you! Luckily the folder wasn't opened, and only displayed for a fraction of a second...

Luckily or unluckily? Brian Ashcraft

Jeff Minter is Naughty [Insert Credit]

Okay, I have no idea what's going on in this demo of Space Giraffe. But it reminds me of that time I licked a monolith I found sticking out of the dirth in the African desert, surrounded by strange looking, half-fossilized monkey bones. Florian Eckhardt

Jeff Minter just posted the first video of Space Giraffe up on You Tube, looks like a very trippy version of Tempest. Can't wait till this hits the Xbox 360. Brian Crecente

Jeff Minter, the llama obsessed game designer behind Tempest 2000 and one of the people who created the trippy Xbox 360 visualizer, is bringing Space Giraffe to the Xbox 360.

It sorta looks like a blend of Tempest and Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. Too bad there aren't any llamas. I have some screens on the jump. Brian Crecente

Minter's Latest Game [Quarter to Three]

Jeff Minter — the opinionated, greasy, bedraggled game designer behind Llamasoft and half a dozen games all about dromedaries — has lashed out against the PS3 in the latest issue of EDGE, calling Sony "incredibly arrogant."

They seem absolutely certain that even when they say it's going to be considerably more expensive than existing consoles... nevertheless us eager customers will rush out in droves to buy it because it's, hey, a new PlayStation."

Yep, that pretty much sums up their marketing pitch: you'll damn well buy what we tell you to, you idiot monkeys. Minter also disparaged the launch line-up as "sucking", although please be aware that the quotations do not indicate an actual quote, and are merely the indicators of this blogger's attempt at remote ventriloquism.

If you want to read it, just pick up EDGE at your local newstand. Florian Eckhardt

Video game legend criticises Sony [BBC]