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Developer Praises Complexity of Time-Based Puzzles In "Braid"

Posted by Soulskill on from the time-and-again dept.

Raven Software game developer Manveer Heir takes a look at the design mechanics of Braid, a recently released puzzle game for Xbox Live Arcade (a review is available at Gamespot). Heir commends Braid's focus on taking an interesting mechanic and exploring it fully through level design, rather than generating complexity with the interaction of many different mechanics. "One of my favorite worlds has time move forward as the player moves to the right, and rewind as the player moves left; Time is being controlled spatially. Another world has the player make a recording of themselves that can interact with certain objects, similar to Cursor*10. ... What is amazing is how complex and devilish some of the puzzles can still be, even though they revolve around the single mechanic for that world. ... Feeling like you have to guess what the designer was thinking is how many old adventure games played out, and it was rarely fun. Feeling like you just made a discovery on your own is what makes this game and games like Portal work so well."

4 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. probably won't do well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Your typical XBox gamer won't be interested unless there's a way to kill hookers, so I doubt it will sell well.

  2. Corrected headline by frovingslosh · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Let's tell it like it is: Developer Praises Complexity Of Their Own Game. I don't really know if it's a good game or not, but Slashdot could be a little less hyping in their choice of headlines for this self promotional advertisement.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  3. Yawn, TimeShift did this puzzle already by gmezero · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    ...and it executed it far better IMHO.

    Braid is a shitty Euro style platform game vis-a-vis late 80's/early 90's (James Pond?!?) using a gimmick done better by someone else. The only thing original about this game is the music, which was pretty good.

    Buzzz... pass.

  4. Flamebait? Tell me I'm wrong. by gmezero · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    While I was crude in my post, I fail to see where I was wrong. I know this flies in the face of everyone who is trying to kiss the ass of the indie scene right now, but I could really give a damn about that.

    The game is NOT original.