Blow on Braid sequel, DLC, XBLA cert

;) And I take it you've published a game? I didn't know it wasn't enough to be a video game consumer to have a valid opinion about anything related to video games, their sales, or their development. That's like saying, before you criticize an author or their work, write a book first.

Fair enough. ;-)

And you are right, certainly you don't have to have published a game to be a game critic. I'd wager that few of the joystiq bloggers have published games!

(And, btw, I do develop videogames, although strictly as a hobby and I haven't attempted anything on the level of Braid. Check out Morocco on the iPhone or Snowball Fight on XNA -- which will hopefully be available as part of Microsoft's Community Games later this year.)

My point, though, is that, in my opinion, Blow has only ever discussed the issues involved in bringing a game to fruition as an indy developer. It used to be that guys like Jordan Mechner could create hit videogames by themselves and get critically acclaimed. For the most part, those days are long since gone.

I think the difference between how you look at Blow and how I look at him is strictly due to the audience we perceive his writings to be for. I think that you look at his comments and think, "well, duh, of course it's hard to get a game published... why is this guy 'whining' when so many others produce good games and go on with it." I look at his writings for information on the difficulties in getting an indy game published, much less critically acclaimed.

Honestly, I believe Braid is an excellent game that stands on its own regardless of your opinions of the developer. And I enjoy hearing his take on the difficulties in getting such a game published.

If you don't like the game, that's cool, I disagree with many others who like games I hate or dislike games I love. My problem is when people take an interview like this one, which was clearly intended for an audience of developers, and decide that the author is "condescending" when it is clear to me that he's merely providing information of use to other developers and not intending his comments for game players.

Even worse is when I feel like people are judging the game based on their perception of the developer. Like it or not, but at least do so based on the game itself.

It plays like that, too.

Seriously. Koopa troopers are in here. Piranha plants are in here. "in another castle" is in here.

I've been calling it "Super Mario Bros: The PBS version."

Oh, yeah, he added time-reversal (ala Prince of Persia) and jigsaw puzzles, but really, it's Super Mario Bros with a Van Gogh styled paint-job and a Masterpiece Theater soundtrack.

There are a lot of suckers out there, apparently.

I'm stunned that people are so in love with the graphics that they completely fail to notice that it's EXACTLY like Super Mario Bros. to the point of jumping on the bandwagon and saying, "Everyone else liked it, therefore I do too."

Really. It's OK to say what you see: A Mario clone with enhanced graphics, a time-reversal cheat, and a jigsaw puzzle.

I'm not that impressed. Sorry. I played crap like this on my C=64 in the 80s. I expect more involved gaming with my 21st-century console. Rehashing a 25-year-old game doesn't do it for me.

Enjoy, but I'm not giving MS or Blow a dime for this thing. The demo was enough for me to see what a waste it would be.

Actually I tried the demo, and it's just what I thought of it.

> Really. It's OK to say what you see: A Mario clone
> with enhanced graphics, a time-reversal cheat, and a
> jigsaw puzzle.

If that's what it was, I would agree with you. But the "time-reversal" is not a "cheat". It's an integral part of the game mechanics, and the fact that you *have* to use it is what makes the puzzles interesting. Because not everything is affected by time-reversal in the same way, and different worlds twist this mechanic in different ways.

It's cool if you don't like it. But it's clearly *not* a "Mario clone with enhanced graphics". Not even close.