While I appreciate your journalistic desire to give "the other side of the story", personally I feel strongly you should not be giving this guy more attention. It will be news if he wins any of his cases but until then, he's just another schmoe trying to game the system. It's not news.
It's not at all "absurd" for Microsoft to be doing this. You can already get access to this information for free from the web thanks to Microsoft providing it free. Since they aren't making any money on it, why should the so called "developers" who are simply wrapping Microsoft's information in an iPhone app.
I'm all for developers making money for developing apps that let me do something I couldn't already do, or do it better than I could before. These apps don't do either. They are just ways for shucksters with a bare minimum of programming skills to make a quick buck off the current popularity of the iPhone App Store. Why should they make money off information Microsoft is giving away for free, when they add *zero* value to that information?
Thanks, Microsoft, for keeping these bastards honest.
> 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.
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.
Yep. Joystiq, Gamespot, IGN, and 1Up all got taken by a cheap Mario ripoff. Even GameRankings got fooled into listing it as the current "top game". It's a good thing we have guys like you to point out their mistakes. Even I thought Braid was truly innovative until you made me realize my error. Which is pretty impressive since you even admit you haven't yet played the game.
We clearly do have very different perceptions of him. I find his blog to be informative. His "official walkthrough" to be both funny and accurate -- using a walkthrough for this game turns it into a couple of hours of trivial platforming, instead of the mind-bending puzzle game it is. And I don't think he's in any way "haughty" or "condescending".
Finally, he's just being accurate when he describes the difficulties in being basically a one-man videogame development studio. The fact that he managed to make and publish what is easily a game of the year contender without the backing of a game studio is truly amazing. When you publish a videogame, I'll take your comments seriously too.
Erik 'Pro Plaintiff' Estavillo assures us he won't sue anyone else, giving half his money 'to God' [update]
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Microsoft mandates that iPhone Xbox Live apps stay free
Aug 19th 2008 8:19PM (Joystiq)I'm all for developers making money for developing apps that let me do something I couldn't already do, or do it better than I could before. These apps don't do either. They are just ways for shucksters with a bare minimum of programming skills to make a quick buck off the current popularity of the iPhone App Store. Why should they make money off information Microsoft is giving away for free, when they add *zero* value to that information?
Thanks, Microsoft, for keeping these bastards honest.
Blow on Braid sequel, DLC, XBLA cert
Aug 12th 2008 1:51PM (Joystiq)> 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.
Blow on Braid sequel, DLC, XBLA cert
Aug 12th 2008 1:39AM (Joystiq)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.
Blow on Braid sequel, DLC, XBLA cert
Aug 11th 2008 11:48PM (Joystiq)Idiot.
Blow on Braid sequel, DLC, XBLA cert
Aug 11th 2008 11:41PM (Joystiq)Finally, he's just being accurate when he describes the difficulties in being basically a one-man videogame development studio. The fact that he managed to make and publish what is easily a game of the year contender without the backing of a game studio is truly amazing. When you publish a videogame, I'll take your comments seriously too.