Braid wins IGN’s award for Best Puzzle Game of E3 2008.
Here’s the page with the award.
Braid beat Puzzle Quest: Galactrix. (And Winterbottom. Sorry Matt… but I think it’s pretty damn sweet that a student game is in this list to begin with. That’s got to look good on the resume.)
Thanks to Bruce Morrison for bringing this to my attention.
Update: Braid also won Best Xbox Live Arcade Game, beating out all the other games in the Summer of Arcade promotion!
Braid was also a runner-up for best artistic design, Special Achievement for Innovation, and Best Downloadable Console Game. That’s 2 awards and 3 runner-ups!
Also, I am making an About Braid page to answer peoples questions, provide some background to the game and links to reviews. It is not nicely-formatted yet, and will eventually have more information, but anyone who wants a sneak peek at it can look here.
July 29th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
My anti-spam word is “monster”. Surely that should be “monstar”?
July 29th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Congratulations Jon!
I’m betting this list will keep on growing.
July 29th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Great work Jon, yet to play the game but from what I have seen they are well deserved. Next Wednesday won’t come around quick enough
July 30th, 2008 at 1:12 am
Edge magazine have given you a 9/10 review this month (#192) as well! Well done.
July 30th, 2008 at 1:23 am
I don’t know their reasoning and haven’t read the review itself, but I saw Edge Magazine gave the game a 9. That’s a grade they don’t hand out very often.
July 30th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Sweet about the Edge review. They are notoriously hard with scores so a 9 from them is really good. I am in England right now so I am hoping to pick up a copy when I see it on a newsstand.
July 30th, 2008 at 4:46 am
If you don’t mind me asking, but are there some kind of auto-save feature or anything in Braid? How does it keep track on your progress?
I know, odd question that doesn’t really matter to anyone (or shouldn’t at least), but my 360’s giving my the red lights from time to time and frequently crashes when I’m playing games, so what I tried to ask before is if there’s some autosave so if the Xbox suddenly freezes I don’t have to spend a whole lot of time repeating what I just did?
(When Braid’s done, I’ll get the box fixed)
July 30th, 2008 at 4:49 am
Braid only uses auto-save. The game is designed so that you never think about saving; you just play.
So it ought to be fine!
July 30th, 2008 at 5:10 am
[...] Meanwhile, IGN has awarded Braid as “runner up” for Best Artistic Design at E3 2008. Normally I prefer to win awards rather than almost win, but Prince of Persia, which received the top honor in that category, does look pretty cool. Braid did win IGN’s awards for Best Puzzle Game and Best Xbox Live Arcade Game, as blogged by Jonathan. [...]
July 30th, 2008 at 5:38 am
Is Braid going to cost 800 MS points?
July 30th, 2008 at 6:33 am
Unfortunately, in the same way I wasn’t able to pre-announce the release date, I can’t say anything about the price until Microsoft does.
July 30th, 2008 at 7:56 am
I will not pay 1200
July 30th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Hey Jonathan,
The game looks amazing! My co-worker and I have a new Video Game Radio show starting up in August. Is there any way to contact you directly? We would love to review the game.
Thanks,
Nathan
July 30th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Jonathan can i ask you about the lengh of the game? it wont be over 30 minutes right?
July 30th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Braid is well over 30 minutes. I don’t think it’s even physically possible to speed-run the game in 30 minutes even if you have memorized the best solutions to all the puzzles. (So far the fastest time I have seen for the entire game is 34 minutes).
I would say that it’s 5-8 hours of gameplay to play through most of the puzzles, depending on how quickly you solve the puzzles. From there, if there are a few hard puzzles you get stuck on, it could be an extra 1-5 hours…
July 30th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Thank you ! that was the answer i was looking for. Sorry for beeing so confusing i ment to say that it wouldnt be over reall quick ( cause of the old style look, like all mario games dont last that long )
i will buy this but i only got 900 points so it better be 800 ;D
July 30th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Greetings from Spain and congratulations for the game, Jonathan. I’ve waiting for this game since i’ve first heard of it last year. I love the artistic design and i’m really thrilled with the gameplay. I’m going to buy it as soon as it hits the Marketplace. But i have a question (in fact is a hope
)
Is there any level editor or chance for download new levels? Maybe not for the XBLA version, but there will be one for the PC version (when it is released)?
And once again, sincere congratulations for the game from an old gamer.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Microsoft won’t allow users to share levels on XBLA, so there is no level editor in the XBLA version.
There may be with the PC version… I just have to see how practical it is. (There may be some difficulty in actually using the levels, due to the way the game is programmed). It’s also possible that the game might be released initially so that everyone can play it, and then the editor released a little later (if it seems possible to do the editor but I don’t want to hold up the release for that.)
July 30th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Thanks Jonathan. I understand that adding the level editor and importing new levels can be tricky. And also the special gameplay could made the desing process for users even trickier. But it’s nice to see that at least you have considered the possibility. I’ve always been amazed with the creativity of the modding/level design community.
And its a pity to hear that about the XBLA policy, i had no idea.
July 30th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
What about PC version? When it will be released? Will it be available trough STEAM? Will it have achievements? Will support 360 pads aswell other pads and keyb/mouse?
Thanks for your answers and keep the good work!!
July 30th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
The PC version will be released when I finish it… I’m not sure when that will be. I don’t know if it will be available through Steam or not. Valve definitely has not been calling me on the phone about it…
July 30th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Psst, front page - you mean August, not June.
Can’t wait.
July 30th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
But you have called VALVe? Audiosurf creator (and other indie developers) talks very good about VALVe support and its SDK Steamworks.
And definitely STEAM is the most popular digital store (15 million users).
I hope to see Braid on STEAM this 2008. I’m only interested on buying trough it.
July 30th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
I think Valve generally relies on the publisher contacting them, rather than they contact Valve.
I recommend you contact them. They have done lots of good for other indie developers.
http://www.valvesoftware.com/business/
jasonh@valvesoftware.com
Also adding Steamworks Achievements gives a nice addition to the game.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:22 am
Guys… I called Valve 2 years ago. And then again a year later. They were very slow to get back to me and were very unprofessional (and one might say rude) about it. Clearly they were not very interested in the game. They agreed that they might publish it, but said they would sell very few copies.
Since then it hasn’t been a priority for me to try and deal with them; it just hasn’t been worth it yet. At some point, later, maybe — but they haven’t made themselves a publishing partner that I am eager to work with.
July 31st, 2008 at 1:47 am
Jonathan, there is also the option of Greenhouse - although it depends quite what plans for it the Penny Arcade team announce.
Steam is becoming the place to be for bigger publishers but I do think Braid is something they would take. As usual, it’s probably about knowing the right person.
July 31st, 2008 at 2:13 am
And what about the recently launched Impulse platform from Stardock? Its very similar to Steam, though obviously not as big or widespread.
July 31st, 2008 at 2:13 am
That is a shame to hear. But I can understand why that would be a deterrent.
Valve are a good company, but have made a few wrong moves in the past.
July 31st, 2008 at 2:15 am
It is definitely a loss to Valve for missing out on the opportunity.
July 31st, 2008 at 5:51 am
I’m not saying that the game won’t come to Steam eventually… but I’m having trouble visualizing it as a launch platform for the PC version. Because when you launch, you really want the service you are launching with to care about your game…
July 31st, 2008 at 8:36 am
Totally understandable Jonathan. And its cool to see how much you care about your game and the commitment you have. If only all the game developers showed half of that care…
August 2nd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
So, we know the awesome release date, when might we learn the price? (Day one?)
I’ve only got 800 some MS points…
August 2nd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I believe Microsoft has said they will announce the price on Monday.
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:26 am
There were some rumours of a possible leaked price, later denied by Microsoft. But the real official tag will be announced indeed on Monday (August the 4th, my birthday! ;D )
August 3rd, 2008 at 6:59 am
Alright, thanks. (What was the leak?)
Happy birthday!
August 3rd, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Some japanese xbox site listed the prices for all the summer arcade games, and Braid was priced 1200 MSP. But the site was later deleted and Microsoft said that Braid’s price was incorrect and the real price will be officially announced today. (And for the rest of XBLA titles, the official price will be announced the Monday prior its release)
And Thanks!
August 4th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Ok, now according to gamerscoreblog.com (an official source), the price is in fact 1200 MSP
August 4th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
1200 MSP? Good, affordable and not strangely priced like the rumored price of Castle Crashers.
I gladly payed 1200 MSP for Puzzle Quest and will do so for Braid.
August 4th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
No problem, Lenar.
Well, that price is a bit more than I had hoped for, but it’s alright and I think Jon earned every penny (/point). I will gladly pay 1200 MSP. I just can’t wait to sink my teeth into this one…
August 4th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
It’s a bit pricey. Specially because a lot of people expected the game to be 800 MSP like Geometry Wars 2. And Microsoft denying the leaked prie and now confirming it, it’s a bit of a let down. But i’m getting it anyway on launch date. I really don’t care, and i’ll pay those 15 Euros. But i only hope that a great share of those “extra” 400 points will be going to Jonathan. My only fear is that the price tag will affect the sales of the game.
August 7th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Winterbottom actually looks similar to this game in terms of time-mechanic based puzzle solving
August 9th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I’m really hoping to see it on Steam, achievements and all. I really love that platform for my games. Hopefully whatever unpleasantness occurred between the developers of Braid and Valve can be swept under a rug to make that happen.
Though, honestly, I’ll be buying it regardless of what service it uses to get to my hard drive. I’m really looking forward to it.
December 21st, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Any news on the PC-release? I was hoping for it to show up before christmas, but alas! That does not seem to happen, does it? Well, he who waits for something good shall not wait in vain.
I would love to see it on Steam!