Now that Jonathan Blow's time-manipulating side-scroller "Braid" has a release date for Xbox Live Arcade -- August 6 -- I'd like to refresh readers' thoughts about the game with a look back to a post from last August. It was on August 8 of last year that I ran an interview with Blow in which the designer openly and artfully challenged many accepted game design conventions while explaining his philosophy for the design of "Braid."
The interview proved to be one of the most widely-cited pieces we've run on the blog. You can read it all at this link: “A Higher Standard” — Game Designer Jonathan Blow Challenges Super Mario’s Gold Coins, “Unethical” MMO Design And Everything Else You May Hold Dear About Video Games [UPDATE: link is now fixed!]
In our interview, Blow opened up to me like few designers had before. For example, when I asked him about his views about life affect his thoughts on game design, he said:
... I feel like unearned rewards are false and meaningless, yet so many people spend their lives chasing easy/unearned rewards. So there is a very conscious decision that you only get collectibles in “Braid” when you solve a puzzle, and you only get one per puzzle. Some of the puzzles are easy, some are hard; but you did something very explicit to get the reward. It’s not like “Mario” and every other game since then, when there are gold coins sprinkled everywhere, and you get them just by walking along a path or jumping up to some blocks, and that satisfies your reward-seeking reflex for now and pacifies you into continuing to play the game.
I've played enough "Braid" to highly recommend that everyone should try it when it is released. I also recommend you brush up by checking out our interview. If you care about personal expression and how it can be made manifest in a game coming to the Xbox 360 then Blow and "Braid" should be on your radar sometime between now and August 6.
"Braid" visuals by David Hellman and character by Edmund McMillen.