man don't spoil the ending rinku

great game!, I playing demo now.

It's just an image, everyone might forget about it by the time they get to the end. It doesn't really spoil too much... but I guess I could replace the image after I take a better one.

I think Patrick Dugan explained the whole ending to me, spoiling it, a few months ago, but by the time it was released I completely forgot about it and it was as if it wasn't spoiled; only after it was over did I remember him telling me about it.

Or maybe you mean my comments on its story? I guess that kind of spoils the ending, but the text is so abstract that a lot of that can be inferred just from the first set of texts in the first room. But yes, I can see how it'd spoil things. I'll see if I can reword it.

Just FYI, the image you're using in the article is 1.2MB.

Why does it run so slow? It's a 2d game!

I just fixed the image size, and abstracted it a tad along the way, hope that's OK, Paul. No need to spoil or use massive images.

i was talking about the image

paul do you really want to be like patrick dugan

Your references to the plot aren't specific enough to be considered spoilers, Paul.
Concerning the frame rate, though "2D", the game uses a particle engine to provide some of its effects.

The thing is that Braid draws a *lot* of pixels.

Part of the reason for the slowness is that the game currently doesn't run at a resolution below 1280x720. I hadn't wanted to release a version that ran at e.g. 640 because the art wasn't hand-made for that resolution; but enough people are having speed problems that I am going to release a new version in a few days with more resolution options.

A low framerate? Strange, my notebook that can't even play Penny Arcade Adventures correctly has no trouble running Braid at all.

Where's the best place to buy it from a DRM standpoint? All the sites listed seem to have some kind of DRM, or some client you have to install.

For those looking to try and improve performance, I've read of a few options you can add to the command line (target section for shortcuts) to try and make the game run more smoothly.

-half
Said to halve the resolution of the game, but causes some pretty major bugs.

-no_post
Apparently this disables some of the visual/particle effects.

-no_vsync
Turns off vsync, probably doesn't make a huge difference.

To apply them, just use the same method shown in this picture: http://braid-game.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/run_braid.png

I haven't gotten the game yet, so I haven't been able to try any of these out. They may not even work! Use at your own risk. Probably the best thing to do is just wait for the new version that is apparently coming.

What do you mean "draws a lot of pixels"? More than there are on screen?

Paul: How are the puzzles "not trial and error"? Aren't they sometimes about pixel-perfect jumps? It's just that it's easier to try again when you fail.

And, when you feel like a genius after solving a puzzle, just think that someone made this puzzle with a solution in mind.

Ilya, "draws a lot of pixels" is a developer shorthand for
1. There are a lot of graphical functions under the hood before the screen is rendered, AND
2. I'm not going into detail on what these functions are.

Trial and error puzzles require you perform every possible action till you reach the correct answer, because there is no logical solution. Polished puzzles provide a logical backbone through which one can inductively or deductively arrive at a possible solution. An intelligent man will first see whether he can solve a problem by thinking.

Finally, the Zen master assured his students that all their questions will be answered if they undergo a perilous journey. Only one student returned, and asked the master furiously "Why did you sent us on this journey?". The master responded "My advice was wrong, and yet you still come to me for answers".
At that point, the student was enlightened.

Simon: sure, that's fine, I didn't realize the image was so large.

Ilya: Pixel-perfect jumps are only characteristics of a few puzzles early on in the game. Most of the puzzles in most of the game have to do with thinking about how time works.

Like BigBossSNK said, they aren't trial and error like the ones in the puzzles you find in other platformers, they aren't Lost Vikings or Lemmings type puzzles. They're puzzles where the solution isn't obvious without thinking: often you pass a puzzle piece that you have no idea how you're supposed to reach, it's not just that you see a way and can't perform that way.

And yes, just because something is 2D doesn't make it fast, that's a common misconception. One factor is that videocards nowadays are actually optimized for 3D, not 2D. They're built to render polygons very quickly, not built to draw large amounts of particle effects. High-resolution 2D games are just as dependent on the videocard's fillrate as 3D games are. The reason old 2D games run fast is usually because they used small resolutions and didn't use a lot of particle effects or other special visual effects.

auntie: No :p

Oh, forgot one:

Middlerun: I've no idea which version has the "best" form of DRM for you. You'd have to ask Jon Blow probably. I bought it on Steam just because a lot of the games I own I already bought from there and I like keeping them all in one place. I remember Jon Blow commenting in his blog once that he'd "never do that to software", but he can't really control what these portals do. Maybe he'll sell it off his own site DRM-free eventually, like most of us indie devs do :p

Never again will i board the hype train. Acquaria and Braid have both been let downs. enjoyed free games much more and "nasty naughty evil" commercial games.

it doesnt draw a lot of pixels. i run most games at a higher resolution... i guess a lot before the dawn of hd.

great game but the game is too short. i blew through it in a day and id never played it before. and didnt cheat. now im trying to get the stars. i wish this game has a level editor. it needs more replay. i didnt expect the game to be this small. but a level editor would certainly be worth the price of admission.

turns out it has a map editor!!!!! good news for anyone like me.

No, no. It DOES draw a lot of pixels. This program has a huge fill rate.

What is fill rate? Imagine drawing a square that filled the whole screen, and had 40 squares which did that. The program, although using only 80 triangles, would run really slow because the graphics card has to write to a screen buffer those pixels 40 times, which isn't fast for graphics cards.

Braid has tons of particles. TONS. There's also multiple layers like in the beginning screen (which has at least 5 layers) which you notice when you move around (there's the foreground and multiple backgrounds that move at different speeds).

This is what is causing the slow problems in braid, it's its amount of overdraw which is inducing the fillrate bottleneck on some/most graphics cards.

I have just finished World 2 and I'm already in love with Braid.
It's almost a perfect game - it gives you wonderful art and music to enjoy, it gives you story and the puzzles to think about and it gives you FUN! And the funniest thing is that one doesn't have to be aware of all the dimensions of the game and still have a great time; one can, for instance, enjoy the game without even noticing the story or the art (Soulja Boy is a great example :) ).

Does anyone know Blow's e-mail? I really need to contact him but haven't been able to track what is his e-mail.

The Portuguese translation is downright atrocious, it feels as though it was made by a fifth grader or one of those average online translators.

I know his email but I don't know if he wants me to publicly reveal it here. You can get into contact with him somewhat by commenting on his blog though.

I bought the version from Greenhouse which seems pretty DRM free. You download the demo, pay for the registration code to unlock the full game. You can then install it on multiple computers with the same code.

No third party programs or anything like that.

I really enjoyed Braid except for the time slow bubble levels. All of those puzzles were easy to figure out but very tedious and time-consuming, often requiring you place the bubble in the exact right spot.

I bought it and played it through today, and without FAQ's, wow. Usually i get a FAQ once something stumps me but i actually managed to finish the game without one.

I'm proud of myself for that :)

Oh wow! captain duck! I knew your name was familiar! Thanks for those dwarf fortress videos, they helped a hell of a lot.

Although you might not read this :p

Liked the demo, I'm going to wait until Steam does a sale or something because I'm conserving money atm >

Didn't get stuck on any of the puzzles in the demo though. They seemed a bit obvious a lot of the time.

The italian version is pretty good: while I can see that it tries to stick as much as possible to the way the english sentences were written, everything feels right and correct.

I cannot understand the hype behind this game at all. The puzzles are all blatantly obvious, but so tedious and fiddly that they really just don't feel worth the bother to solve.
And the overall 'feel' of the game is just very poor. Why is my character's movement so stunted? It's a platformer FFS!!

"Why is my character's movement so stunted?"
Seamus, have you played LittleBigPlanet? If not, I suggest you go and play that then come back with your thoughts on stunted character movement! I personally think the movement is fantastic, granted it might not be Mario reincarnate but there are moments of elegance and grace that are characteristic of a good platformer. Also 'hype' shouldn't be mistaken for 'critical acclaim'.

I'm really enjoying Braid; the time manipulation puzzles are exhilarating, the graphics are stunning and the music is sublime. It's such a unique experience that, in my book, is worth the price of entry. For £10 it's a steal.

It's worth noting that I'm not far in enough to comment on the story.

Doesn't hype mean the praise a game gets before it's release?

I've always seen hype as the touting before a games release, and before it's been played properly. Does the term 'hype' come from 'hyperbole'?

Braid has been out for some time (at least on the Xbox) and has garnered a lot of attention through critical acclaim which obviously has much more weight than pre-release 'hype'. I dunno, I'm just musing here. ;-)