XBLA - Braid - 1200pts

[quote name='RelentlessRolento']looking at major nelsons profile seems to show you can unlock (or have I guess if you own the game) a braid gamerpic... nice.[/quote]

There are two picture packs available for 160 MS points each, and his is in one of them. I'm guessing he just downloaded it.
 
[quote name='Jagged Toaster']There are two picture packs available for 160 MS points each, and his is in one of them. I'm guessing he just downloaded it.[/quote]

Damn the game isnt the only thing high priced. :lol:
 
update on sales and review from Blow
http://braid-game.com/news/?p=303#comments
Currently, Braid is receiving excellent reception from game reviewers and critics. Both Metacritic and Gamerankings have Braid rated at 92/100:

That’s a pretty good score. In fact, Braid is the highest-rated Xbox Live Arcade game of all time (out of about 150 games!) Geometry Wars 2, released a week prior, is the second-highest. There are some strong games coming up in the next few weeks, so we’ll see if these positions hold.

But 92 is not just a good score for a Live Arcade game; it’s a good score for any game. In fact, Braid is currently the 10th highest-rated Xbox 360 game of all time — including all AAA high-budget games:

If Braid receives just one more Metacritic point, it will jump to 8th place on this list. (Eran and Alex: Let’s get ready to rumble!)

Of course, it’s possible that Braid’s rating will go down, too. Time will tell!

I don’t want any of this to seem like bragging. I do want it to serve as a clear and useful data point: an indie game made by a very small team can compete with giant games that had huge budgets at their disposal. (I don’t know how much Mass Effect cost, but it surely was a lot. Just licensing the Unreal Engine 3, before even hiring anyone or doing any work to create a game, cost probably 3x-5x Braid’s budget.)

This is important — I have been a proponent of indie and experimental game development for a while, but the attitude toward it always seems to be that they are interesting toys, but not real games. Well, perhaps that is changing. And perhaps some of the indie developers out there who are making cheap clones of PopCap games will realize that if, instead, they go out on a limb and do something interesting and different and important to people, their work will be recognized.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, about sales. They are surprisingly good!

I have noticed people on forums looking at the number of entires in the leaderboards and multiplying that out to get a total income for Braid. That doesn’t work, for a number of reasons. There are thousands of free copies of the game given out to the press, and once someone buys an XBLA game, other profiles can play from the same xbox and they get leaderboard entries. So the leaderboard is always an overestimate.

This is a very good sign, for a few reasons! First of all, it means that in addition to getting recognition from critics, Braid is also being played by a lot of people. We’ve all heard of games that are critically-acclaimed but that hardly anyone plays. That doesn’t seem to be happening with Braid so far. But, that could change — a lot depends on what happens to sales on Wednesday when Bionic Commando: Rearmed is released on XBLA. Will Braid’s sales keep up, as with Geometry Wars 2, or will they drop off?

But right now, Braid is selling as well or better than any massive highly-anticipated XBLA game by a major publisher. So, that is very cool. I would like to thank everyone out there who purchased a copy of Braid, for supporting independent and experimental game development.

People have asked me how many sales Braid needs in order to be profitable. The answer is, a lot more than it has gotten so far. (There are many reasons for this, which I may be motivated to talk about in the future). However, things are looking promising now — if Braid keeps selling, I’ll be able to afford to make the next game, and that will be good.
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I played the demo last night and I'm pretty impressed myself.

I need to stock up on more points. Good call on Target having the $15 1600pts sale starting tomorrow.
 
I've completed World 2-4 now and my opinion hasn't changed. The story is still crap, character and enemy design is crap and the platforming aspect could have been better. The puzzle game part is still good although I really didn't like World 4.
 
Finally beat the game and I have no clue what the hell happened at the end (I get the story part of it) and why
I couldn't read all of the books that were scattered around that last level and what the stones are all about.
I don't really get the comparisons to Portal or Shadow of the Colossus/Ico, as I got more from those stories than what I got from Braid.
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']Finally beat the game and I have no clue what the hell happened at the end (I get the story part of it) and why
I couldn't read all of the books that were scattered around that last level and what the stones are all about.
I don't really get the comparisons to Portal or Shadow of the Colossus/Ico, as I got more from those stories than what I got from Braid.[/quote]


the other games you mentioned actually had conclusion and direct tellings of what happened. Braid takes a perception and pulls you into what it can mean from a different standpoint. Not everything is going to be clear. It's like I've said that it's a very introspective game.
 
Heres what I dont get it.

Theres roughly 20 million 360's sold since launch.

Lets say on average, only 14 million have internet access high-speed to be able to play on xbox live/subscribe to it.

With sales of 28k, how is that really impressive? Thats not even a percent of the install base for the 360. I dont understand why companies are all "hey we sold 10k first week of an arcade game to a market 100000 times the size"

Never made sense to me :(
 
Satisfying is a good way to describe my feelings for Braid. It is thoroughly satisfying to finally realize how to solve a stage---even if it comes one World later.
 
[quote name='Ice2Dragon']Heres what I dont get it.

Theres roughly 20 million 360's sold since launch.

Lets say on average, only 14 million have internet access high-speed to be able to play on xbox live/subscribe to it.

With sales of 28k, how is that really impressive? Thats not even a percent of the install base for the 360. I dont understand why companies are all "hey we sold 10k first week of an arcade game to a market 100000 times the size"

Never made sense to me :([/quote]

Considering the budget XBLA games get, that probably is enough for a success. We get lots of ports/remakes which are very cheap to reproduce as most assets are reused, or most games don't use high-end engines that require expensive licenses.

For contrast, the Mac gaming market in the last few years were getting ports through Aspyr and a few other porting houses. They say they spend about $500,000 to get the license for porting a game. These games normally sold in the tens of thousands range which was considered a success as long as they broke even.

So taking the small, low-budget Mac gaming market, you can make the comparison about the similarly small, low-budget XBLA market.
 
28,000 x $15 = $420,000. Now, i believe the developer(s) get 70% so that comes out to $294,000 for Blow and the artist (Hellman?). I'm fairly certain Braid didn't cost $294,000 to make. Even if it did, the game is going to continue to sell over the coming weeks.
 
[quote name='Ice2Dragon']Heres what I dont get it.

Theres roughly 20 million 360's sold since launch.

Lets say on average, only 14 million have internet access high-speed to be able to play on xbox live/subscribe to it.

With sales of 28k, how is that really impressive? Thats not even a percent of the install base for the 360. I dont understand why companies are all "hey we sold 10k first week of an arcade game to a market 100000 times the size"

Never made sense to me :([/quote]


and popular games that sell a million have only sold to 1/20th of the total potential customers. Put that way, it looks bad. Put another, the company just got $60 million dollars.

it's all relative to how much the game cost to make. In Braid's case, it probably didn't cost very much, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're already making profit.
 
[quote name='SynGamer']28,000 x $15 = $420,000. Now, i believe the developer(s) get 70% so that comes out to $294,000 for Blow and the artist (Hellman?). I'm fairly certain Braid didn't cost $294,000 to make. Even if it did, the game is going to continue to sell over the coming weeks.[/QUOTE]

The average XBLA game costs 200-350k to make.

You guys are right though, XBLA games have far less overhead and big returns on sales. The small number of sales compared to the install base is mostly attributed to most customers still not being on live, or even if they are, they don't understand/care about XBLA. Most people don't even know what was released, what it was, or think to try it. They just want to play their retail games (I know many people like this). This is why Microsoft keeps redesigning the dashboard, trying to get people to see what they are missing.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']The average XBLA game costs 200-350k to make.

You guys are right though, XBLA games have far less overhead and big returns on sales. The small number of sales compared to the install base is mostly attributed to most customers still not being on live, or even if they are, they don't understand/care about XBLA. Most people don't even know what was released, what it was, or think to try it. They just want to play their retail games (I know many people like this). This is why Microsoft keeps redesigning the dashboard, trying to get people to see what they are missing.[/quote]
On average perhaps, but there were only 2 people working on Braid, the coder and the artist. I would imagine they have already broken even, and are quite possibly making a profit right now and from here on out.
 
[quote name='SynGamer']On average perhaps, but there were only 2 people working on Braid, the coder and the artist. I would imagine they have already broken even, and are quite possibly making a profit right now and from here on out.[/QUOTE]

That's a fair assumption, except for John Blow saying that he owed a lot of people a lot of money for making the game, nobody knows how much that is.

If I had to bet though, I would say they've probably broken even by now.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']They just want to play their retail games (I know many people like this). This is why Microsoft keeps redesigning the dashboard, trying to get people to see what they are missing.[/quote]
yes, I know someone who insists on not connecting to LIVE. I always tell him he's missing out on a LOT.
 
[quote name='RelentlessRolento']if anyone wants to see a good discussion about the game, a talk with the makers of it, and a discussion of the ending of the game watch this... very good.

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/20638[/QUOTE]


Thanks for the link, it was a sweet video!


How much you wanna bet that after it cuts to the three man group after the "spoiler alert" they just got done smoking a doobie?
 
Stocked up at Target earlier today with 7 of the 1600 point cards, so now there's no reason not to go ahead and buy the full game. I probably will later today, but for now that 1200 price is still keeping me from pulling the trigger. Damn, I'm cheap. :lol:
 
Alright, I just completed the game. I wouldn't call the end satisfying but I liked it enough. I still have a huge problem with the price.
I can understand the use of an ugly character design because the protagonist himself is (probably) an ugly human being. Overall, some worlds were way better than others.
 
The ending was good, but I think the hyping of it ruined it a little for me. Still liked it mostly for the gameplay and art rather than the story. Although the message was nice, it could've been better directed...I'll leave it that so I don't spoil anything.

There were a few puzzles that just pissed me off, all of which were in level 6, but besides that every other puzzle was a pure joy that presented different, yet reasonable challenge. The music and art on the other hand I felt were flawless, like the ultimate whimsical children's book come to life. The game proves that 2D gaming has something that 3D gaming can never emulate, and hopefully more developers realize this.

I love the fact that this little indie game is stealing many of the high budget games' thunder, more power to the indie. And honestly the fact that it's indie doesn't really change my opinion of it, if it were high budget I'd love it the same.

This is my favorite 360 game without a doubt.
 
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I heard all the level design/gameplay and writing was done by one person, which is pretty awesome. But are you telling me the music and art is all done by one other person.

That doesn't seem right, there had to be at least three people involved, right?
 
[quote name='leveskikesko']I heard all the level design/gameplay and writing was done by one person, which is pretty awesome. But are you telling me the music and art is all done by one other person.

That doesn't seem right, there had to be at least three people involved, right?[/quote]


One person did all the programming, story, level design, and mechanics, etc.

The other person did all the art design and helped some level design.

The music was licensed. It's the way to do it when you don't have the talent to work with directly.
 
[quote name='RelentlessRolento']One person did all the programming, story, level design, and mechanics, etc.

The other person did all the art design and helped some level design.

The music was licensed. It's the way to do it when you don't have the talent to work with directly.[/quote]

Well they/he picked out some good music. Amazing jobs, those two did.
 
apperently blow spent more than $180,000 of his own money to fund braid :shock:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=12339432&postcount=1918

I checked out the Metacritic score as of this morning, and it's weighing in at 92, which makes it the top rated XBLA title, and the #10 ranked title of all time, just nudging ahead of Mass Effect, a multi-million dollar title from a large team. Braid cost under a quarter million.
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While videogame budgets at big studios can be millions of dollars, Mr. Blow estimates that he spent more than $180,000 of his own money during the past three years to develop Braid. He also took time off from his job as a videogame-industry consultant to focus on his project. "I have no idea how well Braid will sell," he says. "Realistically though, I could lose all of that [money]." Microsoft picked up the game in 2007 and decided to publish it for Xbox Live Arcade. It will sell for $15, a higher price than most downloadable games on the platform.
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Just beat the game; it was amazing. I, however, have two questions.

1. What's the deal with these stars everyone is talking about? From what I've seen, they are completely ridiculous. Do they reveal anything more story wise?

2. Is there anyway to read the
unreadable books
in the epilogue and if not what is the point of them? EDIT: Ok, I think I get it.
When you hide behind something with the red book open, the text changes. The green books make this more difficult because when you pass them the red book closes. I've managed to get all of the alternate text except the middle room with the statue and three books (red in the middle). Anybody know how to get the alternate text for this book?

Edit2: I got it. You have to advance to the next screen and stand on the platform (which makes you immune to time effects) and then rewind until you here the green book close. I love this game.
 
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I finally dropped the 1200 points on this. I'm enjoying it so far. I completed worlds 2 & 3 with out much problem. I did part of 4, I stopped to play GW2. I'll work on it more later.
 
ok i think i should stop being a cheap ass and get braid lol the demo was great i have ton of points and it looks like blow deserves it with all the work hes put into it
 
I downloaded it, and so far its alright. In my first sit through i was able to get 50 puzzle pieces. Im still missing...
Level
4-7, Middle Piece
5-3, First one above entrance
5-4, 2nd one above exit.
A bunch on level 6
I still cant figure out how to get these. Im not asking for help, i want to get my moneys worth of this game, so im going to solve this on my own. LOL.

I still havent seen anything about collecting secret stars. I know they are there because of what someone posted. I forgot i couldnt put together puzzle 3 before getting that star. Anyway, how are you supposed to find a star?
 
[quote name='Nelo Ice']ok i think i should stop being a cheap ass and get braid lol the demo was great i have ton of points and it looks like blow deserves it with all the work hes put into it[/quote]

Same here, I loved the demo. It's been a while since I bought an XBLA game. Now in the span of a few weeks I get this and Bionic Commando.

How long is this game? Seems like it's fairly short, considering you can't die.
 
[quote name='The 7th Number']I still havent seen anything about collecting secret stars. I know they are there because of what someone posted. I forgot i couldnt put together puzzle 3 before getting that star. Anyway, how are you supposed to find a star?[/quote]

The stars aren't required and they are hidden in various levels. Well you find a star by searching for it I guess, haha—I am not sure what else to say. The stars are in obscure places so either you need to be actively searching for them or you need to be determined in exploring all corners of the levels.

Oh and my advice for the puzzles are to not over think them. My first time through I made some puzzles overly complicated and frustrating, eventually completing them through trial and error or by accident. On subsequent play throughs I discovered nore elegant and simpler solutions.

Man I just can't get Braid off my mind—it is so amazing.
 
[quote name='Razzuel']The stars aren't required and they are hidden in various levels. Well you find a star by searching for it I guess, haha—I am not sure what else to say. The stars are in obscure places so either you need to be actively searching for them or you need to be determined in exploring all corners of the levels.[/quote]


So they are invisible and you can get them by jumping into them?
 
I really want to like this game. I feel the 1200 points is justified. The puzzles are genius, the music and art style is amazing, but.. I just can't do it. I don't know how to solve most of the puzzles. I want to get to the end, which is supposedly amazing, but I've only solved Worlds 2 and 3, and everything after that overwhelms me.. If I manage to solve a puzzle, it isn't through using logic, its by accident. :whistle2:(
 
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[quote name='Jagged Toaster']I really want to like this game. I feel the 1200 points is justified. The puzzles are genius, the music and art style is amazing, but.. I just can't do it. I don't know how to solve most of the puzzles. I want to get to the end, which is supposedly amazing, but I've only solved Worlds 2 and 3, and everything after that overwhelms me.. If I manage to solve a puzzle, it isn't through using logic, its by accident. :whistle2:([/quote]


I felt the same way when I got stuck. Best thing to do is take a break away from it for a day then get back to it. I did that and all the puzzles I was missing just kinda all melded. it's alot easier always than it seems, just be clever.
 
I have 3 puzzle pieces to go, and damn i cant figure them out.

5-3 - first piece above entrance (i cant figure out how to get the key up to the top)
5-4 - last piece above exit (cant jump that high no matter how high i jump from)
6-7 - In another castle (i have no idea, im guessing its a trick using that golden stuff that covers you.)

Roar i dont want to cheat, or get any tips, but damn, they seem impossible.

I wish the moves were more consistent. One level you can grab a key and back up and still hold onto it, the next level you cant. Same goes for other situations in the game. I still havent found any stars, though i not really looking for them. I really dont know what they are. If they are just invisible, or you need to do something to make the appear, i just dont know.

PS. where the hell is level 1? The first stage is level 2.
 
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