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Super Meat Boy character select screen reveals playable Alien Hominid [update]

by Ben Gilbert { Jul 5th 2009 at 7:00PM }

Things are on the up and up for Super Meat Boy developer Edmund McMillen. After releasing This is a Cry for Help last year and subsequently announcing SMB for WiiWare, he put his indie cred on display for the world in adding Braid's Tim to his upcoming game. And now, during a live video interview with Bytejacker, McMillen ~~revealed~~ The Behemoth's Alien Hominid as another playable character!

Quickly panning to his computer screen during the interview and teasing it, one of our wonderful readers snagged a screen grab so we could share it with the world. Now the real question: Castle Crashers characters playable as well? Hmmmm, McMillen? Hmmm?

(We love you. Please?)

Update: It was pointed out by a few astute Game Informer readers in the comments section that Alien Hominid was actually revealed as a playable character in a recent issue. Sorry, folks!

(Thanks, Zack!)

Survey: Developers still worship Miyamoto, Blow too

by Jason Dobson { Jun 15th 2009 at 11:15AM }

Luminary Shigeru Miyamoto hasn't lost his shimmer in the eyes of game developers, with a recent industry poll finding the Nintendo icon to be without equal. The survey, commissioned by organizers of next month's Develop Conference, asked 9,000 devs to name their game development hero, with nearly a third of respondents pointing to Miyamoto as the man with the plan.

The popularity contest also named id Software's John Carmack as the next most idealized developer, followed by Maxis and now Stupid Fun Club brainpan Will Wright. The top ten list of industry highlights was rounded out by Braid dev Jonathan Blow, who's likely too busy rewinding time (to see if he can somehow land higher on the ballot) to care.

Mac users: It's time to play Braid

by JC Fletcher { May 20th 2009 at 2:00PM }

Mac owners can now travel back in time to August of 2008, thanks to Hothead Games. The developer's Mac port of the time-bending platformer, Braid, is now available, allowing Mac users to experience the authentic feeling of playing one of 2008's most unique games for the first time. (That is, if you didn't already play it on a Windows partition or something.)

The press release says that this is "the first in a unique collaboration between Hothead and other top-notch independent developers to bring their award-winning titles to new gaming platforms," although the company's PC release of The Maw predates this by several months. Braid is now available for immediate download via Penny Arcade's Greenhouse store for $14.95.

Braid II totally rips time a new one

by David Hinkle { May 7th 2009 at 11:00AM }

Sorry, your high-res photo is in another castle

Oh, April Fools, how funny you can sometimes be. This year's April issue of Game Informer had one of the more comical tricks in Braid II, the magazine's featured cover story. It would appear that Tim has spent his time between the first game and its sequel in the gym, totally getting ripped. With his delts and pecs in order, he can now finally set out to do what he always wanted to do: make time his bitch.

Braid's Tim makes time for Super Meat Boy

by Alexander Sliwinski { Apr 29th 2009 at 9:00PM }

Meat Boy isn't the only fleshbag to make an appearance in Super Meat Boy for WiiWare. Turns out that Braid's Tim will also be an unlockable character. How did these two indie darlings collide and not produce so much heat as to create an insta medium-rare hamburger? Turns out that Super Meat Boy's Edmund McMillen also did the character design for Tim -- so, you know, it's only natural he'd make an appearance in this game ...

Much like Tim, Super Meat Boy still has plenty of time to release details and potentially offensive ads before its launch later this year.

[Via ThatVideogameBlog]

Braid soundtrack now available (with remixes!)

by Justin McElroy { Apr 22nd 2009 at 5:03PM }

We love how just a scrap of music can put you in the mood to play a game. Who can listen to the Oblivion or Halo themes and not get the itch to pick up a controller? We don't know, but they're stronger than us by far.

After 15 minutes of listening to the recently compiled Braid soundtrack, we're dying to take the game for another run, maybe even track down all those stars that we've been neglecting. Oh, and don't miss the two new remixed tunes, which take advantage of the game's time-twisting theme with hypnotic results.

[Via Braid blog]

Braid PC has hidden bonus: a level editor

by Xav de Matos { Apr 15th 2009 at 8:30AM }

Jonathan Blow has revealed that message board rumblings of a hidden level editor within the PC version of his award-winning independent title, Braid, are true. Replying to chatter on the Steam forum [Via Destructoid], Blow revealed documentation for the editor would be released following an update to the game (which went live late yesterday) and "when more people have played/finished the game."

In the meantime, initial editor information has been posted by Blow on the official Braid blog to help gamers get started.The Braid PC level editor will allow gamers to extend the life of the puzzle title, with the potential to add "up to [another] full game," Blow wrote. The developer/survivalist also revealed future plans to add image importing from Photoshop into the game, allowing aspiring Braid designers to put their own graphics into their creations.

Gallery: Braid

[Via ShackNews]

Braid PC demo past due, now present on Big Download

by Richard Mitchell { Apr 11th 2009 at 12:02AM }

A brief announcement is in order. Now that Braid is neither 'cool' nor 'in,' all the haters are allowed to like it. Yes, Braid is out of the limelight so it's now officially okay for you to both play and enjoy it. Furthermore, for those that don't have a 360 and aren't quite ready to plunk down the cash for the PC version, which releases today, you can grab a free demo from our brethren at Big Download.

It's okay. Forget about Jonathan Blow, walking around like he owns the place. Just play the game and enjoy it, free of any social influence. You can even act like you knew how good it was the whole time. We won't tell anyone.

PC version of Braid travels ten days into the future

by JC Fletcher { Mar 27th 2009 at 8:00PM }

Bad news for PC-owning wannabe time benders: the PC release of Braid has been delayed past its original March 31 date, according to a post on the official Braid blog. Fortunately, a typo in the announcement lets you experience a mysterious temporal puzzle right now!

Creator Jonathan Blow said that he is "delaying it slightly, til August 10th." But a delay of over four months isn't "slight!" What is going on here? He goes on to apologize for making people "wait an extra 10 days." But ... August 10 isn't ten days away from March 31! What a crazy puzzle!

Gallery: Braid

SPOILER: He meant April 10.

GDC09: Braid, the $200,000 idea

by Xav de Matos { Mar 26th 2009 at 2:44PM }

Things GDC 2009 taught us: Indie games aren't always cheap. During the "Braving the Stormy Waters of XBLA and PSN: Smaller is NOT Easier" panel, Jonathan Blow revealed that his critical hit, Braid, cost $200,000 to develop.

Blow admits that development cost cuts could have been made, but his spending was to ensure a quality product. To maintain a high level of quality, Blow hired an actual artist instead of attempting to draw himself. Another large chunk of the budget? Survival. "A lot of that money was spent because I didn't want to live in a shack somewhere," Blow told the audience. According to the creator, development only requires a few essentials: "a PC, a dev kit and enough money to live on for the time it takes to develop.

"If you can live for three years at your Mom's house, you can make a game for free," Blow joked. Wait... what'dja you say about our Mama?!

XBLA Awards: Braid can't rewind loss to Castle Crashers

by James Ransom-Wiley { Mar 23rd 2009 at 6:52PM }

Castle Crashers recovered from a 4-month gimp to be crowned the Xbox Live Arcade "Game of the Year" in the second annual community voting awards. Somewhat surprisingly, Castle Crashers also managed to nab "Best Co-op Mode" despite being virtually unplayable online for four out of its seven months in release. On its way to top honors, The Behemoth's beat-em-up notably beat out its fellow indie nominee, Braid, which was famously dismissed by an American youth spokesperson.

Braid's losing streak continued in the "Best Single Player Game" category, which was claimed by Orange Box cutout Portal: Still Alive (oh right, it has "exclusive" challenge maps), but Jonathan Blow's timeless effort did mange to win "Best Innovation" amid stiff competition. (We were certain Kefling's innovative "use of Avatars" was a shoo-in.)

The complete list of awards and recipients is posted after the break.

Continued →

Xbox Live Arcade February chart toppers

by Xav de Matos { Mar 17th 2009 at 6:00PM }

Based on info gleaned from Major Nelson's weekly Top Ten lists (sans data from the week ending February 2), GamerBytes has compiled a list of the top selling Xbox Live Arcade titles in February.

Topping the charts is the EA Sports Freestyle-branded arcade game, 3-on-3 NHL Arcade with strong showings from the pricey R-Type Dimensions and Braid (following an end of the month Deal of the Week sale). Most surprisingly was the interest in Minesweeper Flags, which hovered within the top ten for two weeks in a row -- even though every Windows PC ships with a version of the game!

Not faring as well last month were Death Tank (the Sega Saturn Duke Nukem 3D mini-game remake of Death Tank Zwei, priced at 1200

) and Exit 2, which both failed to capture much attention upon release. The Maw was a notable entry, firmly holding onto a spot all month following a January release (which GamerBytes notes is a rare feat for XBLA releases). Of course, the most important thing to take away from this is that none of the aforementioned titles were Peggle, which is everyone's new virtual cocaine. We bow to our Unicorn masters.

CoD: WaW tops Xbox Live this week, Braid sales surge thanks to price cut

by David Hinkle { Mar 4th 2009 at 11:30AM }

Another week in Xbox Live activity goes down in history, and snatching the crown for most played during the week of February 23 is none other than Call of Duty: World at War. Been there, done that, we know, but in more exciting news, the Braid price drop really helped the game out, propelling it to be the top-selling Arcade title this week. Enjoy manipulating times, folks, and be sure to cruise past the break for the rest of this week's stats.

Continued →

PC Braid also launching on Steam March 31

by Griffin McElroy { Feb 25th 2009 at 3:41PM }

We were jazzed to hear that Jonathan Blow's introspective chrono-manipulative platformer Braid would be making its way onto PCs via Stardock's digital distribution service Impulse -- though we wondered why Blow hadn't set up a wider launch platform for the computerfied adaptation of his XBLA indie hit. Hothead's agreement to bring the title to Macs was a step in the right direction, but we've just received word of a huge movement to further propagate the plight of Mr. Tim -- a Valve presser just confirmed that Braid is on its way to Steam.

It'll be hitting the popular digital distribution platform on March 31 (the same day as Impulse's Braid launch) at a price point of $14.99. That's a whole four cents more expensive than the title's cost on Impulse. Man, isn't that just like Valve? Always trying to ~~nickel and dime~~ penny and four-penny the little man.

Hothead Games to bring Braid to Mac, The Maw to PC

by David Hinkle { Feb 24th 2009 at 2:20PM }

Xbox Live is a wonderful place. Without it, we would have never discovered diamonds in the rough such as The Maw and Braid. Thankfully, these games are getting the red carpet treatment and rolling out to other platforms, courtesy of Hothead Games.

Hothead games will first bring Jonathan Blow's Braid to Mac gamers everywhere. Also, the company is currently working on getting Twisted Pixel's The Maw to "multiple as-of-yet-unannounced digital distribution platforms and services." Steam, anyone?

We don't have a date yet as to when Hothead will be offering these titles to their respective platforms, but we'll update as soon as we know.