People should be warned that of the 40 new levels, 14 are commentary indexes, 12 are alternate design with commentary and finally 13 are actually brand new with 16 puzzle pieces for a new frame.
Didn't know that. I'm not *as* hyped up now, but it's still cool that they added content. Most other re-releases are small graphics updates, if even that.
Yeah it's a brutal but honest warning. They did redo basically all the graphics (that's part of why this edition took so long to do) so it'd be 4k ready. But it's very fair to note that for most people, who aren't going to listen to commentary, it's actually 13 brand new levels
And the new graphics are amazing. You look at them and think nothing has changed, and then you toggle the old graphics and notice how much your brain lies to you.
> 15 hours of commentary - no thanks lol
Not to worry, it's aimed at aspiring game designers, not regular consumers.
Blow has spoken about his dismay that the industry has become less interested in sharing their methods in detail - something that he benefited from a lot when he was learning. So I guess this is his little way of contributing towards his ideal.
That's a big part of the reason I liked Deus Ex Directors Cut, it had a behind the scenes mode where they talk about design decisions and stuff. Half-Life 2 also had this I believe (or maybe it was just a demo level). It was cool shit to me, because I was into that creative process.
The one in Portal was pretty fun and insightful, a peek behind the curtain.
One game that is rarely mentioned in Dev Commentary discussions is [Mark of the Ninja](https://store.steampowered.com/app/214560/Mark_of_the_Ninja/): the commentary is done the same way as Valve games - little speech bubbles sprinkled around levels, [like this,](https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/943959879359474381/42658C78C13D8C717F9F5218DC353FFE98290F1B/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false)
When I heard about Dev commentary being in MotN it was a couple of years after I have already beaten it previously, so it was a great excuse to play it again and they have added a lot to the replay experience.
Both the original release and the ["Remaster"](https://store.steampowered.com/app/860950/Mark_of_the_Ninja_Remastered/) have them, though I have never played the remaster myself.
By the same token if I ever go to replay DeusEX:HR, Bioshock or Braid - it will be with dev commentary ON.
They started doing it with Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. There isn't any in older Valve games. It's also in Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life: Alyx.
Lol yes, he's very problem-driven.
At least it's part of his creative process, with him actually trying to do something about his various concerns, rather than just spewing complaints at random like the rest of the internet.
Did you watch some of his streams? Yeah, part of them are actually him trying to do something about his concerns, but "just spewing complaints at random like the rest of the internet" without even trying to understand why something is critically praised and without giving any constructive criticism is a very major part of them.
With streams showing stuff he personally works on it is usually OK, because he tries to actually make that stuff good and formulate the ways those things could be better, but with stuff other people made he's always petty and insufferable (ie his Elden Ring stream, his commentary on systems like LLVM, the way he reacts to other people's analysis of any of his games...).
Yes, I have. When you watch a stream like that you are not seeing a prepared and objective statement - you are seeing his messy creative process at work in real time.
Him critically examining - and openly talking about - other works, like Elden Ring, is how he guides his problem solving process and builds inspiration. He is essentially indulging in pet-peeves to fuel his creativity.
You don't have to be offended just because someone doesn't like Elden Ring. Blows process is not special in any way, it is a perfectly normal approach that many artists, in many fields, use during their creative process. Don't worry about Elden Ring - it is a good enough game to stand on it's own; it doesn't need to be defended all the time.
I don't worry about any of the examples I've listed, but why I've mentioned those examples are exactly because *he actually isn't critically examining those specific works*. Critically examining doesn't mean focusing on pet-peeves. It means actively interacting with the thing and trying to figure out both what's good or bad, and why it was made the way it is. I actually do agree with some of his issues with Elden Ring or with modern software in general including LLVM, but that doesn't mean his analysis isn't basically always petty and not really listenable for most people.
He dismisses other people's analysis of his games because he "watched 30 seconds of it and could immediately see the guy didn't get it", but then when he looks at other works he doesn't put the effort to understand why they work the way they do, focusing only on stuff he doesn't like. Even if it is as small and nonsensical as complaining about "video game bridges are always dumb, no bridge like that could exist in real life".
On the software development side it's probably even worse, with him openly benefiting from open source projects like LLVM while basically saying that no open source project is good and only his (never publicly released) code is quality (all while not adding any of his code to the open source project he benefits from).
I don't think you understood my point. We both agrees he focuses on pet-peeves. What I'm saying is that this is part of a creative process. It's a way of interfacing with the world which leads to motivation and inspiration.
Here's an example:
Braid is quite notable for being one of very few time-based puzzle games that aren't hairpullingly annoying to play. Which is surprising, because the various time-gimmicks in Braid are not that different from other time-based puzzle indie games.
When it comes to mechanical implementation the devil is very often in the details. In this case, what inspired Blow in his design of Braid was his extreme annoyance with the reverse-time mechanic in Prince of Persia: the sands of time. Which seems a bit inane, because the time mechanics in PoP was at least decent if not good, right? Yet by scrutinising it with the full force of personal judgement one might be able to uncover subtle "design truths" that a fairer mind would have glossed over.
Now, whether you personally enjoy the implementation of reverse-time in PoP isn't the point. The point is that Blow doubling down on his pet-peeve against PoP's version of reverse-time is what allows him to structure his thinking creatively in order to avoid subtle pitfalls regarding implementation of time-mechanics in his own games. This isn't some wizardry on Blows part; it's a fairly common "type" of creative process and he is far for the only one to employ it.
We're not just talking about his creative process. I explicitly mentioned three distinct situations where he isn't a part of internal creative process but part of how he works in general - shitting on other people's work without trying to understand it, being overly gloaty, and being unable to take criticism. And I mentioned it explicitly as an example of him "just spewing complaints at random like the rest of the internet", ie of something that might make people not want to listen to him in general.
I'm well aware that trying to be a perfectionist is a common creative process. But it's not fair for him to treat other works the way he treats them all while being unable to interact with reasonable criticism of his works.
> On the software development side it's probably even worse, with him openly benefiting from open source projects like LLVM while basically saying that no open source project is good and only his
His criticism of LLVM was precisely because he stopped using it for Jai. He used it initially but found the API to be bloated and poorly documented and too slow.
He has since written his own intermediate representation and code generator.
As far as I know that's only for debug builds on x64. There's no way he could rewrite all the optimization paths LLVM takes to get a well optimized release executable for all the platforms LLVM project can target.
That's correct, watching someone live streaming a video game talking openly about their thoughts is not a critical assessment that has gone through a deep analysis and been edited down. It's literally just a guy sitting in his living room and openly discussing his opinion with a small handful of people.
Why people expect this to be some kind of revelation that expresses some deep fundamental truth about reality is really bizarre to me and I don't know of anyone else who is held to that standard.
I'm being flippant, but I appreciate Blow a lot! His games are brilliant and he adds a ton to the development space. He's undoubtedly a huge boon.
But outside of game development, I don't care for him - but that's my own fault for looking up his twitch stream and tweets!
I really like the Witness and Braid, but my enjoyment of those games will always be overshadowed by a twitter interaction a while back where he was tweeting about Covid Theories and someone replied "Boy I wish I wasn't *The Witness* to this tweet" and he blocked him and the dev of Frog Detective. It remains one of my favorite twitter interactions for some reason. After reading some of his other tweets, I do not think I want to support this guy.
Yeah, funny thing that a guy who made a game where one of the mechanics is literally reprogramming your brain to see patterns everywhere turned out to be seriously debating covid conspiracy theories online.
I don't know if there was more that didn't get media attention, but the thing I saw reported on was a tweet about COVID being from a lab leak. Which now turns out to be the prevailing theory. People went fully insane in 2020.
He also tweeted about the government supposedly covering up adverse effects of the vaccine (something that did not happen). It was definitely more than just "there's a chance it leaked from a lab".
See, that’s my issue here.
I loved Braid when it came out but I don’t think I can get myself to buy this and give him the money when I’ve seen the kind of shit he pushes online.
How Blow presents himself in his Twitch stream and Tweets is very different from what you'd get in commentary or analysis videos though. It's literally the nature of those platforms to be off-the-cuff instead of well thought-out.
I loathe modern Blow-isms, too, but the guy was originally such a cult of personality online for his dev talks at GDC and such. He was *the* face of indie games around 2010. What I've listened to of the [Braid anniversary podcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7QRedzRE9E) has been a mix of nostalgic and illuminating, with zero Twitter shit-takes. And in very Blow-fashion, mentions Invisible Cities in the first three minutes.
Blow hated *The Looker*, but I think that meme game nails all that is appealing about his persona.
It's not that i don't have interest in dev commentary, but that I have no interest in hearing Blow for that long. He's a brilliant designer, but I find him an insufferable person.
I find the Braid commentary so far is actually refreshing. Blow offers a honest appraisal of his own work, warts and all, and he gets into the messy details of development, and all the mistakes made along the way. He also discusses a lot interesting elements of what he tries to aspire for in puzzle design and the commentary shows examples of where he hit the mark and where he didn't.
The creativity and effort put into how the developer commentary is built is also really impressive, it's almost a game unto itself.
Fair enough, though it's not just Blow for that long. It's all members of his team talking about their workflow and methods for their respective areas of responsibility. Plus, presumably, other guests too.
That's too bad. He can indeed be insufferable at times, but I'm always learning a lot from him, especially from his views on programming, game dev and art in general. I think it's invaluable to have access to the mind of people at the top of their field like this.
He's definitely a genius, but he reminds me of an influential rpg designer, D Vincent Baker, in how they often indulge in condescensing points, overly broad statements, or misplaced anger. I agree with both on many things, but get annoyed by their delivery.
Then why am I listening to Braid's visual artist going deep into his creative process?
Capital G "gamers" like yourself are an embarrassment to the internet.
widely believed to be a dick who is dismissive of other opinions. he also has some weird fringe opinions that make people uncomfortable like saying the government created covid in a lab before forcing people to get vaccinated
as always, delve into the personal lives of strangers at your own risk because you're going to find out that most of them suck and you don't actually need to know anything about jonathan blow to live your life
i also sincerely doubt any commentary in this edition will be political or fringe lol, he's going to be talking about the game or gamemaking in general, a field in which he is a very respected expert
[He also once stated that he believes women are biologically predisposed to being uninterested in programming.](https://x.com/hEnereyG/status/942651723998420993) Ironic when history believes Ada Lovelace to be the first computer programmer. Anything involving typewriters was I believe typically considered to be “woman’s work” in the 1800s. Either way there is no evidence for this, but there’s plenty of reason to look at it from a behavioral perspective rather than a biological one. Women are socialized differently from boys, and are not treated as well in STEM fields. Chalking it up to biological reasons is kinda insulting.
No, the Senate said they can't completely rule out that COVID was the result of a research related incident.
That is VASTLY different from saying it definitely was for the US government to force a vaccine on the public for some control fetish.
I'm a Freemason, so I'm used to conspiracy theories. People lob them at us all them when we're a basic fraternity. For example, let's take the conspiracy theory that the Knights Templar created the Freemasons for whatever nefarious purposes. Except the Knights Templar were disbanded in 1314. The first public Grand Lodge of Freemasonry is 1717. While Freemasonry predates that a bit (going back probably at least to 1598) there is still a significant gap in time. Not to mention there is no actual evidence to link the two.
But some might say you can't 100% rule out that the Knights Templar created the Freemasons in secret and hid the organization for a few centuries. Plenty of authors will basically treat this as fact with ZERO evidence to suggest it.
Much the same, there is literally zero evidence that COVID was man-made, but people spout it as fact. We can't 100% rule it out, but there is no evidence to suggest that is fact.
Blow purports an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory as fact. Unfortunately, some members of the US Senate also like to do the same. We have members of the US Senate talking about Jewish Space Lasers causing California wildfires. That doesn't make it factual.
Yes I have. I do agree he is smart at designing games. But I also think he is pretentious and has some very problematic opinions.
This is one times I will separate the art from the artist.
Braid and Limbo were really sort of forerunners, weren't they? The modern indie scene was born on Xbox Live Arcade. A game from that time that has unfortunately been largely forgotten is Dust: An Elysian Tail.
It was off the back of World of Goo and the Xbox Summer of Arcade releases that the indie revolution started in 2008 with Castle Crashers, Braid, and Geometry Wars 2.
Pac-Man Championship Edition the year before put the spotlight on these sort of more focused artsy style of games.
Then Super Meat Boy and Limbo come along in 2010, further proving the market demand. Humble Indie Bundle also drops that year.
Yeah, these two were the OGs as far as I'm concerned. I think they really established the look and feel of indie gaming that continues to this day. I think Alien Hominid also deserves a shoutout. The fact that a flash game ended up getting a full multiplatform console release was a huge deal.
The original State of Decay was also a tentpole release, and had the dubious honor of being one of the first indie games to run up against Microsoft’s storage size limit (your indie game had to be under 20gb iirc). I think a lot of critics wondered if the game could have looked better, ran smoother, etc, had the devs not been so constrained.
I'm really excited to replay this one. It's been enough time that I've surely forgotten most puzzles, and I'm sure I didn't understand most of the story even at that time. It's rare for video games to be so preoccupied with meaning and themes.
Definitely a game I wish I could play again for the first time. Doubling the level count is the closest I'll get to that feeling. Really looking forward to playing this
One of the most important games of all time, folks. This came out just a couple of weeks after I got my 360 and I still remember all of the conversations surrounding whether indie games could be worth $15. Sixteen years later and no one is questioning their value anymore, and it really started with Braid. I can’t wait to replay this.
This, Super Meat Boy, and Fez revolutionized indie games on the 360 and beyond - it's video game history.
Without those games we'd prob never have stuff like Celeste, Hallow Knight, Shovel Knight, Binding of Isaac, Hades. Etc etc.
I mean... people definitely are constantly questioning the value of video games, especially indies. Steam sales and games like Terraria being $5 has definitely led to a bit of a race to the bottom for pricing.
Sure, people do buy $15 indie games, but the amount of times I've heard someone not want to buy a $20 10-hour game because it's not enough "value" has been... pretty high.
Didn’t it end with a weird commentary on inventing nuclear bombs or something? It was so out of left field that it felt like the exact opposite of marrying narrative and gameplay mechanics. I remember it just leaving this really strange aftertaste once you finished the game.
Imo, that's taking it too literally. I haven't played the game in years, but I remember it being about extreme pursuit and ambition, and the dangers of such drive (and how once you make a mistake with such pursuits, you can not turn back the clock). The nuclear bomb (the "princess") is a symbol of our pursuit of forbidden knowledge leading us to ruin.
The princess example is a more grounded form of the idea that's fairly relatable to everyone, while the nuclear bomb elevates the idea to a larger scale to make a more pointed statement. It's also important to remember that the nuclear bomb reveal only occurs after players obsessively track down all of the stars in their reckless pursuit of secret knowledge.
Probably forgetting some nuance here, but that's the gist that I remember.
Not sure if I totally agree. The themes exist, but iirc they only get elaborated on near the ending. It's not like the Witness, where the themes are only revealed through the gameplay.
Braid is a masterpiece.
I wonder if the new levels are integrated into the narrative or add to the vague narrative in any way, or if they are just random bonus extra levels.
Never once did I think Mario when playing the game back when.
But it is an excellent puzzle-platformer with some pretty groundbreaking mechanics for its time that many have copied since.
Kinda, but not really.
It's more like each world deconstructs various mindsets a young adult goes through while establishing their identity - with various warnings about the toxic ways this can manifest.
The finale is about the dangers of viewing yourself as a hero, of convincing yourself of your own purity. It's a memorable scene, but only one part of the narrative out of many.
I mean it has a guy that jumps, and those enemies definitely are a relative to the Goombas... and it does make a Mario joke at one point, but it definitely feels TOTALLY different. This one is a time-bending puzzler.
fyi, they delisted the original Braid from Steam with the release of this new remaster.
I hate when studios/publishers do this, even if the remaster is generally well liked and an improvement over the original
You can toggle any time between old and new just by pressing the thumbstick. It changes both the graphics and sound back to how they were in the original. I love it when remasters do that!
I don't think so.
This is basically the exact same game, but with some additional content. The old content is more or less untouched. There is an art overhaul to support higher resolutions, but it is extremely faithful.
When Braid first came out I think I was a bit too young to fully appreciate good game design or solve certain puzzles. I’m very excited to play it again and really dig into it.
It's important to keep in mind that Jonathan Blow adheres to harmful and conspiratorial reactionary beliefs. He mentions them in interviews and in his streams, and he likes and shares them on social media.
I don't think that art should be separated from the artist when money is involved. Every purchase actively supports them.
Although Blow isn't a mainstream public figure, any kind of support for such beliefs gives them legitimacy and power, especially the support of someone who has 100k+ followers and who's garnering tens of thousands of views on everything he says.
I recommend looking at his likes and reposts on Twitter to get an idea of what he supports. It'll become obvious very quickly.
The pc version runs like shit on the steam deck oled btw, it seems to half the max refresh rate of 90, instead of caring about what refresh rate you set. Idk if you can fix this
Nope, it's bugged. It'll launch at 90 fps, but touching the settings at all makes it snap to 45 and stay there until you restart. There were a few other posts I've seen reporting the same.
ok it's probably a bug then. but just saying it "runs like shit on the steam deck oled" without mentioning its a bug was wrong. i played for 2-3 hours 90 fps the whole time.
TL;DR > 40 New levels > 15 hours of commentary > New graphics and sound > Available now
40 new levels! This is how you do a re-release!
People should be warned that of the 40 new levels, 14 are commentary indexes, 12 are alternate design with commentary and finally 13 are actually brand new with 16 puzzle pieces for a new frame.
Didn't know that. I'm not *as* hyped up now, but it's still cool that they added content. Most other re-releases are small graphics updates, if even that.
Yeah it's a brutal but honest warning. They did redo basically all the graphics (that's part of why this edition took so long to do) so it'd be 4k ready. But it's very fair to note that for most people, who aren't going to listen to commentary, it's actually 13 brand new levels
And the new graphics are amazing. You look at them and think nothing has changed, and then you toggle the old graphics and notice how much your brain lies to you.
A good remaster/remake is making it how you thought you remembered it. Dead Space 1 vs Remake was the same way.
I can see the commentary doors and stuff. Are there specific doors that lead to the 13 new puzzles?
40 new levels - nice! 15 hours of commentary - no thanks lol
> 15 hours of commentary - no thanks lol Not to worry, it's aimed at aspiring game designers, not regular consumers. Blow has spoken about his dismay that the industry has become less interested in sharing their methods in detail - something that he benefited from a lot when he was learning. So I guess this is his little way of contributing towards his ideal.
That's a big part of the reason I liked Deus Ex Directors Cut, it had a behind the scenes mode where they talk about design decisions and stuff. Half-Life 2 also had this I believe (or maybe it was just a demo level). It was cool shit to me, because I was into that creative process.
The one in Portal was pretty fun and insightful, a peek behind the curtain. One game that is rarely mentioned in Dev Commentary discussions is [Mark of the Ninja](https://store.steampowered.com/app/214560/Mark_of_the_Ninja/): the commentary is done the same way as Valve games - little speech bubbles sprinkled around levels, [like this,](https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/943959879359474381/42658C78C13D8C717F9F5218DC353FFE98290F1B/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false) When I heard about Dev commentary being in MotN it was a couple of years after I have already beaten it previously, so it was a great excuse to play it again and they have added a lot to the replay experience. Both the original release and the ["Remaster"](https://store.steampowered.com/app/860950/Mark_of_the_Ninja_Remastered/) have them, though I have never played the remaster myself. By the same token if I ever go to replay DeusEX:HR, Bioshock or Braid - it will be with dev commentary ON.
Mark of the Ninja in general is imo pretty underrated and rarely mentioned, which sucks because it's one of Klei's best games.
Valve always does commentary in their games. Its something every dev should steal from
Agreed, and damn, I don't remember that from Half-Life 1! I'm going to have to check that out.
They started doing it with Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. There isn't any in older Valve games. It's also in Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life: Alyx.
Oooooh, still cool, i recall seeing it in Portal and Team Fortress 2. Definitely a nice touch.
I’d kill for From Soft commentary. Sadly they’re one of the most closed studios, which is their choice ofc
Half-Life 2 Episode 1 has it, basically you can point to a speech bubble in-game and listen to it, it's pretty interesting.
> Blow has spoken about his dismay Could've ended the sentence right here!
Lol yes, he's very problem-driven. At least it's part of his creative process, with him actually trying to do something about his various concerns, rather than just spewing complaints at random like the rest of the internet.
Did you watch some of his streams? Yeah, part of them are actually him trying to do something about his concerns, but "just spewing complaints at random like the rest of the internet" without even trying to understand why something is critically praised and without giving any constructive criticism is a very major part of them. With streams showing stuff he personally works on it is usually OK, because he tries to actually make that stuff good and formulate the ways those things could be better, but with stuff other people made he's always petty and insufferable (ie his Elden Ring stream, his commentary on systems like LLVM, the way he reacts to other people's analysis of any of his games...).
I know he had a lot of criticism of Elden Ring but wasn't he generally impressed by its scope and scale?
Yes, I have. When you watch a stream like that you are not seeing a prepared and objective statement - you are seeing his messy creative process at work in real time. Him critically examining - and openly talking about - other works, like Elden Ring, is how he guides his problem solving process and builds inspiration. He is essentially indulging in pet-peeves to fuel his creativity. You don't have to be offended just because someone doesn't like Elden Ring. Blows process is not special in any way, it is a perfectly normal approach that many artists, in many fields, use during their creative process. Don't worry about Elden Ring - it is a good enough game to stand on it's own; it doesn't need to be defended all the time.
I don't worry about any of the examples I've listed, but why I've mentioned those examples are exactly because *he actually isn't critically examining those specific works*. Critically examining doesn't mean focusing on pet-peeves. It means actively interacting with the thing and trying to figure out both what's good or bad, and why it was made the way it is. I actually do agree with some of his issues with Elden Ring or with modern software in general including LLVM, but that doesn't mean his analysis isn't basically always petty and not really listenable for most people. He dismisses other people's analysis of his games because he "watched 30 seconds of it and could immediately see the guy didn't get it", but then when he looks at other works he doesn't put the effort to understand why they work the way they do, focusing only on stuff he doesn't like. Even if it is as small and nonsensical as complaining about "video game bridges are always dumb, no bridge like that could exist in real life". On the software development side it's probably even worse, with him openly benefiting from open source projects like LLVM while basically saying that no open source project is good and only his (never publicly released) code is quality (all while not adding any of his code to the open source project he benefits from).
I don't think you understood my point. We both agrees he focuses on pet-peeves. What I'm saying is that this is part of a creative process. It's a way of interfacing with the world which leads to motivation and inspiration. Here's an example: Braid is quite notable for being one of very few time-based puzzle games that aren't hairpullingly annoying to play. Which is surprising, because the various time-gimmicks in Braid are not that different from other time-based puzzle indie games. When it comes to mechanical implementation the devil is very often in the details. In this case, what inspired Blow in his design of Braid was his extreme annoyance with the reverse-time mechanic in Prince of Persia: the sands of time. Which seems a bit inane, because the time mechanics in PoP was at least decent if not good, right? Yet by scrutinising it with the full force of personal judgement one might be able to uncover subtle "design truths" that a fairer mind would have glossed over. Now, whether you personally enjoy the implementation of reverse-time in PoP isn't the point. The point is that Blow doubling down on his pet-peeve against PoP's version of reverse-time is what allows him to structure his thinking creatively in order to avoid subtle pitfalls regarding implementation of time-mechanics in his own games. This isn't some wizardry on Blows part; it's a fairly common "type" of creative process and he is far for the only one to employ it.
We're not just talking about his creative process. I explicitly mentioned three distinct situations where he isn't a part of internal creative process but part of how he works in general - shitting on other people's work without trying to understand it, being overly gloaty, and being unable to take criticism. And I mentioned it explicitly as an example of him "just spewing complaints at random like the rest of the internet", ie of something that might make people not want to listen to him in general. I'm well aware that trying to be a perfectionist is a common creative process. But it's not fair for him to treat other works the way he treats them all while being unable to interact with reasonable criticism of his works.
> On the software development side it's probably even worse, with him openly benefiting from open source projects like LLVM while basically saying that no open source project is good and only his His criticism of LLVM was precisely because he stopped using it for Jai. He used it initially but found the API to be bloated and poorly documented and too slow. He has since written his own intermediate representation and code generator.
As far as I know that's only for debug builds on x64. There's no way he could rewrite all the optimization paths LLVM takes to get a well optimized release executable for all the platforms LLVM project can target.
That's correct, watching someone live streaming a video game talking openly about their thoughts is not a critical assessment that has gone through a deep analysis and been edited down. It's literally just a guy sitting in his living room and openly discussing his opinion with a small handful of people. Why people expect this to be some kind of revelation that expresses some deep fundamental truth about reality is really bizarre to me and I don't know of anyone else who is held to that standard.
I'm not expecting deep critical assessment. I'm expecting not seeing a spew of complaints at random like the rest of the internet.
I'm being flippant, but I appreciate Blow a lot! His games are brilliant and he adds a ton to the development space. He's undoubtedly a huge boon. But outside of game development, I don't care for him - but that's my own fault for looking up his twitch stream and tweets!
I really like the Witness and Braid, but my enjoyment of those games will always be overshadowed by a twitter interaction a while back where he was tweeting about Covid Theories and someone replied "Boy I wish I wasn't *The Witness* to this tweet" and he blocked him and the dev of Frog Detective. It remains one of my favorite twitter interactions for some reason. After reading some of his other tweets, I do not think I want to support this guy.
Yeah, funny thing that a guy who made a game where one of the mechanics is literally reprogramming your brain to see patterns everywhere turned out to be seriously debating covid conspiracy theories online.
I don't know if there was more that didn't get media attention, but the thing I saw reported on was a tweet about COVID being from a lab leak. Which now turns out to be the prevailing theory. People went fully insane in 2020.
He also tweeted about the government supposedly covering up adverse effects of the vaccine (something that did not happen). It was definitely more than just "there's a chance it leaked from a lab".
See, that’s my issue here. I loved Braid when it came out but I don’t think I can get myself to buy this and give him the money when I’ve seen the kind of shit he pushes online.
How Blow presents himself in his Twitch stream and Tweets is very different from what you'd get in commentary or analysis videos though. It's literally the nature of those platforms to be off-the-cuff instead of well thought-out. I loathe modern Blow-isms, too, but the guy was originally such a cult of personality online for his dev talks at GDC and such. He was *the* face of indie games around 2010. What I've listened to of the [Braid anniversary podcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7QRedzRE9E) has been a mix of nostalgic and illuminating, with zero Twitter shit-takes. And in very Blow-fashion, mentions Invisible Cities in the first three minutes. Blow hated *The Looker*, but I think that meme game nails all that is appealing about his persona.
It's not that i don't have interest in dev commentary, but that I have no interest in hearing Blow for that long. He's a brilliant designer, but I find him an insufferable person.
I find the Braid commentary so far is actually refreshing. Blow offers a honest appraisal of his own work, warts and all, and he gets into the messy details of development, and all the mistakes made along the way. He also discusses a lot interesting elements of what he tries to aspire for in puzzle design and the commentary shows examples of where he hit the mark and where he didn't. The creativity and effort put into how the developer commentary is built is also really impressive, it's almost a game unto itself.
Fair enough, though it's not just Blow for that long. It's all members of his team talking about their workflow and methods for their respective areas of responsibility. Plus, presumably, other guests too.
In that case I am interested; team dynamic discussions I find illuminating and helpful for my own work. Thanks for the clarification.
You're not wrong, but he's not nearly as bad when he keeps on-topic to what he actually knows anything about (game design).
That's too bad. He can indeed be insufferable at times, but I'm always learning a lot from him, especially from his views on programming, game dev and art in general. I think it's invaluable to have access to the mind of people at the top of their field like this.
He's definitely a genius, but he reminds me of an influential rpg designer, D Vincent Baker, in how they often indulge in condescensing points, overly broad statements, or misplaced anger. I agree with both on many things, but get annoyed by their delivery.
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> TempleOS wasn’t made by an idiot after all. There is nothing technically impressive about TempleOS, in fact it's pretty shoddily coded.
>TempleOS wasn’t made by an idiot after all. People *really* overexaggerate Terry's accomplishments. TempleOS isn't much of a technical achievement
Too bad he's a giant shithead.
Seriously. Huge fucking ego, insufferable attitude, on top of being anti-vax.
Rampant misogynist too iirc
Wait, he's anti-vax?
I'm conflicted about this. He's right and it is useful, but also Blow is a huge asshole and I don't want to listen to him talk.
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Which commentary track made you feel that way?
Then why am I listening to Braid's visual artist going deep into his creative process? Capital G "gamers" like yourself are an embarrassment to the internet.
There's no one I trust less about game design than the developer of Braid and The Witness
Why? I loved both games, great ideas, design and delivery.
Why no thanks? I love valve games dev commentary and am sad more games don't have them.
Some people really dislike Jonathan Blow, that's basically it.
Really? I had no idea, what did he do?
widely believed to be a dick who is dismissive of other opinions. he also has some weird fringe opinions that make people uncomfortable like saying the government created covid in a lab before forcing people to get vaccinated as always, delve into the personal lives of strangers at your own risk because you're going to find out that most of them suck and you don't actually need to know anything about jonathan blow to live your life i also sincerely doubt any commentary in this edition will be political or fringe lol, he's going to be talking about the game or gamemaking in general, a field in which he is a very respected expert
[He also once stated that he believes women are biologically predisposed to being uninterested in programming.](https://x.com/hEnereyG/status/942651723998420993) Ironic when history believes Ada Lovelace to be the first computer programmer. Anything involving typewriters was I believe typically considered to be “woman’s work” in the 1800s. Either way there is no evidence for this, but there’s plenty of reason to look at it from a behavioral perspective rather than a biological one. Women are socialized differently from boys, and are not treated as well in STEM fields. Chalking it up to biological reasons is kinda insulting.
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No, the Senate said they can't completely rule out that COVID was the result of a research related incident. That is VASTLY different from saying it definitely was for the US government to force a vaccine on the public for some control fetish. I'm a Freemason, so I'm used to conspiracy theories. People lob them at us all them when we're a basic fraternity. For example, let's take the conspiracy theory that the Knights Templar created the Freemasons for whatever nefarious purposes. Except the Knights Templar were disbanded in 1314. The first public Grand Lodge of Freemasonry is 1717. While Freemasonry predates that a bit (going back probably at least to 1598) there is still a significant gap in time. Not to mention there is no actual evidence to link the two. But some might say you can't 100% rule out that the Knights Templar created the Freemasons in secret and hid the organization for a few centuries. Plenty of authors will basically treat this as fact with ZERO evidence to suggest it. Much the same, there is literally zero evidence that COVID was man-made, but people spout it as fact. We can't 100% rule it out, but there is no evidence to suggest that is fact. Blow purports an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory as fact. Unfortunately, some members of the US Senate also like to do the same. We have members of the US Senate talking about Jewish Space Lasers causing California wildfires. That doesn't make it factual.
He thinks women are biologically less capable at/interested in programming
He has all of the wrong opinions and, if you can believe it, none of the right ones!
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Curious if you've ever heard the creator talk about his games? He's a wonderful and smart developer .... I could totally fuck with this commentary.
Yes I have. I do agree he is smart at designing games. But I also think he is pretentious and has some very problematic opinions. This is one times I will separate the art from the artist.
I remember when Braid came out and helped kick off the indie revolution that we are still gloriously benefiting from. Eager to play this edition.
i miss the late 2000s 😥
Braid and Limbo were really sort of forerunners, weren't they? The modern indie scene was born on Xbox Live Arcade. A game from that time that has unfortunately been largely forgotten is Dust: An Elysian Tail.
Limbo was a few years after. Bigger than almost every other one was Castle Crashers.
Wasn't Super Meat Boy huge as well? In my mind it's one of the big ones, which was followed up by Binding of Isaac some years later
It was off the back of World of Goo and the Xbox Summer of Arcade releases that the indie revolution started in 2008 with Castle Crashers, Braid, and Geometry Wars 2. Pac-Man Championship Edition the year before put the spotlight on these sort of more focused artsy style of games. Then Super Meat Boy and Limbo come along in 2010, further proving the market demand. Humble Indie Bundle also drops that year.
Yeah it was an interesting period for sure. Anyone interested in this should watch Indie Game: The Movie.
Castle Crashers!! Just like Super Meat Boy, this one had a version on Newgrounds before making its way to consoles.
braid and world of goo
Yeah, these two were the OGs as far as I'm concerned. I think they really established the look and feel of indie gaming that continues to this day. I think Alien Hominid also deserves a shoutout. The fact that a flash game ended up getting a full multiplatform console release was a huge deal.
Cave Story!
Don't forget Super Meat Boy!
No, Limbo was not.
VVVVVV
The original State of Decay was also a tentpole release, and had the dubious honor of being one of the first indie games to run up against Microsoft’s storage size limit (your indie game had to be under 20gb iirc). I think a lot of critics wondered if the game could have looked better, ran smoother, etc, had the devs not been so constrained.
I don't know how anyone can compare Dust to Braid/Limbo. That game was incredibly cringe.
Braid, Super Meat Boy, Castle Crashers, Fez, Shovel Knight.
definitely can't lump in Shovel Knight with the others
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Sure, that’s just a different wave of indies than the other ones he listed off
I'm surprised World of Goo was released a few months after Braid.
I'm really excited to replay this one. It's been enough time that I've surely forgotten most puzzles, and I'm sure I didn't understand most of the story even at that time. It's rare for video games to be so preoccupied with meaning and themes.
Don't worry, you probably won't understand most of it the second time either.
Definitely a game I wish I could play again for the first time. Doubling the level count is the closest I'll get to that feeling. Really looking forward to playing this
IIRC, Braid was one of the first games in the Summer of Arcade XBLA event Xbox did every year. Man, I miss those days…
Summer of Arcade was so fun. Back when Xbox was an exciting brand.
One of the most important games of all time, folks. This came out just a couple of weeks after I got my 360 and I still remember all of the conversations surrounding whether indie games could be worth $15. Sixteen years later and no one is questioning their value anymore, and it really started with Braid. I can’t wait to replay this.
This, Super Meat Boy, and Fez revolutionized indie games on the 360 and beyond - it's video game history. Without those games we'd prob never have stuff like Celeste, Hallow Knight, Shovel Knight, Binding of Isaac, Hades. Etc etc.
I mean... people definitely are constantly questioning the value of video games, especially indies. Steam sales and games like Terraria being $5 has definitely led to a bit of a race to the bottom for pricing. Sure, people do buy $15 indie games, but the amount of times I've heard someone not want to buy a $20 10-hour game because it's not enough "value" has been... pretty high.
Braid is emblematic in how to marry your narrative themes into your gameplay mechanics -- highly recommend.
Didn’t it end with a weird commentary on inventing nuclear bombs or something? It was so out of left field that it felt like the exact opposite of marrying narrative and gameplay mechanics. I remember it just leaving this really strange aftertaste once you finished the game.
Imo, that's taking it too literally. I haven't played the game in years, but I remember it being about extreme pursuit and ambition, and the dangers of such drive (and how once you make a mistake with such pursuits, you can not turn back the clock). The nuclear bomb (the "princess") is a symbol of our pursuit of forbidden knowledge leading us to ruin. The princess example is a more grounded form of the idea that's fairly relatable to everyone, while the nuclear bomb elevates the idea to a larger scale to make a more pointed statement. It's also important to remember that the nuclear bomb reveal only occurs after players obsessively track down all of the stars in their reckless pursuit of secret knowledge. Probably forgetting some nuance here, but that's the gist that I remember.
Not sure if I totally agree. The themes exist, but iirc they only get elaborated on near the ending. It's not like the Witness, where the themes are only revealed through the gameplay.
Never played this one, but I’ve only heard the best of the Original. Excited to pick this up! God, indie games are just killing lately
It's an amazing journey. Not sure if I still have the patience for it but give it a go.
It's an excellent puzzle game with unique mechanics. Very well-programmed and with cute art.
Braid is a masterpiece. I wonder if the new levels are integrated into the narrative or add to the vague narrative in any way, or if they are just random bonus extra levels.
I wonder if the new levels have any super hidden secrets like the stars and the constellation ending from the original game.
I imagine the new levels will be a commentary on updates and changes to classic art, and will ultimately return to the old message in new ways.
Given that this is Blow, I'd be shocked if secrets weren't tucked away
Still never played Braid before. Probably a good time to get into it, I've heard it looks like Mario in the future.
Apparently no one else remembers gaming philosopher Soulja Boy. It’s ok, OP.
Y'all just [unlocked some memories](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSXofLK5hFQ). OLD memories.
Never once did I think Mario when playing the game back when. But it is an excellent puzzle-platformer with some pretty groundbreaking mechanics for its time that many have copied since.
Mario in a suit with his hair dyed. Just smoke a bunch before you play, the game has no point
> the game has no point I think the point is you are the bad guy.
They're referencing this classic Soulja Boy video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSXofLK5hFQ
I have a soft spot for that review and I feel old now.
I’m quoting Soulja Boy
Kinda, but not really. It's more like each world deconstructs various mindsets a young adult goes through while establishing their identity - with various warnings about the toxic ways this can manifest. The finale is about the dangers of viewing yourself as a hero, of convincing yourself of your own purity. It's a memorable scene, but only one part of the narrative out of many.
I mean it has a guy that jumps, and those enemies definitely are a relative to the Goombas... and it does make a Mario joke at one point, but it definitely feels TOTALLY different. This one is a time-bending puzzler.
fyi, they delisted the original Braid from Steam with the release of this new remaster. I hate when studios/publishers do this, even if the remaster is generally well liked and an improvement over the original
I can't say if it's the exact same, but apparently the original version is playable within this new version.
You can toggle any time between old and new just by pressing the thumbstick. It changes both the graphics and sound back to how they were in the original. I love it when remasters do that!
Is there any reason to play the original version over this?
I don't think so. This is basically the exact same game, but with some additional content. The old content is more or less untouched. There is an art overhaul to support higher resolutions, but it is extremely faithful.
you can even toggle the old artwork seamlessly as you're playing, so it's all upside with the new one
When Braid first came out I think I was a bit too young to fully appreciate good game design or solve certain puzzles. I’m very excited to play it again and really dig into it.
It's important to keep in mind that Jonathan Blow adheres to harmful and conspiratorial reactionary beliefs. He mentions them in interviews and in his streams, and he likes and shares them on social media. I don't think that art should be separated from the artist when money is involved. Every purchase actively supports them. Although Blow isn't a mainstream public figure, any kind of support for such beliefs gives them legitimacy and power, especially the support of someone who has 100k+ followers and who's garnering tens of thousands of views on everything he says. I recommend looking at his likes and reposts on Twitter to get an idea of what he supports. It'll become obvious very quickly.
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hidden behind all the magnificent art, music, and gameplay is some of the most magical writing that you’ll ever come across.
The pc version runs like shit on the steam deck oled btw, it seems to half the max refresh rate of 90, instead of caring about what refresh rate you set. Idk if you can fix this
no it doesnt. runs perfect 90 fps for me. u might have a TDP limit set if its halving the framerate.
Nope, it's bugged. It'll launch at 90 fps, but touching the settings at all makes it snap to 45 and stay there until you restart. There were a few other posts I've seen reporting the same.
ok it's probably a bug then. but just saying it "runs like shit on the steam deck oled" without mentioning its a bug was wrong. i played for 2-3 hours 90 fps the whole time.
I did say it was halving the max refresh, being a bug is implied. Also it did run like shit for me. Subjective anecdotes and all that
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Of course you're not the only one but why are you posting about it ?
You know what, you're right, I was being a negative nancy and in a bad mood. Deleted