Braid: Anniversary Edition "sold like dog s***", says creator Jonathan Blow
Braid: Anniversary Edition "sold like dog s***", says creator Jonathan Blow
Braid: Anniversary Edition has "sold like dog shit", according to its creator Jonathan Blow. Blow regularly streams on …
Finally, on 27th July, Blow noted the "whole industry is having a hard time" and then, when asked how many of his development team are working on the compiler for programming language Jai, Blow replied: "None, because we can't afford to pay anyone because the sales are bad."
Oof. I don't like Jon Blow, but I do like Braid. Sad to see nobody really cares about it anymore.
Or the people who care about it already have it. It doesn't have archaic controls or graphics or whatnot, so the need to buy a new version is way lower than the likes of a Resident Evil remake.
Yep! I would be much more interested in a Braid 2 rather than a remake of a game I already own and enjoy. I actually didn't realize until writing this comment that Braid Anniversary Edition even had more puzzles than the original.
He should have called it "Braid+" or "Braid 1.5" or something. "Anniversary Edition" makes it sound like I'm just going to pay to replay the same puzzles I already figured out a decade ago but with minor cosmetic changes. Forty new levels is fairly substantial.
Edit: Never mind: https://lemmy.sdf.org/comment/13251037
Exactly. I own it four times in fact!
Braid was a solid game all its own, and a remaster certainly wasn't needed (yet or at all). The Witness was freaking phenomenal, and I hope there will be other iterations of games like it to come. Blow can go blow away though. He's an anti-vaxxer and Covid conspiracy theorist, and that is something I can write off as anyone worth acknowledging. Plenty of other amazing games in the sea.
I appreciate letting me know about the anti-vaxxer conspiracy stuff. Makes me feel better about never finishing The Witness (not because I didn't enjoy it, but because whatever filters were on there, it made me cripplingly motion sick for hours every time I played it).
I never finished The Witness either, but I kinda wished I would have, as the philosophical nature and puzzles were both very engrossing, such a unique take on the "walking simulator" style of game. Granted, it was much more than that, and I'd actually compare it closer to Myst and Obduction than such. The puzzles were repetitive but just incentive enough to be engaging and twisted in just the right way, though they got devilishly difficult later on. Sucks about the motion sickness though. Wonder if there was an .ini swing which could've turned the filter off?
Though, all in all, this was definitely a difficult "separate the art from the artist" scenario.
What was the business case for doing a remaster of Braid? Either terrible market research or this was super cheap to make.
I believe it was a desperate attempt to get a new source of revenue. His upcoming Sokoban game is taking forever to make, so it’s not going to bring them any new revenue anytime soon. In large part because he made the arcane decision to create a new programming language for it (as a replacement for C++), because apparently Sokoban is the type of game where you really need that high performance.
I think his use case is that the new language allows for more rapid iteration in development. Years ago now, I saw his demo of the language, and it compiled so quickly that it may as well have been done by the time he pressed Enter. For all the gains he got from that, it still hasn't helped him release a game by now, but I do see the problem he's trying to solve, and I do think it's worth solving.
A pretty terrible one. Remasters are for games that are high on replay value and deeply nostalgic. Braid was cool and innovative and I enjoyed it when I played through it the first (and only) time, but I have no desire to play it again.
"braid made us money. We like money. Braid stopped giving us money. We want more money"
I was going to buy braid, but the original was delisted and the anniversary edition is 10x the price on sale. Will have to wait a few years for it to fall into 80% territory again.
Or you can just pirate it and choose not to support an anti-vaxxer
I didn't know that about the creator. I'm fairly anti piracy when it comes to indie games, even if I don't agree with the devs views. I still hope he gets it and has a bad time with COVID if that is the case though.
I already own the OG on steam. If I want to play it, I will. But I don't. Because it's fuckin boring. Always has been.
No one wants to buy the same game again. Who saw that one coming?
Permanently Deleted
Yeaaah, kinda seems like people just didn’t want a remastered Braid.
I have to imagine that his really terrible takes have something to do with that.
Do you have some examples?
Some COVID stuff, some women in programming stuff. Probably more that I'm not even aware of since I stopped paying attention.
I liked Braid, but I liked his other games since then a lot more. Put out Witness 2 and I'm all over it.
OTOH, put out a graphical upgrade and a couple new puzzles for Witness and try to charge full price again, and I wouldn't bother.
Edit: Wait, Braid Anniversary didn't even include new levels? No wonder it didn't sell! All it has is a documentary track and some visuals.
Edit: Wait, Braid Anniversary didn't even include new levels? No wonder it didn't sell! All it has is a documentary track and some visuals.
"Braid: Anniversary Edition launched in May and adds 40 new levels, as well as over 15 hours of commentary"
From the article.
From a Steam review:
The game was advertised as having 40 new levels, which at first glance is sounds engaging and interesting, until you find out most of those levels are programmer/beta/alpha stages. It's not entirely new content, but rather going through iterations until you arrive at the level as it is today. While interesting, it does feel disingenuous to advertise this as a new level. When I hear braid has a new level, I think "There's one more puzzle piece", but that's not the case. You are not rewarded with anything in game, but instead receive some occasionally insightful commentary. In total, there are around 14 actual, new puzzles.
I looked on the Steam page and didn't see that, but I thought I remembered it from launch. Perhaps I was just tired and missed it, but I think they didn't do a good enough job calling it out.
Put out Witness 2 and I'm all over it.
If you liked the puzzle design style of the Witness, check out Taiji. It uses a similar open-ended structure that leaves puzzle rules for you to discover on your own.
First off I didnt know Braid was remastered until now and secondly Jonathan is an anti vaxxer which means I'm not gonna give you any money.
And I thought Braid wasn't very engaging when I first played it ages ago so I'm not really interested now. Apparently Jonathan has been spending his free time working on a programming language that isn't public yet (for a while now) and just talking a lot of shit on X/Twitter.
Unfortunately, I feel like only console developers that long ago released their games for arcane bi-flagonal deprucified CPUs get to put out expensive anniversary editions. Everyone who owns Steam copies can still run it just fine.
(Yes, those words are made up)
I would have bought it if it landed on GOG, like the original did.
What do you want us to do? Buy it again?
Missed his chance to Blow
Are you telling me that this late 90's game priced 19,50 won't sell as well as a modern indie game sold for less???...
...shocking