Braid Released For Mac

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: May 20th, 2009

A quick one, for all you Apple eaters: Award winning, time-bending puzzle-platformer Braid has been released for the Mac! You can find it here, at Greenhouse, with a free demo and everything.

A lot has been said about this fine little game, but I thought I’d throw in my two cents, before it’s too late. (After the jump.)

I’ve played through it a number of times now, and really believe Braid is a landmark game. Not just in the realm of “indie” games, but interactive software (or whatever you want to call it) as a whole. It pushes forward in so many ways, particularly in (Jon’s favorite, ha) unifying the naturally divergent forces of Story and Gameplay, while still, at its core, being a wonderfully designed, approachable Game. That’s actually what surprised me most about Braid, at least at first — the “artsy” stuff is there, yes, but strip it all away and you’ve still got a unique, polished, challenging videogame to play. Impeccably designed. (Not to mention that David‘s art also makes it one of the most lovely games I’ve ever seen in motion.) Anyway, yeah, suffice it to say I find it all pretty inspiring!

Can’t wait to see what Mr. Blow comes up with next. (Braid 2?)

Posted in Highly Recommended, Macintosh, Platformers, Puzzle | Tags: JonathanBlow

Lailoken

Call me a philistine but I like stories in games. Maybe I’m having my desires pandered to, but wtf are games for if not that? And I don’t see why their presence makes the game bad. If there WAS a gorgeous painting with a story tacked underneath, would that make the painting bad? Would you rant at the painter for putting a story or a peom there?

I don’t get why people get so opinionated about this stuff. It’s clearly a brilliant game mechanic, and game play wise, not to mention the visuals. So it has some obscure prose in it. Even if you don’t get it, it adds atmosphere to the game. And even if you hate all non-utilitarian text in games, you can ignore it. Why get all uppity about it? I don’t think a personal dislike of all flavor-text makes this shoddy game design.
Anthony Flack

Personally, I don’t think it’s a bad thing AT ALL. I just don’t think that Braid’s story is the revolution in game design philosophy that some people have insinuated.

And, like raigan says, Braid really deserves to be celebrated for its ingenious design.