BRAID IS HERE!!!

By: Sick Panda

On: August 6th, 2008

Hello, gentlemannz. Is me, Sick Panda, reporting live from doctor’s offices on laptop MacintoshBook Pro, donate by Chinese governments. Doctors tells me ever-thing gonna be okay, but I must stop barffing on them.

Anyway, I tell you right now Braid is here. On XBOX live arcade and mebbe soon on the PC computers too.

Eurogamer give ten out of ten review, say:

Also, XBOX World give ten out of ten review, too, and also say:

Also, Derek play preview of game and say is good game also, he say:

Is must be a pretty good game, then! Go play if you can. Sick Panda can no play. Okay, gentlemanns, thank you for your time and this is the very Sick Panda signing off until next time!!! (Thank you Mr. Yu for making link and quote.)

TIGdb: Entry for Braid

Braid, Castle Crashers Release Dates!

By: Derek Yu

On: July 29th, 2008

As part of Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade, Jonathan Blow’s Braid is hitting XBLA on August 6th, with The Behemoth’s Castle Crashers following soon after on August 27th. August is going to be a good month!

Braid won two of IGN’s “Best of E3” awards this year, including “Best Xbox Live Arcade Game” and “Best Puzzle Game.” It’s also been getting some great reviews from the gaming press.

(Source: Tim, via the IndieGames.com blog)

TIGdb: Entries for Braid, Castle Crashers

Braid Artist’s Diary

By: Derek Yu

On: March 12th, 2008

David Hellman, the fantastic artist behind both A Lesson is Learned But the Damage is Irreversible and, of course, Braid, has a new blog wherein he discusses his art.

The latest entry, part II of his “Art of Braid” series, shows the progression from Jon Blow’s programmer art (which is quite fun!) to what you see today. I love this kind of thing! There’s some good exposition on his creative/development process, too.

Part I of the series reveals Braid Art’s abstract beginnings.

Indie XBLA Release… Vagueries

By: Derek Yu

On: February 22nd, 2008

Braid, by Jonathan Blow, is slated for a Spring release.

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, by Hothead Studios, is slated for a Spring release. Be sure to check out the three gameplay trailers from January, if you haven’t already.

Castle Crashers, by The Behemoth, is slated for a Summer release.

This information was revealed in a Microsoft press release following their keynote. It’s really more of an excuse to post more screenshots. I want to play all of these games very badly.

(Sources: Kotaku, IndieGames.com Blog)

Jon Blow Says “Fuck That”

By: Derek Yu

On: February 17th, 2008

The almighty Jeff Lindsay, web god and Guardian of the Tiger Sauce, interviewed Jonathan Blow for Game Helper:

(Photo Source: Sklathill’s GDC 2007 Flickr Set)

The State of Jon Blow

By: Derek Yu

On: February 14th, 2008

Jonathan Blow has a couple of new lectures up, available for download in mp3 format. They come with the power points he used during the talks.

The first one is from a lecture he gave at Game Focus Germany on January 24th. In it, he talks about design and production, and why he develops games as an indie. Really insightful look into independent game dev. Also some very sobering realities. 3-year games? Bug reports from Microsoft with hundreds of entries?

The second lecture was given at the Nordic Game Jam in Copenhagen on February 1st. I haven’t listened to this one yet, but the focus, I believe, is more on the actual physical labor of creating a game – namely, “design, programming, and art.” (EDIT: Apparently it isn’t like that at all.)

The hardest part of listening to the first lecture was hearing Jon play Braid but not being able to see or play it myself! But if you’re wondering how it’s looking, check out this post which has a bunch of HUGE screens. Props to the artist, David Hellman! Looks fantastic.

Jon is also running an interesting-sounding session at GDC next week, called “”http://braid-game.com/news/?p=161">Nuances of Design."

(Valentine’s Card Image Source: Marzy Blahs)

Experimental Gameplay Workshop 2008

By: Derek Yu

On: December 18th, 2007

Jonathan Blow has called out for submissions for the Experimental Gameplay Workshop in 2008. The EGW is a series of live presentations about innovative or interesting game designs (both WIP and finished). It’s part of the Game Developer’s Conference that takes place in February.

Past games have included Katamari Damacy, Ragdoll Kung Fu, early versions of Braid and Everyday Shooter, Jim McGinley’s Jugglin’, Kyle Gabler’s Experimental Gameplay Project, and Masaya Matsuura’s visual-rhythm game Mojibribbon (depicted left).

Participants are expected to give a 10-15 minute live presentation about their game, including slides, and answer questions at the end of their presentation. The deadline for submissions is January 15th.

MIGS 2007: Jonathan Blow

By: Derek Yu

On: November 29th, 2007

Some news from the Montreal International Games Summit (of which Gamma 256 is a part): Jon Blow apparently spoke there today, and, as one would expect, he had some insightful words to say about games.

I think a lot of us, both players and developers, ask ourselves “why” – why do we play games, why do we make them? These are important questions and Jon has an uncanny ability to put them into perspective. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, do so!

And regarding Braid, Jon announced a couple weeks ago that he’s planning to release some preview videos, but rather than just showing footage of the game in action, he’d like to tie them somehow to concepts of game design.

Independent Games Summit: Innovation in Indie Games

By: Derek Yu

On: September 30th, 2007

What better way to spend a quiet Sunday evening then to watch a panel from this year’s Independent Games Summit, featuring Jon Blow, Jon Mak, Jenova Chen, and Kyle Gabler! This panel was one of my favorites of the summit. Each of the panelists came from a different perspective… together they really got at what was exciting about indie games for me. The four P’s, yo: passion, personality, and potential. And Pinnovation.

But yeah, I can’t believe Steve dissed me so hard at the end. Unfortunately, I don’t remember my question. I think I was going to ask Jon Mak about what hair products he uses…

EDIT: Google Video page, downloadable version (.mov)

(Source: GameSetWatch)

Blow360

By: ARelativelyHotGirl

On: September 12th, 2007

Read about it here.

Definitely didn’t hear about it from Tim or anything.

You go, JB! <3