Braid designer doesn’t plan to cash in
Things are very good at the moment for 360 owners. Within the past 2 weeks XBLA has seen the arrival of Geometry Wars 2, the sequel to the modern day classic, Braid, winner of the 2006 “Innovation in Game Design” at the Independent Games Festival, with the anticipated Bionic Commando:Rearmed, the updated remake of Capcom’s NES platformer dropping tomorrow (August 13th). Things on XBLA arcade could hardly be better. Don’t scoff at these titles as the regular XBLA casual games, all three of these games are worth the modest $10/$15 in terms of value.
Jonathan Blow, designer of the acclaimed title Braid, has been using his games success to have his opinions heard regarding the XBLA certification process, cause you know, your less likely to come across as bitter when your game is a success, sorry Space Giraffe.
In an interview with Gamasutra, Blow states how the certification process is geared more towards Triple-A titles, and that “I put in a tremendous amount of work meeting all these (unnecessary) requirements, when I could have put that work into the actual game, and made it even a little more polished, little bit better.”
Later in the interview Blow also states how he has no plans to cash in on Braid’s succes with an immediate sequel, at least for a while anyway. “Money is not really my goal, so even if Braid does very well… that’s not my concern. I’m not going to do a sequel to Braid — I don’t care how many copies it sells,” says Blow.
“I mean, maybe in five years when I’m motivated, if I have a really fresh idea for it. But I’m not waiting in the wings with a level pack, or DLC or anything.”
Foolish, or merely a man with integrity? I prefer to lean towards the latter, with Jonathan Blow having enough pride in his game not to want to whore it out. Braid is a stylish and extremely well made platformer, and I challenge anyone to deny the game’s charm.
Jonathan Blow was also clear, in a response to the interview post that “For the most part, working with Microsoft has been great”. Hopefully a sign that his future endeveours may some day grace XBLA again.
Braid is out now on XBLA for 1200 MS points ($15), and is currently the highest rated XBLA game according to Meta-Critic, with an average review score of 93%, putting it as also the 8th highest rated game on Xbox 360.
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