Braid

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Before any decent person stopped looking at computer games as some unpleasant infection, they-games-had to go through a lot. The developers needed to come up with a three -dimensional graphics. It was necessary to spend conditions on screenwriters and producers. It was necessary to learn how to model cities, ecosystems and universe. It was necessary to kill – a flaw, for a long time, expensive, the ions have gone to ensure that people believe in death on the monitor. We needed all the technologies of the world: physically correct dirt, blood, sweat, tears. The latest systems for capturing the movement of the pupil. It was necessary to sort through all the popular cinema and the action: action, horror, noir, detective, comedy. It was finally necessary to turn into a giant, monstrous industry – with their scandals, analysts, corporations and revolutionaries. And all this is so that the thirty -seven -year -old American programmer is almost alone, he created the most adult, simplest and most piercing interactive work with his own money. Braid. Remember this name. After it, computer games will never be the same as before.

The sequence of existence

Let's immediately deal with the basic provisions. Braid is a flat, two -dimensional platformer. Remember Super Mario Bros .? Braid is no more complicated. Here it is necessary to jump on the enemies on the head, fight with the boss-dragon and save the princess. But there is one subtlety. Time. Despite the fact that the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language” by Vladimir Dahl interprets the time as “the sequence of existence; Continuation of cases, events ", in Braid, it is not consistent. Moreover, time is behaving like it: it slows down, accelerates, fades back, stands still, repeats and wrapped in a loop. In addition to traditional control keys (forward, backward, up, down, a “gap”), Braid entrusts you with another button – rewinding back. No restrictions, no meters, no resource – you just clamp Shift and see how reality curls backwards: monsters climb into their holes, the hero flies out of the abyss, shells along with smoke go into the cannon. This is not that a revelation-manipulation over time over the past few years has become a common place and only a lazy author did not compose any temporal trick for his game. But here everything is just beginning with rewinding.

In each of the seven chapters of Braid, the time behaves in a new way. The game throws the most spectacular trick literally immediately: in the second world, time depends on you. While you move to the right – it flows with the hero in the usual direction. But it is worth taking a step back – and everything will go the other way around. This is a very, very simple technique, but thanks to him, the game knocks out the soil from under the feet with one blow. A minute ago you worked on genre instincts: a skok-scrap, a young droo. And then everything changes – along with a step to the left, the newly lowered platform rises back. A monster from which it was necessary to push back to the hole. You cling to the time, try to cheat, dodge, somehow dashingly jump, but Braid in Braid is very simple and at the same time very clear rules-everything is designed up to seconds, you will not deceive the time.

And this https://sister-site.org/fancy-reels/ is only the beginning. Already in the next level, the rules are changing: now every time you use rewinding, a hero of the hero appears on the screen, repeating all the movements. And it begins: pull the lever, rinse the time, wait until the same lever pulls your shadow, jump and so on. And then a sphere appears, in the radius of which the time gets away, like a fuel oil. And then – oh, it’s better not to know.

Braid, of course, only pretends to be a platformer. This is actually a puzzle. The purpose of each level is not to run from the beginning to the end, but to collect all the elements of the mosaic scattered in the most inaccessible places. There is not a single identical task here. As soon as you get used to the behavior of time in this world, the game will begin to introduce new conditions: “And now we will have monsters on which rewinding does not work”, “And now everything is the same, but twice as fast”, “And now This key will slip out of hands ". It seems periodically that Braid is mocking – you get out, clench your teeth, squint, get angry, finally find a way out of the situation, just to find out that the tricky trick does not work on the next screen.

The theory of relativity

BRAID – of course, outstanding game design, collection of talented puzzles. The game can be slipped on one sporting interest – and what's next? But you can try to look around. And then it turns out that she has a plot, and what.

Elements of the puzzles that you collect are formed in simple paintings: someone catches a glass of wine, someone is late for a flight at the airport, someone looks into the old children's room. And there are texts. Very simple notes: “Tim is looking for a princess. She was kidnapped by a terrible monster. This happened because Tim made a mistake ". And then something clicks. If you have grown up to that moment in your life, when there is where to look back, then at some point Braid will grab the heart and very, very painfully squeezes. And suddenly in all actions on the screen there will be a real meaning that has nothing to do with computer games. Suddenly, the rewinding will cease to be an entertaining gamed -design trick and it seems that they are talking about very personal things, which, it seems, no one should know. That some mistakes remain to live with you forever. About how you want to apologize to the parents for all those nonsense that you probably spoke to them for so many years. The fact that the "Big Soviet Encyclopedia" is still the rights and time is the main form of the existence of matter. And how scary it is.

Braid legalizes all those thirty years that we drove the pixels and landfills on the screen. Because now the meaning has appeared in this. The pixels suddenly looked from the screen and started talking about questions that are not customary to raise in computer games. About time. About the relationship. About responsibility. In order to start this dialogue in the cinema, David Fince needed terrible millions and Brad Pitt – it turned out to be expensive, bulky and excessive Benjamin Button. Thirty -seven -year -old Jonathan Blow needed several pixels and mechanics "Super Mario".

* * *

Braid steps on an extremely dangerous territory: one wrong step, one fake note – and that’s all, you are already behind the line where graphomania and vulgarity begin. The game not only does not take this step, it perfectly, perfectly withstands all the tests for strength. This is what is called “experience transmitted in sensations” in personal efficiency training – when you suddenly understand and feel so sharply that it is difficult to breathe a thousand times. When after the final credits you cannot find the strength to get up from the chair. In the cinema, this was the last time that took place on the premiere of the “Eternal Synia of Clean Mind”, to which all friends were later reserved for consistently. With Braid, a similar story – I really want to show it to everyone, to persuade everyone who reads this magazine, immediately get up and pay Jonathan Blow his modest $ 15. And then sit down and go through it again.

P . S . Despite the deceptively simple appearance, the Braid PC version has quite serious requirements for the video card: for a comfortable game you will need no less than 512 MB of memory. Also make sure that it supports all modern technologies – Braid uses them in the most active way.

Rehibition – no

Cool plot – yes

Originality – yes

Easy to master – yes

Evidence of expectations: 100%

Gameplay 9

Graphics 10

Sound and music 10

Interface and management 10

Waited? 2D platformer about time management. The most piercing and truly adult game in the world.

Mania rating 9.0

"Fabulous"

[[Break]] parts of mosaics

Braid is an anthology of interactive revelations or the so-called “aga-issues”, as Jason Roorer, an important Indie Figure, the author of the famous Passage. Below are several situations during which the “gambling” employees in their heads joined the joyful “yeah yeah!".

Self -sacrifice

A piece of mosaic hangs humiliatingly above your head, which can’t pick up. Conducting attitude towards monsters is one of the most important revelations Braid. You understand that you need to use the tool entrusted to you not for yourself, but for the enemy to lead it through the ridge of obstacles. And – yeah! – push off from his crown.

Immunity

You solve a lot of riddles, take out the key, carry out tricky combinations to finally get on a platform that is not subject to rewinding effect. Over the next few seconds, in the opposite direction, good twenty minutes of real time will fly in the opposite direction, canceling everything that has been done before. Yeah!

The elusive key

You joyfully grab the key, confidently rush forward, to the door. But it is worth taking a step back to get around the obstacle, as the key falls out of the hands. Yeah, at this stage you can go with the key only from left to right! Going through the level is not so difficult. It is much more difficult to understand why the key eludes Tim. It's all about the design of the world: time is back when Tim goes to the left, which means that the key moves into the past. Why you can’t get it with your hand? Is it possible to turn into half a turn and grab it? This level will make you think deeply.

Parts of the mosaic

Braid-real art game. Everything that her author wants to say, he does interactively. It may seem to you that the mosaics opening each stage will somehow help to understand the history of Braid, but this is not so. Their task is to explain the device of worlds.

Time and Forgiveness

(Time and forgiveness)

At an extremely crucial moment, a man drops a bottle of wine. In this world, we learn about the main feature of BRAID – the ability to rewind time. There is no such mistake that we could not fix. Restore a broken bottle and save a spoiled date – which could be easier for someone who is able to let go of the time?

Time and Mystery

(Time and secret)

The picture itself is clarified little. In this case, the rules of the world are intelligibly set out in green books that the hero reads in the clouds: “From afar, Tim saw a castle whose flags are swaying, even when there is no wind, and bread in the kitchen is always fresh there …” Not everything in this world is subject to time. So we are represented by PHASE – resistance to rewinding. How alcohol is associated with this – think for yourself.

Time and Place

(Time and place)

An adult man enters his children's room. There are his toys, old baseball cap and prehistoric Commodore 64. Returning to places from our past, we seem to be transferred to it. In the world of Time and Place, the time depends on the position of Tim. It moves with him: it freezes when he stands still, and backs up when he goes back.

Time and Decision

(Time and decision)

Take a look at the picture: it depicts two identical people. The action takes place at the airport. One, sad, is waiting for its plane; another, joyful, probably already flew in. The same people with completely different destinies – in this world Tim will have a shadow double, solving his problems.

Hesitance

(Doubt)

"The ring makes itself felt. It shines like a warning sign, repels people ". The wedding ring makes it clear that you already have a loved one. In the picture it lies in the garbage bucket, filling it with its radiance. In this world, you will use the ring to slow down – the closer the objects are, the lower their speed.

Between the lines

• Constellation over the house of Tim – Andromeda
• The artist redrawn the monster's nose twenty times
• Jonathan Blow spent about $ 200,000 personal savings on Braid – most of them went to the fee to the designer
• The working prototype was ready in a year – it had the same levels and riddles as in the final version. Three years were required to finish the design
• If you climb the attic, a panorama of the city with two skyscrapers will open, apparently, towers of the World Commercial Center
• The key object of the plot Braid is an atomic bomb
• Braid has become the best -selling game for the Xbox Live Arcade service
• At different levels, in the house of Tim and even in pieces of mosaic, eight stars are hidden

Time and personality

Jonathan Blood, 37 years old

Programmer, game designer, USA

I don’t remember when exactly the idea of ​​Braid originated. It seems that one morning I woke up and realized what exactly I want to do. The best ideas come in a dream, that's for sure.

Games take a lot of time! I also study the kung fu and gymnastics of Tai-chi, which also takes time. Having finished with the first three hobbies, I'm just looking for a way to spend the rest of the day with benefit.

Once we argued with friends about whether the time rewinds were needed. One of us ardently defended the position that such an opportunity should be in absolutely every game, and in unlimited quantities! It is strange that no one but me tried to check this technique in practice.

The idea was finally formed after a trip to Thailand. Traveling always inspire me. Returning home, I collected the first working prototype in a week.

"Invisible cities" Italo Kalvino and "Dreams of Einstein" by Alan Lightman had a strong influence on the plot and appearance of the game. Braid – the same excursion to unknown worlds.

There were many ideas that fell off in the development process. For example, a step -by -step world "without the direction of time". Ultimately, I left only those with the properties of which can be played for several levels.

Tim is not a hero at all! He is a thoughtful guy who is looking for his place in this world. I don't know why he wears a suit – it should just be so. In addition, a red tie and red hair do not allow it to merge with the background.

Gumba (flattened monster from Mario. – Approx. "Gambling" ) looks so sad to make the player doubt. If you are a cute cartoon man who jumps on the same Milyag, is harmless. But if you are an adult man who crushes unfortunate creatures with human faces, it means that something is definitely wrong here.

Three years took to finish the design of the game. Of course, I was afraid that during this time my idea could be stealing – because I talked so much about Braid. Indeed, several flash clones appeared, but all of them were somewhat different from my game, so it turns out that he just gave people food for thought. I urge everyone: do not be afraid to share your ideas!

I will not tell you anything about the plot. I did not write a novel or a short story, and certainly I can’t express my thoughts in one paragraph. Thoughts laid down in Braid are difficult to take directly.

My next project is dedicated to written speech.