Indie Game: The Movie Page #5

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But in some ways,

it was less difficult...

... than what I had

been doing until then.

Having a lot of big ideas about

what I wanted to do in games.

And not finishing anything that had

the impact I wanted to have.

[Jonathan has been making

games for 22 years]

I think as one ages

and establishes a pattern of that.

It becomes a little bit demoralizing.

You start to look at things and say:

"Maybe I'm never going to do the

things I thought I would."

Then one day, I said: I'm going to

actually finish something.

And that became 'Braid'.

It took three years, but I finished it

One of the biggest breakout

games would have to be Braid.

Braid is an interesting game ...

... I was surprised it was as

successful as it is.

It was a big hit for

the independent community.

Generating a lot of money for

Jonathan.

It's a very odd setting and a lot of

people aren't quite sure what it means

Nobody had played a game that was like

Braid.

That did what Braid did

with time before.

Really what made Braid work was that

'Rewind' mechanic ...

... obviously, from a gameplay

perspective was a lot of fun.

But it also had a metaphorical

relevance as well.

It's telling this strange,

out of order love story

... not something you normally see

in a game.

It's about this little preppy boy.

He always looks like a preppy to me.

He's lost something and is working

through memories ...

... that change as he keeps playing.

The fictional world

and the game world mechanic ...

... those two work hand-in-hand

very very well.

So Braid came out of the confluence

of a couple of different ideas.

I was on a mailing list with

some friends. And one friend...

... was looking at

'Prince of Persia: Sands of Time'

And it had this ability to 'rewind'.

But it was limited.

You had a certain number of charges.

When you ran out, if you got

killed, you couldn't rewind anymore.

You had to reload the game.

Which was this painful process.

So one of my friends said:

Why not do it like a VCR?

And rewind anytime you want.

But nobody ever tried it.

So I said:

'Okay, I'm feeling inspired.'

'Let me start this idea for this game

I've been kicking around.'

And I spent about a week working on it

And I had a prototype.

That is really kind of amazing.

In that...

... if you look at the prototype,

and the final game ...

... a lot of the ideas from

the final game and in that prototype.

So I had the first three worlds.

I mean not fully built out worlds.

But the game mechanics were there.

For rewinding ...

And for rewinding with things that are

immune to rewind.

And for time and space

being tied together.

So that time changes as you move.

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