By John Walker on August 4th, 2009 at 11:08 pm.
This is rather cute. Almost immediately after Jonathan Blow announces his new game, Flashbang follow up with a parody site to announce their own. This is our way of telling you: Jonathan Blow and Flashbang have announced new games.
Blow’s launch site begins with some black text on a white background, a Lao Tse quote, as above:
Called The Witness, he describes it as, “An exploration-puzzle game on an uninhabited island.” And that’s all you get, other than a release date for some point in the distant space year 2011.
It’s a bold way to announce a game. I refuse to call it pretentious as I don’t believe it is. I think, if anything, it’s slightly self-parodying. But clearly some will see it as maybe a bit pompous. Pomposity so often receives a little pinprick. Which would be Flashbang’s response site for their September game, Time Donkey.
The FB site finishes with some hidden text at the end reading,
“we love you jon blow please don’t crush us with your rippling muscles -love, blurst”
While we’re talking about the big meanies, they’ve rejigged the Blurst website such that it now has room for all their games to appear at once, with space for the many more to come. Which is as good a reason as any to go play another game of Jetpack Brontosaurus.
04/08/2009 at 23:15 qrter says:
Let us all shake the collective hand of Flashbang for this wonderful move.
04/08/2009 at 23:18 Matthew says:
You are welcome. Always a pleasure, Internet.
04/08/2009 at 23:21 Radicand says:
Mr Blow deserved mockery for that somewhat pretentious little teaser, and Flashbang did it well. Hats off to you guys. And too-small berets off to Mr Blow as well.
04/08/2009 at 23:21 HexagonalBolts says:
Seeing a poem about a donkey reminded me of my favourite donkey poem
The Donkey – G.K. Chesterton
When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born;
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.
Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.
04/08/2009 at 23:21 Pags says:
Jetpack Brontosaurus is actually the only game that has made me cry. Well not cry, but I teared up at it’s splendour. I wish I’d remembered this earlier for the ‘games that made me cry’ post. Anyway, this is the second best internet mockery this week (Plants vs Zombies vs Evony still wins out).
04/08/2009 at 23:27 Markoff Chaney says:
The jester serves not only to make light of the situation, but also to soberly show us naked truths others are too scared to utter lest their heads be lopped off by an angry potentate. As a sound can hardly be said to exist independent of the hearer, likewise are wasted all thoughts never shared; all revelations left sealed. For what good ultimately shall come of contemplating thy navel if someone else derives no joy from making light of that gazing, allowing perspective and irreverence its proper place?
Fantastic on both counts! /shakes hands all around
04/08/2009 at 23:32 Man Raised By Puffins says:
Something amorphous and consummate
existed before Heaven and Earth.
Sandvich! Delicious!
Standing alone, crammed with baloney…
I rather hope it is. Nice work Flashbang/Blurst people.
04/08/2009 at 23:37 Stu says:
Heh. Hidden text at the bottom of the Time Donkey site:
04/08/2009 at 23:45 JonFitt says:
Hee. Nicely done.
04/08/2009 at 23:49 John Walker says:
I SWEAR no one reads a thing I write.
04/08/2009 at 23:49 Lunaran says:
Reactions like that are why I made this:
http://www.lunaran.com/pics/thescaleofart.png
04/08/2009 at 23:53 Stu says:
Sorry John, I was BLINDED BY EXCITEMENT.
04/08/2009 at 23:54 Stu says:
(but for what it’s worth, I did originally click through the links from your Twitter before coming here, so clearly my attention span is approx. 140 characters)
04/08/2009 at 23:58 John Walker says:
UNFORGIVEN. (oh alright then)
05/08/2009 at 00:01 solipsistnation says:
Hooray! Jonathan Blow is remaking Myst!
05/08/2009 at 00:03 Kieron Gillen says:
Sometimes I love videogame developers.
KG
05/08/2009 at 00:13 Dante says:
“It’s a bold way to announce a game. I refuse to call it pretentious as I don’t believe it is.”
Then seriously, what is?
I mean, I’m no anti-intellectual, I like plenty of stuff people would call pretentious. But seriously, this is the very definition of the word.
05/08/2009 at 00:18 HexagonalBolts says:
This is a perhaps more appropriate version of the scale of art
http://www.lunaran.com/pics/thescaleofgames.png
05/08/2009 at 00:25 Kieron Gillen says:
Dante: Your username is Dante. Glass houses.
KG
05/08/2009 at 00:30 Lunaran says:
Hex: two sides of the same closed-minded coin.
05/08/2009 at 00:58 Markoff Chaney says:
Ooooh. ZING! Both of those are phenomenal graphics too. I’ve laughed quite a lot with this one.
05/08/2009 at 01:00 Alex says:
Damn you solipsistnation, you stole my bit!
05/08/2009 at 01:27 Gassalasca says:
@Kieron – Hey, Dante Hicks from Clerks wasn’t pompous. :P
In other news, w00t! G.K. Chesterton; w00t! pretentious puzzle games; w00t! John Walker and the teeming millions that ignore him on a daily basis! Wooooot!1!11
05/08/2009 at 01:33 invisiblejesus says:
He’s not even supposed to be here todaaaayyy!
05/08/2009 at 01:34 Jazmeister says:
“Dante Hicks from Clerks wasn’t pompous.”
05/08/2009 at 01:42 jalf says:
I didn’t get Jetpack Brontosaurus! I really didn’t understand it. It looked pretty and all, and was fun to goof around in for a while, but I never really understood the goal. I mean, Offroad Velociraptor gave you some clear objectives and scores to beat. In Brontosaurus I just… flew around, looking at the pretty scenery. What did I miss?
Also I am now officially super hyped about Time Donkey! It sounds like my kind of game. :D
05/08/2009 at 02:28 SuperNashwan says:
I’m pretty sure it was one of the RPS crew themselves that made the excellent point that ‘pretentious’ is often abused to have a meaning more pejorative than it should bear. Something ‘pretentious’ is aspiring to be more intelligent than average, no bad thing of itself.
05/08/2009 at 02:33 CryingTheAnnualKingo says:
“…I’m no anti-intellectual…”
You are and so are Flashbang. Your type shit on anything vaguely poetic and ambiguous. Leave the stuff you don’t understand alone, please.
05/08/2009 at 02:43 MD says:
SuperNashwan says:
I’m pretty sure it was one of the RPS crew themselves that made the excellent point that ‘pretentious’ is often abused to have a meaning more pejorative than it should bear. Something ‘pretentious’ is aspiring to be more intelligent than average, no bad thing of itself.
It’s always risky arguing about the ‘true’ meaning of a word, but in this case I think a dictionary definition is enough to prove you wrong. I’m not suggesting that the word has not shifted in meaning — it may once have been predominantly used in the sense you mention. But dictionaries are the closest thing we have to an authoritative source, and in this case the primary definition gels with what you call an ‘abuse’ of the word.
“Pretentious
1: characterized by pretension: as a: making usually unjustified or excessive claims (as of value or standing) b: expressive of affected, unwarranted, or exaggerated importance, worth, or stature”
05/08/2009 at 03:08 yns88 says:
Did anyone else just skip past all the walls of text in Braid?
If you want to package an interesting narrative with your game that’s fine, but if you’re just going to leave the story so separated and unnecessary then I’m just not going to waste my time with it.
05/08/2009 at 03:35 Matthew says:
@CryingTheAnnualKingo Hold on just a second there! I believe “Off-Road Velociraptor Safari” has given us enough cultural clout to crap all over one of Taoism’s most sacred texts. What does a 6th century BC philosopher bring versus killing raptors with a jeep? Exactly. They didn’t even have velociraptors back then.
05/08/2009 at 03:56 Günter says:
“Pretentious
1: characterized by pretension: as a: making usually unjustified or excessive claims (as of value or standing) b: expressive of affected, unwarranted, or exaggerated importance, worth, or stature”
In other words Joe Blow, while I love him and his work, has created both a website and a game that present themselves as something rather more intelligent than they actually are.
While I don’t find pretentiousness in as many places as some, the commentary on indie games is often maddeningly so. Passage was an interesting little experiment, and I admire and enjoy Braid for doing something different, but the intellectual level these games are on is sophomoric at best. Blow’s style is way too straight faced not to be considered a bit pretentious.
05/08/2009 at 04:53 Testicular Torsion says:
And Matthew updates the state of the “Games As Art” debate with a brutal, irrefutable double-twist-swedish-noogie-suplex argument! It’s a headline day for games journalism here.
Seriously, when did people start equating “poking fun at Jonathan Blow” with “crapping all over Lao-Tzu”? Relax, people!
05/08/2009 at 06:43 Weylund says:
@Matthew: Thank you. I haven’t laughed so hard all day.
05/08/2009 at 09:41 Rosti says:
I <3 the internet today. Thanks Blurst. Thurst.
05/08/2009 at 10:30 Rinox says:
Rinox is happy to see this little parody. He, too, loved Braid and he, too, found Blow’s teaser site and text rather pompous and pretentious. Loved it.
Having said that, he wishes Blow all the best and hopes his new game will be as good as Braid.
05/08/2009 at 11:22 Dante says:
@ Keiron
Huh?
@ Jaz and Gas
I haven’t even seen Clerks, by the way.
05/08/2009 at 11:29 Hi!! says:
This made me laugh. At work.
05/08/2009 at 11:36 LionsPhil says:
@Man Raised By Puffins: +120, Delicious
@solipsistnation: Zing, sir. Zing.
05/08/2009 at 11:41 Dante says:
Explanation time I guess.
When Ludo and I started up our site he drew me an avatar;
http://manvshorse.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/dante.jpg
It looked pretty evil, so I picked a suitably demonic sounding name. That’s it.
In retrospect it probably wasn’t the best choice for a gaming/films website, as most people assume it’s a reference to either a) Clerks or b) Devil May Cry, EA making Dante’s Inferno probably won’t help either
I haven’t seen Clerks or read Dante’s Inferno, I’ve played DMC 3 though.
05/08/2009 at 11:47 Skalpadda says:
Less arguing, more donkey poetry!
05/08/2009 at 12:05 SuperNashwan says:
Perhaps I should’ve been more explicit for people with slack reading comprehension; ‘pretentious’ is used to be more, more, MORE pejorative than is deserved. It’s the idiot’s offhand, outright dismissal of something that at least has the ambition to try, even if it fails to achieve any profundity. The definition posted upthread does nothing to convey the utter lack of critical appraisal often found from people throwing the word about.
05/08/2009 at 12:19 Cedge says:
@SuperNashwan:
You still don’t get it. Pretentiousness does not necessarily have anything to do with “trying to be profound.”
05/08/2009 at 12:25 SuperNashwan says:
Are you trying to win some kind of internet prize for missing the point?
05/08/2009 at 12:28 Kieron Gillen says:
Just as an idea to throw into the melee, ever consider that Blow is totally winding up the anti-intellectual brigade?
KG
05/08/2009 at 12:48 Dante says:
It’s certainly possible, but if so he seems to have a very, very dry sense of humour.
I’ve played no more than the demo of Braid, so I can’t claim any sort of fair veiw, but the little plot books in that seemed far too straight faced to be a gag, nor did anyone else seem to read it as such.
It could be a Max Payne type self parody I guess (but with literary writing, rather than pulp detective writing) I heard some people didn’t get that one the first time round, but there’s an argument to be had that if your joke is that subtle that no-one gets it, it’s failed on some level.
I certainly wouldn’t consider myself ‘anti-intellectual’ in any way, hell I’m pro intellectual, I like to think I am intellectual. There’s a difference between intellectualism and pretension. To me, pretension is to take on the style of intellectualism without any of the substance behind it, to attempt to appear deep without actually having anything original or insightful to say.
Not that I’m accusing Braid of that, because I’m no AIM, I’m not going to rag on a game I haven’t played properly.
05/08/2009 at 12:52 jalf says:
@SuperNashwan: He’s not missing the point, he’s referring to what you said earlier:
No, it is not. Something “pretentious”, going by the definition posted above, or found on google, is not aspiring for *anything*. It is just creating the false impression that it is “more intelligent than average”, without actually *being so*. It is trying to fake it, rather than achieve it.
It might *also* be used like you said, as “an idiots outright dismissal of something that has the amibition to try”, but how is that relevant? He is taking you to task for what you claimed “pretentious” meant.
It has nothing to do with “trying to be profound”, even if it is sometimes *wrongly* used against those who try to be profound.
And no, I don’t think Blow is intentionally winding up anyone. (Nor do I think it’s fair to call people “anti-intellectual” merely because they think Blow is a bit full of it). I think Blow simply makes the games he wants to make. Which is cool, even if his games may not be quite as clever or profound as he likes to think.
05/08/2009 at 12:59 The Sombrero Kid says:
if you want to spew your pseudo intellectual bullshit all over the internet for all to see you have to accept that people will call you pretentious, and you are, it’s irrelevant that it’s an ‘in joke’ because the fact it’s an in joke makes him even more pretentious.
05/08/2009 at 13:00 Taillefer says:
We used to call it flavour.
05/08/2009 at 13:01 Kieron Gillen says:
Let’s be fair: there’s also the possibility that Blow’s critics are neither as clever nor profound as they think either.
And to make my line clear, that it winds up the anti-intellectual brigade doesn’t mean that the *only* people it’ll wind up are the anti-intellectual brigade.
That said, launching a game like this is very much a fuck-you to anyone who has a low tolerance for this sort of posture. Blow would have be really dense to not realise that it’s going to get some people’s backs up – therefore, since Blow isn’t in any way dense, getting those people’s backs up *is* part of the exercise.
KG
05/08/2009 at 13:09 Gassalasca says:
Personally, I’m glad that he hasn’t given up on his shtick, and proceeded down the ‘fuck-you’ line. We need more of that stuff.
That said, I’ll admit that I’m if anything stongly anti-anti-intellectual, but have still found something off-putting by Braid. Not sure why, but I think there’s not enough substance there (in terms of ‘intellectualism’) for such an elaborate mystification and general brouhaha.
05/08/2009 at 13:10 Gassalasca says:
*about Braid, not by. *sigh*
05/08/2009 at 13:18 Ludo says:
Jonathon Blow is making a new game: whoot! Whatever your thoughts about the writing and deeper meanings behind the game, as a puzzler alone Braid is fucking awesome. Looking forward to where Mr. Blow goes from here.
05/08/2009 at 13:21 Meat Circus says:
Since Braid was as clever and profound as it thought it was, whence all these misplaced allegations of “pretension”.
Blow is cleverer than you. This is allowed within the rules of the Universe. Get the fuck over it.
05/08/2009 at 13:22 Meat Circus says:
Blow’s not a pseudo-intellectual. He’s an intellectual.
It seems that there are certain elements of the mundane community who find being reminded that there are smarter people than them troubling.
05/08/2009 at 13:30 Vasagi says:
super mario bros 3 wipes the floor with it tbh.
05/08/2009 at 13:32 Kadayi says:
The space between Heaven and Earth is empty like a flute, yet when moved more and more emerges.
-Lao Tzu
A much better quote
05/08/2009 at 13:33 FunkyB says:
When I finished Braid I was annoyed to discover Blow refuses to confirm or deny people’s interpretation of the very ephemeral story.
That doesn’t count for or against him, but it irked me. I need closure dammit! :)
05/08/2009 at 13:37 Noc says:
CLOSURE IS FOR THE WEAK.
You want your catharsis? You have to EARN it.
05/08/2009 at 13:40 K says:
I like to play a game in discussions; where I replace the word “pretentious” with “confusing”. And it all makes more sense.
05/08/2009 at 13:41 FunkyB says:
TBH, I’m not sure closure is possible from Braid, it is so open and undefined that you can take from it whatever you want.
Good puzzle game though :)
05/08/2009 at 13:50 jalf says:
@Meat Circus: Eh please. I know you like the game, but that’s just silly. Just because he made a game you like does not automatically make him cleverer than everyone or anyone. Nor does it automatically qualify him as “intellectual” (whatever the requirements are for achieving that status).
I don’t know how intelligent, intellectual or profound Blow is. And it is silly to pretend that you know it just because you’ve dedicated your life to praising his game.
It is possible that Braid was the ultimate art piece – that within it, the meaning of *everything* is encoded, that it makes a deep philosophical statement about anything of any importance. But another possibility is that… it’s not.
Honestly though, I think it’s clear that he at least *wants to* make something deeper and more profound than the usual “space marine meets alien” plots we’re used to.
Whether or not he’s able to pull that off is perhaps debatable, but hey, it’s worth a try.
As for the Witness announcement, I agree with what seems to the consensus at RPS HQ: That making it look just a bit pompous is pretty much the point.
I think it’s cute. But if it is followed up by a mindless platformer (and no, I’m not calling Braid a mindless platformer), then this announcement is going to seem very… pretentious. It depends on a certain substance behind the actual game.
05/08/2009 at 14:18 Meat Circus says:
@Malf:
Most of the mundanes upthread were calling Blow a “pseudo-intellectual” on a basis just as shoddy as mine.
If anything, I’m on sure footage than they are, because there’s ample evidence to suggest he may be cleverer than most people.
So, he’s loads more likely to be an intellectual than a pseudo.
05/08/2009 at 14:28 Rinox says:
I don’t about you guys, but intellectual or not, I found the writing in Braid (mind you, not the ideas behind it and the game) grasping more than anything else. Am I the only one? I thought it was all a bit…stilted.
And yes, I have read more in my life than the TV mag and the newspaper horoscope section (and the RPS articles). ;-) Maybe it’s just personal taste.
05/08/2009 at 14:37 Psychopomp says:
The word pretentious is thrown around far too much, in every medium. It’s become the art worlds equivalent of a middle school boy going “ur a fag.”
I have far more respect for something that legitimately *tries* to be smart, than something that revels in the status quo.
That being said, psuedo-intellectuals are just as annoying as anti-intellectuals.
Also, what Meat Circus said.
05/08/2009 at 14:41 Dante says:
‘Mundanes’?
Seriously Meat, what’s that supposed to mean? It seems like something from a superhero racism analogy.
Another definition, ‘pretension’ is to take on the style of something because it’s cool, without any understanding of the deeper aspects behind it. The student in the Che Guevarra shirt being the classical example.
Although I did once devil’s advocate that one by pondering if it was really merely an appreciation for the artwork, and whether the politics really mattered if the art was the object (also known as the Leni Reifenstahl defence)
05/08/2009 at 14:43 Dracko says:
Blow’s problem is he’s precious. Like Gaiman.
Heh.
05/08/2009 at 14:43 Rinox says:
@ Psychopump:
Ur a fag.
(KIDDING!)
05/08/2009 at 14:45 Psychopomp says:
@Rinox
ur mom
05/08/2009 at 14:50 Rinox says:
I don’t know about you guys, but this thread is feeling a lot better to me already!
05/08/2009 at 14:55 Diogo Ribeiro says:
We’re on a Blow to nowhere.
05/08/2009 at 14:55 Dante says:
Oh, and the reason people are bringing this up by the way (or at least the reason I am) isn’t because of insults or anything. It’s more the worry that if the poster boy for ‘arty’ games offers no more than overtly literary stylings with very little substance behind them, then might not the rest of games move this way, leaving us with a movement with as little depth as we have now, but with the belief that they are providing it.
Again, I stress, I’m a fair man, and I wouldn’t want to claim conclusive judgement on Braid without playing it. But what I saw amounted to little more than a puzzle platformer with a nice art style, and some terribly overwrought purple prose at the start of each level.
Here’s something I wonder about, Blow talked a lot about ‘combining gameplay and narrative’ in Braid. How does that work exactly? Does it change latter on? Because in the section I played the two were about as unified as cold war Berlin, with the narrative entirely confined to some optional paragraphs at the start of each ‘world’ which did not connect with the rest of the game in the slightest.
05/08/2009 at 15:06 Gassalasca says:
“Blow’s problem is he’s precious. Like Gaiman.”
Could you elaborate please?
05/08/2009 at 15:07 Dracko says:
That was still the best call and I’m glad he went with it.
I would have hated for great puzzles to be bogged down by making the extraneous and poorly-written plot a focal point.
05/08/2009 at 15:18 NinjaGentlemen says:
Uwaaaa! I had to skip down here before I finished reading the comments, to say, “Uwaaaa!” because someone quoted G.K. Chesterton poems!!! ^_^
I love that guy.
05/08/2009 at 15:28 Psychopomp says:
@Rinox
that wat ur mmom sad last nite
05/08/2009 at 15:40 Rinox says:
@ Psychopomp
U eat cox for breakfest, lunch n diner
05/08/2009 at 15:40 Rinox says:
…maybe we should leave it at that before anyone thinks we’re half serious, hahaha.
05/08/2009 at 15:41 LionsPhil says:
All we need now is img-element support so we can post some cat macros.
05/08/2009 at 15:46 NinjaGentlemen says:
Haaha, the comments are good. I read them all (this is called productivity ^_^).
I actually liked the writing in Braid, a lot. Not because it made sense or because I thought it had any sense to make, but because it put me into a sleepy sort of emotion-based profundity. It made me feel very peaceful, almost as if Jonathon Blow was hypnotizing me for his own insidious purposes.
05/08/2009 at 15:54 Psychopomp says:
@Rinox
Good plan.
@Lions
You did it wrong.
What you meant to say was, “i can haz image elmonts?”
05/08/2009 at 16:06 Vasagi says:
yeah
*ahem(adopts voice over man……er voice)
imagine a picture of a cat, the cat has wide eyes and perhaps a hint of mischief is playing across its face and the then it speaks a profound phrase that echos through time.
“i iz in youz thredz dissin ur mum lol”
que laughter and praise for the poster on his quality “lolcat” skills and indeed there shall be no more questioning his parentage or indeed his sexuality.
and he shall be…..er sorry carried away abit there
05/08/2009 at 16:10 Man Raised By Puffins says:
@ yns88:
I can’t say I blame you. While I found the blocks of prose quite effective at providing some context for the virtuoso finale, the only point at which story and game were effectively combined, and reinforcing the games melancholic mood, they sit outside the game a little too much and feel a touch tacked on. That some of the metaphors employed by Blow are overly contrived (I’m mainly thinking of how he describes the ring time manipulation mechanic here) also doesn’t help.
@ Ludo:
Yes.
05/08/2009 at 16:12 LionsPhil says:
I feel that this is the only logical response.
05/08/2009 at 16:13 Psychopomp says:
@Lions
THAT’S THE SPIRIT
05/08/2009 at 16:30 Geoff says:
I’ll second Meat Circus in saying that Braid actually was brilliant, and in observing that most of those complaining that Blow is pretentious are those who never finished (or even played) the game.
It’s success is not only in its gameplay (so yes, it’s less of a fun platformer than Mario 3, thanks for that helpful observation) but in the way that it ties its narrative directly into that gameplay, and especially in how it uses your control to drive home the reveal at the end. If you played the whole thing, read the “walls of text” (seriously? a small single page is now too much to read after completing a level?), and made some attempt to understand what that stuff meant, then you should know he actually achieved something “intellectual”.
If that’s not your thing, no problem – the game is still some really interesting (if occasionally difficult or frustrating) puzzles and you can skip the text part. Or you can skip the game entirely. But if you choose to avoid his “intellectual” stuff, that doesn’t make him a “pseudo-intellectual” or “pretentious”.
05/08/2009 at 16:31 Vasagi says:
@psychopomp
no thats a lion, douche
05/08/2009 at 16:34 Psychopomp says:
@Vasagi
That can’t be a lion, as it is not mauling a zebra.
Jerkass.
05/08/2009 at 16:42 Dante says:
“but in the way that it ties its narrative directly into that gameplay”
How, exactly? No-one has explained this to me yet.
And I used ‘blocks of text’ as a description, rather than a pejorative. Because that’s what they are, sections of isolated text with no real broader context.
05/08/2009 at 18:07 Geoff says:
@Dante,
It’s better experienced than described, I’m sure I’ll do a poor job of it, but here goes, a blurb from chapter 2:
“He knows she tried to be forgiving, but who can just shrug away a guilty lie, a stab in the back? Such a mistake will change a relationship irreversibly, even if we have learned from the mistake and would never repeat it. The Princess’s eyes grew narrower. She became more distant.”
The gameplay twist in chapter 2 is that there are certain important elements in the levels which remain altered, even when you use the time-rewind mechanic – say a door that stays opened, or a key that stays held. So while the story focuses a great deal on moving forward in life while sometimes looking back at memories (in parallel to progressing in the level while sometimes rewinding time) it now establishes an additional concept – that some things leave irreversible impacts, seen both in memory and in your forward progress through life.
I apologize if my interpretation is poorly worded or fails to impress, but I assure you there is something there to interpret. It is quite the opposite of “sections of isolated text with no real broader context” – the sections of text only make sense in the broader context of the story and its interaction with the game. Taken on their own, they’re merely mediocre introspective blurbs.
If you’re unwilling to play “more than the demo” (and if the demo didn’t impress you enough to spend the money, that’s a respectable choice) then trust the word of those who actually did play the game that we know more about the game than you do. There is something there you haven’t seen.
05/08/2009 at 18:21 Dante says:
I was aware that the story described the upcoming gameplay mechanic obliquely thanks, I just didn’t really consider it much of a merger.
Just to clarify, it wasn’t the story that put me off buying the game (after all, I could have just ignored it) but the fact that I’m not really a fan of the old school 2D platformer thing in general.
It’s always a problem in this kind of debate, being turned off something by a sample is perfectly rational, but then your conceptions of it are based on inferior evidence and (at least in my case) your sense of fair play compels you to declare that in advance. So you either debate from a poorly supported position or you shell out money and time to play a game that didn’t impress you much.
It’s easy for Kieron, people pay him for this kind of thing.
Anyway I might grab a friend’s copy over the weekend and try and do this properly, after all if one is to defy the will of Gillen one must be well armed.
05/08/2009 at 18:59 cullnean says:
@psychopomp
well dur….he’s cleary using the ninja tactic “if i cant see u, u is not seein me!”
before maulin a zebra
ya asshat
05/08/2009 at 19:33 Diogo Ribeiro says:
To be honest, I always felt conflicted about Braid, the main reason being precisely the appaling divorce between narrative and gameplay that Blow has argued so much against. This isn’t an angry internet man rant but while the books fulfill their purpose of setting the mood and hinting at the core gameplay elements of each world, I never found them terribly compelling or well integrated. And when I get to the final levels and actually *see* narrative intertwine with gameplay in such a clever way – presenting the character’s quest as a play on obsession and the perspective we have not only of videogame characters but of the self – the textual narrative feels cheaper. The end is the most absorbing moment by far, and it’s unfortunate that we’re led into believing the gameplay up until the finale compares to it. It simply doesn’t.
I’m sure Blow could have come up with extraordinary ideas to pull this off in a much more seamless and organic way but as it stands, both story and gameplay feel too divorced, too far apart. There’s a reason why I often point to games like Another World and Shadow of the Colossus as examples of achieving this – flawed as they may be in other areas, they got that right.
As others have said, though, it still remains an incredible game. But I don’t agree it achieved all it set out to do.
Not that this has any bearing with his new project but it’s on topic. Still interested to see where he goes next, though, and I wish him the best of luck.
05/08/2009 at 20:28 TheSombreroKid says:
there are a lot of people in the games industry who are smarter and know more about game design than me, but Jonathan Blow isn’t one of them, he isn’t stupid, however, but braid and this ‘poem’ are both pseudo intellectual.
05/08/2009 at 20:32 A-Scale says:
It’s good to see people go at each other’s throats over a conflict I didn’t create/participate in.
05/08/2009 at 20:48 Noc says:
@TheSombreroKid: I am curious about how confident you are in the assertion that that poem is one of Blow’s pieces.
I will accept a monetary value as an answer to this question.
05/08/2009 at 21:25 Geoff says:
@Noc
Just wait for it, I’m sure he’ll come back with a well supported argument that Lao Tse is a pseudo-intellectual.
05/08/2009 at 22:47 Satsuz says:
I can’t help but mentally link this to Spinal Tap. Blow’s turned it up to 11, he has.
06/08/2009 at 01:26 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
@TheSombreroKid:
That “poem” was a translation of an excerpt from a collection of works by Lao-Tzu. We know it as the Tao Te Ching.
Whatever you feel about Taoism’s most revered text, you gotta admit that Jonathan Blow didn’t write it.
06/08/2009 at 02:08 Psychopomp says:
@cullnean
What the fuck, did you drink some paint thinner?
Lions have no reason to hide, idiot. *They’re lions.*
06/08/2009 at 04:02 Adventurous Putty says:
I didn’t finish Braid. I wanted too, but I got preoccupied with life and other games and never got around to finishing it. I felt like I was on the verge of discovering something, since the general milieu of the game was starting to coalesce into something tangibly meaningful (as opposed to the convoluted plot-gameplay divorce that so many people mentioned as having turned them off). Apparently the last level is to die for and totally makes the game, such that the walls of text acquire a new meaning.
I wouldn’t know. I think I’m going to play it again soon.
06/08/2009 at 07:30 john t says:
@dante — Braid is not a 2d platformer. Or at least it’s as much a 2D Platformer as Portal is a First Person Shooter.
06/08/2009 at 08:11 Vasagi says:
@psychopomp
nope cilit bang and skittles
(using name vasagi coz the wife ogot the hump with using my real name, im truly under the thump)
ps
ya monkey fiddler
06/08/2009 at 09:07 The Sombrero Kid says:
i wasn’t implying that blow wrote it, i was saying it’s use was pretentious, I didn’t know it was a Taoist poem, however it’s irrelevant.