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I’m Sorry, But the Princess is in Another Castle
By Corvus | March 21, 2008
Have you heard of Jonathan Blow? How about his upcoming game Braid? If the answer to either of those questions is, “no,” then you probably owe it to yourself to do a little digging and find out more about him. You can start with the official Braid blog, but be sure to poke around and read about Blow’s public appearances and his feeling that the industry isn’t providing enough (truly) mature and thoughtful content. Or, what the heck, Jonathan’s Wikipedia entry* makes it easy for me to sum up both the game and his approach right here:
Braid is a meditation on loss and relationships where the player controls time to solve puzzles. Braid won the “Game Design” award at the Independent Games Festival in 2006.
In a speech at the Free Play conference in Australia in September 2007, Blow considered games were on a path to being influential on a par with other forms of art such as films and novels, in “drastically” shaping society at large. One example was World of Warcraft which he labeled “unethical”. He said he believed such games were exploitative of players by using a simple reward for suffering schema to keep them in front of their consoles. In his view, developers needed to think about what their games are teaching players when they reward them for performing certain actions, which is about reinforcing those actions. He said there was a need for developers who design inspiring new games using “innovative, ethical and personal art.”
I so appreciate Jonathan’s stated approach to designing games that I was a bit leery of playing Braid, lest my expectations override the actual game experience and I become bitterly disappointed. As it turns out, that wasn’t far from the truth. When I first fired up the preview copy Jonathan so graciously sent me, I was perturbed to find out that Braid, gorgeous art direction and beautiful soundtrack aside, bears an uncanny resemblance to Super Mario Bros. You jump, you bounce off enemies, there are even pipes with snapping plants rising out of them. Having never been a fan of side scrolling platformers, I gave up on it pretty quickly and wondered what I’d write about instead.
However, knowing that my renewed expectations would allow me to view the game differently, I picked it up again a couple of days later and found myself playing for quite some time. I’m going to pick my words carefully here, as Jonathan has asked me to be circumspect about spoilers and I haven’t played enough to confirm the conclusions I’m moving towards.
Braid attaches a deep sadness to the “rescue the princess” mission structure. This is done through the game art, which is hands down some of the most beautiful side scroller art I have ever seen, the music, which MsZ commented on yesterday morning, “That’s beautiful,” and shortly after, “that’s a game?!” and the inclusion of some poignant text before each set of levels, or world, explaining the hero’s plight and his failed relationship with the princess. Throughout each level you collect puzzle pieces that you then assemble into a picture. I haven’t completed a puzzle yet (you’re able to play through to the next world before you’ve completed the puzzle of the first), but I suspect the art will reveal more details about the protagonist’s sorrow.
My secondary objection (yes, I’m doing these in reverse order) to the storytelling approach of Braid lies with the text. As you run your character past a series of books, on your way to the doors which lead to each level in a world, the books open and their text is displayed on the screen. I strongly feel this portion of the design is not up to par with the rest of the game. It comes across as a clumsy attempt to set the mood and it’s disconnected from the rest of the game narrative.** It would have been a far stronger choice to communicate this information throughout the levels themselves. Soft and distant sound-bites of a couple arguing, accompanied by subtle shifts in the color scheme of the level might have been a nice approach. I know that cost is a concern and displaying text on the screen is the cheapest means of conveying your ideas, but other solutions can be found and made to work pretty cheaply too.
My primary concern is related to the first in that the gameplay does not appear to say anything about the characters in the game. The challenges you face do not appear to tie into the core emotional struggle. In other words, very little is said aout the central character via his relationship with his environment. It’s as if Braid’s story is a beautiful skin wrapped around a side scrolling platformer. Admittedly, it’s a pretty solid platformer experience, which is either good or bad depending on how you feel about the genre.
Braid’s gameplay hook lies within the ability to manipulate time. Like the quirky Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom***, which I played at the IGF booth at GDC this year, you can rewind and fast forward time in order to recover from death, solve puzzles and navigate the levels in unexpected ways. There is no meter limiting your capabilities, no power ups to collect, you’re simply able to rewind and fast forward as much as you like. Whereas I found this to be a bit disorienting when I demoed Winterbottom, I was able to pretty quickly sort out the introductory puzzles in Braid. Part of that, no doubt, is that I wasn’t standing in a crowded expo hall. I’d also wager that the temporal puzzles will become much more complex as the levels progress.
Braid is being developed for the Xbox Live Arcade and PC. I will likely end up buying it via the Arcade. The levels are short enough and the gameplay forgiving enough (no lives, intuitive rewind for correcting any missteps) that I find it much more enjoyable than a Mario game. If nothing else, I want to ensure that Jonathan Blow remains active, sharing his ethical concerns and speaking his mind about the problems with the industry. That, and I’m eager to see what he’ll do with a bigger budget next time around.
*I need a Wikipedia entry. I wonder how long it would be before they deleted it.
**If you’re new to MBB, it’s important to note that when I say game narrative, I mean the entire game. You can read my thoughts on narrative for more details.
***Interestingly, Jonathan Blow is listed as an “External Advisor” on this game’s website
Tagged:braid, storytelling. |
March 25th, 2008 at 6:35 am
[...] Corvus Elrod wrote up his impressions over at Man Bytes Blog. He likes Braid, but not as much as the previously-mentioned previewers; but he’s also still early in the game, so maybe that will change. Or maybe he will totally hate it in the end! [...]
March 26th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Corvus wrote: “My primary concern is related to the first in that the gameplay does not appear to say anything about the characters in the game. The challenges you face do not appear to tie into the core emotional struggle.”
Although Braid’s gameplay is not a literal embodiment of the story, it is in every sense a strong metaphor thereof. Great care was taken to ensure that the metaphor holds throughout.
Personally, I find this to be a refreshing and interesting departure from the literal cut-scenes-and-voice-acting style to which we are accustomed in this medium.
- Casey
March 26th, 2008 at 5:27 am
If you read around a bit, you’ll see that I’m not a huge fan of cut scenes and voice acting either, Casey. From what I saw of Braid, however, the avatar’s available verbs owe more to Mario, than anything within the story.
But there are certainly strong metaphoric elements to the goals within the game. Regardless, I’ll be continuing to play and reporting my impressions as they change.
March 27th, 2008 at 2:06 am
Corvus wrote: “From what I saw of Braid, however, the avatar’s available verbs owe more to Mario, than anything within the story.”
I’d definitely like to know if your opinion changes after you’ve completed the game, since it is so different from my own. But, it might just be because I’ve played the game through all the way, and the story relationship might not be clear until later in the game.
- Casey
March 27th, 2008 at 5:20 am
I suspect that just might be the case!