Microsoft Game Studios

Lore & Background

The basic story elements in Braid unfold as the protagonist, Tim, attempts to rescue a princess from a monster. Text passages laid throughout the game reveal a multifaceted narrative, giving clues about Tim's contemplations and motivations. The final level, in which everything but Tim moves in reverse, depicts the princess fleeing from Tim, not cooperating with him. The reversed events show Tim's actions as harmful: the princess is running away, setting traps that he evades, until a knight rescues her from Tim. Tim is then locked out of the house. Tim is revealed to be the 'monster' from whom the princess is running.

Reader's Guide

Braid is played by solving physical puzzles in a standard platform game environment. The player controls the protagonist Tim as he runs, jumps, and climbs across the game's levels. Tim jumps and stomps on enemies to defeat them, and can collect keys to unlock doors or operate levers to trigger platforms. A defining game element is the player's unlimited ability to reverse time and 'rewind' actions, even after dying.

The game is divided into six worlds, which are experienced sequentially and can be entered from different rooms of Tim's house; the player can return to any world previously visited to attempt to solve puzzles they missed. Each world has its own time-based game mechanic. Each stage contains puzzle pieces that must be collected to create jigsaw puzzles that tell the story, and to unlock the last stage. On completing the main game, a speedrun mode becomes available for select levels and the entire game.

There are also eight stars hidden throughout the world of Braid that correspond to the stars in the constellation of Andromeda just outside the main character's house.

Did You Know?

• A preliminary version of Braid (without the final artwork) won the 'Innovation in Game Design' award at the 2006 Independent Games Festival.
• The game had total revenue nearing $6 million, which Blow used to fund his next game, The Witness, a 3D puzzle game released in 2016.
• Jonathan Blow put about US$200,000 of his own money into the game's development, most going towards hiring David Hellman for artwork and for living expenses.