Key 6

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 escaping from a knight, and working together with Tim to surpass obstacles and meet at her home. Tim is suddenly locked out of the house, and, as time progresses forward, reversing Tim's actions, the events show the princess running from Tim, setting traps that he is able to evade, until she is rescued by the knight. Tim is revealed to be the 'monster' from whom the princess is running.

In Their Own Story

Timmy stepped onto the debris-strewn platform, the golden weight heavy in his hand. Around him, the familiar shadows lurked, but there was no rewind button this time. He approached the final gate, the Princess waiting beyond. The key felt cold against his palm, a reminder of every door opened and every mistake made. With a deep breath, he reached for the lock.

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. World 2 (Time and Forgiveness) plays as an ordinary platform game, except that the player may rewind time to undo their actions. World 3 (Time and Mystery) introduces objects surrounded by a green glow that are unaffected by time manipulation. World 4 (Time and Place) links the passage of time to the player character's location on the horizontal axis. World 5 (Time and Decision) involves a 'shadow' of the player character appearing after the player rewinds time and performing the actions that the real player character rewound. World 6 (Hesitance) provides the player with a magic ring which, when dropped, warps the flow of time around itself; the regular rewind control remains available. The final world is labeled simply '1.' In this world, time flows in reverse. Rewinding time returns the flow of time to its normal state. 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.
• A remastered version titled Braid, Anniversary Edition was released in May 2024 for Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
• Braid is considered to be one of the greatest video games ever made and is seen as a keystone title in the growth of indie game development.