Ending 1

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

The heat radiates through the stone floor as Tim sprints across the crumbling bridge. Behind him, the castle he spent days navigating burns with an unnatural intensity, orange light flickering against the night sky. The Princess runs ahead, her white dress stained with soot, glancing back in terror not at the fire, but at him. He reaches out, his hand brushing her shoulder as she stumbles onto the precipice. "I saved you," he whispers, though the smoke chokes the words before they can land.

Reader's Guide

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 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 multiple platforms.
• The game is considered to be one of the greatest video games ever made and a keystone title in the growth of indie game development.