David Hellman

This photo of the 3 monitor Braid wallpaper in action comes from Paul Broadbent of Birmingham, England. He was the first (and only?) person to take seriously my suggestion that the panoramic screenshot collage from the last Art of Braid article would make a great super-wide background.

Paul is obviously a man of taste and sophistication, but the Braid wallpaper pushes him into the realm of Visionary Trendsetter.

Here it is again:

Anyway, nice job, Paul! Thanks for sharing!

This entry is nominally about the title screen, but Braid doesn’t have one in the traditional sense. Most video game title screens are just like DVD menus: they show the title, usually some kind of collage or splash image, and present a list of choices: play, select chapter, configure this or that, etc. Braid starts immediately into the game, with no preamble. The game launches, and you are Tim.

(Actually, some changes have been made to make it work in the Xbox Live environment and meet the certification requirements. Maybe future versions on other platforms will conform more to the original vision.)

This is what the title screen looked like when I joined the project. The protagonist, Tim, appears in silhouette on the left. The sky flickers gently with subtle particle effects. The music sets a calm, contemplative mood. (There’s also a ladder to the right of the sun, leading down to an unseen place. That’s a super-secret thing that’s been removed.) A billboard briefs the player on the controls.

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Rest assured, this installment of The Art of Braid contains much less Bloopi-ness.

Each of Braid’s six worlds ends with a castle. They’re backdrops, visual treats to acknowledge the player’s progress. They’re also throwbacks to the famous/iconic/beloved castles of Super Mario Bros. (To my shock and dismay, five minutes of Google image searching did not yield a clean, straightforward screen capture of a SMB castle. So tap your collective consciousness for that one.)

You guys have said you like seeing rough drafts leading up to a finished version, so let’s take a look at how the World 2 castle developed.

A far away castle with a big wall.

Maybe it should look like a house?

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I just discovered via TIGSource that The Behemoth have their own development blog for their upcoming medieval cartoon hack-and-slash, Castle Crashers. It’s quite interesting! Of course my favorite entries are the videos showing Dan Paladin creating the play environments.

Dan draws the way non-artists expect all artists to draw: coming up with cool stuff, making it real, making it look fun. Zippity doo dah zippity ay.

Two more videos after the break. And of course don’t miss the Castle Crashers Development Blog of Love.

Marsh Land Construction from The Behemoth on Vimeo.

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Braid would have been released a while ago, but it was delayed to improve the end product. The fact is, not everyone wants to solve puzzles; some people just want an experience. We’ve made a number of changes in recent months to ensure Braid can be enjoyed by the widest possible group.

Meet Bloopi! He will repeatedly jump into your path. If you touch him, he becomes your inseparable companion.

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