Braid Dev: XBLA Certification Hindered Development; No Downloadable Content Planned

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Following the release of Jonathan Blow's independently developed, time-warping puzzle platformer Braid, the developer has revealed that the Xbox Live Arcade certification requirements may have encumbered the title in its crucial polish phases.

"They removed some of the requirements for XBLA games, but there are still a lot of requirements," Blow told Gamasutra. "And I believe that, at least for a single-player game like my game, the vast majority of these requirements are unnecessary."

Blow continued, "I put in a tremendous amount of work meeting all these requirements, when I could have put that work into the actual game, and made it even a little more polished, little bit better."

The developer further noted that while the Xbox Live Arcade certification process is meant to ensure a standard of quality for games appearing on the platform, he believes that the amount of time and energy spent on passing certification has an impact on a title's final product.

"I definitely had a couple of unpleasant business interactions with Microsoft," Blow admitted. "Nothing horrible—well, nothing quite bad enough to cause me to cancel releasing the game on Arcade. But what would keep me from putting another game on Arcade again is just that they've changed the business deal—at least as I've heard."

Despite the troubles, Blow later stressed that there were some positives in his dealings with the software giant.

"They didn't try to dictate the game design, as many publishers might—they were very hands-off there, and what is in the final game is exactly what I wanted to put there," the designer added. "They also bent a lot of XBLA rules, in order to help me make the game the way I wanted, which was pretty cool of them... For the most part, working with Microsoft has been great."

Blow had previously stated that he had no plans for a Braid sequel, but fans may be disappointed to learn that the developer is currently not planning any downloadable content for the puzzle platformer, either.

"Money is not really my goal, so even if Braid does very well... that's not my concern. I'm not going to do a sequel to Braid—I don't care how many copies it sells. I mean, maybe in five years when I'm motivated, if I have a really fresh idea for it. But I'm not waiting in the wings with a level pack, or DLC or anything," he stated.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 8, 2008 8:24 PM

    It's nice that an indie developer can speak freely and is not committed to making sequels. I wish his the best in his future projects.

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