Indie Game: The Movie Page #3

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actually finish something.

And that became 'Braid'.

It took three years, but I finished it

One of the biggest breakout

games would have to be Braid.

Braid is an interesting game ...

... I was surprised it was as

successful as it is.

It was a big hit for

the independent community.

Generating a lot of money for

Jonathan.

It's a very odd setting and a lot of

people aren't quite sure what it means

Nobody had played a game that was like

Braid.

That did what Braid did

with time before.

Really what made Braid work was that

'Rewind' mechanic ...

... obviously, from a gameplay

perspective was a lot of fun.

But it also had a metaphorical

relevance as well.

It's telling this strange,

out of order love story

... not something you normally see

in a game.

It's about this little preppy boy.

He always looks like a preppy to me.

He's lost something and is working

through memories ...

... that change as he keeps playing.

The fictional world

and the game world mechanic ...

... those two work hand-in-hand

very very well.

So Braid came out of the confluence

of a couple of different ideas.

I was on a mailing list with

some friends. And one friend...

... was looking at

'Prince of Persia: Sands of Time'

And it had this ability to 'rewind'.

But it was limited.

You had a certain number of charges.

When you ran out, if you got

killed, you couldn't rewind anymore.

You had to reload the game.

Which was this painful process.

So one of my friends said:

Why not do it like a VCR?

And rewind anytime you want.

But nobody ever tried it.

So I said:

'Okay, I'm feeling inspired.'

'Let me start this idea for this game

I've been kicking around.'

And I spent about a week working on it

And I had a prototype.

That is really kind of amazing.

In that...

... if you look at the prototype,

and the final game ...

... a lot of the ideas from

the final game and in that prototype.

So I had the first three worlds.

I mean not fully built out worlds.

But the game mechanics were there.

For rewinding ...

And for rewinding with things that are

immune to rewind.

And for time and space

being tied together.

So that time changes as you move.

I had a number of puzzles.

Probably half of them are in

the final game, in recognizable form.

It was very low effort, on my part,

to do something very interesting

in the system.

And I was like:
'Wow'

It started as experimentation.

but then it quickly became

a process of discovery.

It's like sitting on a gold mine.

But you don't even have to dig.

You just scoop some dirt and

there's a little chunk of gold.

Then you scoop a little more ...

The hardest part of the process is

picking up these heavy chunks of gold.

So that was

an amazing design experience.

[Braid is one of the top rated

video games of all time.]

Most of the time, Tommy's

in North Carolina. Working remotely.

And I'm here working from my computer.

The way this game developed...

... has been very different from

other games I've worked on.

[Edmund has designed

25 Flash games in the past 10 years.]

[Super Meat Boy will be

his first major release.]

We bounce ideas off each other.

Not just gameplay ideas.

More like jokes.

Jokes that get out of control ...

... and push their way into the game.

It says:

'Code. Code. Code. Durrrrr!'

My Adams's Apple is not that big!

Stop it!

What if I put a knife in it ...

... look at that.

It's totally injected all the way in.

See the needle? And then a hammer hits

the needle in deeper.

I've always been trying to

find where boundaries are.

And see how far I can push them

before I get in trouble.

That's what I'm doing now.

If I'm not doing that, I'm bored.

And if I'm bored.

I'm not being creative.

I make games that center around my

life. The things I think, say and do.

I make games to express myself.

I guess.

It's hard for me to talk about

Santa Cruz.

I never lived anywhere else.

It's just 'normal'.

I grew up here.

My mom was obsessed with the beach.

It was always her dream to live in

Santa Cruz.

So, that's where she ...

... forced us to live.

It was like a skate and surf town.

I never got into either.

I stayed in the house,

played video games and drew.

Monsters.

I only drew monsters.

I drew weird sh*t.

There's a drawing of a kid,

with a demon inside of him.

Scratching to get out.

In third grade, my teacher

recommended that I be evaluated.

Psychologically evaluated.

She thought I was

mentally disturbed.

My mom said:
'No, he's just an artist.

He like's to draw.'

And she said:
'That's not art.

That's a cry for help.'

I basically grew up with my Grandma.

I didn't get along with my Step Dad.

When there was a problem,

I would stay with my Grandma.

Or we would all stay with my Grandma.

My Grandma was extremely supportive.

To the point of annoying my mom

and my sister.

To her, I was the Golden Boy

who could do anything.

She made me feel like

I could do anything.

When she said:

'You're going to be a success'

It wasn't like she was just saying it.

It was like, a FACT.

Like, that was going to happen.

That was that.

Aether was based on my niece.

She reminded me of myself.

She didn't like

playing with other kids.

She liked to do things by herself.

And explore by herself.

She was very imaginative.

And she really liked monsters

So, that brought me back to

when I was little. And I thought...

How cool would it be to make a game.

That could put people inside my mind

when I was 5, 6, 7?

And that became 'Aether'

So this kid gets on

the back of a monster.

And the monster goes around in space.

And he explores all

these other planets.

He can't connect to anybody

on earth. So he goes to find friends.

But all these other planets are

inhabited by...

... weird or sad or nervous creatures.

And he tries to solve their problems.

And succeeds...

But they don't become happy.

And he keeps going around

all these planets.

But each time he solves a problem,

the Earth gets smaller.

When he comes back. It's so

small that when he touches it...

...it breaks.

And he's lost in space.

It was about the idea of...

It's really cool to be a creative kid.

But there's dangers of isolating,

and becoming obsessed with things.

And having phobias.

Each of those planets was

a phobia of mine when I was little.

And when I was little, before bed,

I would obsess about these things.

Because I thought I could fix them.

But in the end,

I would just make them worse.

They wouldn't be fixed.

But I'd be so obsessed with them ...

... I'd have stomach aches and have to

go home from school.

A lot of the imagery,

I'm still very happy with.

To me it speaks perfectly of

how I felt when I was little.

When I play that game. It's exactly

how I remember it feeling.

Shortly after Aether,

my Grandma passed away.

And she had a box of my drawings

that she saved.

From when I was little.

That's when I found this picture ...

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