Exclusive look: The Braid that almost was part 3: NPCs

Here’s the final act of our three part behind-the-scenes on the creation of Braid. Part one focused on Tim, part two on devising the game’s enemies, and part three is, well, everything else I could get my hands on. Highlights include dinosaurs, the princess, a boss, and the knight.

Probably my favorite thing about this weeks post is the picture Edmund McMillen (the artist behind this series) sent me of his wife, to show that Braid‘s princess was based on the way she looked on their wedding day. Though the resemblance isn’t exactly uncanny, it’s cool to see that a bit of the man’s real life managed to sneak into an amalgamation of Jonathan Blow’s dream-like world. 

Another favorite is the file called “Princess3” where the differences between the drawings are so incremental that detecting the tiny variances between them almost feels like a Professor Layton puzzle. For instance, princess 1 has arms down to her knees, where princess 2’s arms end closer to her ass.

See? Fun, right?

Like the last two weeks, there is also a kick-ass flash file after the jump depicting Edmund’s drawings in motion. This week’s animated showcase displays just how “final” Edmund’s work on Braid really was. Makes me hope that someday a playable version of Braid will be released with all of Edmund’s original stuff intact. David Hellman’s a great artist as well, but as I’ve said in previous weeks, Edmund’s stuff just sits better with me.

What do you guys think? Would you want to play Braid again, but with these graphics?