Console Ports Are "Not Worth It," Says Braid Dev

[CBanana]

The iPad 2 is actually a fair amount more powerful than people give credit for. Compared to an XBOX 360, it has worse CPU, better GPU, similar RAM. The iPad 2 also has much faster data retrieval which could be key to helping his game perform.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_hardware
http://osxdaily.com/2011/03/02/ipad-2-specs/

It's not too far fetched to assume that the game is being developed for the iPad 3 and beyond. The iPad 3 system specs have a very good chance of dwarfing the XBOX 360's system specs.

As for why it needs such high system specs? It's because the game really desires/requires the player to see to the edge of the horizon of the game world. Most games hide that behind a fog so that the hardware requirements stay lower but as I understand, it's not really an option for this game.

 

[Ghengis John]

The guy makes one shallow, plodding, pretentious super mario brothers clone with vague fortune cookie snippets for a plot and he thinks he's ready to decry the limitations of console hardware. I might ask what kind of memory sink he's devising if this is genuinely a problem.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I just have to say, when even the indie devs are saying the consoles are too weak, it's time for a new system. Frozen Synapse, which was much more technically impressive than anything this guy has ever done, actually specifies "Netbook Integrated Graphics" as the graphics card requirement. When consoles are below that level (I know they technically aren't, but come on), they're officially too weak.

As for this specific dev? I'm in the "Braid was mediocre" camp, personally. As a platformer, it's exceedingly bland, and no amount of artyness can save a mediocre game like that. If anything, Braid is a poster child for what's wrong with indie games; VVVVVV is a much better example of a good indie game -- heck, so is Atom Zombie Smasher for that matter. As far as I'm concerned, indie games should be to videogames as <link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheapass_Games>Cheapass Games and the Placebo Press[footnote]Which sadly seems to be out of business and not notable enough for a Wikipedia article; shame, they made good stuff[/footnote] are to tabletop games.

 

[Strazdas]

so we went from "not worth porting crappy xbox games to pc" to "not worth proting crappy pc games to xbox". what did i miss?

 

[MarsProbe]

*sigh*

Oh well, if this game was released on console, I may have actually considered trying it, But now? Not so much.

Interesting, noting that this information was sourced from Edge Magazine. You should have also mentioned that instead of introducing the magazine staff to the game or describing it all, he basically handed them the game then shot off to his hotel room to sleep. Okay, so he was seemingly jetlagged, but you would still think a game developer would want to stick around for at least a little while to show off his new game to the press, regardless?

 

[Disthron]

I know that PS3 and 360 have been out for around 4-5yrs now and it seems a LOT of people are talking about what sonsole is comming next. This could also influence a developers desision given that, if new systems are comming out soon, there is no garantee that they will be 100% compatible with the current systems. Perticularly the downloadable content.

For these new systems, will the old downloadable content be compatible, will customers who bought a Downloadable game on 360 be able to transfer that game onto the new console or will they have to buy it again. Assuming it is commpatible. Pc's on the other hand are very bacward compatible.

 

[dimensional]

Well if I was making an indie game I would almost certainly target the pc and ipad/phone market more than consoles (dependant on what game I was hoping to make obv) and if I thought that just targeting those platforms would be sufficient to recoup my investment I would leave it at that.

PSN and Xbox live oh and wii (does that even get new releases on wiiware or whatever it called now?) really dont seem (in general) to be a good place to release indie games much higher initial cost lower return and likely lower sales.

What I dont get is that comment on aging specs then switching to its mainly a compatibility issue so what is it the specs arent high enough for the game or its a compatibility issue?

If its the second why ***** about aging specs? and if its the first well his game better look bloody incredible is all I can say as I still dont believe they have extracted all the potential from any of the consoles yet (although in the wiis case I dont think any but a handful of games even tried to).

 

[bdcjacko]

He sounds like a snobby douche. Braid was fun, but how is that pushing the limits of an x-box? Seriously bro.