Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade service really hit its stride in 2008 with the “Summer of Arcade” event.  Not only did the service’s download numbers increase dramatically, their gamer cred spiked as well with the release of a slew of quality titles, including Geometry Wars 2, Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Castle Crashers.  The most endearing and innovative of these titles was Braid, an out-of-nowhere game with a unique concept, gorgeous, dream-like visuals, and enough charm and cleverness to win the heart of even the most jaded gamers. 

Since Braid’s release, the gaming world has wanted to know what Jonathan Blow, the mind behind the game’s time-bending mechanics and cerebral narrative, would be working on next.  In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Blow gives us a taste of what’s to come.

“Yeah. It's an RPG right now, a 2D RPG that I'm working on. You never know. Next month, it could be a Pac-Man clone or something.”

Attention span notwithstanding, a Jonathan Blow-created 2D RPG sounds like a little slice of heaven.  While Blow wasn’t able to give many details, he did state that the game would incorporate the classic RPG dialogue trees in a new and impactful way.

“The way I'm thinking about it for the current game is that what goes on in those dialogs is actually very closely related to the core mechanic that you do in the RPG. And I can't really say more about it. But there is more of a tie, like you were saying is going on with Braid -- a tie between the game mechanic, or the core ideas and themes, and the things that you do.”

The interview is worth a read, as it also discusses the future of Braid on different platforms, why there won’t be a Braid 2, and Blow’s general philosophy on game creation. 

There.  Got through the article without a single joke about his last name.  Man, that was difficult.


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