Tim

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The basic story elements in Braid unfold as the protagonist, Tim, attempts to rescue a princess from a monster. Text passages laid throughout the game reveal a multifaceted narrative, giving clues about Tim's contemplations and motivations. In the final world, time flows in reverse. Rewinding time returns the flow of time to its normal state. The final level depicts the princess escaping from a knight, and working together with Tim to surpass obstacles and meet at her home. Tim is suddenly locked out of the house, and, as time progresses forward, reversing Tim's actions, the events show the princess running from Tim, setting traps that he is able to evade, until she is rescued by the knight. Tim is revealed to be the 'monster' from whom the princess is running.

In Their Own Story

Tim runs, jumps, and climbs across the game's levels, stomping on enemies to defeat them, collecting keys to unlock doors, and operating levers to trigger platforms. His defining ability is the unlimited power to reverse time and rewind actions, even after dying. The game is divided into six worlds, experienced sequentially and entered from different rooms of Tim's house. Each world has its own time-based mechanic: in "Time and Forgiveness," Tim may rewind time to undo his actions; in "Time and Mystery," objects surrounded by a green glow are unaffected by time manipulation; in "Time and Place," time flows forward as Tim moves right and reverses as he moves left; in "Time and Decision," a "shadow" of Tim appears after he rewinds time and performs the actions he rewound; in "Hesitance," Tim can drop a magic ring that warps time around itself; and in the final world labeled "1," time flows in reverse, and rewinding returns time to its normal state. Each stage contains puzzle pieces that must be collected to create jigsaw puzzles that tell the story and unlock the last stage.

Reader's Guide

Braid is played by solving physical puzzles in a standard platform game environment. The player controls the protagonist Tim as he runs, jumps, and climbs across the game's levels. Tim jumps and stomps on enemies to defeat them, and can collect keys to unlock doors or operate levers to trigger platforms. A defining game element is the player's unlimited ability to reverse time and 'rewind' actions, even after dying. The game is divided into six worlds, which are experienced sequentially and can be entered from different rooms of Tim's house; the player can return to any world previously visited to attempt to solve puzzles they missed. Each world has its own time-based game mechanic: Time and Forgiveness allows rewinding time; Time and Mystery introduces objects unaffected by time manipulation; Time and Place links time passage to horizontal movement; Time and Decision involves a shadow of the player performing rewound actions; Hesitance provides a magic ring that warps time around itself; the final world has time flowing in reverse. Each stage contains puzzle pieces that must be collected to create jigsaw puzzles that tell the story, and to unlock the last stage. On completing the main game, a speedrun mode becomes available for select levels and the entire game. There are also eight stars hidden throughout the world of Braid that correspond to the stars in the constellation of Andromeda just outside the main character's house.

Did You Know?

• A preliminary version of Braid (without the final artwork) won the 'Innovation in Game Design' award at the 2006 Independent Games Festival.
• The game had total revenue nearing $6 million, as of 2015, which Blow used to fund his next game, The Witness.
• A remastered version titled Braid, Anniversary Edition was released in May 2024 for multiple platforms.
• The game is considered to be one of the greatest video games ever made and a keystone title in the growth of indie game development.