Braid is finally out on the PC. Jonathan Blow is working on some bugs. AAAAND there’s the official release of the Braid Soundtrack, and a Level Editor!
Soundtrack
The Braid Soundtrack is available on Magnatune with two remixes of songs from the game (Maenam and Undercurrent by Jami Sieber, Jon Schatz remix)! The soundtrack itself is amazing. You can stream the music and listen if you don’t believe me.
Level Editor
To get the level editor on Braid, add a “-editor” argument when running the game and press F11. The interface might be a little confusing but fortunately, documentation will be released soon:
Yeah, after I get a new version out in a few days that fixes the problems some people are having, and when more people have played/finished the game, I am going to post some documentation for the editor. The way it works is you can make levels with the editor (up to a full game, potentially) and run that with -universe later… also a tool will be released that lets you take Photoshop files and import them into the game, if you want to put new graphics in your levels.
Now that the “what if” there was a level editor has been fulfilled, we can expect user-created “what ifs” in the coming months, weeks, …or even days? I’m excited 
Source:Steam Forums (On Braid Soundtrack, Map Editor)
Filed under: gaming by Loki
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Yesterday, I posted my first impressions on the Windows 7 Beta. Today, I’ve bumped into a great informative post by Tim Sneath with his 30 favorite secrets in Windows 7. Much thanks to Tim!
Back From Retirement
I was happy to find among them a way to bring back the old Quick Launch Toolbar! (#13)
- Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars / New Toolbar
- In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and hit OK:
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
- Turn off the “lock the taskbar” setting, and right-click on the divider. Make sure that “Show text” and “Show title” are disabled and the view is set to “small icons”.
- Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again.
I just love the Quick Launch toolbar since it provides easy access the usual programs and folders I use without much clutter on the taskbar.
No Shaking Required
In my previous post, I also mentioned that the Aero Shake seemed impractical for non-touch/pen input. I guess Microsoft’s answer to that is the shortcut: [Win+Home]. (#3)
Hide and Go Peek
When on keyboard intensive tasks such as writing and coding, I hate to move my right hand and reach for the mouse. Good thing there’s [Win+Space] that reveals the Destkop like Aero Peek (#17), and [Win+1], [Win+2], …[Win+5] for quick access to the first 5 items on the taskbar (#11), and [Win+T] to shift focus to the taskbar (#21). (Note: [Win+T] works on Vista, too)
Still More?
These are just my favorite “secrets” from what Tim Sneath posted. I can’t help but wonder what Microsoft is intentionally hiding from us, especialy after reading this from the Windows 7 Beta 1 review on TechRadar UK:
The beta is feature complete; although there are “a couple of things that we’re holding back”, according to general manager Mike Ybarra.
… “all of the code is in the build, just the discoverability is not.” …
Very Interesting…
Filed under: Technology by Loki
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Public Beta Release
Last January 9, 2009, Microsoft released the Windows 7 Beta to the public. I don’t think Microsoft expected much demand since the servers were facing technical difficulties. The put down the site to ensure a better download experience. The link to the ISO was shared by some helpful users and still worked. However, potential testers (including me) couldn’t get a product key that would get past the 30-day limit.
Fortunately, Microsoft more than made up for their overloaded servers by extending the key distribution until January 24. If you’re interested, you can download the ISO, get a key and test Windows 7 yourself until it stops working on August 1, 2009. (By this time, maybe there will be another beta version / new key distribution…)
To Test or Not
I tried to resist beta testing Windows 7 but in the end, Windows 7 beta won. I finished downloading the Windows 7 x64 ISO (about 3.3 GB) & just got my product key yesterday morning (Sunday) and started testing shortly after.
After a day of use, here’s what I noticed, plus my comments/suggestions. I’ve tried to link to as much screenshots that I’ve taken to show what I mean.
(more…)
Filed under: Technology by Loki
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