Changed package format. (May reduce crashes on startup.)

Changed package format. (May reduce crashes on startup.)

The beta has been updated. Fixes since the last beta include:

Mouse handling robustness improved; mouse drift on puzzle screen should be gone.
More-robust selection of fullscreen display modes. Fall back to windowed mode if a fullscreen mode cannot be found.
In windowed mode, the window can be resized.
(Note: -width and -height arguments will not currently affect fullscreen mode; they only affect windowed mode).
Hopefully runs on Windows XP again (not yet tested locally, but if someone out there could try it, that would be great).

The beta has been updated. Fixes since the last beta include:

Mouse handling robustness improved; mouse drift on puzzle screen should be gone.
More-robust selection of fullscreen display modes. Fall back to windowed mode if a fullscreen mode cannot be found.
In windowed mode, the window can be resized.
(Note: -width and -height arguments will not currently affect fullscreen mode; they only affect windowed mode).
Hopefully runs on Windows XP again (not yet tested locally, but if someone out there could try it, that would be great).

The new update solved some problems for some people, but apparently it created new problems for other people. So I am rolling back the main version of Braid to the old one until all problems are solved.

Among the problems introduced in the new update:

* The game no longer worked on Windows XP (this was caused by the updating of the game to the new Visual Studio 2013 compiler; Visual Studio now breaks XP compatibility by default).
* The mouse got stuck on the puzzle screen for some players, making puzzles unplayable.
* The game sometimes cannot find a good display mode for some players, whereas it found one before.

I apologize for the inconvenience. It's very hard to know what a Windows game is going to do when released to a large number of people, these days. Developing for Windows now is basically a giant disaster (Windows has become very complicated). The strategy with new versions going forward will be to minimize the amount of Windows functionality that they rely on for the game to be playable (for example, the next release will no longer attempt to go into a fullscreen display mode; it will just render to an offscreen buffer and then stretchblit that to a fullscreen window). Also, I'll test the next update much more thoroughly before releasing it as the main version.

The new update is still live on the beta branch and the password has been taken off the beta branch to make it easy for everyone to get at. New updates will be published on the beta branch until such time as they are determined to be working very well.

Expected features for next update:

* Fix XP compatibility for new version
* Render 'fullscreen' without attempting to switch display modes
* Change the way the game interfaces with the mouse, to minimize problems

Thanks for your patience and again I apologize for any inconvenience.

If the old version of the game doesn't work for you, you might want to try the beta in the meantime and see if that works better.

The new update solved some problems for some people, but apparently it created new problems for other people. So I am rolling back the main version of Braid to the old one until all problems are solved.

Among the problems introduced in the new update:

* The game no longer worked on Windows XP (this was caused by the updating of the game to the new Visual Studio 2013 compiler; Visual Studio now breaks XP compatibility by default).
* The mouse got stuck on the puzzle screen for some players, making puzzles unplayable.
* The game sometimes cannot find a good display mode for some players, whereas it found one before.

I apologize for the inconvenience. It's very hard to know what a Windows game is going to do when released to a large number of people, these days. Developing for Windows now is basically a giant disaster (Windows has become very complicated). The strategy with new versions going forward will be to minimize the amount of Windows functionality that they rely on for the game to be playable (for example, the next release will no longer attempt to go into a fullscreen display mode; it will just render to an offscreen buffer and then stretchblit that to a fullscreen window). Also, I'll test the next update much more thoroughly before releasing it as the main version.

The new update is still live on the beta branch and the password has been taken off the beta branch to make it easy for everyone to get at. New updates will be published on the beta branch until such time as they are determined to be working very well.

Expected features for next update:

* Fix XP compatibility for new version
* Render 'fullscreen' without attempting to switch display modes
* Change the way the game interfaces with the mouse, to minimize problems

Thanks for your patience and again I apologize for any inconvenience.

If the old version of the game doesn't work for you, you might want to try the beta in the meantime and see if that works better.

People are wondering about the update; so far it is some bug fixes for Windows:

Fixed: Mouse creep on puzzle screens on some systems.
Fixed: December savegames said (null) instead of the month name.
Fixed: Crash due to out-of-bounds access when loading shaders, sometimes.
Took out "How to Play" menu, renamed Help & Options to be just Options.

People are wondering about the update; so far it is some bug fixes for Windows:

Fixed: Mouse creep on puzzle screens on some systems.
Fixed: December savegames said (null) instead of the month name.
Fixed: Crash due to out-of-bounds access when loading shaders, sometimes.
Took out "How to Play" menu, renamed Help & Options to be just Options.

Hi!
1.09 and 1.10 rolled out within the last 7 days, here are the release notes if you missed them :

• Fix issue with Gomez being launched in the air in the connective rails industrial level
  
• Removed stray collision tile in bell tower level
  
• Added launch option for the game not to pause when exiting focus state
  
• Fix issues with disabling Steamworks via the launch option (since 1.09)
  
• Fix for issue with brightness control and the CMY cave (since 1.09)
  
• Fixed intermittent hang while loading the final cutscene (since 1.08)

• Music streaming thread uses much less CPU time, should drop CPU usage by 50% on most systems
  
• Added brightness control in video options
  
• Fixed that secret passages would lead to the wrong destination door in some circumstances
  
• Removed the "Start New Game" option from the pause menu upon user request, you can still start a new game form the "Save Management" menu by clearing your current save slot
  
• Fixed a crash that occurred when using the "flying" code during a warpgate transition
  
• First-person view mouselook fixed to be able to scroll endlessly instead of being constrained to screen size
  
• Gomez looks the right way when looking around with mouse drag
  
• Back, Jump and Start keys now exit first-person view
  
• Fixed that the credits would jump forwards in 720p and 1080p since 1.08
  
• Fixed that the sky clouds would randomly appear too dark since 1.08
  
• Fixed that the "Talk/Back" button on controllers would stop working after exiting the Steam overlay
  
• Added an "Achievements" menu option for the Steam build
  
• An error dialog with details and suggestions will pop up instead of silently exiting when an error related to framebuffer objects happens at load time
  
• An error message will pop-up if the XInput DLL is missing due to bad install of redistributables
  
• Miscellaneous CPU-wise optimizations
  
• Fixed and tweaked leaderboard navigation
  
• Clicking on a leaderboard entry will open the Steam overlay to that user's page

As a reminder, the best place to get timely support is on the official support site on GetSatisfaction : https://getsatisfaction.com/polytron

And in case you've been living under a rock since last week, FEZ is part of the Humble Indie Bundle 9 (alongside Trine 2, FTL, Brütal Legend, Mark of the Ninja and Eets Munchies!) and is now available on Mac and Linux through SteamPlay! That means if you've already bought the game for Windows, you may now play on Mac and Linux machines with the same license.
http://humblebundle.com

Cheers!

Hi!
1.09 and 1.10 rolled out within the last 7 days, here are the release notes if you missed them :

• Fix issue with Gomez being launched in the air in the connective rails industrial level
  
• Removed stray collision tile in bell tower level
  
• Added launch option for the game not to pause when exiting focus state
  
• Fix issues with disabling Steamworks via the launch option (since 1.09)
  
• Fix for issue with brightness control and the CMY cave (since 1.09)
  
• Fixed intermittent hang while loading the final cutscene (since 1.08)

• Music streaming thread uses much less CPU time, should drop CPU usage by 50% on most systems
  
• Added brightness control in video options
  
• Fixed that secret passages would lead to the wrong destination door in some circumstances
  
• Removed the "Start New Game" option from the pause menu upon user request, you can still start a new game form the "Save Management" menu by clearing your current save slot
  
• Fixed a crash that occurred when using the "flying" code during a warpgate transition
  
• First-person view mouselook fixed to be able to scroll endlessly instead of being constrained to screen size
  
• Gomez looks the right way when looking around with mouse drag
  
• Back, Jump and Start keys now exit first-person view
  
• Fixed that the credits would jump forwards in 720p and 1080p since 1.08
  
• Fixed that the sky clouds would randomly appear too dark since 1.08
  
• Fixed that the "Talk/Back" button on controllers would stop working after exiting the Steam overlay
  
• Added an "Achievements" menu option for the Steam build
  
• An error dialog with details and suggestions will pop up instead of silently exiting when an error related to framebuffer objects happens at load time
  
• An error message will pop-up if the XInput DLL is missing due to bad install of redistributables
  
• Miscellaneous CPU-wise optimizations
  
• Fixed and tweaked leaderboard navigation
  
• Clicking on a leaderboard entry will open the Steam overlay to that user's page

As a reminder, the best place to get timely support is on the official support site on GetSatisfaction : https://getsatisfaction.com/polytron

And in case you've been living under a rock since last week, FEZ is part of the Humble Indie Bundle 9 (alongside Trine 2, FTL, Brütal Legend, Mark of the Ninja and Eets Munchies!) and is now available on Mac and Linux through SteamPlay! That means if you've already bought the game for Windows, you may now play on Mac and Linux machines with the same license.
http://humblebundle.com

Cheers!