10 Jaw-Dropping Video Game Success Stories You Need To Hear

5. Braid

Last one for the trifecta of gaming 'celebrities' that emerged thanks to the aforementioned Indie Game: The Movie; Jonathan Blow is the mastermind behind the mind-frazzling time-bending platformer Braid, a wonderfully light (or is it?) tale of one Tim and his search to rescue a princess he already has a relationship with.

Things go plenty more insane following this basic premise, and one of the best twists in gaming history awaits you at the very end, but sufficed to say you can feel every ounce of Blow's hand-crafted influence throughout.

Jonathan was originally working on a digital version of billiards that allowed to you preview some moves before you made them. Fairly pedestrian stuff, and thankfully he then realised all the time he'd put into University degrees would be better spent elsewhere, thus coming up with Braid.

One of the first batch of indie games that helped kickstart the entire genre and make it a worthwhile alternative to the triple-A's, Braid sold 55,000 units in its first week, going on to bring in almost half a million within the following months.

The game remains one of the most intellectually-challenging you'll ever play, and with it ticking boxes for platformer-fans just as much as those who like to write in-depth theses on the very idea of quantum mechanics, Braid's place in the history books is justly deserved.