8 Video Games That Caught Lightning In A Bottle

And finally, Jonathan Blow's puzzle-platformer Braid is one of the most iconic and successful indie games of all time, and is rightly lauded as a milestone title in the indie game revolution of the late 2000s and early 2010s, alongside the likes of Super Meat Boy, Limbo, and Fez.

Though indie games have always been a thing, they didn't break through into mainstream accessibility until Xbox Live Arcade picked up steam, making a name for itself as a genuine digital storefront for low-budget games from small dev teams.

And Braid was right at the forefront, releasing before all of the aforementioned games in 2008 and being singled out as an especially smart and creative XBLA title, demonstrating the potential of this platform to elevate small games from talented developers.

Braid helped usher in an era of indie puzzle-platformers, and yet, were it released today it'd likely disappear into the sea of them. 

This is perhaps best evidenced by the fact that the recent Braid remaster failed to make a dent with a new generation of gamers and sold, in Blow's own words, like "dogs**t."