Though the recently released Xbox Live Arcade title Braid might be getting a lot of praises, but the designer of the game said that the XBLA certification process may have actually prevented the game from being even better.

The designer of the game Jonathan Blow reported, “I put in a tremendous amount of work meeting all these requirements, when I could have put that work into the actual game, and made it even a little more polished, little bit better. He further added, “But I feel like it actually decreases the quality of games, because people spend so much of their energy on these things that users don't even really care about.” 

Blow said that the restrictions that were put in place during the certification process seemed to be geared towards bigger games. This can cause problems for an independent designer such as himself.

Blow also stated that recently revised XBLA business deal won’t give him any scope to earn money from a game like Braid, even at its $15 price point. He explained, “What would keep me from putting another game on Arcade again is just that they've changed the business deal—at least as I've heard. If it's as I've heard that it is, I couldn't even necessarily break even.”

It’s really disappointing to see that the restrictions put in place are actually discouraging developers from putting out games, when services like XBLA have the potential to be perfect venue for independent creators like Blow.