Video: Jonathan Blow explains Braid's rewind mechanic at GDC 2010

"I wanted to find out what happens when you design a game where rewind is not a resource, and there's not a death challenge gating the game." --Braid creator Jonathan Blow explains how he built and implemented Braid's time-rewind mechanic in this video from GDC 2010, courtesy of GDC Vault.

In Braid, the player can rewind time at will -- the scene plays backward at an accelerated pace, like you might see on a VCR. Blow explains in detail how he programmed and designed this mechanic, why he chose this particular method instead of other possible solutions, and how he dealt with many implementation concerns.
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