To celebrate the new Braid theme available for Xbox Live, developer Jonathan Blow is having a contest. The first 20 people to identify ten videogames based on the small snippets of artwork posted here will win a free copy of Braid.

And here I see once again Blow's predilection for difficult challenges. As much as I respected the talent that went into Braid, I really had no desire to mull over the puzzles as long as it would have taken for me to solve them. Similarly, I can identify the first game in the list, but am otherwise at a complete loss. Plus, I already have a copy of Braid.

As for the new Braid theme, I'm not about to pay Microsoft to advertise a game, no matter how much I like it. Blow seems to sympathize:

Unfortunately, we had to charge the standard Premium Theme price of 250 Microsoft Points (which is about $3.10 in American money). We want to make it free, but Microsoft doesn't like giving things out for free. But if you do buy it, you can be secure in the knowledge that you own one of the few Premium Themes that is not an advertisement-- there is no text in the Braid theme anywhere. (Seriously, Microsoft, what is with the Subway: Eat Fresh Theme?)