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It only took 15 months, but Braid has finally found its way to the PlayStation Network. Jonathan Blow's critically acclaimed puzzle-platformer may be late, but its time-shifting gameplay mechanics certainly make the old adage "better late than never" all the more apropos.

The Hothead-developed port will be available on the North American PlayStation Store on November 12th, "with a European version to be announced shortly thereafter." The PSN version of Braid will cost $14.99, the same price as its XBLA equivalent.

Just a few scant hours after delivering the keynote address to a very pax'd audience at PAX 2009 (more on that later), legendary game designer Ron Gilbert gave me a tour of his latest creation, DeathSpank, best described as equal parts comic adventure game and Diablo-esque RPG. Yeah, it sounded crazy to me too.

I met Gilbert in a small meeting room in the PAX expo hall – inconveniently located adjacent to the cacophonous Rock Band stage – and he explained the pairing this way: "I really wanted to marry those things because obviously I like adventure games a lot – I really like the way adventure games tell stories; I like the way they tell it through dialog, through puzzles – but also I'm a big fan of Diablo and having this kind of action RPG stuff in there, I just wanted to meld those two things together. And DeathSpank is the result of that."

Initially billed as an episodic series in the vein of the Hothead-developed Penny Arcade Adventures, DeathSpank has outgrown that distribution model. "With DeathSpank, he's such an epic, over-the-top character that as we were working all the stories together for him – it sounds silly – but it was hard to contain him," Gilbert said. "And then once we stopped making it episodic, it was really interesting how the design blossomed at that point."

PAX 2009 has yielded the first gameplay footage of Ron Gilbert and Hothead's forthcoming adventure slash RPG, DeathSpank. Billed as a potent mixture of Diablo's pointing and Monkey Island's clicking (or ... is it the other way around?), DeathSpank pokes fun at video gaming's huge array of heroic buffoons, though not without sending its own protagonist down a familiarly violent path. Mind you pay attention to the game's eye-catching art style beneath all that cartoon blood!

Believe it or not, it's been three days short of a year since new DeathSpank info made its way onto Joystiq. Ron Gilbert's previously episodic project has now been detailed on 1UP, with the actual game part revealed as a delectable hybrid of Diablo-style role-playing and point-and-click adventure ... ing. We think we speak for all sane people when we say, "Please let us have this immediately."

Oh, but who pays attention to the internet's minority group?

Ever heard of Fez? How about N+? DeathSpank, maybe? If any of these games are near and dear to you like they are to us (we're looking at you, N+), then you have the Canadian government to thank. Government funding towards game development in Canada helped make each of the aforementioned games come to fruition, according to Gamasutra.

Similar initiatives are being proposed or practiced in many US cities, however, the Canadian government has a long history of promoting game development in the country. It even gave DeathSpank developer Hothead Games over a half million dollars -- to develop a game named DeathSpank! Though it'd be nice to say that such quality stuff was being developed in our backyards, we'll take what we can get. Good games are good games, no?

There's only one reason for you to have not played Jonathan Blow's time-twisting puzzle-platformer Braid, and that's if you don't have an Xbox 360, PC or Mac. Considering you're reading this right now, we can assume that you can't use this as an excuse. Still, on the off-chance that you can, we've got good news -- IGN is reporting that Hothead Games has confirmed that the well-received indie title is coming to the PSN. You at least have a PS3, don't you? What, are you a Colecovision fanboy?

Though IGN confirmed the rumored port's existence, no release date or possible PS3-exclusive features were mentioned. We've contacted Hothead to hopefully divine these vital details.

It's been quite a while since we last got to command Penny Arcade's Gabe and Tycho around New Arcadia, pugilizin' giant fruit f###ers and sweepin' the boardwalk clear of barbershop quartets. So long, in fact, that we nearly forgot the series was intended to be episodic (we've been told that means every four to six months in PAA's case), which resulted in a call to series developer Hothead Games.

We were told by a Hothead rep this morning that, while no release date or information has yet been revealed about the game, "It [Episode 3] is still in development." Would it be fair to say we'll hear more about the game in the upcoming weeks leading up to PAX 2009? From the conversation we had this morning, we'd say that sounds mighty likely. With PAX 2009 just six short weeks away, we may not be waiting too much longer before we hear something more official.

Mac owners can now travel back in time to August of 2008, thanks to Hothead Games. The developer's Mac port of the time-bending platformer, Braid, is now available, allowing Mac users to experience the authentic feeling of playing one of 2008's most unique games for the first time. (That is, if you didn't already play it on a Windows partition or something.)

The press release says that this is "the first in a unique collaboration between Hothead and other top-notch independent developers to bring their award-winning titles to new gaming platforms," although the company's PC release of The Maw predates this by several months. Braid is now available for immediate download via Penny Arcade's Greenhouse store for $14.95.

In a session for developers hoping to have their downloadable titles noticed on XBLA and PSN, the panel, which included Capcom, Hothead Games, Backbone and Jonathan Blow, agreed that these games should avoid releasing during the holidays. With strong competition from major titles at retail during the holiday season, the group agreed that downloadable games are best served avoiding the rush.

Age of Booty was used as an example of a solid game that was crushed under the tidal wave of the holiday releases. Downloadable games apparently see a dramatic drop in sales between late September until December. Although developers don't really have control over when Microsoft or Sony release their games, Blow noted that they'd want "March or June or August" as a release date and for downloadable games to "stay away from Christmas."

There's a wealth of indie-related gaming panels and goings on at SXSW this year, ranging from the previous "Games By The People, For The People" panel, the GameSalad folks, and the retro-cool Get Outta My Face arcade cabinet. Heck, there's even a company that wants to bring back Hypercard stack games. So we went back for more indie gaming panel goodness, just because we could.

This was a panel by the game developers this time, rather than the people who run the companies ... so what did we learn? A lot of the same from the previous panel. Sadly Jonathan Blow couldn't make it, and was replaced by the above inflatable doll with the Freddie Mercury mug. Although covering his absence nicely were panelists Kellee Santiago from thatgamecompany, John Baez of The Behemoth, Ron Carmel of 2D BOY, and Joel DeYoung from Hothead Games who moderated. Check out the highlights after the break.

Xbox Live is a wonderful place. Without it, we would have never discovered diamonds in the rough such as The Maw and Braid. Thankfully, these games are getting the red carpet treatment and rolling out to other platforms, courtesy of Hothead Games.

Hothead games will first bring Jonathan Blow's Braid to Mac gamers everywhere. Also, the company is currently working on getting Twisted Pixel's The Maw to "multiple as-of-yet-unannounced digital distribution platforms and services." Steam, anyone?

We don't have a date yet as to when Hothead will be offering these titles to their respective platforms, but we'll update as soon as we know.

The PlayStation Blog gives word that the second episode of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness will be available today on the PSN.

PAA: OtR-SPoD: Ep. 2 features Trophy support and, unlike the first installment, the option to change difficulty settings. The fruit-fracking mini-RPG will cost $15 and should be available as soon as the PSN update occurs later in the day.

*beep*beep*beep* This just in Microsoft has made what we already knew official: Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode Two will debut on the Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday. Arriving at 1200MS Points -- a few dollars cheaper than the original for those keeping score at home -- the second chapter continues the story of Gabe, Tycho and the revenge-seeking hero, You.

To recap, this Wednesday will ask Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader with Jeff Foxworthy -- of all people -- provide Marble Blast Ultra DLC and a new achievement and now the sequel to the popular adventure title from HotHead Games. That is an expensive day to be an Arcade fanatic.

The second episode of Penny Arcade Adventure: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, is coming next Wednesday, October 29, for Xbox Live Arcade, Windows, Mac and Linux. According to the press release, the PC versions will be available via Greenhouse. As previously revealed, the episode will cost $15 for all platforms. No word on the PlayStation 3 release. Episode One will finally be hitting the PS Store tomorrow, or six days before everyone else gets the sequel.