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Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

arstechnica.com

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Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#271

Post by pandemic_region »

hian wrote: post #135
torginus wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Political? The most political I've seen him get was when he spoke out against the idea of accepting technical compromises for the sake of not hurting people's feelings and being PC. As in, you get to be cranky as long as you're arguing for the highest quality solution

He streams on Twitch and often talks about politics. He's a big Trump fan for example.

Wait what really a Trump fan? Is this the same Jonathan Blow who did a talk about Preventing the Collapse of Civilization?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRHeXYDLko

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#272

Post by biophysboy »

torginus wrote: post #78
piker wrote: post #10

I always find Jonathan Blow and Casey Muratori to be great educators and advocates on the “simplicity” end of the spectrum. Jonathan can be super abrasive and comes with some political baggage, but does a good job advocating against what he perceives as unnecessary complexity in software. Opponents would suggest his domain and cherry-picked examples create the perfect environment for his positions and that he does ta…

Political? The most political I've seen him get was when he spoke out against the idea of accepting technical compromises for the sake of not hurting people's feelings and being PC. As in, you get to be cranky as long as you're arguing for the highest quality solution

He gets political.. Just as an example, he claimed that it was obvious that COVID was a lab leak in 2021. This is not obvious at all if you read Michael Worobey's rigorous work instead of rely on Blow's arrogant intuitions.

I will still play Jonathan Blow's next game, but I think he is a bit of a hack outside of game design.

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#273

Post by christophilus »

stocksinsmocks wrote: post #245
ferguess_k wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I'll judge that by looking at how convincing their arguments are (some are not, I think), not by raw output. After all they already output a lot.

Thus, by their fruit, you will recognize them. Heckling is a lot easier than creating. Personally, I think we have an over supply of “ideas guys“

Jai is a real thing that others are using. I wouldn’t say Jon is an ideas guy. He executes.

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#274

Post by blarg1 »

eps wrote: post #174
dgb23 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Blow the devil is simultaneously in the details and at the meta level. For example in the Witness, which I consider one of the best puzzle games ever made, you get a fairly simple core mechanic, but the game builds upon it in very interesting ways. It feels like a journey of learning and always challenges you in some novel way at each step. There are also several revelations along the way, where you discover new…

To each their own. I found the Witness to be excruciatingly monotonous, forced and, ultimately, boring.

What did you think of the puzzles?

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#275

Post by azemetre »

jackling wrote: post #264
azemetre wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably a nuanced point in what's the purpose for espousing the virtues of performance if you don't have the output to show it is worth it? If you want advice about making games would you rather learn from the person that routinely ships games or a person that shipped a game once 10 years ago? Is that a trade off worth chasing? "Potential perfection" with nothing to show for it?

More like, shipped 2 hit games, which were both technological and artistic feats for their time. And developed a blazingly fast compiler. Casey also was a developer in RAD game tools developing animation tools. Their output is probably better than most industry developers. I understand if you don't like their attitudes and the way they attempt to teach/preach to other engineers, but IMO their work speaks for itself.…

I'm not saying I don't like their attitudes but it's a viewpoint I am struggling with myself.

I'm starting to realize caring about all these minutia of details that don't really matter for my professional goals. I know my software isn't special, caring about pumping out as much performance as possible when I just sling JS professionally feels a tad myopic?

What is the point of it just continues the pattern of procrastination towards the actual goals I want to achieve? Does this also apply to them?

What is the point of espousing all these supposed virtues when the output isn't that special? I mean Braid is still good, but let's not act like greener devs haven't put out good games too without all the jackassery baggage.

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#276

Post by magicalhippo »

calmbonsai wrote: post #268
magicalhippo wrote: post #225

A side note, if you've played The Witness but not yet The Looker[1], you probably have been missing out. I quite enjoyed The Witness but The Looker was just great. [1]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1985690/The_Looker/

I played The Witness and didn't find it remotely fun. I've enjoyed all of Blow's other titles. I suppose I was coming in with expectations of a modern Myst and/or Riven, but it was not that. There was not enough active narrative to keep me engaged with the puzzles and there wasn't enough "reward" in completing them.

> I suppose I was coming in with expectations of a modern Myst and/or Riven, but it was not that.

If that was your expectation going in I can definitely understand you feeling underwhelmed.

That said, you may still enjoy The Looker...

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#277

Post by NooneAtAll3 »

calmbonsai wrote: post #268
magicalhippo wrote: post #225

A side note, if you've played The Witness but not yet The Looker[1], you probably have been missing out. I quite enjoyed The Witness but The Looker was just great. [1]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1985690/The_Looker/

I played The Witness and didn't find it remotely fun. I've enjoyed all of Blow's other titles. I suppose I was coming in with expectations of a modern Myst and/or Riven, but it was not that. There was not enough active narrative to keep me engaged with the puzzles and there wasn't enough "reward" in completing them.

Sounds like you'll really enjoy the Looker then

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#278

Post by [deleted] »

simonask wrote: post #102
torginus wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Political? The most political I've seen him get was when he spoke out against the idea of accepting technical compromises for the sake of not hurting people's feelings and being PC. As in, you get to be cranky as long as you're arguing for the highest quality solution

I just wonder how readily people would defend this viewpoint if they belonged to any of those groups whose "feelings" are typically being "hurt". I don't know about you, but there does not exist any amount of technical achievement that will make me brush off sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, or anything else. If you are going to be disrespectful to me or people I care about, we cannot work together, period. By…

[deleted]

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#279

Post by christophilus »

nilstycho wrote: post #205
christophilus wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He hired a level designer who also wrote a Sokoban game. (Can’t remember the name, but it was free and web-based, IIRC.) That game had some really great, unique ideas in it, and I’d be shocked if the new Blow game was bog standard.

It was Jack Lance, who wrote Enigmash. Tragically, he died in 2023 at the age of 25. Jack Lance superlatively creative. I cannot find the words to express how much the world lost. I do not know of a finer puzzle designer. https://jacklance.github.io/games.html

Oh, man. Yes, that’s the one. I had no idea he’d died. :/

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#280

Post by bena »

jstimpfle wrote: post #123
enqk wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He also had a 88 for a long time in his twitch channel name

I would be very surprised if this connotation was intentional of him. His name was "Naysayer88" for a long time, and I had wondered as well where that 88 came from -- maybe it was a rhyme on "Naysayer", which (ignoring the number) is an apt description of his ways and approaches. At some point he changed the name. I assumed the reason was he had gotten aware of the connotation.

I'm thinking he changed the name when too many people had gotten aware of the connotation.

You have to twist logic pretty fucking hard to find a reason for him to put 88 in his username. He's a guy who thinks he's way more clever than he is and gets upset when it gets pointed out to him.

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