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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

#281

Post by Jensson »

dymk wrote: post #263
forgotpwd16 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may not have a public* release but, over the last decade (starting pre-Zig/Odin), Blow has discussed it extensively in his videos[0], enough that even ~10y was possible for someone to make a toy independent implementation[1]. [0]: https://inductive.no/jai/ [1]: https://github.com/Sharir/jai *Although there has (always?) been a private alpha/beta release.

Still then, it's a stretch to say that Jai influenced other languages. How could it when only a handful of game-centered applications have been built by a handfull of devs? Rust and Zig developed features by cutting their teeth on large amounts of real software, not by following one guy's personal project that has no source, no library, no spec available.

> Still then, it's a stretch to say that Jai influenced other languages. How could it when only a handful of game-centered applications have been built by a handfull of devs?

Lots of people have seen his talks about the language, so why do you think its impossible it influenced other languages?

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

#282

Post by d--b »

DonHopkins wrote: post #200
d--b wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not defending the guy, but he's possibly on the autistic spectrum, given he grinds solo on his projects for decades and stuff. He may perceive his own appetite for programming as being linked to some form of autism. Because, well, computers are not people, so it's nice to avoid people. Given that there is a proven gender discrepancy in the distribution of autistic disorders, it's not completely absurd to imagine that…

How does DNA know about computers?

Computers allow people to interact with the world while avoiding direct human interactions, which autists tend to have a hard time with.

I don't know if it's true at all...

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

#283

Post by wahnfrieden »

wongarsu wrote: post #38
swiftcoder wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a nice collation of his greatest hits over on Reddit[1] [1]: https://www.redditmedia.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1jh275...

Ok, I can see the "fascist sympathizer" (though the fascist is Trump, not Mussolini or Hitler, so it's presumably not such a minority opinion in the US overall). But "doesn't seem to think that women have any role to play in his profession" doesn't seem substantiated from those links, unless I'm missing something here? Women being less interested in programming according to him is completely orthogonal to whether he…

What's the point comparing the sympathy to that of Mussolini or Hitler but qualifying it as not a minority position? Those two had even greater domestic support.

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

#284

Post by Jensson »

Stevvo wrote: post #254
starburst wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That says more about you than about the game.

Blow has actually talked about those puzzles in streams, said he regrets it because more players than not stopped playing the games at that point. It's the definition of bad design to implement some untested abstract idea without giving the player any hints.

There are no hard puzzles in Braid, at least not that are required to beat the game, so not sure what you mean. I never played the witness so I don't know about that game.

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

#285

Post by VoidWarranty »

serial_dev wrote: post #179
adito wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why you just handpicked the covid trutherism without quoting the full thing, here the full quote from the link above: > Additionally, in recent years it has become increasingly clear that Jon’s beliefs/priorities and mine are not aligned. He’s adversarial to people talking about privilege and representation, is dismissive of diversity efforts, has dabbled in covid trutherism, and is pro-MAGA. Here the po…

I left a link to the exact post I'm referring to with the whole thread available for context. And I didn't include the whole thing, because it doesn't change my point which is that IMO BSky people are insufferable. A game is released (which in part includes their work if I understand it right) and they can't help themselves and make this about Trump. I'm sure I'd have the same opinion if I saw what's happening in Tru…

I think you're projecting your own biases here.

They "can't help" make the conversation about Trump because they have a public image to maintain.

If your image and following are on BSky, then it's not an echo chamber to address the crowd in kind with its nature. That's just good branding.

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

#286

Post by nomel »

DonHopkins wrote: post #200
d--b wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not defending the guy, but he's possibly on the autistic spectrum, given he grinds solo on his projects for decades and stuff. He may perceive his own appetite for programming as being linked to some form of autism. Because, well, computers are not people, so it's nice to avoid people. Given that there is a proven gender discrepancy in the distribution of autistic disorders, it's not completely absurd to imagine that…

How does DNA know about computers?

Could there be a difference in the social reward centers of the brain, based on gender, possibly from the biological necessities of having children? We know reward centers are not the same, between the sexes, since heterosexual attraction is the norm (and why gay conversion therapy can't work). Some brain structure and function is hard coded.

Could these hormone influenced reward centers differ in social rewards, or for human interaction? Computers are not human. Maybe [1], but don't expect much research proving it one way or the other.

[1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190130175604.h...

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

#287

Post by incrudible »

latexr wrote: post #165
incrudible wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Neither was slavery. Was that OK too? And to clarify (though it’s worrying this point needs to be made), I mean morally. From the perspective of a pre-abolitionist society, it evidently was, but that's not a political issue you're gonna have to deal with in 2025. Consider yourself lucky. > Fascism has a very clear definition. First of all, that isn't true. Secondly, even if it was true, it wouldn't matter. You are…

> From the perspective of a pre-abolitionist society, it evidently was I sincerely doubt the slaves would agree with you. Just because one group was economically and societally OK with it, doesn’t make it morally OK. > but that's not a political issue you're gonna have to deal with in 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_21st_century Again, I doubt the slaves would agree with you. > Consider yourself lu…

> I sincerely doubt the slaves would agree with you.

I sincerely doubt a vegan would agree that eating meat is OK, but as a society, we agree that eating meat is OK. It might not be OK tomorrow, it might not be OK by some moral standard, but that's besides my point.

> That’s a really strange comment. What does that mean?

It means fighting for abolition then was a much tougher fight than the fight you have today.

> Of course I’m not, I barely use the word.

I may have misinterpreted your position to the effect of "look in the textbook, Trump is a fascist by definition". Indeed, I have seen "other people online" argue to that effect, and they weren't made of straw. If that's not the case, I apologize, but the point stands even if you're not the kind of person it should be aimed at.

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

#288

Post by empath75 »

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.

He was focused on creating a very particular feeling of epiphany as an artistic statement, and I think he succeeded at that. Is the game not especially fun? Is it perhaps overlong? Probably? But I can think of very few, if any, games that provided the very particular feeling that The Witness provided in those moments that I felt it -- the feeling of the world opening up with new possibilities and interpretations.

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

#289

Post by rufo »

pandemic_region wrote: post #271
hian wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

https://x.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/1939982295936782396

> Trump was my preferred President in the last election cycle but nothing will make me hate him faster than this banana republic shit.

(replying to a post complaining on the direction of government contracts/subsidies under the Trump administration)

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

#290

Post by 01HNNWZ0MV43FF »

arduinomancer wrote: post #261
dundarious wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you mean Computer, Enhance!'s Performance Aware Programming series, it's ongoing, but the pace is slower than about 1.5years ago. Given how good it is, and how fastidious and comprehensive Casey is, I imagine it doesn't really pay for itself, even with an impressive subscriber count.

I mean the Handmade hero game

Website says it's on hiatus after 667 episodes
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