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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

#491

Post by troupo »

saberience wrote: post #373
troupo wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're projecting a lot of your own complexes and insecurities. He built a language for a very specific task: building games. There were quite a few requirements for such a language. Opinionated? Yes. But that's how you get new languages: by having opinions. Along the way he changed the design and the assumptions several times (e.g. built-in SOA structures are gone) while keeping the original goal in mind and…

Eh, I can write that comment because it's fairly easy to see this side of JBlow if you've been following his work for a while. He is so naturally abrasive about other people's work, loves shitting on things he didn't make himself, loves being the smartest guy in the room, and also is a covid is a hoax, anti-vaxxer, Trump supporter etc. I don't think I'm the smartest guy in the room, and that's OK. I realised a long t…

See, you're again projecting things.

Yes, you can do good things with shitty tools. And you could stop and say: this is enough. But then we would probably never have any programming languages at all.

Haskell exists because idiots that made existing languages didn't make one as good as in Philip Wadler's brain.

Go literally exists because idiots cannot use programming languages created by geniuses.

Rust exists because idiots who made all the existing languages didn't make one as good as in Graydon Hoare's brain. After all, all browsers on the market were built in C/C++, who is he to think that he could create a better/different language? Shut up and get on with the program.

C# exists because idiots who created other languages didn't create a language Microsoft wanted to control, and also weren't as good as the one Anders Hejlsberg's brain. After all, Java was already there.

Except Java exists only because who created other languages didn't create a language as good as the one in James Gosling's (and Mike Sheridan's and Patrick Naughton's) brain. Again, C/C++ had already been there, they could've used that.

Is Blow abrasive and shits on a lot of things? Of course. If you can't see past that to what he's actually doing with the language he's implementing, it's your problem.

> Only JB is arrogant to think that only a new language is good enough for him to make a game with.

Lol. I think this is the textbook definition of projection. He literally never said nor implied this in any way, shape, or form.

If anything, creating a new language set him back several years.

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

#492

Post by dagmx »

torginus wrote: post #259
dagmx wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a comment, that often when people say things that are within your own political belief system, that people often don’t consider them political. But what is neutral to someone is not inherently neutral to others. Or even if it’s neutral to them, it’s still a form of political expression.

I think an important distinction has to be made between personal values and opinions, and politics, both in the confines of this discussion and generally in society. I think the lack of this distinction has led to much, and very painful and bitter online discussion, whereas people in a tribalist political mindset try to pigeonhole others based on a throwaway statement into either a friendly or enemy camp. I broadly a…

You made the statement that Blow doesn’t get political in an attempt to refute someone else’s comment.

Other people have proven he does.

So either you must concede that your initial rebuke was based on insufficient information, in which case why try and act like he has said nothing of concern.

Or his world views fit within your own view and are thus deemed neutral.

His comments are not a matter of opinion. And opinion that extends to affecting the lives of others , including supporting those who affect the lives of others, is very much politics.

So your favourite food is not politics but if you try and affect change that affects someone else’s favourite food, it is inherently political. If you support someone who starts affecting my favourite food, that too is political.

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

#493

Post by meheleventyone »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #298
meheleventyone wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that the number choice was probably unintentional but you'd have to really strain to make 'naysayer' and '88' rhyme so thats probably not it.

Why give him the benefit of the doubt? He also fervently defends giving sieg heils in public

Blow is an odd duck and clearly following a political descent into fascism after his SV tech bro heroes. Just that his political descent occurred after he started Twitch streaming and as much as he boot licks Musk so I can see him defending that (if that’s what you’re referring to) I don’t think it’s credible that he would support Hitler.

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

#494

Post by krapp »

soniclettuce wrote: post #334
bena wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's using C++ as closely to C as possible. Part of the purpose of the series of Handmade Hero is to build a game from the ground up with no dependencies. So I don't think he's bringing in stdlib So he could use that, but goal is to be someone who doesn't necessarily need to do that.

Is he writing assembly for his syscalls too, or is it like, "no stdlib, except for real annoying parts"

At some point I think he caved and just started using OpenGL. I don't know because he turned off all of the comments on his youtube channel. I think the only thing he's demonstrated is how bad an idea "building a AAA game entirely from first principles" is.

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

#495

Post by IshKebab »

enqk wrote: post #55
dwroberts wrote: post #9

Interested to play this but I think the trailer does it a huge disservice. Just a barrage of voice clips and no real structure to it. I think it would help the game a lot if they replace that trailer ASAP

I think there’s way less people willing to work with him in 2025 than when the witness was in development

Why?

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

#496

Post by jstimpfle »

magicalist wrote: post #484
jstimpfle wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK there are differences established on many psychological axes that are more basic than "occupational choice", such as competitiveness, neuroticism, interest in things vs human relations, and others. I don't understand these deeply but you can research for yourself, so there is certainly no shortage of possible explanations based on those.

> AFAIK there are differences established Well, you "haven't read literature on the topic"[1] so maybe leave the speculation at the door or go out and read some literature to cite rather than presenting "ideas [you]'ve picked up that [you] can agree with" as "established"? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46315540

I've been very clear that I'm a layman, such as certainly most of the commenters here. I qualified using "AFAIK" and I've heard this on different occasions by people who have actual experience in the field. You can find similar claims on this page, partly backed by links. For example, I too have heard about studies evidencing that gender differences are more stark in developed countries with well functioning social systems, where people are freeer to choose their profession based on personal interest rather than for example economic aspects.

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

#497

Post by egypturnash »

tialaramex wrote: post #335
egypturnash wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

searches for images ofthe Atelier online damn I sure did not get that far in Blue Prince, I gave up when I had about half the keys to the underground room. I just figured getting all those and figuring out the right data to input into the rooms behind them would trigger The Real End. Mostly I just remember being stuck on that @#$%^ art gallery rebus. And having done somthing at some ppint that made it much less likel…

I cheated the Gallery. The art is by one of Tonda's big inspirations, and whereas Tonda thinks he's great I think he's terrible and should knock it off. After maybe an hour I got one answer myself, looked up the rest, continued playing. I consider two of them reasonable puzzles, one is a bit crap and the final one is the worst thing in Blue Prince which overall is an excellent game. The excellent thing about Blue Pri…

I booted it back up for the first time in ages and managed to spawn the Gallery, then found hints on the Internet. Then managed to spawn the room it gives you a key for and that one was amusingly trivial to solve, so that was good.

Also I discovered there are mods for it out there and I may have to figure out how to get them working on my Steam Deck so I can just completely quit worrying about having enough steps/gems/dice/tools and only worry about the puzzles.

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

#498

Post by IshKebab »

blarg1 wrote: post #274
eps wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What did you think of the puzzles?

I like puzzle games (Baba is You is fantastic) but I also didn't get far into The Witness. Braid was fantastic though.

I think 3D FPS is generally a terrible interface to puzzles. This is 2D though so maybe it will be better.

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

#500

Post by psyopsy »

ghastt wrote: post #488
psyopsy wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LOL. You're going to dismiss the study because of the justification for doing the study. Here, let me help you understand: "not fully understood" -> "so we studied it" -> "here's what we found" Besides that obvious point, the sentence you quoted says "not yet fully understood," not "we have no idea." Those aren't the same thing. We actually have substantial evidence pointing in a clear direction. - The most egalitari…

> Male and female monkeys show the same toy preferences we do. Nobody's socializing rhesus monkeys into gender roles. You may believe that, but: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9898904/

Little bro read the paper title and no further.

That study found that when you test 14 monkeys alone in cages where they can’t actually move the toys, you don’t see the same sex differences as when 135 monkeys are tested in social groups with freely movable toys.

The authors themselves say the social context may be necessary for expression. That’s not evidence against biological contribution, but evidence that behavior requires context to manifest.

You don’t disprove hunger by noting that people don’t eat when there’s no food available.

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