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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

#521

Post by sunrunner »

tom_ wrote: post #517
sunrunner wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a fan of Alan Hazelden and Draknek’s work but stating upfront that he a) wasn’t involved with the work directly but b) agreed for it to be used years ago, while then going on to write what seems to read as a light hit-piece for Blow himself, and then using that to launch into a point about how his politics and Blow’s don’t align (not relevant for puzzle game progeny) feels like more like him using the trailer for…

https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@draknek/115713018435458495 > The funding for underrepresented creators was a condition of my involvement in this project, so doesn't represent his values so much as mine. He was at least willing to do it though, which I'm not sure he would be today. ( https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@draknek/115713018435458495 ) > ...his company was the public face of that grant, my involvement in it is…

> The funding for underrepresented creators was a condition of my involvement in this project, so doesn't represent his values so much as mine. He was at least willing to do it though, which I'm not sure he would be today.

Interesting, and thanks for the sources. I was under the impression that it was the same fund as that announced in 2010 [1] but the date in [2] plus the apparent timeline does align.

"I'm not sure he would be today" is a strawman and just Hazelden's own current views of Blow, but I doubt there's going to be a direct quote (or even better, a new grant from Thekla) to back it up. But yes, 7 years is a long time and the political landscape has changed "somewhat".

[1] http://the-witness.net/news/2010/03/announcing-indie-fund/

[2] https://www.gamesindustry.biz/the-witness-studio-offering-us...

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

#522

Post by kennyloginz »

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 when politics are normal, this is a fine position…. Don’t really care if the author is no new taxes vs expanding safety net.

But, politics have become much more extreme. Imagine your wife or friends parents being deported. It’s absolutely sensical to not support people that are loud about hurting your loved ones.

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

#523

Post by mvkel »

jayd16 wrote: post #519
mvkel wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many games has Valve shipped in the last decade? Square Enix? Bethesda? Epic?

Valve: Underlords, Artifact, Half-life: Alyx, CS 2 Square Enix: so so many but at least a few FF14 expansions, FF15, Nier: Automata, Dragon Quest XI, Octopath Traveler, Kingdom Hearts III, Final Fantasy 16, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Bethesda: The Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Starfield Epic: Robo Recall, Fornite. Epic cancelled Paragon and Unreal Tournament and Fortnite is a live service game where the…

These are separate internal teams, not one team shipping all these games.

Your square list, for example, crosses 8 different studios.

My original question was poorly worded; I meant how many games -per studio- are being shipped by these big cos?

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

#524

Post by pdpi »

hbn wrote: post #461
pdpi wrote: post #63

If you count names and causes of death as separate puzzles, Return of the Obra Dinn is around 100 puzzles long. The two Portal games are less than 100 puzzles put together. Blue Prince is what? 50ish elaborate, intricate puzzles? (darts and parlour notwithstanding). Chants of Senaar, Opus Magnum, Space Chem are all in that same ballpark too. Puzzle games with a lot of levels, like Patrick's Parabox or Baba Is You, cl…

It's not trying to be Portal. It's a Sokoban game. If you like playing Sokoban games, here's a package of ~1400 hand-crafted puzzles, probably with a handful of interesting gimmicks/rule alterations to spice things up. > At one puzzle a minute, that's 24 hours of gameplay. Unfortunately we're not all as smart as you but in TFA he estimates it'll take 400-500 hours to complete all of them.

Hah! Didn't mean to imply I'm some sort of puzzle-solving genius, point was precisely the opposite — that solving those puzzles at a breakneck pace would still be a crazy amount of time.

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

#525

Post by TomatoCo »

dmonitor wrote: post #385
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/

The Looker is quite possibly the greatest parody ever executed in a video game. It creates the same kind of "ahah" moment that games like The Witness do, but in a way that really pokes fun at the level of pretentiousness those games tend to indulge themselves in.

I've heard The Looker described as "If you liked The Witness, you'll like The Looker. If you hated The Witness, you'll love The Looker."

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

#526

Post by tom_ »

sunrunner wrote: post #521
tom_ wrote: post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@draknek/115713018435458495 > The funding for underrepresented creators was a condition of my involvement in this project, so doesn't represent his values so much as mine. He was at least willing to do it though, which I'm not sure he would be today. ( https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@draknek/115713018435458495 ) > ...his company was the public face of that grant, my involvement in it is…

> The funding for underrepresented creators was a condition of my involvement in this project, so doesn't represent his values so much as mine. He was at least willing to do it though, which I'm not sure he would be today. Interesting, and thanks for the sources. I was under the impression that it was the same fund as that announced in 2010 [1] but the date in [2] plus the apparent timeline does align. "I'm not sure…

That specific quote feels to me like a strange one to complain about, given that it's so obviously his own subjective opinion. Even if you're English, perhaps inclined to employ this sort of phrasing to state something that you are certain is incontrovertible fact (and will be so to everybody listening), the subjective nature has hardly been downplayed!

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

#527

Post by reactordev »

Jonathan is on another level. I met him once long, long ago at a GDC thing and knew he’s a product of the matrix. He’s like a functioning rain main.

What’s cool has been to watch him grow from this young adult who made a game about time to this beast he is today. Hats off my guy. Now finish your programming language!

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

#528

Post by dismalaf »

tialaramex wrote: post #516
dismalaf wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What features in Jai make it superior to C++ for writing games specifically? You can write games in C or Fortran, so why write games in C++? You can write things in C++, why make Rust? Basic worked, why make Python or Ruby? Why does it need "features" that make it "superior"? It should be good enough that he didn't want to use C++, so he made a new thing...

Note that of course Jai's tooling is also written in C++ As to why Rust, there's actual historical information about why Graydon wanted to make it and why Mozilla decided to fund that work after it was started. Jon has said the intent was that Jai would allow him to make more games, because C++ held him back so much. So, yeah, it would need to be superior to C++ in at least this way, and by at least enough to justify…

It was a rhetorical question. I think anyone should be allowed to make any language they want for whatever reason they want.

And IMO C++ is painful enough to use that nothing needs to be "better", more ergonomic is good enough for huge productivity gains.

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

#529

Post by entropicdrifter »

kibwen wrote: post #147
klausa wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you not consider Braid to have put writing front and center?

It's been about 15 years since I played it, but I recall the writing in Braid being memorably shallow, clumsy, and pretentious (with the grand twist at the end being that they guy who spent the whole game acting like a clingy stalker was actually a clingy stalker this whole time).

That wasn't the real twist, the real twist is that it was all an allegory for the Manhattan Project

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

#530

Post by jackling »

s3graham wrote: post #394

FWIW, Sean and Alan's contribution to puzzle designs: ref: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@nothings/115704420859870435 and: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@draknek/115704125102372454

Damn I thought STB and Jon were friends for a while. I find this indicative on how Jon has changed these past 5 years.
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