Jonathan Blow

Last updated

Jonathan Blow
Jonathan Blow Gamelab 2018 crop 1.jpg
Blow in 2018
Born1971 (age 52–53)
California, U.S.
Education University of California, Berkeley (dropped out)
Occupations
  • Game designer
  • programmer
Organization(s)Thekla, Inc.
Known for

Jonathan Blow (born 1971) is an American video game designer and programmer. He is best known for his work on the independent video games Braid (2008) and The Witness (2016). Blow was born in California, United States, and became interested in game programming while at middle school. He studied for computer science and English at the University of California, Berkeley, but dropped out to start a game company. After the company closed following the dot-com crash, Blow worked as a game-development contractor. He co-founded the Experimental Gameplay Workshop and wrote a monthly technical column for Game Developer magazine.

Contents

Blow gained prominence in 2008 with Braid. He used its financial success to fund his next game, The Witness, and formed a company called Thekla Inc. After a lengthy development period, The Witness was released in 2016, and like Braid was critically and financially successful. During its development, Blow began designing and creating a new programming language after being frustrated with C++, the language Thekla used to program the game. Full-time work on the language, code-named Jai, and a new game implemented in it began after the release of The Witness. A compiler for the Jai language is currently in beta release.

Blow's games are known for being artistic and challenging. They are made with custom game engines, and have larger budgets and longer development times than most independently funded games. Blow featured in Indie Game: The Movie , and is known for his strong opinions about the gaming industry.

Early life

Blow learned how to program in BASIC on a TRS-80 Color Computer during his childhood. TRS-80 Color Computer 1 front right.jpg
Blow learned how to program in BASIC on a TRS-80 Color Computer during his childhood.

Jonathan Blow was born in Southern California in 1971. [1] His father worked as a defense contractor for TRW, and his mother was an ex-nun. [1] He is the fourth of five siblings, having two brothers and two sisters. [2] Blow was raised as a Christian and said his family regularly attended church. [3] Blow went to middle school in Northern San Diego County. [4] While there, he attended a fifth-or-sixth-grade computer class where the VIC-20 home computer provided him with his introduction to programming and computers. [1] [4] When his parents noticed his interest, they bought him a TRS-80 Color Computer, on which Blow learned to program in BASIC, often using exercise books from RadioShack. [5] [6] In high school, he programmed games on a Commodore 64. [1] [7] Some of the games he programmed were inspired by Indiana Jones and Pac-Man . [1] [8]

In 1989, Blow attended UC Berkeley as an undergraduate, double-majoring in computer science and English. [2] He started as a physics major but switched to computer science because he "just felt called in that direction". [9] He was a member and president of the Computer Science Undergraduate Association, as well as the eXperimental Computing Facility, an undergraduate computer-interest organization. [10] [11] [12] During college, Blow wrote some science fiction, which he published under a pseudonym. [13] He spent five years at UC Berkeley [2] but dropped out with less than one semester to go. [14] He said; "I was really depressed about being at school, I didn't like it. I didn't have a good time." [15]

Career

1994–2000: Career beginnings and Wulfram

After leaving UC Berkeley, Blow worked at a "really boring" enterprise software company for six months, [16] before taking a contracting role at Silicon Graphics, where he ported Doom and Doom II to a set-top box. [2] In early 1996, Blow co-founded the game company Bolt-Action Software, which was based in Oakland, California, with Bernt Habermeier, whom Blow had met in the eXperimental Computing Facility. [2] [12] [17] An artist later joined the company, [12] and they created Wulfram, a 3D action-strategy game for up to 32 players where players took control of heavily armed hovertanks. [18] [19]

At its height, Bolt-Action Software had 14 employees. It folded in 2000 due to the dot-com crash. [2] In a 2020 interview, Blow said he was convinced 1996 was the most difficult time in history to start a video game company because of the transition from 2D to 3D titles. [20] A number of components of the game were challenging to implement, but Blow learned from the experience—he said; "we went broke, and I was burned out for several years after that from working hard ... but that's how I became a good programmer". [21]

2001–2004: contracting work

Throughout the early 2000s Blow wrote a monthly technical column for the print magazine Game Developer. Game Developer June-July 2013 Cover.png
Throughout the early 2000s Blow wrote a monthly technical column for the print magazine Game Developer .

After Blow closed his first studio, he worked as a contractor for game studios with large budgets. Games he worked on include Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee , Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows . [22] In 2002, Blow co-founded the Experimental Gameplay Workshop at the Game Developers Conference, which showcases game prototypes that include new mechanics or that are new videogame genres or mediums. [23] [24] Around this time, he wrote The Inner Product, a monthly technical column for magazine Game Developer . [25] [26]

During this time, Blow moved to New York City, where he was introduced to an IBM research project about servers based on cell processors. [27] Blow pitched them a proof of concept of a physics-intensive, online, multiplayer game about giant robots attacking a town. [28] Blow and Atman Binstock did most of the programming for the game; [29] Blow wrote the client-side code, graphics, and gameplay, while Binstock wrote the physics engine to run on the server from scratch. [28] After submitting their final report to IBM, the team took the game to Electronic Arts, whom Blow said were not impressed. [30]

Blow's other contract work included particle effect programming on Flow on the Sony PlayStation 3; [31] [32] code review following MTV's purchase of Harmonix; [32] and programming on the music-action iPod game Phase . [33] Blow said of this part of his life; "I was just stumbling forward like people do sometimes, and doing the best that I knew how to do, which at that time was programming". [34]

2005–2008: Braid

Blow talked about assumptions underlying game design at the Montreal International Games Summit in 2007. Jonathan Blow - Montreal International Games Summit 2007.jpg
Blow talked about assumptions underlying game design at the Montreal International Games Summit in 2007.

Blow created a prototype for a 2D puzzle-platform game involving time manipulation in December 2004. Five months later, he began work on turning the prototype into a proper game, and by December 2005 the first version of what would be known as Braid was completed. [35] Much of the work was done part-time because Blow also did consulting work and martial arts training. [35] Blow felt the graphics and art style of the first version of the game "looked extremely amateur", [35] and hired David Hellman to create all of the game's art. [35] For the story, Blow drew inspiration from some of his favorite books and films such as Invisible Cities and Mulholland Drive . [35] The game's narrative is told through textual exposition between worlds, environmental art, and gameplay, and has been interpreted in many different ways. [36]

In mid-2007, Blow signed with Microsoft to release Braid via its distribution platform XBLA. Blow felt time spent meeting the XBLA certification process would have been better spent polishing the game, but he noted Microsoft was "very hands-off" with game design, and that "the final game is exactly what I wanted to put there". [37] Blow estimated he spent more than $180,000 of his own money to develop Braid. [38]

Braid was released in August 2008 to universal acclaim, [39] was "an immediate sensation", [36] and made Blow a millionaire. [40] In 2010, Blow co-founded funding organization Indie Fund together with some other successful independent game developers. [41] Blow appeared in the documentary film Indie Game: The Movie , in which he discusses his experiences developing and releasing Braid. [42] In 2014 Blow stated sales of Braid had earned more than $4 million, which he used to fund The Witness (2016). [40]

2009–2016: The Witness

Blow talked about truth in game design at the Game Developers Conference in Europe in 2011. Jonathan Blow - Game Developers Conference Europe 2011 (2).jpg
Blow talked about truth in game design at the Game Developers Conference in Europe in 2011.

Blow's next project was The Witness (2016), a first-person game in which players solve puzzles by drawing paths. Blow wanted to create a game using non-verbal communication; the puzzle rules are never explained with words but the puzzles themselves teach the player the rules. Blow felt solving puzzles in this way could generate epiphanies for players, and tried to design the game so the player experiences "miniature epiphanies over and over again". [43] Blow estimated solving every puzzle in the game would take more than 80 hours. [43]

Work on The Witness began in 2008. Blow created prototypes of several game ideas before choosing the one he liked the most, despite it being a 3D game which he "absolutely didn't want to do". [44] Throughout development, Blow hired developers full-time and founded the company Thekla, Inc., of which he is president. [44] [45] [46] The Witness was revealed to the public in 2010, when three people were working full-time on the game. [44] Blow hoped to release The Witness in 2013 as a launch title for the Sony PlayStation 4, but the goal passed as the scope of the game increased. [47] By 2015, the core team had grown to eight. [43] At the time, it was very rare for a small, independent game studio to spend more than seven years on a game. [43]

The game was released on Windows and the PlayStation 4 in January 2016. Blow reported that the first week sales revenue of The Witness totaled over US$5 million, and was one of the top downloads on illegal BitTorrent websites. [48] [49] The game received critical acclaim, [50] [51] several BAFTA and Game Developers Choice Awards nominations, [52] [53] and appeared on 'Best of the decade' features from IGN , [54] Polygon , [55] NME , [56] CNET , [57] and National Post . [58]

2017–present: Jai programming language, untitled Sokoban game, and Braid, Anniversary Edition

Towards the end of development of The Witness, Blow became frustrated with C++, the programming language Thekla used to implement the game's engine. [59] Blow considered the language to be over-complex, noting; "C++ is a powerful language in some ways ... but it makes [software development] a lot harder than it should be". [59] In September 2014, Blow delivered a talk on his Twitch channel about the possibility of a new programming language designed for game development. [60] He evaluated alternative systems-level programming languages such as Go and Rust, but ultimately expressed the desire to create a new language. [60] Blow estimated a new programming language designed for game development could reduce typical development time by at least 20% and advance the art form by making programming more enjoyable. [61] He also said the language would be relatively easy to create compared to creating a game like The Witness. [62]

In 2014, Blow began designing the language, which is codenamed Jai, and started creating a compiler for it. [59] The first year and a half of work on Jai was part-time because Thekla was shipping The Witness. [63] In mid-2016, he began full-time work on the language, a game engine written in Jai, and a Sokoban -style puzzle game for the game engine. [64] [63] In 2023, Blow described the game as "the biggest single-player puzzle game that anybody's ever made", [65] and estimated that it would take over 400 hours for a player to complete. [66]

Among other things, Blow hopes the language will improve the experience of game programming and allow programmers to build more functionality with less code. [59] By working on the Sokoban game, its engine, and Jai at the same time, Blow is able to test the language's design and adjust it early in its lifetime. [67] As of August 2023, the Jai compiler is in a beta release. [68]

In August 2020, Thekla announced Braid, Anniversary Edition, a remastered edition of Braid. [69] Blow said the remaster will be faithful to the original, noting Braid will not get the "Greedo shoots first" treatment—a reference to a change made to Star Wars, [70] and that it contains more than 15 hours of commentary. [71] Thekla originally planned to launch the game in early 2021, [70] but in November 2023, it was announced that the game would be released on April 30, 2024, on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC, and on mobile devices through Netflix. [71]

Long-term project

In 2013, Blow began making a prototype for a single-player game that was not a puzzle game. [72] In 2018, Blow said the game had 40–50 hours of playable content. He intends for Thekla to make the game using the game engine being developed for the Sokoban game, once it has matured. He plans to work on the game for 20 years, releasing it in installments. Each installment will make the game larger and more complex. [73] Blow noted one of his goals for the project is to expand his design abilities. [74]

Artistry

In his youth, Blow liked playing text adventure games by Infocom; his favorite was Trinity , which Blow said "affected me in a relatively deep way in terms of the way that I think about games". [75] In college, his favorite game was Netrek . [76] Early in his career Blow frequently played Counter-Strike . [77]

Blow's games are known for being artistic, challenging, and not following industry trends. In a retrospective on Braid, GQ noted the game was released at a time when the market was dominated by violent and repetitive first-person shooters, yet "made an earnest effort to make an artistic statement" that went beyond this trend. [78] The puzzles of Braid have been described as "tough" [79] and "formidable". [80] Time described The Witness as "categorically defiant", and described its reception as being "widely quantified as a game created by a genius for geniuses". [81]

Blow's games have higher budgets and longer development times than most independently funded games, and have custom game engines. Braid was built with a relatively large budget for independent games at the time, [82] while The Witness—which was largely funded with the profits of Braid—cost close to six million dollars. [83] The development times for Braid and The Witness were very rare for independent games at the time. [83] [43] Blow created a custom game engine for both games, which in the case of The Witness took a large amount of development time. He noted that when development of The Witness began, off-the-shelf engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine were not sufficiently capable to build the game. Blow also noted that he tries to make games which stand the test of time, so owning his own engine means he can continue to provide the game to people in contrast to off-the-shelf engines that come with no such guarantee. [84] [lower-alpha 1] Braid artist David Hellman said Blow was not stressed about time or budget, and that for him "the game always came first." [85]

Blow said when he makes a game, he tries to make something he would want to play and be interested in. [86] He wants to understand the world from many perspectives, [87] and tries to uncover and understand truths about the universe through game design. [9] Blow enjoys exploring the permutations of a simple idea. [83] He described an ideal player of his games as someone who "is inquisitive and likes to be treated as an intelligent person". [88] Blow hopes the design skills he developed by working on complicated games have made Jai better designed than most languages. [59]

Blow founded Thekla because he wanted creative freedom rather than out of aspiration to run a company. [89] He used almost all of the profits of Braid to independently fund The Witness, noting that by doing so he had total creative freedom and thereby would not have to adjust the game to please the whims of a publisher. [83] The team which worked on The Witness said Blow gave them a lot of autonomy when working on the game. [90] Blow does not schedule development time for games at Thekla, noting; "we don't do it like Electronic Arts. We don't pick a quarter and ship the game. We're just trying to make the best game." [73]

Public image

Blow discussed the similarities between free-to-play games and bad television at a CreativeMornings meetup in Portland in 2013. Jonathan Blow Portland Talk Sep 2013.jpg
Blow discussed the similarities between free-to-play games and bad television at a CreativeMornings meetup in Portland in 2013.

Blow has been characterized by VentureBeat as having a "reputation for doing outstanding work", [73] and is known for voicing his opinions about the gaming industry. [91] He has been described as a "prickly genius", [83] and as the game industry's "most cerebral developer, but also as its most incisive and polarizing internal critic". [92] Commenting on his criticism, Blow said "I honestly say what I think about games, and I honestly say if I think something is good or not, and why". [93] Stephen Totilo of Kotaku said Blow's criticism is not targeted towards individuals or specific games but industry trends. [94]

Blow thinks there are individual elements of storytelling which work well in games, including mood, character and setting; [95] but considers games to be a terrible medium for storytelling in general. [96] As of 2016, he considered the quality of storytelling in games to be significantly lower than that in literature. [97] In 2018, he said many contemporary games include designs that are self-sabotaging and weaken the structure of the game they are in, despite such designs existing nearly a decade earlier, indicating stalled progress in the medium. [98] [lower-alpha 2] He does not consider microtransactions to be inherently unethical, [99] but thinks many games made for phones are "just pretending to be games in order to have a microtransaction button or show ads". [100] He considers social network games evil, [101] and noted while SimCity and FarmVille appear superficially similar, SimCity is a creative activity that involves problem solving while FarmVille is about retaining the player's attention for as long as possible. [102]

According to Blow, games have the potential to have a much-bigger role culturally [103] and help define the human condition. [104] While Blow strives to make his games meaningful, [94] he has noted games with relatively empty gameplay, such as massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) which keep players hooked with fake rewards, may be causing real harm to people. [104]

Despite being seen as a role model for independent development, [93] Blow is uncomfortable with being described as an indie developer: he feels the indie game scene has changed into something in which he does not belong. [93] [105] In 2019, he said the independent development scene had changed in that it was easier to make and release a game than ever before, but that in terms of game-design "progress has not been as large as people assume". [95] Blow noted Stephen's Sausage Roll , a game he thought in 2017 "may be the best puzzle of all time", [106] was rarely discussed in development circles, indicating a stagnation of the development scene. [95] The comments attracted social-media attention, which Blow found troubling, noting; "The job isn't to be in a community; the job is to make a good game." [99]

Blow considers much of current software to be of low quality. He noted in a 2020 interview "I think we're now in a situation where everybody in the world is flooded with low quality software, and everybody wishes that they had higher quality software." [107] He considers most of what programmers currently do to be wasteful, describing programming in 2021 as dealing with unnecessary complexity. [108] He has a low opinion of modern C++, describing it in 2020 as a terrible language, [109] and was partly motivated to create Jai in order to improve the quality of life for programmers. [59]

Personal life

Although several of Blow's hobbies are well-known, Blow has been described as being "intensely private". [1] Blow began kung fu training when he began working on Braid, doing 15 hours a week towards the end of development. [110] Through the training he learned meditation practices that helped him with game development, noting "I don't know if I would have finished Braid if I wasn't doing kung fu." [111] He practiced tai chi during early development of The Witness. [92] Blow is an avid dancer, and went out dancing several nights a week during the development of The Witness. [1] [108] He discovered that dancing helps him generate ideas, and during the 1990s took a notebook to clubs to write down programming ideas that would come to him on the dance floor. [112]

Works

Video games

Only games where Blow has had a major role in development are included below. For example, works in which he is credited under Special Thanks are omitted.

YearTitleRoleRef.
1998 [lower-alpha 3] WulframDesign, programming [12]
2001 Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee Programming [113]
2003 Deus Ex: Invisible War Additional programming [114]
2006 Flow Additional programming [31]
2007 Phase Programming [33]
2008 Braid Director, programming, design [115]
2016 The Witness Director, programming, design [44]

Films

YearTitleRoleNotesRef.
2012 Indie Game: The Movie HimselfDocumentary [116]

Notes

  1. ↑ For example, if the company which made an engine goes out of business, obviously the engine may no longer be supported.
  2. ↑ For example, a game may ask a player to make a decision based on a list of possible outcomes with their probabilities, but it is possible for the game to use a different set of probabilities when selecting an outcome. Blow considers designs which do this to be self-sabotaging, and said that games which did this belong in "the most central, deepest, most frozen circle of hell." [98]
  3. ↑ The game was released in an open beta on TEN in July 1998. [18]

Related Research Articles

<i>ZZT</i> 1991 video game

ZZT is a 1991 action-adventure puzzle video game and game creation system developed and published by Potomac Computer Systems for MS-DOS. It was later released as freeware in 1997. It is an early game allowing user-generated content using object-oriented programming. Players control a smiley face to battle various creatures and solve puzzles in different grid-based boards in a chosen world. It has four worlds where players explore different boards and interact with objects such as ammo, bombs, and scrolls to reach the end of the game. It includes an in-game editor, allowing players to develop worlds using the game's scripting language, ZZT-OOP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unreal Engine</span> Video game engine developed by Epic Games

Unreal Engine (UE) is a series of 3D computer graphics game engines developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter video game Unreal. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genres of games and has been adopted by other industries, most notably the film and television industry. Unreal Engine is written in C++ and features a high degree of portability, supporting a wide range of desktop, mobile, console, and virtual reality platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epic Games</span> American video game company

Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, Maryland. Following its first commercial video game release, ZZT (1991), the company became Epic MegaGames, Inc. in early 1992 and brought on Mark Rein, who has been its vice president since. After moving the headquarters to Cary in 1999, the studio changed its name to Epic Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital Extremes</span> Canadian video game developer

Digital Extremes Ltd. is a Canadian video game developer founded in 1993 by James Schmalz. They are best known for creating Warframe, a free-to-play cooperative online action game, and co-creating Epic Games' Unreal series of games. Digital Extremes is headquartered in London, Ontario. In 2014, 61% of the company was sold to Chinese holding company Multi Dynamic, now Leyou, for $73 million. On May 22, 2016 Leyou exercised a call option and increased their stake to 97% of Digital Extremes for a total consideration of $138.2 million US. On December 23, 2020, Tencent bought Leyou for 1.3 billion dollars, which included the majority stake in Digital Extremes that Leyou held.

Arkane Studios SASU is a French video game developer based in Lyon. It was founded in 1999, and released its first game, Arx Fatalis, in 2002. Besides the Lyon studio, Arkane Lyon, Arkane Studios operates Arkane Studios LLC in Austin, Texas, since July 2006. The studio created the popular Dishonored series as well as developing Prey (2017), Deathloop (2021) and Redfall (2023). Marvel's Blade is under development.

<i>Antichamber</i> 2013 video game

Antichamber is a first-person puzzle-platform game created by Australian developer Alexander "Demruth" Bruce. Many of the puzzles are based on phenomena that occur within impossible objects created by the game engine, such as passages that lead the player to different locations depending on which way they face, and structures that seem otherwise impossible within normal three-dimensional space. The game includes elements of psychological exploration through brief messages of advice to help the player figure out solutions to the puzzles as well as adages for real life. The game was released on Steam for Microsoft Windows on January 31, 2013. A version originally sold with the Humble Indie Bundle 11 in 2014 added support for Linux and OS X.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unity (game engine)</span> Cross-platform video game and simulation engine

Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies, first announced and released in June 2005 at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a Mac OS X game engine. The engine has since been gradually extended to support a variety of desktop, mobile, console and virtual reality platforms. It is particularly popular for iOS and Android mobile game development, is considered easy to use for beginner developers, and is popular for indie game development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open-source video game</span> Video game whose source code is open-source software

An open-source video game, or simply an open-source game, is a video game whose source code is open-source. They are often freely distributable and sometimes cross-platform compatible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indie game</span> Class of video game, generally independently published

An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. Because of their independence and freedom to develop, indie games often focus on innovation, experimental gameplay, and taking risks not usually afforded in AAA games. Indie games tend to be sold through digital distribution channels rather than at retail due to a lack of publisher support. The term is synonymous with that of independent music or independent film in those respective mediums.

<i>Braid</i> (video game) 2008 puzzle platform video game

Braid is a puzzle-platform video game developed by Number None and considered an indie title. The game was originally released in August 2008 for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service. Ports were developed and released for Microsoft Windows in April 2009, Mac OS X in May 2009, PlayStation 3 in November 2009, and Linux in December 2010. Jonathan Blow designed the game as a personal critique of contemporary trends in video game development. He self-funded the three-year project, working with webcomic artist David Hellman to develop the artwork. An anniversary version is planned for release for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Mobile, Windows, Mac, and Linux with updated graphics and developer commentary.

<i>Fez</i> (video game) 2012 video game

Fez is a 2012 indie puzzle-platform game developed by Polytron Corporation and published by Trapdoor. The player-character Gomez receives a fez that reveals his two-dimensional (2D) world to be one of four sides of a three-dimensional (3D) world. The player rotates between these four 2D views to realign platforms and solve puzzles. The objective is to collect cubes and cube fragments to restore order to the universe.

<i>The Witness</i> (2016 video game) 2016 video game

The Witness is a 2016 puzzle video game developed and published by Thekla, Inc. Inspired by Myst, the game involves the exploration of an open world island filled with natural and man-made structures. The player progresses by solving puzzles, which are based on interactions with grids presented on panels around the island or paths hidden within the environment. The game provides no direct instructions for how these puzzles are to be solved, requiring the player to identify the meaning of symbols in the puzzles. A central design element to the game was how these puzzles are presented so that the player can achieve a moment of inspiration through trial and error and gain that comprehension themselves.

<i>Limbo</i> (video game) 2010 video game

Limbo is a puzzle-platform video game with horror elements developed by independent studio Playdead and originally published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. The game was released in July 2010 on Xbox Live Arcade, and has since been ported by Playdead to several other systems, including the PlayStation 3, Linux and Microsoft Windows. Limbo is a 2D side-scroller, incorporating a physics system that governs environmental objects and the player character. The player guides an unnamed boy through dangerous environments and traps as he searches for his sister. The developer built the game's puzzles expecting the player to fail before finding the correct solution. Playdead called the style of play "trial and death", and used gruesome imagery for the boy's deaths to steer the player from unworkable solutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robin Hunicke</span> American video game designer and producer (born 1973)

Robin Hunicke is an American video game designer and producer. She is a professor of game design at UC Santa Cruz and the co-founder of Funomena.

The Indie Fund is an organization created by several independent game developers to help fund budding indie video game development. The Indie Fund was created in early 2010, its purpose aimed "to encourage the next generation of game developers" by providing them funding for development of these games without the terms that would normally be associated with publication agreements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game jam</span> Video game production contest limited in time

A game jam is an event where participants try to make a video game from scratch. Depending on the format, participants might work independently, or in teams. The event duration usually ranges from 24 to 72 hours. Participants are generally programmers, game designers, artists, writers, and others in game development-related fields. While many game jams are run purely as a game-making exercise, some game jams are contests that offer prizes.

<i>Indie Game: The Movie</i> 2012 film

Indie Game: The Movie is a 2012 documentary film made by Canadian filmmakers James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot. The film is about the struggles of independent game developers Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes during the development of Super Meat Boy, Phil Fish during the development of Fez, and also Jonathan Blow, who reflects on the success of Braid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethesda Game Studios Austin</span> American video game developer

Bethesda Game Studios Austin LLC is an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. Founded within ZeniMax Media as BattleCry Studios in 2012, the studio initially developed BattleCry until its cancellation in 2015. After working with its sister studios Bethesda Game Studios and id Software on multiple projects, BattleCry Studios became part of Bethesda Game Studios as Bethesda Game Studios Austin in March 2018.

Development of <i>Fez</i>

The high-profile and protracted five-year development of the video game Fez led to its status as an "underdog darling of the indie game scene". The 2012 puzzle-platform game built around rotating between four 2D views of a 3D space was developed by indie developer Polytron Corporation and published by Polytron, Trapdoor, and Microsoft Studios. Over the course of the game's development, Fez designer and Polytron founder Phil Fish received celebrity status for his outspoken public persona and prominence in the 2012 documentary Indie Game: The Movie, which followed the game's final stages of development and Polytron's related legal issues. The game was released to critical acclaim as an Xbox Live Arcade timed exclusive, and was later ported to other platforms. It had sold one million copies by the end of 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noclip</span> Crowdfunded media company

Noclip is a crowdfunded media company dedicated to creating video game documentaries. It was founded by Danny O'Dwyer, an Irish video game journalist and documentary producer, in 2016, and is solely funded via Patreon donations.

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Clark 2012, p. 43.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Machkovech, Sam (September 17, 2015). "The man and the island: Wandering through Jonathan Blow's The Witness". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on September 18, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
  3. ↑ Adam Ruins Everything 2017, 1:12:02.
  4. 1 2 Noclip 2017, 4:45.
  5. ↑ Noclip 2017, 5:12.
  6. ↑ Tone Control 2014, 4:02.
  7. ↑ On the Metal 2020, 5:45.
  8. ↑ Noclip 2017, 6:11.
  9. 1 2 Dahlen, Chris (August 27, 2008). "Game Designer Jonathan Blow: What We All Missed About Braid". The A.V. Club . Archived from the original on May 4, 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
  10. ↑ Blow, Jonathan (June 22, 2011). "How to program independent games". Thekla Inc. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Join the CSUA". UC Berkeley Computer Science Association. 2022. Archived from the original on May 28, 2022. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Keur, Scott (February 8, 1998). "Interview With Wulfram Development Team by Scott Keur". The Multiplayer Online Games Directory. Archived from the original on July 3, 1998.
  13. ↑ Blow, Jonathan (September 27, 2010). Games and the Human Condition (YouTube video). Retrieved April 23, 2022. I used to when I was early in college, you know I wrote a little bit of science fiction and got some stuff published, it's under a pseudonym so you can't look it up.
  14. ↑ Noclip 2017, 7:54.
  15. ↑ Tone Control 2014, 3:11.
  16. ↑ On the Metal 2020, 1:05:46.
  17. ↑ On the Metal 2020, 1:14:50.
  18. 1 2 Keur, Scott (July 24, 1998). "Wulfram Goes Open Beta !!". The Multiplayer Online Games Directory. Archived from the original on February 4, 1999.
  19. ↑ Keur, Scott (1998). "Wulfram Review". The Multiplayer Online Games Directory. Archived from the original on July 3, 1998.
  20. ↑ On the Metal 2020, 1:15:44.
  21. ↑ Tone Control 2014, 20:00.
  22. ↑ Tone Control 2014, 31:55.
  23. ↑ Tone Control 2014, 27:28.
  24. ↑ "Experimental Gameplay Workshop at GDC 2022 Celebrates 20th Anniversary". Game Developers Conference. Informa PLC. February 11, 2022. Archived from the original on February 11, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  25. ↑ Blow, Jonathan (2014). "Articles from The Inner Product". Number None. Archived from the original on February 17, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  26. ↑ Clark 2012, p. 44.
  27. ↑ On the Metal 2020, 30:00.
  28. 1 2 Tone Control 2014, 38:13.
  29. ↑ Blow, Jonathan (2015). "Happycake Development Notes". Number None. Archived from the original on February 9, 2018. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  30. ↑ Tone Control 2014, 41:06.
  31. 1 2 "People". thatgamecompany . Archived from the original on December 30, 2007.
  32. 1 2 Noclip 2017, 11:57.
  33. 1 2 "FAQ". Harmonix . Archived from the original on July 5, 2008.
  34. ↑ Noclip 2017, 15:21.
  35. 1 2 3 4 5 Totilo, Stephen (August 8, 2007). ""A Higher Standard" — Game Designer Jonathan Blow Challenges Super Mario's Gold Coins, "Unethical" MMO Design And Everything Else You May Hold Dear About Video Games". MTV Multiplayer. Archived from the original on March 16, 2010. Retrieved February 19, 2009.
  36. 1 2 Purdom, Clayton (April 4, 2018). "10 years later, Braid remains the definitive indie game". The A.V. Club . Archived from the original on March 19, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  37. ↑ Parkin, Simon; Alexander, Leigh (August 8, 2008). "Blow: 'Unnecessary' XBLA Hurdles Hurt Game Quality". Gamasutra . Archived from the original on December 21, 2008. Retrieved February 19, 2009.
  38. ↑ Brophy-Warren, Jamin (August 8, 2008). "Video Games: Braid — Advisor". The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on December 26, 2008. Retrieved February 19, 2009.
  39. ↑ "Braid for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic . Archived from the original on December 21, 2018. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
  40. 1 2 Parkin, Simon (April 3, 2014). "The Guilt of the Video-Game Millionaires". The New Yorker . Condé Nast. Archived from the original on September 7, 2015. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
  41. ↑ Carless, Simon (March 12, 2010). "Independent Game Luminaries Announce Indie Fund". Gamasutra . Archived from the original on November 10, 2010.
  42. ↑ Goldstein, Gary (May 18, 2012). "Review: 'Indie Game' captures the struggle to create". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved June 20, 2023.
  43. 1 2 3 4 5 Kollar, Philip (September 17, 2015). "The Witness: The creator of Braid talks about his fiendishly difficult new game". Polygon . Vox Media. Archived from the original on July 2, 2017. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  44. 1 2 3 4 Parkin, Simon (December 6, 2010). "Catching Up With Jonathan Blow". Gamasutra . Archived from the original on December 10, 2010. Retrieved December 6, 2010.
  45. ↑ Blow, Jonathan (March 22, 2011). "Jobs!". Thekla, Inc. Archived from the original on December 7, 2011. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
  46. ↑ Blow, Jonathan (August 6, 2020). "Announcing Braid, Anniversary Edition for PS4 and PS5". Sony Interactive Entertainment . Archived from the original on January 13, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
  47. ↑ Parker, Laura (February 20, 2013). "The Witness confirmed as a PS4 launch title". GameSpot . Retrieved June 20, 2023.
  48. ↑ Makuch, Eddie (February 2, 2016). "The Witness Sells 100,000 Copies, Xbox One Version Being Considered". GameSpot . Archived from the original on February 4, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  49. ↑ Makuch, Eddie (January 29, 2016). "The Witness Is Being Pirated a Lot, Dev Says". GameSpot . Archived from the original on January 30, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  50. ↑ "The Witness for PC Reviews". Metacritic . Archived from the original on April 27, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  51. ↑ "The Witness for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic . Archived from the original on April 27, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  52. ↑ Webber, Jordan Erica (March 9, 2017). "Bafta games awards 2017: Inside and Uncharted 4 lead the way". The Guardian . Archived from the original on March 10, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  53. ↑ Makuch, Eddie (January 4, 2017). "Game of the Year Nominees and More Revealed for Game Developers Choice Awards". GameSpot . Archived from the original on January 9, 2017. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  54. ↑ "The Best Games of the Decade (2010–2019)". IGN . January 26, 2020. Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  55. ↑ "The 100 best games of the decade (2010–2019): 100–51". Polygon . Vox Media. November 4, 2019. Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  56. ↑ McMahon, James (December 20, 2019). "The 50 Best Games Of The Decade: The 2010s". NME . Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  57. ↑ Serrels, Mark (October 5, 2019). "The 30 best video games of the decade, ranked". CNET . Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  58. ↑ Marsh, Calum (December 5, 2019). "Nothing else compares to the greatest video game of the decade". National Post . Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  59. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Taylor, Ivy (July 3, 2018). "Jonathan Blow: 'C++ is a weird mess'". Games Industry.biz. Gamer Network . Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  60. 1 2 Wawro, Alex (September 19, 2014). "Video: Jon Blow on building a new programming language for games". Gamasutra . Archived from the original on September 22, 2014.
  61. ↑ Blow, Jonathan (September 19, 2014). Ideas about a new programming language for games. Archived from the original on December 19, 2021. Retrieved November 27, 2021– via YouTube.
  62. ↑ AIAS 2021, 55:18.
  63. 1 2 AIAS 2021, 57:16.
  64. ↑ Kersting, Erik (April 26, 2021). "Thinking Outside the Box with Sokoban and Baba is You". The University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Digital Cultures Collaboratory.
  65. ↑ Totilo, Stephen (November 16, 2023). "With Braid remake, an influential indie returns". Axios .
  66. ↑ Seropian, Alexander; Marroquin, Aaron (October 12, 2023). "The Independent Mindset of Jonathan Blow". The Fourth Curtain (Podcast). Event occurs at 14:00. Retrieved November 17, 2023.
  67. ↑ AIAS 2021, 57:43.
  68. ↑ @Jonathan_Blow (May 9, 2023). "The April Q&A for the programming language beta has now been posted:" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  69. ↑ Hall, Charlie (August 6, 2020). "Braid Anniversary Edition coming in 2021". Polygon . Vox Media. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
  70. 1 2 Makedonski, Brett (August 6, 2020). "Jonathan Blow's next project is Braid: Anniversary Edition". Destructoid . Retrieved May 4, 2022.
  71. 1 2 Peters, Jay (November 9, 2023). "Braid, Anniversary Edition finally has a release date". The Verge .
  72. ↑ Blow, Jonathan (March 1, 2019). Practice 2014: Jonathan Blow. NYU Game Center. Event occurs at 27:29. Archived from the original on December 19, 2021. Retrieved July 11, 2019– via YouTube.
  73. 1 2 3 Takahashi, Dean (July 2, 2018). "Jonathan Blow: How Thekla is moving beyond The Witness". VentureBeat . Retrieved September 9, 2022.
  74. ↑ Blow, Jonathan (March 1, 2019). Practice 2014: Jonathan Blow. NYU Game Center. Event occurs at 45:47. Archived from the original on December 19, 2021. Retrieved July 11, 2019– via YouTube.
  75. ↑ On the Metal 2020, 1:03:35.
  76. ↑ On the Metal 2020, 1:04:36.
  77. ↑ Interactive Media and Games Seminar — Fireside Chat with Jonathan Blow (AV Recording). mediaX at Stanford University. October 10, 2017. Event occurs at 1:04:21. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  78. ↑ Meslow, Scott (August 8, 2018). "Revisiting Braid, the Indie Video Game That Set the Industry Ablaze". GQ . Condé Nast. Archived from the original on March 19, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  79. ↑ Snow, Jean (August 13, 2008). "Review: Braid Innovates and Satisfies". Wired . Condé Nast. Archived from the original on March 3, 2009. Retrieved February 20, 2009.
  80. ↑ Hill, Jason (August 21, 2008). "Braid". The Age .
  81. ↑ Peckham, Matt (June 9, 2016). "'The Witness' Creator Jonathan Blow on Science, Language and Reality". TIME . Archived from the original on January 9, 2017. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
  82. ↑ Juul 2019, p. 177.
  83. 1 2 3 4 5 Parkin, Simon (January 29, 2016). "The Prickly Genius of Jonathan Blow". The New Yorker . Condé Nast. Archived from the original on January 30, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
  84. ↑ Moore, Bo (September 17, 2015). "This Sprawling Puzzle Game May Be Your Next Obsession". Wired . Condé Nast. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  85. ↑ Clark 2012, p. 45.
  86. ↑ Adam Ruins Everything 2017, 7:15.
  87. ↑ Adam Ruins Everything 2017, 48:07.
  88. ↑ Hillier, Brenna (January 28, 2016). "Who is The Witness for? We asked Jonathan Blow". VG247 . Gamer Network. Archived from the original on January 29, 2016. Retrieved January 8, 2023.
  89. ↑ Juul, Jesper. "Interview with Jonathan Blow". Handmade Pixels. Archived from the original on December 3, 2022. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
  90. ↑ Webster, Andrew (January 26, 2016). "The creators of The Witness on how they made a 100-hour puzzle game". The Verge . Archived from the original on January 26, 2016. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  91. ↑ Barratt, Charlie (August 10, 2011). "Jonathan Blow interview: How to fix the adventure, innovate mainstream games and do a sequel right". GamesRadar . Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  92. 1 2 Clark 2012, p. 42.
  93. 1 2 3 Alexander, Leigh (June 6, 2014). "The Witness: Modeling epiphany". Gamasutra . Archived from the original on January 31, 2016. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  94. 1 2 Totilo, Stephen (August 10, 2011). "Jonathan Blow, Opinionated Creator of Two Video Games, is 'Attempting to be Profound'". Kotaku . Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  95. 1 2 3 Whitehead, Dan (May 30, 2019). "Casual Connect: Indie development is 'stagnant' says Braid creator, Jonathan Blow". GameDaily .
  96. ↑ "'Videogames Are Terrible For Telling Stories' Says Jonathan Blow". Play . June 2, 2015. Archived from the original on June 7, 2015.
  97. ↑ Marsh, Calum (January 27, 2016). "Jonathan Blow: 'I want to make games for people who read Gravity's Rainbow'". The Guardian . Retrieved April 7, 2020.
  98. 1 2 "Keynote – Jonathan Blow". Game Developers Session. October 3, 2018.
  99. 1 2 Ong, Alexis (July 30, 2019). "Jon Blow: "The job isn't to be in a community; the job is to make a good game"". Games Industry.biz. Gamer Network . Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  100. ↑ On the Metal 2020, 58:10.
  101. ↑ Caldwell, Brandon (February 15, 2011). "Jonathan Blow interview: Do you believe social games are evil? "Yes. Absolutely."". PC Gamer . Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  102. ↑ On the Metal 2020, 59:30.
  103. ↑ "Jonathan Blow on future of video game industry". CBS This Morning. August 13, 2012. Archived from the original on January 15, 2023. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
  104. 1 2 "MIGS 2007: Jonathan Blow On The 'WoW Drug', Meaningful Games". Game Developer . November 28, 2007. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  105. ↑ Juul 2019, p. 143.
  106. ↑ Adam Ruins Everything 2017, 1:31:30.
  107. ↑ On the Metal 2020, 1:36:23.
  108. 1 2 Zuegel, Devon (August 2, 2021). "Jonathan Blow talks good design – for video games, team structure, and beyond". Notion Labs, Inc. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  109. ↑ On the Metal 2020, 1:32:22.
  110. ↑ Tone Control 2014, 1:14:12.
  111. ↑ Tone Control 2014, 1:20:15.
  112. ↑ Jonathan Blow (April 7, 2014). Attempting Deep Work (YouTube video). Utrecht: Indievelopment conference. Event occurs at 21:24. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  113. ↑ Oddworld Inhabitants (November 15, 2001). Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee (Xbox) (1.0 ed.). Microsoft Game Studios. Scene: Credits.
  114. ↑ Ion Storm Inc (December 2, 2003). Deus Ex: Invisible War (Microsoft Windows) (1.0 ed.). Eidos Interactive. Scene: Credits.
  115. ↑ Parkin, Simon (September 12, 2008). "Jonathan Blow: The Path to Braid". Gamasutra . Archived from the original on December 20, 2008.
  116. ↑ Rapold, Nicolas (May 18, 2012). "The Sweat, Tears and Passion Behind the Pixels". New York Times . Retrieved January 11, 2023.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.