How Jonathan Blow Designs a Puzzle
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 8. 03. 2016
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For Jonathan Blow, a puzzle is never just a puzzle - it's a communication from the designer to the player about the game's universe. In this episode, I share the philosophy and design process of the brains behind Braid and The Witness.
More on Blow's philosophy:
IndieCade: "Jonathan Blow & Marc Ten Bosch - Designing to Reveal the Nature of the Universe"
âą IndieCade 2011: Jonath...
IndieCade: "Jonathan Blow, Marc Ten Bosch & Droqen - Empuzzlement"
âą IndieCade 2013 - Empuz...
Shivmoo: "Game City Jonathan Blow Braid Talk"
âą Game City Jonathan Blo...
A MAZE: "Berlin 2014 - Masterclass with Jonathan Blow"
âą A MAZE. / Berlin 2014 ...
Gamasutra: "Jonathan Blow: The Path to Braid"
www.gamasutra.com/view/feature...
Gamasutra: "The Witness: Modeling epiphany"
gamasutra.com/view/news/218953...
GrabItMagazine: "How To Design Deep Games with Jonathan Blow"
âą How To Design Deep Gam...
GameSpot: "Break Room Interviews: Jonathan Blow"
âą Break Room Interviews:...
GDC Vault: "Jonathan Blow - Truth in Game Design"
www.gdcvault.com/play/1014982/...
Games shown in this episode (in order of appearance):
Braid (Number None, 2008)
The Witness (Thekla, Inc, 2016)
Oracle Billiards (Jonathan Blow, Unreleased)
Galstaff (Jonathan Blow, Unreleased)
Music used in this episode:
Greenhouse (The Swapper, Carlo Castellano)
Adventure (Fez, Disasterpeace)
Flower Girl (Gravity Ghost, Ben Prunty)
Terraforming (Gravity Ghost, Ben Prunty)
I just like to sleep under the stars (Gravity Ghost, Ben Prunty)
Other credits:
Simon Carless: "IGS 2007: Jon Blow - 'Indie Prototyping, Braid, & Making Innovative Games'"
âą IGS 2007: Jon Blow - '...
JustJack: "Oracle Billiards Game"
âą Video
tvdays: "1980 RUBIKS CUBE IDEAL TOYS"
âą Video
Contribute translated subtitles - amara.org/v/C3BFd/ - Hry
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I still haven't gotten around to playing through The Witness, but this video really makes me want to get on that. Your content is fantastic, keep it up!
NakeyJakey Did you get a chance to play it?
Fancy seeing a hot boy like you here
Boiiiiiiiiii
Dog Bless
It's aight. Braid is better.
This video reminded me of something Alan Turing says in Computing Machinery and Intelligence:
"The view that machines cannot give rise to surprises is due, I believe, to a fallacy to which philosophers and mathematicians are particularly subject. This is the assumption that as soon as a fact is presented to a mind all consequences of that fact spring into the mind simultaneously with it. It is a very useful assumption under many circumstances, but one too easily forgets that it is false."
We often fool ourselves when we think that we fully understand a concept and its implications. What Blow seems to be doing here is letting the player see that they didn't fully understand the implications and consequences of a seemingly simple gameplay mechanic.
Great video. Wonderful stuff here.
That's actually very well put.
Pretty smart, that Turing guy. I wonder if he ever did anything important :P
Check "The Imitation Game". His work was really important.
I never played Braid but this applies so perfectly to The Witness. Absolutely phenomenal game, one of my absolute favorites.
In short, game design is oh so fascinating!
that "I understand" quip was profound and exactly why I loved The Witnesse, it was essentially a Metroid game where your puzzle vocabulary was your toolbelt, and the way you grew your vocabulary was through a process that felt very organic and your own
Dprotp Absolutely, it was like learning an entirely new language with intricate grammatical quirks and all. Phenomenal game, I could not put it down from the moment I picked it up, basically all I did besides go to class for three days as soon is it came out. The puzzles all built on each other so wonderfully, and the later ones were incredibly inventive and rewarding to complete. The Witness is amazing.
My favourite game ever, the whole 'everything is open to you if you can work out the rule' kind of thing is incredible and something I had never experienced in any game before.
If you like that kind of knowledge-based metroidvania, play Toki Tori 2. That's probably the best example I've ever seen of the concept. GMTK's second video ever was about it, too.
Witness felt rather arbitrary to me.
I remember a couple of times in Braid where I simply could NOT figure out a puzzle I was stuck on. But something unique happened in this game that I've never experienced in another. Every time I got stuck, I took a break and fired up the game the next day. Then, almost immediately, I would solve the puzzle with ease. It's like the answer was there the whole time, I just needed to refresh my perspective to see it.
Your level of professionalism in the process of making these videos are simply inspiring and incredible. Keep up the good work!
Very quickly becoming the best channel for game developers.
Well he was a game magazine editor iirc, P/s I know this was 4 years ago but why not.
A friend and I sat down and played through the witness in a few play sessions over a couple of days. One of my favourite puzzle games of all time.
I totally get what you mean when you compare the phrases "I understand" and "I figured it out".
The vast and complex mechanics of the witness allow for so much satisfaction when you master a new mechanic. You just don't get that feeling in other games.
Jonathan Blow should make games teaching physics, maths, chemistry and biology.
His practice of making harder puzzles that exhibit edge-cases after the easier ones just to make sure the player really understood the solution and didn't just come up with a similar solution that just works in this one case is great.
I wish more curricula and tests would take this approach.
Jon Blow has actually mentioned that he's very interested in making educational games, possibly about physics. I'd be very excited if he ever decides to make them. The Witness is pretty much the best teaching material I've ever seen.
He is an excellent instructor
I agree an education game by Jonathan Blow would be incredible. If only he'd actually focus on games instead of programming languages and engines.
It's so crazy to me because I didn't enjoy most of my time with The Witness, and yet I kept playing it for 28 hours. Something kept me coming back for more, and I think it had to do with what I knew of Jonathan Blow from Braid. I knew there was more to it than originally met the eye. And while I can still say I'm disappointed with the turnout as far as story elements or any plot goes, I can absolutely appreciate the depth of the puzzles. I am totally willing to admit that they were just too smart for me haha! I'm glad you explored Braid quite a bit here tho, it was nice to see the similarities, because at first glace they seemed totally different. Great work as always Mark :) And nice choice of music for the beginning ;)
Dude, itâs so cool seeing you comment on videos! Iâm like: ITS SNOWMAN!!
lmao @ story and plot in games
just glad that Mark didn't use the music used for The Challenge in The Witness. Would've given a lot of this video viewers instant PTSD lol
I make levels for my favourite games and I often find that I throw any preconceived designs out the window at some point, this is especially true when that idea sucks when I put it into action. Usually the monsters and mechanics of a game will dictate what I create and how a level looks, and it's always good to continually play and refine your levels to iterate at every step to maximise the fun.
I know a lot of people who make things in this way. To the point where your game or level feels like it is creating itself and you are the instrument that the universe is using in order to bring the creation into existence. I know how insane that sounds but some levels I have made have been done in large parts in an almost trance-like state and I barely remember the creation process at all.
+FifthElephant that's an awesome way to describe it, thanks for sharing
+FifthElephant I know what you mean, my best level design work always happens when the levels are all informed by the dynamics in my games.
Thats not insane. Thats beautiful and profound.
excellent video. I need to make an episode analyzing this game's level design at some point
Well?
@@Salmakatory He's a lazy guy and there isn't much room in the basement
Surreal seeing surprise MB here đ
No you donât.
Mark, you're the goddamn best.
+Writing on Games aw jeez that's nice
Personally I consider Quinton Reviews to be "the best", but this person is damn fine too.
And I'm the goddamn Batman.
I think this video and Blow himself do a miraculous job at illustrating a beautiful creative process, and also the only time someone has perfectly described why I've always thought this game was so cool. The idea of "I Understand" was so fulfilling at several points and felt eye opening for the next puzzle only to be taken aback by a new and challenging perspective to grasp. I lost motivation to beat the game awhile back but I think I'm gonna give it another go :)
It's like when i was making the flamethrower weapon for my game Zombie Crisp. At first I'm like "this flamethrower will shoot fire that sets zombies on fire"
Then im like "oh shit it doesn't really make sense for the on fire zombies to not set other zombies on fire too!"
So i made the mechanic of fire spreading from zombie to zombie and all of a sudden the game became really intense! you'd have tons of zombies on screen but you can still survive if you strategically set them on fire so that the fire spreads.
Felt pretty awesome.
That sounds like a great twist to the traditional zombie game! You could even cut it down to just flamethrowers and have that be the zombies' only weakness. "Firemen" a la Fahrenheit 451 are called in whenever there's an infestation, and you're one of them. Now burn those corpses!
thanks, it was a happy accident lol.
I haven't had the time to add new game modes but if u wanna try the game its free to play on Android and iPhone.
just look up Zombie Crisp
here's android link
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iagg.zombiecrisp&hl=en
i actually just broke 1000 lifetime downloads, pretty happy about it lol
I haven't updated game in long time, if there's bugs or crash or something please tell me :)
I think a focus on AoE mechanics and that sort of stuff can be very fun in action games, especially if you can also move a lot to affect the fight
I know this comment is old but I just downloaded your game on my phone, excited to try it in a bit. Setting zombie hoards on fire sounds like a good time :)
@@kumatorahaltmanndreemurr hey thanks for trying the game.
Its very outdated though, im gonna publish a improved version soon.
Braid and The Witness are 2 of my favourite puzzle games, ever, no surprise they're made by the same person.
+Deborah Meltrozo It's a game about discover and knowledge, and the real game have nothing to do with the first panels you encounter at the start.
+Pretty Pretty Pretty Good Though I agree on the level of refinement that The Witness has for its puzzles (or to be clearer, for the mechanics, not really the puzzles themself), I must admit, the quantity just killed the game for me. I managed to solve something like 300 puzzles (enough to get in the mountain, but without touching anything inside) and I just stopped there, seing that I actually wasn't having an engaging experience for several hours.
The worst thing about it is that I love watching all these videos about Blow's vision (even when focused on The Witness that was a bad experience for me) and I think Braid is one of the best game I ever played, in terms of pure game-design. There was an elegance to the way the mechanics were presented, and even when I was struggling with a mechanic (the one where you rewind when you run back just killed my brain) I felt engaged in the game, because I knew that I had to let my brain go into "the zone" and that I wouldn't be playing the game tens of hours. It felt more organic in the process of solving it too.
The Witness, at least for me, lack such elegance. It kind of brute forces the message and the mechanic onto you with the sheer number of puzzles, when most of the time, I got what it was trying to convey in the first few puzzles. At some point, I was struggling with fatigue, exhaustion, and not really the challenges of the puzzles anymore. And when I finally saw that "epiphany" again, it was when I was searching for the macro-puzzle.
The more I think about it, the more I "hate" The Witness. But not on an ideological side (quite the opposite actually), more in a sentimental way...kind of hard to explain that feeling.
Brandon Cruz ... what?
That's a weird kind of logic.
FEZ is similar in many ways. Discovering more and more dimensions of the game world, learning maths and a new alphabet to solve some of the harder puzzles in the game. Jon Blow's games have more layers to this concept, but I loved FEZ for other reasons as well.
I was just thinking earlier, wouldn't it be great if there was something like Every Frame a Painting for games. Then I remembered this show exists. Good stuff!
One of the best channels out there about game design. Great work!
+Ramon Ignacio Bunge Thanks Ramon!
The Witness is still one of my favorite game ever.
This game blew me away. An gaming experience that deeply impacted me .
Thank you Jonathan Blow
I love seeing your videos pop up in my subscriber box! The extra effort you put in to each video really shows in the final product, you do a wonderful job presenting your concept, articulating how it functions and concluding it in a way that feels clear and satisfying, with very tasteful editing throughout. I hope you are able to continue this channel for a long time. I may not be a game designer but I'm absolutely fascinated with any form of design (I'm a graphic designer) and since I have been addicted to games since I was 4 I love having ideas like this presented for me to ruminate on, and search for in my favorite games.
Thank you Mark, you do a wonderful job!
This video was like dream come true. Thank you so much for this analysis of Blow's work.
You really should make a video about Stephen's Sausage Roll. It takes Blow's ideas and turns it up to 11.
How Jonathan describes designing a game is very much like the way in which great authors describe crafting characters in their novels.
Great authors don't.
Great jobs, as always. And that amazing how slightly change from "puzzles" to "communication about puzzles" can change meaning of game entirely. That show how fascinating production of games could be. Great thanks for showing me this.
I find when making a puzzle game that understanding the nature of the mechanics and the universe perfectly, then bringing the player to this level of understanding through puzzles, is a good way to go. One way to reach this understanding is by experimentation. I think The Witness being a puzzle game designed this way was very appropriate, because confronting and attempting to understand the world you're thrown into is exactly what the game is about, on all levels of its design.
Jonathan Blow's style is going to be studied for ages.
Great breakdown on Blow's process, I always wondered how he sculpted his games the way he does and now it makes Braid and even more so - The Witness, make much more sense in the way they function. Although I'm not a huge fan of the witness, I can appreciate what it does and how it teaches the player its rules through environments and hidden clues.
I saw the talk you used as a reference for the initial quote, it was at GDC 2012! It was a very, very inspiring talk.
A very good consolidation of Jonathan's design principles. Thanks for putting this together!
I've noticed a very real problem with puzzles, in that they apparently cannot be as universally enjoyed - actually, make that "appreciated" - in the same way other game constructs can be. Dispatching of enemies, whether through jumping on them or shooting, can be appreciated and LEARNED to be appreciated specifically. Increasing some measurement, whether collecting arbitrary floating entities or completing meaningful tasks, is in the same place. Completing a puzzle appears to be a far touchier subject - perhaps it's just due to how intricate they can be, meaning there are a lot more variables to be considered, and indeed considered differently in each person. This leads me to agree wholly with your point about how a player reacts to completing a puzzle. I also agree that the greatest satisfaction is gained when you figure out the solution BEFORE you complete the puzzle, as opposed to retroactively applying whatever logic you (may or may not have) used. People are way more prone to attempting a solution that fits their pre-conceived logic - some form confirmation bias I'd guess - that they become dissatisfied with the result that doesn't match their own. This isn't a problem with something like matching a key to a door, because it's so easily noticeable that you underatand this mechanic's "solution" without much conscious thought. Because of this, I think how people react to a puzzle differs so greatly due to inherent traits in their character, and that it can't really be helped.
I mean, this is all unscientific, anecdotal conjecture of course! But it's an interesting thing to think about.
As I understand, a puzzle is satisfying when the player learn something or understands better the game dynamics during the process.
I completely agree
I don't think so - I think this is more you confusing your interests with those of the whole. In fact, puzzles can also be learned, just like enjoying killing virtual enemies can - easier, in fact. A lot of people do puzzles. Dead tree stuff is dead, right? Well, over here they still sell dozens and dozens of magazines filled with puzzles. I can go to any train station, and there'll ve entire shelves filled with the stuff. Sudoku, nonogramm, all that - there's two dozen different sudoku magazines on sale on any given day, and that number is not an exaggeration. People do more gaming involving puzzles than killing, too. It's not even a contest. It's just that puzzle games are usually dismissed by younger male gamers, because it's easier to have bombastic marketing for ACTION stuff - and hence that is what movies and game companies largely push (not to mention hardware companies - you don't need great graphics for puzzles, black and white grids are often enough). SO that is what many think games are. Everything else is dismissed by a certain segment of gamers. Adventure games that were revered fifteen years ago would have droves of angry gamers screaming "walking simulator" nowadays. Don't get me wrong, liking action stuff is fine, and I enjoy my murdersprees in Grimrock 2 too. But I wouldn't ever think violence is somehow "easier" to get used to. Reality just proves that wrong. Violence is just what marketing pushes and what is easy to drive hype with.
I think it doesn't just apply to puzzle games, I'd say the more of an intended path based on preconceptions a strat game has the closer it gets to this problem.. Maybe I'm wrong haha, game design confuses me..
I'm already seeing how if this is true, it's more nuanced than how I put it here
Even though designing based more on preconceptions does have this downside in some situations, I'd say I still much prefer it in some games and what those are trying to achieve.. The balancing of both approaches can vary a lot with great results I think
That first sentence/quote puts it so eloquently. I relate so much to it...
Well done! The second half of this video blew my mind. You taught me so much new info
i love the intro, i JUST got into game maker studio and am having the same experience. the sprites come to life and they WANT more, they want more AI they want to be able to emote more. it's so amazing
This is an interesting counterpoint to Super Bunnyhop's video.
Lemmings did something very similar, with frequent revisits to previous levels that you had to solve differently. In truth, the harder versions of these levels were designed first, then the simpler ones worked back into the earlier difficulty tiers. The game was extremely well-balanced in its learning curve. It was such a rewarding experience to reach a level and think "They must have made a mistake here. There's no way to solve this." Except, of course, they didn't. And then a light bulb goes off in your head when you finally understand.
I've been loving this series. It's wonderfully informative, and the music and use of motion graphics is very sleek. It really appeals to my graphic designer side. A small detail that I think could tighten your typography further would be "hanging punctuation," like with the quotation marks at the beginning. Try looking that up. Beyond that, this is all awesome. Thanks so much for making this series.
Now here's a game that seems to use design by subtraction because of how minimalist most elements are, yet there are elements that seem superfluous unless you see it through a different lens. And when you do that, you get holes that you need to fill for the pattern to make sense - and then the pursuit of meaning in the game when you can't seem to find them.
It makes the structure incredibly weird but but so amusing to see people discuss because despite how binary everything in the puzzles seem - you either get it right, or you don't - everything around them is anything but.
And that experience is part of the game. It's thematic to the game. It's what the videos are about, and the imprint the game leaves on you that causes you to find puzzles outside of the puzzles.
The funny thing though is that people call the game pretentious for trying to put some deeper meaning into it, when - I swear to god - the only message is that people will look for meaning. Not that there is any. If you find one, you've made it, not him. Is that pretentious? Well then you've just found a different - very predictable - meaning of your own.
Excellent video, one of your best yet I might add. It's fascinating to see what a bottom-up approach to game design can create.
Your videos are top notch. Iâm not involved in games or game design, but the concepts in your videos often overlap with other disparate areas of my life such as dating, or language-acquisition. Thanks for such great content!
Shows braid. Plays Fez music.
7:22 I like that you'd only get this if you've played The Witness, while also not spoiling anything for those who haven't.
You're so much helping me with the development of my game.
This was mind BLOWingly helpful, thank you
ultimately I think the line "I understand" rather than "I finally figured it out" is the most potent of this whole video. It neatly sidesteps all the confusion of if a puzzle is hard or too hard or not hard enough, and just cuts right to the quick. Fantastic video.
Brilliant video, as always...
Keep it up!
I really enjoyed the insight on Blow's puzzle design philosophy. Interesting stuff.
Agree! Jonathan Blow's puzzles are really something special.
I know that a large number of people like a shorter format, it would be awesome to have you do a few longer ones I often end up wishing the episode was longer, because it was so good.
This is exactly what I needed right now. Thanks!
Great views on puzzle design, thanks for sharing these!
Interesting video as always, Mark!
This is an amazing channel about the essence of game development. Thanks!!
Always look forward to your vids
Your videos aré awesome! The edition, content, narrativa, all of it is awesome and helpfully :) Saludos desde México
I think this is a thing that happens in a lot of creative endeavors. My wife and I are writing a novel together and we have often found that the answer to a problem in the plot comes naturally through the process of writing. I don't necessarily think this is thanks to "the universe," but to some part of the creative mind that operates subconsciously rather than consciously. Thanks for yet another great video!
Really good video about understanding puzzles in a more profound way
Thanks for a great video, very thought inspiring.
Thank you so much for the awesome content and especially by the subtitles!
I'm brazilian and sometimes I had problems to understand just with the voice!
"I understand" is a beautiful way of putting it
I absolutely love this. You put to word why I love puzzle games.
I've been following Jonathan Blow since the release of Braid and in becoming a game developer over the last few years have always tried to employ these philosophies when it comes to designing games. It's a tougher and longer process, but a really rewarding one as a designer - and I believe as a player too. I've only managed to work on puzzle games though, so it would definitely be interesting to see this be applied to action games and the like, too. I imagine more games like Ikaruga would be born from this type of process!
Say what you will about the man. He knows how to design a game
"Jonathan Blow doesn't know how to design a game"
haha ok.
Heâs been live streaming the design of another game, go check out his channel!
Brilliant. Extremely helpful videos as i'm going through Games Design in university
That was very interesting, thank you!
Like a spanish game designer I really appreciate the subtitles.
Great video, and again, thanks for the subtitles :)
Happy I subscribe
Having played The Witness for myself, highly skeptical of the idea that a game can teach you so much through so little handholding, I am amazed how thoroughly accurate and true to his words Jonathan Blow is to his game design.
Coming back to this video after seeing it before The Witness and wondering how that was possible was like seeing something that was there all along but the answer was right there if you knew how to see it. :D
puzzle games are my bread and butter so this is really interesting to me
also thanks for the music citation because I recognized the gravity ghost music but forgot which game it was from, I really should revisit this game.
great episode!
I'm making a puzzle game for my final project at school, and this video is super helpful
great video as usual!
I don't usually comment, but your channel is fantastic. Is a MUST watch for every aspiring game developer out there. Thanks a lot.
8:08 - I had a similar discovery process designing 5 color mana spell points for 5th edition DnD. Once the basic premise was in place, all the actual mechanics became self-evident, I just had to make sure it was "stable coding" across all the different casting classes.
Just started The Witness a few days, oh my God, it is such a good and unique puzzle game. Didn't know til today it was designed and produced by the creator of Braid but it all makes sense now how it is so good!
I was in the development team of Attractio and the iterative design of the game was very similar; and yes, it's very effective to establish simple rules, playtest, discover some "hidden rules" and then use them to create puzzles.
This reminds me of a small, brilliant and free game by the DigiPen Insitute of Technology called Perspective. Every Puzzle in this game gave me the feeling I just learned something about logic, and on top of that, it even made it feel like this knowledge is useful outside of the context of the game. I wish the game was more known.
Loved the FTL ost remix song. gj on the video man.
Braid was a great experience to play through. Only ever went through it once but I was obsessive until I had done everything. I need to get around to playing The Witness too. I get the feeling it'll drive me insane though.
He is nowadays my favorite indie designer, his games are just perfect
Masterful episode.
Amazing video!
Thanks for the video, I don't make games but I find how they are made very interesting. You just convinced me to look into picking up The Witness!
"Ironically, it sucks. MWEHEHEHE, abnoxious laughter" -Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw
awesome video. I like your mention about its about "I understand" not "I figured it out"
I gave a similar talk about memorable puzzles and used some of the same examples from braid!
Love the Disasterpiece Soundtrack you put in!
The pads in the beginning are blowing my mind
I never finished Braid. Damn...I must play it now!
PS: your videos are geting better and better Mark!
I love your channel really :)
I'm not a game designer, but I really like these analyses of game design.
wow these videos are amazing
Excellent video. This is similar to how Brandon Sanderson develops magic systems in his novels.
so basicly he creates rules and research interessing consequences of it, that makes the game consistent and logical
this makes me want to replay the witness so bad, but I'll never be able to have those a-ha moments again :(
Honestly? I don't think that's true. You might not be able to re-discover the _rules,_ but the game has so many puzzles that it's impossible to actually remember every solution! I've replayed the game three times, and enjoyed myself as much each time!!
@@holyflutterofgod Have you ever seen someone speedrunning The Witness? Those beasts can remember ALL solutions.
I feel I'm a bit contradictory to the rest of the comments. I loved the Witness. I loved traveling through, working out the puzzles and just having a relaxing time. However, Braid, although I got its puzzles, it just never clicked for me. I was never enjoying myself solving them. I found myself just getting annoyed, a feeling I never got it the Witness (except for the "puzzles" were the challenge is not having a seizure) Just interesting how perspective can change on a game depending on the person.
I feel exactly the same! I enjoyed the Witness (which I finally played after months of avoiding it due to reviewers telling me it was bad), and did not enjoy Braid (which felt like a chore despite critical praise). The seizure puzzles near the end were garbage though. No idea what was going through Blow's head when he decided to program headache-inducing vomit puzzles into his game. :/
Weird, I felt the exact opposite. I thought Braid was absolutely brilliant, but was kinda underwhelmed by the Witness. I still enjoyed both though. To each his own... :D
Same thoughts. Probably most of people that enjoyed Braid's proposal were waiting something else for The Witness, hence the disappointing/underwhelming feeling.
@@JazzyWaffles "Seizure puzzles"? I 100%-ed the game, but I'm not sure which ones you're talking about
@@sgbench the screens with all the flashing grids and colors on the descent through the mountain.
5:14 was really profound for me. Why? I was just quite stuck on this exact puzzle earlier this day and after having realized the solution I mind-gasmed.
I'm reminded of learning how to fling in Portal. Not a simple "I figured out this puzzle!" moment but a "I'm completely rethinking how this game is played!" moment.
Braid changed the puzzle game genre in such a profound way. Before Braid there were pretty good puzzle games - Chip's challenge, Lost Vikings and others. But the later levels in those games were always convoluted or difficult to execute due to skill based elements. Braid's harder levels look simple but are devilishly tricky to figure out. And modern puzzle games have taken that formula to heart and surpassed it. Steven's Sausage roll has some levels with so few elements that they feel like they should be trivial. But then it takes you 2 hours to solve.
I'm really looking forward for your thoughts on The Witness. Cause as of this moment, I'm at a loss for words on that one.
Amazing work as always thank you for the video!
I'm still very interested in seeing you make a video about The Dark Souls serie....
+Kaibz Kaibz Thank yoooou. As for Dark Souls - maybe one day, but there's already a lot on the web about the design of those brilliant games
Braid pretty much made my brain melt out through my ears though, I had so much trouble solving the puzzles! But now I realize that I played it when I was around 13 so that might explain it aha, I should retry it now
When I first saw a world puzzle in the Witness, I initially thought it was a neat Easter egg, how some of the landmarks resemble the puzzles themselves. Then, I think it was around the desert area, I actually clicked on one of these, and when the game responded, my mind was blown.
That last bit about a puzzle being a meaningful epiphany made me wonder about what a puzzle game where the puzzles tie into the moral and ethical choices present in the game, where solving them can have a real impact on the characters and their arcs.
Then I remembered the old "I have no mouth and I must scream" point and click was entirely that.