GameSpot's podcast, HotSpot, had Jonathan Blow as a guest for the September 14th episode. There's a bit of an interview, and chatting about various game topics; some discussion of Braid, some of The Witness, and what makes a good puzzle?
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Two hours of Blow, sweet!
The Secret of Psalm 46, the lecture mentioned in this podcast, is transcendentally wonderful. You can all listen to it here:
http://ludix.com/moriarty/psalm46.html
I actually put on a play based on this lecture :)
“Below is a February 2010 studio recording of the lecture, produced for inclusion in Jonathan Blow’s game The Witness”.
Will this be some sort of easter egg? Anyway, brilliant!
September 14 happens to be my birthday. So thanks for the great birthday present Jon, it’s always a pleasure to hear your thoughts on design. My current project, Duet, was heavily inspired by your work.
Thanks for the links Hamish Tod!
Do you know what game John was talking about Braid clones? “I played an iPhone game that was alot like Braid, but it didn’t catch up”
What was it!?
Also for those of you that don’t know…
Hazard: The Journey of Life = Antichamber by Alexander Bruce
http://antichamber-game.com/
and The swapper: http://www.moddb.com/games/the-swapper
http://facepalmgames.blogspot.com/
I think Jonathan should cover games more. Specially unique indie games like these to inform us of what to keep an eye on. He covered Miegakure once in “Games to watch for” but he never mentioned any other game since then. Since updates on the Witness are like once a month maybe update in between to raise awareness of games and post a “Game to watch for” no?
Thanks for posting this Jonathan – always fascinated to hear your perspectives on game design.
Something you touched on briefly on the podcast was the sheer amount of work and time in front of the computer that goes into getting a game finished – I’m a longtime freelance web developer but first-time game developer, about 9 months into an indy game project – I was wondering, what kind of work habits you keep for yourself – how many hours a day / week, especially in the Braid days when it was more of a solo project?
I’m disciplined and good at managing my time, but kinda struggling to find a balance between keeping active & social & healthy versus devoting myself to the game which would obviously benefit from as much time as I could throw at it. I worry I might be short-shrifting the game, or progressing too slowly on it.
Not looking for anything in depth as I know you’re busy with a lot of things, but let me know if you have any quick pearls of wisdom.
Direct link to interview: http://www.gamespot.com/pages/features/hotspot/index.php?id=2662
Link is dead, someone uploaded to youtube though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGsY9j9VMnQ