Cool bunch of guys!

00:04 Introduction 01:50 What attracted you to game development in the first place? 02:30 (1977) Atari 2600 game console 03:22 (1981) _Scramble_ arcade game 03:40 (1982) Commodore 64 home computer [C64] 04:12 (1982) BASIC programming on the C64 04:15 (1984) SuperBASIC 04:19 (1981) _Tempest_ arcade game 05:12 (1982) Assembly language on the C64 05:34 Parsons School of Design in New York City 06:08 (2012) Occulus Rift virtual reality headset 07:10 "Programming a computer is just a beautiful, amazing experience." -- Chris 07:15 Can you give a status report on your upcoming games, _The_ _Witness_ and _SpyParty_ ? 09:40 [Jon demos _The_ _Witness_ on an iPad using iOS.] 13:03 [Chris mentions that _SpyParty_ is currently in closed beta.] 15:09 [Chris' analogies for handling a closed beta (club invite) versus an open beta (opening a restaurant).] 16:23 Zynga game studio 16:28 John Cimino, game artist and animator 17:45 Are we still in the golden age of indie games (in 2013)? 24:08 [Snack break] 25:13 Jamie Cheng, designer at Klei Entertainment 26:15 What are you feelings about some platform holders becoming more open to indie games? 27:50 Gabe Newell, president & co-founder of Valve 28:39 Steam Greenlight by Valve -- superseded in June 2017 by Steam Direct 30:00 "...it is a great time to be an indie game developer, if you can do it where you have the control..." -- Chris 30:20 What does Chris Hecker's wordless "Fair Use" rant at GDC 2013 mean? 37:49 [Chris and Jon on play-testing.] 40:25 [Chris on Clint Hocking's GDC 2008 talk.] 41:05 How important is it for you as game designers to convey the intended meaning to players? 44:22 (1973) _Gravity's_ _Rainbow_ novel by Thomas Pynchon 46:37 (1988) _Ulysses_ _Annotated_ book by Don Gifford & Robert J. Seidman 46:37 (1922) _Ulysses_ novel by James Joyce 47:42 (1971) "Aqualung" song by Jethro Tull 47:57 (2004) _Gilead_ novel by Marilynne Robinson 49:09 (2013) _Upstream_ _Color_ film, directed by Shane Carruth 49:20 (2004) _Primer_ film, directed by Shane Carruth 50:15 (2012) _Thirty_ _Flights_ _of_ _Loving_ 1st-person adventure indie game by Blendo Games 50:19 (2016) _Quadrilateral_ _Cowboy_ 1st-person puzzle indie game, designed by Brendon Chung 51:25 (1968) _2001:_ _A_ _Space_ _Odyssey_ film, directed by Stanley Kubrick 51:57 (2001) _Mulholland_ _Drive_ film, written & directed by David Lynch 52:02 (1942) _Casablanca_ film, directed by Michael Curtiz 52:40 Do you think about the emotions and narratives you want to convey when designing your games? 58:30 [Chris on Maxis' philosophy that the game is not fun until it's tuned at the very end of development.] 1:00:30 (2013) _Incredipede_ puzzle-platform indie game, designed by Colin Northway 1:01:05 (2012) _Faster_ _Than_ _Light_ real-time strategy indie game by Subset Games Audience Q&A 1:01:45 Jon, can you compare & contrast your design experience with _Braid_ versus _The_ _Witness_ ? 1:14:58 What are some of your favorite games? 1:15:06 (2013) _Starseed_ _Pilgrim_ puzzle-platform indie game by droqen 1:18:09 "Game design has advanced as a discipline, and that's a good thing." -- Chris Hecker 1:18:15 How do you manage all of the design elements during development without losing sight of the game's core ideas? 1:21:20 Why are game developers not seemingly interested in building games that involve interactions between normal people? 1:24:50 Do you play any non-digital games? And if so, how do they affect your thoughts on video games? 1:31:15 Have you ever started work on an great idea for video game but later realize that a video game is an unsuitable medium for this idea? 1:41:20 Wrap up

01:04 What was run up like to the launch of The Witness? 02:32 How are you handling game support post-launch? 05:05 How did The Witness' launch (in 2016) compare to Braid's launch (in 2008)? 08:25 You haven't addressed the polarizing reactions to The Witness the same way as with Braid. 16:10 Does it become difficult to notice key gameplay elements (e.g. surprises) when developing the game for so many years? 18:35 Have you done any traditional marketing (e.g. buying ads) to achieve success for The Witness? 21:30 Do you attribute your celebrity to the success of the The Witness? 25:00 Taylor Clark, "The Most Dangerous Gamer", _The_ _Atlantic_ , May 2012 issue. 26:45 With the success of the The Witness, no one can now say that Braid was a fluke. 27:20 Have you thought much about your status as a success game developer? 30:43 How do you pick the platforms to ship on? 33:28 Are you concerned about piracy of The Witness? 39:10 What was the motivation to publish the blog article about The Witness' sales information? 42:06 Due to collaboration, how much did you have to abandon elements in The Witness? 47:55 (Do you need some more water?) 48:28 Have you thought about future projects yet? 50:12 How do you feel about the game industry these days? 56:35 How do you think indie game funding (like IndieFund) will develop in the future? Audience Q&A 59:40 Do you think The Witness truly needed seven years of development? 1:00:05 Joel Spolsky, "Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To It", Article, July 2001. 1:00:18 (2008) _Spore_ , AAA game by Maxis 1:01:20 (2011) _Rage_ , AAA game by id Software 1:01:28 (2011) _Duke_ _Nukem_ _Forever_ , AAA game by 3D Realms 1:03:40 (2011) "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" documentary film 1:05:05 What's your least favorite game genre, and what game mechanic would you add to make that genre better? 1:08:25 How far into The Witness' development did the transition from growing to refining the game occur? 1:11:45 What motivates the lore/story behind Braid and The Witness? 1:14:40 Have you seen anyone completing a puzzle in an unexpected way in The Witness? 1:17:05 (2008) _Spelunky_ , indie game by Derek Yu

He was totally willing to take more questions. Wish it went on longer.

Tip for the interviewer: get out of the habit of starting every sentence with "umm".

Naik si vienes por Alex :v

To the person who asked the last question: the streamer Day9 managed to solve the polyomino puzzles in the town hub area before he came across the tutorial in the colour marsh.

Thank you guys for making and sharing this conversation!

53:45

gotta go fast

I always learn or reaffirm how I want to be and make games from Jonathan Blow.

Great Interview

Loved the interview. Didn't like The Witness so much because I was looking for more story and because I'm too stupid for this kind of puzzles. I was stuck on a puzzle close the end for FEW DAYS and I've looked up the solutions to the rest of the game on KZbin. But I'm still a big fan of Blow and now I'm excited for his next game! The story driven one. I'm really curious to see the story he came up with.

Great interview. I really enjoyed The Witness. Played through it multiple times. Such a tremendous piece of art. I´m so glad it exists.

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I've paper prototyped key concepts or design philosophies but there's only so far that will take you. Luckily I'm doing an RPG so I can go to the tabletop to work out other stuff as well but the prototype has been so vital in working out what's ready and working.

Bad quality is unfortunate but nonetheless, THANK THEE!

It's a boardgame called Go. Just google Go boardgame and you'll find it.

I'm pretty sure this the video they're talking about at 32:00 /watch?v=kXnoW2SvQrQ

"Starseed Pilgrim" That was really great - a good variety of topics that was interesting even if you've heard these guys speak before. I've heard Jonathan Blow talk previously about him creating games to describe things that can't be 'vocalised' clearly other than through playing, but I got a lot more from that thought this time round. It made me want to dig more into stuff drom various media where you never understand everything and uncover new depth each time.

What's the name of the game at 1:15:00?

Hey, Jon. I got a lot of respect for you and I loved your talk. I did come off of it with a question though. How do you communicate to the other members of your team what your game is without being able to play the game? The game is being built so there is no 'moon' to point at.

At 30:30 Jonathan and Chris demonstrate lack of ability they speak about at 37:20. That is, the last clip in Fair Use rant doesn't make any sense for anyone who hasn't watched that particular conference and thus doesn't know it's about some damn game. The name of the rant makes no sense at all either.

You should've seen him when he was a younger man. He's still quite the handsome man!

i did not know jonathan had hair :D

You don't paper prototype the whole game, you prototype aspects of the game. If you're just trying to figure out how the shapes in tetris come together and how hard it is(mathematically, that it without timepressure) to close a whole in your structure, then paper prototyping is the way to go.

Thank you so much for sharing!

Great stuff, entertaining and informative.