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JONATHAN BLOW: It was very clearly the case that more ideas came out of the development process,

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and ended up in the final game, than I put into it as a designer.

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The process of designing the gameplay for
this game was more like discovering things

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that already exist than it was like creating
something new and arbitrary.

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And another way to say that is that there
was an extent to which

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this game designed itself

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This is Game Maker's Toolkit, I'm Mark Brown.

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That was Jonathan Blow talking about the rewindable
platformer Braid at the Game Developer's Conference

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in 2011.

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What Blow's describing here is a philosophy
of game design that he used when making both

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Braid and The Witness where rules and puzzles
were discovered through programming and play-testing,

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rather than designed through the implementation
of some preconceived idea.

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So with the Mario-like platformer Braid, he
started with a mechanic - the ability to turn

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back time by a practically unlimited amount.

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In the process of coding that, new ideas emerged.
If he was rewinding the position of everything

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in the world, he could choose to not do that
for certain objects, and thus make them immune

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to your ability to manipulate time. A rule was born.

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After implementing these new rules, Blow could
play the game and look for consequences that

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he perhaps did not foresee. Like how if a
moving platform was immune to time travel,

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the hero could rewind to a point where the
platform is no beneath his feet, and would fall

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down as soon as he stops manipulating time.

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That's kinda cool.

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So each puzzle became an illustration of one
of those phenomena, so that by solving it,

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the player would stumble upon that interesting
fact about Braid's unique universe - the same

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fact that Blow himself discovered while programming
the game.

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A similar process was used in The Witness,
where Blow made rules and puzzles by exploring

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the mechanic of drawing lines on a grid. Play
testing this showed Blow that he was often

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partitioning grid cells - perhaps that could
become a rule?

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Which leads to situations like this. This
puzzle is pretty easy to solve: you just loop

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around here and you're away. The next puzzle
looks identical but you'll notice that the exit

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has moved. Now, using that same solution will cut
off your access to the exit. So you have to

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solve it like this.

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Here, the mechanic of drawing a line inspired
a rule about partitioning cells which had

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the consequence of cutting off your exit,
which led to a puzzle illustrating this fact.

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Describing the invention of this puzzle type
at IndieCade in 2011, Blow said...

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JONATHAN BLOW: That came from asking these little known questions.

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It didn't come from a top-down imposition 'I want to make a puzzle type that... blah'

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Rather, it came from this very simple process of exploration very early in development.

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While Blow may have largely abdicated the
duty of designing puzzles to, I dunno, the

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universe, he still has some important roles
to play.

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First, is making sure the ramifications of
each change are explored to the fullest. In

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The Witness, Blow asked how every part of
the game could be twisted, and that includes

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the grid, the cells, the line, the environment, and the panel.

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And in Braid, you'll notice that the consequences
of each rule change are explored by every

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object in the game.

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In the world where objects can be immune to rewind,
for example, there are puzzles where enemies,

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keys, doors, clouds, platforms, and even the
player character have this property.

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Blow's second job is to present the resulting puzzles
in a way that will give the player the best

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possible set-up to discover the interesting
fact at the heart of the conundrum.

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For example, he frequently uses misdirection
to lull you into making a seemingly obvious

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move - only to show you that this is not correct.
In the Braid puzzle "Hunt", you're told to

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kill all the monsters but they're set up in
a way that if you kill them in the most obvious

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sequence, you're unable to solve the puzzle.

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Misdirection like this stops the player from brute-forcing
the puzzle and failing to grasp the interesting

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fact. And showing the player why something
doesn't work is often part of that fundamental

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truth that Blow is illustrating in each puzzle.

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The designer also uses sequences, pairings
and reprisals. If you come across a simple

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puzzle - like this one about trying to unlock
two doors with one key - you'll likely come

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across a more substantial version in the same
area.

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And by using familiar layouts in different
worlds, with different rules, you can see

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how the consequences have changed. This level
is essentially repeated in Worlds 2 and 4,

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but the way time works in each means the solution
is unique.

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Jonathan Blow also subverts the rules you're
used to. In the level Irreversible, you have

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to realise that you must not use your rewind
powers. And throws in traps, to catch out

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those who aren't thinking hard enough. In
this level, the wacky way that time works means

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only one of these gates can be opened...

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Blow's final job is to be ruthlessly curatorial,
and edit out mechanics, rules, and puzzles

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that lack a sense of surprise, or overlap
with each other, or fail to say anything interesting.

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Both Braid and The Witness were spin-offs
of games that were shelved because their main

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mechanics didn't present a rich enough space
to explore. And Blow killed off rules, like

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Braid's weird turn-based world, because their
consequences weren't surprising, or the rules

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felt contrived.

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But where Jonathan Blow will differ from other
designers is that he deliberately left stuff

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in, even if it wasn't fun - simply because
it was interesting or would make the game

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feel incomplete to remove it.

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Like this super weird puzzle where a key can
bumble along on its own. It is, after all,

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a surprising and interesting consequence of
this game's universe.

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Because for Jonathan Blow, a puzzle is never
just a puzzle. It's a communication of an

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idea from the designer to the player. And
solving the puzzle is the player's way of

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saying "I understand".

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And I think "I understand" is a significantly
different concept to "I finally figured it

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out", which is how many puzzle games operate with
their arbitrary steps and intricate sequences

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and red herrings and obtuse mechanisms.

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But the puzzles in Blow's games feel more
fair. And that's why this design philosophy

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isn't just about letting the design help direct
you to the next rule or the next puzzle - it's also

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about helping you make better, and more honest puzzles.

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Braid and The Witness introduce all the elements
upfront and teach their mechanics quickly

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with introductory puzzles - from there the
harder puzzles are only about understanding

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the consequences of those known mechanics
in different set-ups, combinations, and layouts.

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And the puzzles can be blisteringly simple.
Most are about exploring just one idea and

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the stages are small enough so you can consider
all the moving parts at once. And there are

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no, or very few, red herrings, and also few
arbitrary steps to finish. Once you've found

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the solution, it's relatively effortless to
execute it.

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So solving a puzzle in this game isn't like
solving a Rubik's cube or trying to guess

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at the answer to a riddle. It's simply seeing
something that was there all along. The answer

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was right in front of your eyes, if only you
knew the right way to look at the world.

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Kinda like those hidden puzzles in The Witness.

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So that "a-ha!" moment you get when solving
a puzzle isn't about finally putting together

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all the pieces or finally understanding what
the hell the designer was asking you to do,

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but it feels like you just saw the world a
bit more clearly.

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As Jonathan Blow told Gamasutra, "the more
that a puzzle is about something real and

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something specific, and the less it's about
some arbitrary challenge, the more meaningful

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that epiphany is".

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Thanks for watching!

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One of my goals with GMT is to pass on the
philosophies of the best game designers around

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so you can use their ideas in your own games.

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If you're interested, I've put loads of links
in the description where Jonathan Blow talks

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more about the process.

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And it's not just for puzzles games - Blow
reckons that this process of letting the design

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dictate the rules and mechanics could be used
in other genres, too.

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As always if you liked the show you can leave
a comment, give me a thumbs up, subscribe

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on YouTube, or even support the show financially
on Patreon like these endlessly awesome gold

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tier supporters...