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For Jonathan Blow, a puzzle is never just a puzzle: it is a communication from the designer to the player about the game world. In this episode, I share the philosophy and design process from the minds behind Braid and The Witness.

Learn more about Blow's philosophy:

IndieCade: /"Jonathan Blow and Marc Ten Bosch – Designing to Reveal the Nature of the Universe/"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?vOGSeLSmOALU

IndieCade: /"Jonathan Blow, Marc Ten Bosch & Droqen – Empuzzlement/"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?vUl_ZfzfHRek

Shivmoo: /"Game City Jonathan Blow Braid Talk/"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?vgwsi7TEQxKc&featureyoutu.be

A LABYRINTH: /"Berlin 2014 – Masterclass with Jonathan Blow/"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v3LDJt9zS8ko

Gamasutra: /"Jonathan Blow: The Path of the Braid/"
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132180/jonathan_blow_the_path_to_braid.php

Gamasutra: /"The witness: modeling the epiphany/"
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/218953/The_Witness_Modeling_epiphany.php

GrabItMagazine: /"How to design deep games with Jonathan Blow/"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?vd0m0jIzJfiQ&featureyoutu.be

GameSpot: /"Breakroom Interviews: Jonathan Blow/"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v6OV2rYM6mRo&featureyoutu.be

GDC Vault: /"Jonathan Blow – The Truth in Game Design/"
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014982/Truth-in-Game

Games featured in this episode (in order of appearance):

Braid (Number None, 2008)
The Witness (Thekla, Inc, 2016)
Oracle Billiards (Jonathan Blow, unpublished)
Galstaff (Jonathan Blow, unpublished)

Music used in this episode:

Greenhouse (The Exchanger, Carlo Castellano)
Adventure (Fez, Disaster)
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 – 'Independent prototyping, braiding and creation of innovative games'/"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?vp4903fcskqY

JustJack: /"Oracle Pool Game/"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?vkKl8CM1Cft4

TV days: /"IDEAL TOYS RUBIKS CUBE 1980/"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?vAxU7e0qHk4o

Contribute to translated subtitles – https://amara.org/v/C3BFd/

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