A List Dedicated To Jonathan Blow
Jonathan Blow has commercially released two games, Braid (2008) and The Witness (2016) and yet he has established himself as a sort of Indie game legend. He has never shied away from sharing his opinions on a vast assortment of video game related topics (some of which we explore in this post). With the recent release of The Witness on Xbox One, we thought it would be fun to take a closer look at the man behind the game. And, considering his success, these five points may be worth adopting for developers both new and old, Indie or non-Indie.
Lending a Helping Hand
Jonathan Blow is one of approximately 25 Indie developers who invest in other Indie developers through Indie Fund (indie-fund.com). The purpose of Indie Fund is to provide financial support to new indie developers. In an industry that is drowning in the sheer volume of Indie games, the fact that these developers would contribute their own money to help other Indie developers is nothing short of encouraging. It’s this push for community that helps the Indie scene thrive.
Take Away: There’s nothing wrong with lending a helping hand to new developers. Whether it be some financial help, helping solve a coding problem or some useful advice over Twitter – no one should be above building this gaming community.
Adult’s Only
No, you’re not going to find excessive violence or sexual content in Jonathan Blow’s games (at least, not yet…), what you will find are games that are meant for a more mature mind that can handle more complex ideas and concepts. Blow explains it best in Vanity Fair: “It’s kind of like if every movie were a porn movie, most people wouldn’t see movies. The majority of games are basically porn—the onus is on us to make more things that are worth a reasonable person’s time.” Of course, that’s not to say there isn’t room for the games we have now, just like there’s always room for some porn. What Blow wants to see is more developers respecting the intelligence of gamers. For example, it’s not always necessary for developers to provide tutorials for absolutely every aspect of a game, sometimes it’s better to just give us the and let us discover and experiment.
Take Away: There is nothing wrong with releasing games that force players to push their minds to new limits. Most of us have some general problem solving skills, let us use them. Don’t always hold our hand!
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“No, you’re not going to find excessive violence or sexual content in Jonathan Blow’s games (at least, not yet…), what you will find are games that are meant for a more mature mind that can handle more complex ideas and concepts.”
Stand Up for Your Ideals
Jonathan Blow has no shortage of strong opinions on a plethora of gaming topics. Our first example is his hate for “Farmville” type games that are labeled free-to-play, but ultimately created to relentless suck the money out of gamers wallets through endless micro-transactions. And despite the rising trend of micro-transactions invading games of all types, he has not bowed. It would have been easy of him to incorporate a pay-for-hint system in a game like The Witness, but that’s not how Blow wants gamers to experience his games. Our second example was Blow’s reaction to the removal of indie game “Super Columbine Massacre RPG!” from the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival. While Blow wasn’t impressed with the game (who was?), he was even less impressed with Slamdance for removing the title from the competition. His response, to remove Braid from the festival. Considering Braid wasn’t even released commercially and Blow was still trying to make a name for himself – this act speaks volumes. He would rather stand up for a competitor’s game, even one he doesn’t particularly like, for what he believes to be a greater good.
Take Away: Stand up for what you believe in, even if you’re standing alone and don’t take any shit from anybody.
Click on through to PAGE 2 for the remaining things the industry can learn from Mr. Blow.