TIGSource: The State of Jon Blow

The State of Jon Blow

Derek Yu — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:28:00 +0000

Jonathan Blow has a couple of new lectures up, available for download in mp3 format. They come with the power points he used during the talks.

The first one is from a lecture he gave at Game Focus Germany on January 24th. In it, he talks about design and production, and why he develops games as an indie. Really insightful look into independent game dev. Also some very sobering realities. 3-year games? Bug reports from Microsoft with hundreds of entries?

The second lecture was given at the Nordic Game Jam in Copenhagen on February 1st. I haven’t listened to this one yet, but the focus, I believe, is more on the actual physical labor of creating a game – namely, “design, programming, and art.” (EDIT: Apparently it isn’t like that at all.)

The hardest part of listening to the first lecture was hearing Jon play Braid but not being able to see or play it myself! But if you’re wondering how it’s looking, check out this post which has a bunch of HUGE screens. Props to the artist, David Hellman! Looks fantastic.

Jon is also running an interesting-sounding session at GDC next week, called “Nuances of Design.”

(Valentine’s Card Image Source: Marzy Blahs)

"The State of Jon Blow" by Zombie Smasher

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:08:00 +0000

Next up: Ninjas.

"The State of Jon Blow" by toastie

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:38:52 +0000

Hahaha. Zombie blog posters love Jon Blow.

"The State of Jon Blow" by GirlFlash

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 04:50:34 +0000

<3 Jon Blow

"The State of Jon Blow" by Lez

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:58:37 +0000

Thanks for the heads up!

"The State of Jon Blow" by xerus

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:24:50 +0000

Oh my.

Is that valentine card available in print?…

"The State of Jon Blow" by pkt-zer0

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:02:31 +0000

what

WHAT

What’s up with that image. Seriously.

Anyway, I think you should be able to find some other (old-ish) lecture which has actual gameplay footage of an older version of Braid. Worth doing, too, rewinding the whole world looks mighty nice.

The lecture given at Nordic Game Jam is actually the opposite of what you described it as. :P Deals with game design on a higher, more abstract level, and how those translate into design/art/programming in the end. Well, that’s what I got from it, anyway.