Braid creator developing a new 3D “puzzle-exploration game”

I’m stuck on Braid, bastard puzzler.

Hey, I NEED to be excited about this, as a fan of Fumito Ueda.

Lets go Jonathan.

He probably chased off the majority of good applicants right there with that nonsense.

“He probably chased off the majority of good applicants right there with that nonsense.”

…you *do* know who Jonathan Blow is, right?

The guy doesn’t need to “chase off applicants”.

Do you mean to say he doesn’t get many applicants MO’C?

I’m not 100% sure what you’re implying.

I’m saying that the creative people will flock to him like sheep.

Oh, right. He didn’t want anyone to actually fill the position, he just put that up as a statement on the mainstream, man. He’s beyond working with people that have barbarians or boobs in their portfolios. Those philistines probably never even played a Bubsy game.

His intellectual superiority is deserved. He *is* more creative than them.

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Funnily enough the things he mentioned pretty much the things I don’t like in games and I would add zombies.

Well you realise then Michael, that you’re retort didn’t make sense?

If he doesn’t have to chase them off, it implies he’s not getting that many.

And either way, he’s offering a position no more special than any other indie developer. I expect he’s being relatively optimistic.

Well… it is a little special. He’s one of a few indy developers that has had one of their games sell like hotcakes.

“His intellectual superiority is deserved. He *is* more creative than them.”

And his grasp of irony is apparently rather more advanced than yours

“And his grasp of irony is apparently rather more advanced than yours.”

I was well aware of the intended irony and sarcasm. I also realise his serious point behind it.

And I have no doubt this new game will be just as original, inventive and genre-breaking as Braid was.

Well, just as long as we’re all on the same wavelength

A “3D puzzle manipulation game”, eh? I wonder if it’ll be able to top Portal.

Complete hyperbole Michael. Genre-breaking or genre-redefining are such disgusting terms.

Braid is a platform puzzler. It has a gimmick, which I don’t know about you but I think there was SOMETHING similar in an Ubisoft game, but whatever.

And it’s not even irony; it’s sarcasm. It’d be ironic if he were indirectly referencing all the things he very explicitly mentioned.

And as for it selling well, well thats the only good answer in this thread, thanks Psycho – I didn’t know that.

Sarcasm is aggressive irony, putting things baldly. Sarcastic and ironic statements both turn on the interplay between two contrary meanings, one implicit, the other explicit.

“Complete hyperbole Michael. Genre-breaking or genre-redefining are such disgusting terms.”

I’d have to agree, but on the flipside Braid’s meddling with temporality is an order of magnitude above anything Prince of Persia ever achieved.

Yeah, they do, but irony is not acknowledging the explicit meaning , and sarcasm is playing on the explicit meaning.

I guess I shouldn’t have argued any kind of semantics in the first place, becuase even by the dictionary, they are vague. But I made the distinction, becuase I felt irony is more understated than that sarcastic job listing.

And yeah you are right, it’s totally different, with the manipulation during time-play. But it’s just not as if the idea of time based gameplay mechanics haven’t been touched before. (There’s this browser-based robot game I played the other day).

Anyway, sorry – that’s hardly a concise comment.

I actually thought people wanted to distance themselves from Blow when he made Molyneux look like an average bloke and became the most pretentious and self-righteous developer in the industry. After seeing how bad people can be (Blow), I actually find Mr. Molyneux rather palatable these days.

I really can’t believe his list though, and there were a few which made me twitch…

Aliens: So artsy xenomorphic explorations of possible alien biology aren’t thinky enough for Blow? One only needs to look at deviantART to see what I mean by this, there are some truly beautiful and enchanting pieces there which are 3D and hauntingly alien.

Here are a couple of examples…

http://thomastapir.deviantart.com/art/Triped-Browser-79978693

http://tijil.deviantart.com/art/Thelsic-Salvage-115918030

And what about the creatures of Zeno Clash? That was hardly mainstream, and the combat there was only to provide a method of content through which to disperse the bizarre art.

And Blow would simply cast such talent aside, just because it’s been used in the mainstream?

Space Ships: Once again, this can lead to some breathtaking examples of imagination and unearthly beauty, but once again this is talent he’d cast aside because of some unimaginative mainstream use? This is further proof that the man really needs to pull his head out of his arse.

Here’s an example of that: http://lordstormdragon.deviantart.com/art/Calm-Horizons-OBLIVION-22614291

Giant Robots: Iron Giant, anyone?

What I’m getting at here is that instead of citing the mainstream and giving direct examples of the kinds of people he isn’t looking for, he makes these irritatingly sweeping generalisations about genres which happen to be found in the mainstream, and thus discounts those which might be of the same genre, but not of the mainstream.

My opinion: Aside from having a particularly good analytical mind for math, the man is an idiot and one who hasn’t the first bloody clue about art. He’s a pretentious idiot, yes, but a bloody idiot nonetheless (at least, barring puzzles, which is a given).

I wish people wouldn’t attribute any artistic talent to him, as he has none, and tends to brown nose people that do due to an over-exaggerated sense of both self and status. And don’t tell me that’s untrue unless you’ve ever heard the man open his mouth in a public, filmed interview. The ego flows like wine.

The sad part is that because he’s so good at spinning a line of hollow pretentiousness which looks like art unless anyone bothers to scratch the surface, there will always be those of the masses who’ll flock to him hoping to be special too by association.

I don’t give a damn if I look like a blue-collar slob by denying any association with him, but I do know that I tire of him considering himself better than most the artists out there, and taking clumsily snide shots at truly great art.

After all, thus far he’s made an incredibly mediocre platform puzzle game (I prefer the ancient and not at all pretentious Pushover) with some admittedly decent puzzles.

I feel at this point I need to make a tinfoil hat statement: I’d love to know what mind-control technology this man is using, as it’s obviously better than the ELF transmitters the rest of the World has resigned itself to.

I can’t help but be sarcastic here, I’m sorry. This man has done nothing to earn any form of cult status, but there are millions of unsung, quiet, unassuming artists out there who’ve created truly beautiful works that are.

It seems all you need to be a cultural icon and an amazing artist these days is a big mouth, regardless of any lack of talent.

Maybe I’ll try that… I know my mouth is big enough, why I could probably be the next Blow. So could anyone; Shatner, Pat, PUD, Mike, even GIG.

Well…

“It seems all you need to be a cultural icon and an amazing artist these days is a big mouth, regardless of any lack of talent.”

You know, theres a lot of truth to that, with art in general. It’s unfortunate in some ways, but great in others. And I think for games (being a non-authorial medium) it’s not ideal, for the future. But while games try to maintain scripted narrative, it works just fine.

And I think calling it (You ARE taking about Braid right?) incredibly mediocre is not something I’d not agree with. Now is the time to whip out the ‘hyperbole card’, as you’re opinion is clearly reactionary – coming from the impressions other people have given you.

As a Team ICO fanboy, I have seen the same sentiment expressed on both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus (ridiculously negative), becuase of people like me.

Are we talking about art as a form of game mechanics / story here or art in the visual sense? Because Blow hired a rather talented artist (in my opinion) to do Braid because he’s not an artist himself.

I was talking about art in general…. Not games specifically – in relation to big mouths.

“And don’t tell me that’s untrue unless you’ve ever heard the man open his mouth in a public, filmed interview. The ego flows like wine.”

I heard him on a podcast once and he didn’t seem particularly egotistical, but I bow to your superior knowledge of the man. Agree with you that aliens, tits and so forth aren’t incompatible with truth, beauty, etc (just look at Valve’s output, for fuck’s sake) and that if Blow *is* being more serious than not with that job listing he can suck a big fat one.

On the other hand, and no matter how many unacknowledged works of genius there may be out there – Braid is superb. Blow’s certainly hogging the limelight as an indie, but at least he’s hogging it with some reason