Level Atlas

Near miss

Jonathan Blowdraft

Designer of Braid and The Witness. Blow treats a rule set as something to interrogate, and builds puzzles from what it answers rather than from what he wanted to say.

Born
1971
Nationality
American
Active
2005 to present
Studios
Number None, Thekla

Why it matters

Blow misses the ten because two games and one method are a narrow base, but the method is a genuine addition to how puzzle designers work, and Braid opened the door the indie decade walked through.

Lessons

  1. 01 · systems

    Ask the system questions instead of dictating answers

    Blow's 2011 talk argues that a game's rules already contain truths the designer did not put there, and that the job is to ask the system what happens, what if time runs backwards, then curate the answers rather than force a preconceived design onto them. Braid's puzzles and The Witness's panels are what the systems said when asked. It is a method for finding content rather than inventing it.

Known for

  • Braid2008 · designer
  • The Witness2016 · designer

Levels in the atlas (0)

Derived from level entries, not maintained here.

No level entries credit this designer yet.

Sources