Is Jonathan Blow Gaming's Einstein? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
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- Опубликовано: 14 мар 2016
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‘Braid’ shot straight to the top of the Xbox Live marketplace, and helped to fuel the indie video game trend that continues to grow today. It was created by Jonathan Blow over multiple years, and has been met with fantastic reviews from critics. With his follow-up game ‘The Witness’ on a similar path to success, we began to wonder if Blow may be a modern gaming genius. His games certainly have a distinct style to them, and have proven to be a refreshing approach to video game design. Let us know if you would classify Blow as a video game genius in the comments!
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ASSET LINKS:
0:11 The Relativity Of Happiness
www.returnofkings.com/60574/th...
0:26 Albert Einstein - Photo Gallery
www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prize...
0:26 Jonathan Blow wants The Witness to deliver adventure gameplay that doesn’t suck
venturebeat.com/2014/05/05/ins...
0:38 The Musical Mind of Albert Einstein: Great Physicist, Amateur Violinist and Devotee of Mozart
www.openculture.com/2013/06/th...
0:42 Q&A: “Braid” developer Jonathan Blow discusses indie games
dailybruin.com/2013/02/06/qa-b...
0:45 YOU DECIDE: IS THIS BOTTLE OF JONATHAN BLOW'S PEE REAL?
www.playmust.com/you-decide-is...
0:55 FUNDAMENTALS IN LASER SYSTEMS: LASER RATE EQUATIONS
opticalgain.wordpress.com/201...
0:57 Treating space-time like a fluid may unify physics
www.geek.com/science/treating-...
1:00 Jonathan Blow Is Upset with Piracy of The Witness, Considering Denuvo.
gamesnosh.com/jonathan-blow-is...
1:56 Soulja Boy Provides His Thoughts On Braid
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSXof...
2:34 Spoiler Alert.png
gotascent.wikia.com/wiki/File:...
3:29 File:Archimedes bath.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
3:33 File:EinsteinZeemanEhrenfest.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
3:47 The Eureka Effect: The Art and Logic of Breakthrough Thinking
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""Beautiful Days"" by Extan
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""Good Way Song"" by Electronic Rescue
""Alice y Bob"" by Javier Rubio and Parsec
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""Sleet"" by Kubbi
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""Toaster"" by Kubbi
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""Patriotic Songs of America"" by New York Military Band and the American Quartet
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""Lets Go Back To The Rock"" by Outsider
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""Run"" by Outsider
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""Fame"" by Statue of Diveo
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""Freedom Weekends"" by Statue of Diveo
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Maybe there would be less dislikes, if the titles of the videos wouldn't be so...controversial.
+SashaSexyfur Maybe there would be less views and comments if the titles of these videos weren't so controversial? ;)
+SashaSexyfur This channel loves to put out clickbait once in a while.
+SashaSexyfur This one is the last straw. This channel is nothing but clickbait garbage. I like the host, I like the premise, but the clickbait titles and the substanceless positions are not worth my time. Unsubscribed.
+SashaSexyfur _Fewer_ dislikes. _Less_ negativity.
+fireaza _Fewer_ views. _Less_ viewership.
I'm not sure "The Einstein of gaming" actually makes sense.
"The Charlie Chaplin of gaming" would make sense, "The Oscar Wilde of gaming" would make sense, "The James Joyce of gaming" would make sense (And might just be Tarn Adams - Dwarf Fortress is an impenetrable work outside the norm that according to people who managed to get into it despite that is quite excellent) - innovators and re-inventors within their respective media. "The Einstein of gaming"? Maybe someone in academia who figures out something that revolutionizes the way we analyze how games tick (But even then, that's more likely to be something like... Whoever it was who came up with modern staff notation for music, both in terms of what such a thing would look like and what impact it would have on the field).
exactly
John Carmack is the closest thing to an Einstien of Gaming I can think of.
+Gizensha FoxI'm just agreeing here. He's comparing an artist to a scientist.
Currently he's not as impressive, but his programming skills are amazing and influential as fuck.
+Gizensha Fox Still, please notice that all the people you've mentioned are artists, but puzzle design also includes math and physics, so it is more scientific than pure art and more artistic than pure science.
Don't compare an artist to a scientist. It sells both of them short.
+Snobby Gamer you've never seen arts.cern/ ? don't be so binary about professions, it sells everybody short
I have, and while it's a fun and interesting concept, once the novelty wears off, you quickly realize that it's neither particular greats science or art. Art is personal, it's broad communication, and the value of it, is how it resonates with people. Science is natural, it doesn't care about the people, it's a human effort to systemize nature.
So often you get art that is systemized without the concerns for people, which usually means it doesn't connect with people. And even if it did, it's already established science being used, which means it more like an artistic framework like Dogme 95, rather than a perfect blend of science and art. Science and technology is important to art, it's how we got music, film and video games, but a camera in itself is not art. It's the people.
Jonathan Blow while I can't say I enjoy both his games equally, is very very emotional in his creations. There is so much heart and personality in his creations. He is communicating directly with us.
Einsteins discoveries though groundbreaking in ways words will never fully describe in a justified manner, never was something personal. The applicability of the work itself made it important, but nothing was done in an effort to try and resonate with people on an emotional level.
+Snobby Gamer then what about the artists that double as chemists and engineers and programmers?
Sebastian Ferguson How can that be so hard to differentiate? If they are doing actual research then it stops being art, because the outcome is not something of artistic output (and if it is, it's credits to nature rather than the "creator"). Besides what you're suggesting is practical concrete creation, quite contrary to the theoretical breakthroughs Einstein is credited. And I don't believe people would consider the atomic bomb as a work of art..
If it's a creation of art, then I don't see what the difference is between that and using a camera as a photographer, a proffesion we definitely don't consider being related to scientists. Then it's just merely an artist using their background in engineering or chemistry to create art, rather than scientific work.
Snobby Gamer a chemist who makes a unique shade of blue to paint on his canvas because the color blue was so hard to collect back in the day is most definitely a scientist, but the beautiful paintings he made using that same blue that he invented makes him an artist also.
-Speaking of Yves Klein of course
a video game developer who spends months of waking hours developing a complex system of 3D pixels using nothing but computer code that he and a friend of his coded is 100% a programmer, but the intricate pixelated artworks and puzzles makes him also a very talented artist.
-Speaking of Phil Fish of course.
OR what about all the way back in the renaissance, where the invention of Foreshortening and Perspective as techniques used to give art their incredible realism at the time, created both amazing works of art, but also established the start for modern architectural design.
Don't you mean Miyamoto?
+Violet It actually doesn't matter. It's comparing an artist to a scientist. It's just weird.
+Violet Miyamoto is the Walt Disney of gaming. Thanks to Universal, he'll even have his own theme park in Japan!
I don't see the link for the survey in the description.
What I loved about Braid was that it provided freedom for the player to come back to the puzzle whenever they wanted. I definitely felt the aha moment when I played the game. I really appreciate a game that allows you time to think and come back to the problem. Some of the most creative moments come during break time.
uniqueness is great and Jonathan Blow is unique in every definition! The genius stories and puzzles are always worth getting trapped into! I time I got stuck on a puzzle I stop playing to pace back and forth to ponder on the puzzle. After writing down possible solutions, I got the an moment of genius and solved the puzzle! So yes, I felt like a genius playing braid and the witness. You brought up points that I never thought of about these games and I'm thankful for that!
Jonathan Blow is going to rant about this video in a second...
+Cesar Gerardo Would be kinda deserved.
I think he is one of the greatest minds in games, but he's much more of the Umberto Eco of games than Einstein.
Like Eco, he has created highly palatable and relatable work that inspires its users to think critically about the medium itself. There are countless others exploring the fields of semiotics and hermeneutics, but Eco's The Name of the Rose, like Blow's Braid have acted as a primer to a wide audience.
Jonathan is rad, and his feedback and insight while we made FRACT OSC was super valuable. Braid was a huge inspiration into how games can be made with deeper, more holistic design choices - something I feel the vast majority of games and their designs fail to even TRY to do :(
The concept of rewinding time in games predates Braid by 5 years. It was introduced in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. There may even be a game that predates this.
But if you want a GREAT look at games that play with Space and Time in even more creative ways, go check out Echochrome and Echoshift.
This was an interesting episode on Johnathan Blow as a game designer, I just can't help but think there was a better way of framing the episode. There will inevitably be droves of commenters complaining that you are overselling him or not giving due respect to other game designers.
That said, if we're opening up the channel to character studies, an episode on my favorite Devs, Supergiant Games, would be cool.
Seriously? The guy created a few creative games, but that's it. If you're going that way, someone like Miyamoto would be a better choice. Even them, games are mostly a group effort, no solo geniuses.
Where is the link to the survey? I can't find it in the description
+Christopher McKee same
+Christopher McKee Just added it. Our mistake. Thanks for the heads up Christopher.
+PBS Game/Show the pee bottle is a part of the witness
I will not say more, I refuse
I think we'll have a clearer perspective on how Blow relates to gaming once we see if/how future games build off of his contributions.
People need to recognize that Jonathan Blow is making serious advances in the arts *and* sciences of game development. Look into the new game programming language he's writing called Jai. Few programmers understand all levels of computing to the degree that he does...everything from high level programming to the humming of memory allocation. That is precisely *why* he was able to code a game with infinite rewinding back in 2005 when many coders cant even do it now (although knowledge on that very complex subject has slowly spread since then, and a drastic increase in power has made it easier).
His programming speeches are just as vital as his design speeches. It would be accurate to compare him to any truly great scientist *or* truly great artist, because he is both.
Greatest mind in modern games certainly seems fair, but in all of games, I have trouble believing anyone could surpass Shigeru Miyamoto.
There were early polygon games that ran on raster monitors as well. The 1984 game Elite, for instance. The 1988 game Linewars is another. There's also the old subLogic Flight Simulator game that was eventually bought by Microsoft that was doing rasterized vector graphics in 79.
Now before watching this: I love Jonathan Blow. But he's an artist, not a scientist.
He didn't pee in a bottle while making the witness, he *SPOILER* made a fake catheter and used it in the final secret cutscene.
To quote old man Yahtzee Croshaw: The short answer is NO. The long answer is NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I'm going to say no, Jonathan Blow is not gaming's Einstein, because people actually know Einstein's name.
I think the comments sum to this: Blow is genuinely a innovative game designer whose work should be praised, and your explanations this are deserved. But on the other hand, there's really no competition between innovative game mechanics and innovative physics, and the comparison either inflates or deflates the value of games to Einstein's accomplishments or vice versa and there could have been a better artistic foil. Sorry for the criticism but your content is at the point where we feel it's necessary
Wouldn't say that he's the Einstein of gaming, at least not for the reasons that you listed. One thing that you forgot to mention was that they both emerged out of failure in their respective fields. Einstein's work that got him famous wasn't done in the academic world. It was achieved while he was working as civil servant as a patent clerk. Until Braid, much of Blow's career was shaped by closures, denials, and failures. They both still worked toward some remarkable things in their respective fields as well that challenged many of the ways that we think about science and/or games.
Since we're handing out titles like trick-or-treat candy, I call dibs on being "Gaming's St. Thomas Aquinas" and "Gaming's Joseph Campbell". This is fun! #CrazyTalk
Yes, Jonathan Blow as well as Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo are "Einstein's" of gaming. This is not to say that they are super smart, though I'm sure they are, but that they study the theory of what makes games fun. Their theories are proven correct when their games come up and they are massively successful. Einstein did not often give answers to questions but gave theories to the answers of questions in a very well thought out an articulated manner. It's much easier to test these theories in games, because you can just well; make the game based off of the theory. This is identical to what Blow did with the game design of Braid, and the same goes with Miyamoto's design of Super Mario, and Zelda.
Wish I still owned my Vectrex, it was a thing of beauty. "OH NO SPIKE! OH NO MOLLY!"
There's the One Guy who made Mario, DK, Zelda, Pikmin, F Zero, Pilotwings, and was involved with Pokemon.
There's the guy who made Sonic, Nights, Hang On, Space Harrier, Afterburner, Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter, and Shenmue.
There's the guy who made Final Fantasy 1 - 5, Parasite Eve, and Kingdom Hearts, and had a large stake in making pretty much every successful Square game.
There's the guy who made Tetris and changed puzzle games forever.
Over in this side of the pond we have the Sims guy, the Father of Videogames guy, and we have the woman who made King's Quest.
There's the Flower / Journey guy.
And, of course, who can forget the Minecraft dude.
All of those people have been far more influential than Mr. Blow.
There are only two people who could be considered gaming's most influential person, Shigeru Miyamoto for obvious reasons, and Notch for changing the gaming landscape with Minecraft. Jonathan Blow, just like Phil Fish, Tim Schafer, Adrian VanishingofEthanCarterDude, Ken Lavine, Mark Kern, and other well known game designers are Third Tier. On the top tier, you have people who have changed gaming as a whole (Shigeru, Notch), on the second tier you have people who have created or changed genres (Suzuki, Williams), and on the third tier you have those who did something cool within a genre but didn't fundamentally change it (Blow, Fish).
That doesn't mean that they're irrelevant or that their games sucked. Blow's games are great and I always hold them up as examples of what small groups or individuals can do. However, Blow didn't create gaming's equivalent of relativity. At best, he reclassified Pluto as not a planet.
I wouldn't put Notch in the same category as Miyamoto. One could argue that he created a new genre of gaming, but there's nothing fundamentally new about Minecraft. He just took the idea of a sandbox game, took it to its logical conclusion, and made it accessible and popular. He's the equivalent of a one-hit-wonder whereas Miyamoto has produced many hit games, spawned franchises, and created many beloved characters. Notch made the creeper.
Also, you changed the criteria from the video of "Gaming's Einstein" to "Most Influential Person". I don't think that's entirely fair. Einstein's theories were nothing short of revolutionary and made scientists redefine what they knew about the nature of the universe. Everything had to be reinterpreted after Einstein's theories were demonstrably proven correct.
That hasn't happened in video games. Gaming tends to improve procedurally rather than in ground-breaking, this-changes-everything kinds of ways. So I would argue that there has never been a "Gaming Einstein". But there have been many influential people. And I agree there have been many who were more influential than Jonathan Blow. In the Puzzle genre I think Mr. Blow may very well be the king but not in gaming overall.
This needs to be at the top for being comparatively even-handed.
"Reclassifying Pluto" may even be too much credit. Blow is a vocal agitator (not in a necessarily negative sense) within a specific audience and specific ideas, and gets a lot of people to listen to him at GDCs. But he has yet to clearly do something with a significant impact on how the public at large sees gaming or what they expect from games, how they play, or what kind of games get made - though he talks about these things.
I do think he's had some influence on puzzle games - I think of a few designers who cite him - but it could also just be in the middle of a trend in the genre.
I'd like to nominate Jane McGonigal for the title, or at least for some sort of recognition for her work. She doesn't design video games per se, but rather as she calls them "alternate reality games", which could be argued to have had the greatest real-world impact.
3:22 gave me a new idea to solve a puzzle in The Witness. Thanks!
no, and I think the best is yet to come, however he is a close runner up.
I usually see people credit Notch for the surge of Indie games with the indie release and success of Minecraft.
+Mine Legend (“Shadow”) I would credit Notch for the surge of Voxel based sandbox games but not for the whole indy scene.
+Mine “Shadow” Legend Minecraft made the indie gaming scene the behemoth it is today, but Blow made it a mainstream thing we could all appreciate.
What where the results of the survey?
The Vectrex was awesome, it pretty much introduced me to gaming. I can't even begin to tell you how many I hours I spent with Mine Storm and Scramble.
I still have mine. that thing is a beast. way more fluid and detailed than its competitors, but the B/W display brings it down. My dad choose it because it wouldn't take up the TV.
andrew pappas
That's why they had those awesome, colored panels you put over the screen. It made everything color, or at least one color!
Given the meta nature of his games... maybe the Charlie Kaufman of games? (I think the "secret" ending of The Witness is what specifically triggered this comparison lol)
IMO this video is an insult to Einstein.
+ReM4rk You people put him on too much of a pedestal. Einstein was a human. A very smart human, but not lightyears above others. And in a few areas, he was clearly not very smart at all.
And Jonathan Blow is worst on all the point compared to Einstein.
+Larry Psuedonym Are you secretly blow? Because like comparing him to Einstein is like comparing some teenage internet activist to the equivalent of Martin Luthier King Jr.
+Robb_Stark No, I'm not blow. And I'm not even saying Blow is that great. I really liked braid, but I don't think Blow's work will define this century of video games like Einstein's did for science. I'm just saying that einstein isn't some sacred figure, whose intelligence is outside the reach of mere mortals. What einstein did isn't magic, and maybe if people stopped thinking like it was, they could do it too.
+Larry Psuedonym It was a joke ;) But there have and are people as smart as Einstein. Of course there can be people like him or even smarter like Hawking but it's again abit of a jump to say he's a equivalent is my point.
I adore The Witness, but this question doesn't make any sense. Video games are interactive entertainment media and art. Science is not entertainment or art. Einstein was a scientific genius but wasn't known for being creative in the way one associates with making art.
+internisus yeah, agreed. I hold a high opinion of Jonathan, but questions like this are trying to compare apples and oranges. Idk man...
There's an interesting part of The Witness that talks about the comparison of art and science, and it's funny to watch this after that.
Imo, these video ideas are feeling uninspired lately. Straw-grasping click-baity mush. I vote quality over quantity/schedule, Jamin.
I'm a Jonathan Blow's fan, but no. No way. Blow has some truly revolutionary ideas, and he's certainly one of the great minds of gaming right now, but nothing he did could even come close to compare to the Theory of Relativity and how it changed our perception of the world. It's absurd. But I'm eager to see what Blow is yet to show us.
Maybe it's because I'm a Myst series alumni, but the puzzles in The Witness weren't particularly revelatory. If I didn't understand a puzzle I wandered until I found the tutorial for that type of puzzle, then went back and solved it. In general the puzzles were easy once you understood the mechanics. The world/story wasn't as meaningful as Braid either, it was more a meta analysis of what it means to create using the creation of lines following certain constrictions and environments as metaphor. I would read that as an essay, but as a game it was kind of meh.
The hell!? Jono's a good game designer, not the frickin EINSTEIN of games! Indie games became popular because the playing field change and indie devs could sell their games easier to large markets, not because a single supposedly amazing indie game.
Is PBS Game/Show the Einstein of hyperbole?
I like the way Jonathan Blow thinks, but I think Einstein might be a bit of a stretch as a comparison. As much as I love The Witness, I don't think it's going to lead to a revolution in game design. Maybe in the puzzle genre, but I don't think COD is going to be taking much from it. I don't get the impression a lot of people appreciate being made to think that hard in their games. I think his ideas will continue to be niche.
I had no idea there was a single guy behind all of these games.
TheJaredtheJaredlong Not with the Witness
You glasses may not have lenses... but that doesn't stop your eyes from sparkling!
Bad comparison, I think a deeper exploration of Blow's design ideals could have been made, since he certainly is a forerunner in making games that aim to move gaming forward. Or you could have talked about his views that a lot of modern games typically seen on mobile platforms are inherently evil.
Anyway, I appreciate the video, but is Jonathan Blow at all comparable to Einstein? No.
Will he go down as one of our times greatest game makers? Probably.
With all due respect to Jon Blow, I felt this was condescending to game developers as a whole. Lately I'm getting tired of game enthusiasts worshiping their idols. I've seen it with Kojima, Miyamoto and even David Cage. With the exception of Blow (credit to him), let's also not forget that game development is a collaborative process.
This is a great, great channel!
I had no idea who Jonathan Blow was. I did, however, know who Einstein was. Everyone knows who Einstein is, and I don't think this is a fair comparison. Not by a long shot.
+Crispy Bacon At this point, Jonathan Blow might be the most well known indie game developer of all time, so in that sense it's fairly accurate.
Jeffery Wells. *Cough* Markus Persson *COUGH*
Jeffery Wells Creator of minecraft. The biggest, most successful and well-known indie game of all time.
Crispy Bacon Still doesn't mean I know who the hell he is. Einstein isn't the most brilliant man in history, in fact, the list of people alive today who rate a higher IQ than he did is not small. Nor is he the most influential genius in history. Newton easily takes that prize, with Darwin a close second, and while Relativity is amazing and important, for actual influence on the world I doubt it cracks the top 10 important theories, as its primary practical influence has been to inform other theories. However, Einstein is still the most popular genius in history.
So to say Jonathan Blow is the most popular indie developer in video games is not to say he's the smartest, or the most influential, or the most successful. It's simply that more people know who he is and like his ideas than any other indie developer.
Jeffery Wells "Still doesn't mean I know who the hell he is." You've likely heard of Minecraft, at the very least.
"Nor is he the most influential genius in history" "Relativity is amazing and important, for actual influence on the world I doubt it cracks the top 10 important theories" Yeah, it's only the all-encompassing theory of *everything*, it's not like he defined modern physics as we know it or anything...
"It's simply that more people know who he is and like his ideas than any other indie developer." Marcus "Notch" Persson and Minecraft have a much wider influence than Blow and Braid. Then again, Markus has only made one game. One giant, extremely successful game sold for $2 Billion.
I could perhaps think of Minecraft or Mario 64 as these are games which opened up and have set the ways for games to be played in not just their genre but others. What Blow did was simply add a few elements into a game that were not unique, he made a good game yes but seminal not at all.
I think the advancement of the indie field was not due to one individual or game but is the result of technology like digital downloads (steam etc) and a large increase in the number of consumers and producers of video game content.
Einstein was more of a theorist. I don't see anyone being gaming's Einstein today, but it would be someone more like Jesse Schell.
Super silly comparison aside (it's a shame to declare one ultra-hyped guy the smartest most bestest game designer out there while folks like Michael Brough and Increpare linger in obscurity), I'm pretty sure Blow has said that he's explicitly not into that idea of ingratiating puzzles designed to make the player feel smart.
All I had to do was google 'Jonathan Blow "Feel Smart"' to find this quote from the guy: “When you say something’s supposed to make you feel smart, you sort of discard the reality of what’s happening, like the specific ideas. It almost says, Well, there isn’t any merit to those specific ideas, and there aren’t any ideas that are better or worse, it’s just whether you feel smart or not understanding those ideas. I think that’s actually a little bit of a nihilistic view- it’s not the way that I think about things.” It's a pretty smart quote, maybe he really is Einstein
We could also look at the first image in this article: kotaku.com/five-years-ago-jonathan-blow-knew-just-what-the-witnes-1755777462
never heard of blow and never liked braid, and i dont know what are his other games. he basically completly unknown to me.
I was waiting for you to talk about the witness
I would say this title belongs to John Carmack if anyone.
John carmack is my pick for Gaming's Einstein, and if he's not that, then maybe Newton Gaming.
The Witness wasn't interesting enough for me to finish it. I got through about four of the areas before I got bored waiting for something to happen.
Contrast that to Myst, which kept things engaging every step of the way with bits of story.
I could totally make this video.
Its true that games are a bit stagnant, but just because they have room to be pushed and moved along in a grand way, doesn't mean we can apply the same idea of growth to games as we did to science back in Einstein's game. I feel like games are too different, despite how steeped they are in science. game design is new and growing, it will not grow in the same manner as science did I feel. I doesn't just branch outward learning new things like science, it sorta twists around and overwrites itself not with corrections but with just perspective of the time and so many other worldly trends. Jonathan Blow is a fantastic designer and we need more like him. But game design as a whole will likely just sorta... squish around (sure expanding , but not in the same fashion science tends to).
I don't really know what I'm saying do I
If your comparison was based on the idea that Jonathan Blow makes people feel smart, I think there would be a lot of other better comparisons out there. Einstein's work does not, as anyone who took an intro to General Relativity would tell you, make you feel any smarter than you did. Blow did recontextualize a lot of what we have already seen, which you could argue is similar to what Einstein did. But the latter was working on science and problems that spanned hundreds of years. Not tropes invented in the past 25.
I love Jonathan's Blow's games and commentary and he did a lot for the visibility of independent developers, and he might very well be one of the most important designers currently active. But no one yet in this space can be compared the impact that Einstein had on Physics. We'll have to see if Blow gets jaded about how game design changes in the next 15 years to see if your comparison gains any validity.
You should cover Fumito Ueda.
I'm sure you have as much respect for Jonathan Blow as I do, but I feel like you just scratched the surface of his game design philosophies. For instance, the idea that the Witness' puzzles designed themselves as he explored new mechanics. Personally, I think he's more of "the Bruce Lee of Game Design" than "the Einstein of Gaming"
No.
He made a reasonably decent game at best.
I wouldn't really say that Blow is the Einstein of gaming, as so many have before me here. While The Witness was an incredibly beautiful game and the learning curve, the Eureka effect as described was incredible and amazingly designed, it's ultimate downfall (as it is with Braid) was the ending and a very high level of pretenciousness.
I was so angry at the amount of wasted potential with the intriguing world and setting The Witness has set up, with the statues, audio logs and monoliths straight up from the Space Odyssey, only for it to be (!!!Spoiler!!!) a simulation! And this idea wasn't even executed well.
Blow is a great game designer, yes. But there are many, many more who deserve the title of Einstein of gaming. Blow is more of an Edison.
That's not a fair comparison. Einstein figured out things about the world that have changed the course of how we look at physics and made advances that probably could not have been made until Stephen Hawking. Physics is very mathematical, and video games are artsy. Art and math do not compare to each other because 2+2=4, but the Sistine Chapel ceiling is not beautiful artwork to all. Sure it is incredible what Michelangelo was able to do, but it is not something that influenced the world in a way to set a path to incredible inventions to make the world a better and easier place to live. Einstein is beyond what any video game designer could do, unless the game is the Matrix.
John Carmack is the Einstien of Gaming.
I can't really agree. I don't think Jonathan Blow singlehandedly caused the indie revolution as super meat boy was probably a larger part of this. While he has done a lot of interesting things inside of his games, I don't find them completely unique, the witness is similar to games like myst which are very old, and braid doesn't break new ground as both 2d sidescrollers and time shifting mechanics have also been around for a while. that doesn't mean he's a bad designer, but I don't think he is quite a revolutionary. Creators like Shigeru Miyamoto who redefined gaming are more deserving of such a title
I'd say no. Sure Blow has made a couple of noteworthy games, more of an autor than anything else though. He's making niche games, uniquely his, which is quite a feat but he's not really a landmark figure.
Also to say that Braid ushered in the Indy game scene is silly. It was riding a wave with other games, and clearly Cave Story carved out more of that space than Braid did, just because it came way earlier.
I don't want to sound totally dismissive of Jonathan Blow he has made some amazing games, and made name for himself among dev giants, but he is among them not beyond them.
+Wednesday's Serial Totally agree. Cave Story, Spelunky, and Minecraft have all been far more influential compared to braid imo
You mischaracterize Einstein pretty hard. First of all, he didn't challenge conventional wisdom nearly as hard as you think he did. He, like Newton before him, stood on the shoulders of giants. Second, you describe him as "eccentric" on the basis of. . . being a music lover? That's a weird thing to say.
What Einstein did that made him so brilliant was not those things. He was brilliant because he was able to piece together and solve problems that no one else at the time could solve (the aether/speed-of-light problem, the ultraviolet catastrophe, Brownian motion, and the precession of the perihelion of Mercury). This was not remarkable because it was different from what everyone else was doing, it was remarkable because it WAS what everyone else was trying, and failing, to do. And what made him one of the greatest geniuses of all time was not the fact that he solved problems that were super difficult and no one else could (every famous scientist does this, that's how they get famous), but that he solved a BUNCH of them.
I like Braid and all, but I don't think Blow is doing anything like that.
I gagged when I read this episode title.
so he further develops a mechanic created a decade ago for Prince of Persia and now he's a genius? feels like a stretch to me.
Never even heard of the guy, so no.
+Joshua Marsella If you haven't heard of Blow, you clearly don't play enough indie games. Braid is an absolute classic.
how open minded lol
+Logan Sizemore Just about everyone knows who Einstein is. I can't say I've ever heard of this blow fella.
SOOO many butt hurt indie gamers on here lol. Calm the hell down. "WAAH YOU NEVER HEARD OF BLOW?! YOU DUMMY!!" He's not even in the same solar system as Einstein let alone being gaming's Einstein. What a joke. "OOOH The Witness!!!" OMG!! STFU
Is Ken Levine the Hitler of videogames!?!?!?!?
Blow is a super cool smart dude, but It's Miyamoto.
I don't know, my favorite developer is still Edmund Mcmillan
How is this ground breaking? Have you been living under a rock? Prince of Persia did the rewind time when you make a mistake. Blinx for the X-Box is a whole game built around time control mechanics. Einstein completely changed out understand of the nature of Universe as his ideas were Revolutionary. Blow seems to simply build on stuff that has come before with his ideas simply being evolutionary.
Also as for him making the Indie scene big. Again have you been living under a rock? There is a lot going on in the Indie scene with a lot of talent and I don't really see Blow as making waves. Other than his break out hit Braid he doesn't seem like he's a big deal. The real star in the Indie scene as even if they don't know his name they know of his work is Notch. Minecraft more than any of Blow's work has helped the Indie scene since even people outside of games know of Minecraft.
This whole video reeks more of fanboy praise than actually objective criticism.
Hideo Kojima is the Salvador Dali of gaming.
Einstein's work did revolutionise the science world but at the same time it wasn't presented in a way that could support everyone beyond the realms of physics and quantium physics - the man was brilliant don't get me wrong and some of his quotes are truly inspirational but for so long it has remained bound in the fields and boxes of science. If "Everything is Energy" then why has this not been taken out further into life? If a situation, feeling, emotion, occurrence in our lives happens and these things do exist and are part of 'everything' then what is the energy behind them? Could we understand life more by taking this stance? So then linking a successful gaming creator to Einstein's work I would ask - how could these games enrich life for everyone? what is video gamings wider affect? is it a positive one? does it support everyone? No it doesn't. Basing a persons success on their success of filling a certain box is not very successful if they are limited to that box or what they have filled the box cannot be expanded.
+The Reality of Gaming Because Einstein never said "everything is energy" in the way you take it to mean. "Everything is energy" in the sense that all matter is just energy bound up into extremely dense little balls, all stuck together. Understanding that doesn't change the way those little balls behave one iota, so that doesn't translate in any way to what you're talking about. You're talking about some Deepak Chopra "the moon isn't there when nobody is looking because quantum physics" nonsense.
Greatest mind? above my pay grade. Greatest ego? in the lead pack.
Time only moves when you move
More like gaming's Banksy.
I don't think Blow is the best analogy to Einstein. James Joyce seems to be more on point. Blow's specialty, at least for Braid, was in subverting common game conventions; e.g. Time manipulation, role reversal in the story, subverting the rules for time shifting.
This seems closer to how Joyce subverted common literary conventions in Ulysses. Similar to how Blow subverted the common save the princess story troupe, Joyce named his book to evoke the epic quest of the Odyssey, but gives the epic quest from the perspective of the comparatively mundane life of an Irish man in his town. Blow subverted game mechanics by granting time manipulation, then reworking that mechanic throughout the game. Joyce took a similarly liberal approach with grammar mechanics, sentence structure, word choice, and English language mechanics.
I think John Carmack is better analogy to the Einstein of gaming. Carmack's work in 3D graphics seems about as revolutionary to 3D games as relativity to physics.
You can't make something as devoid of substance as The Witness and be the Einstein of anything.
Interesting to look at how he does game design, but the comparison seemed a little far-reaching. If you're going to make a comparison between two individuals a stronger case should be made for the connection rather than simply exploring the game design.
Lol this video is giving blow WAYYYYYYY too much credit lol. Prince of Persia platformer = Einstein? Come on....
Sure, this guy has done some pretty interesting things, but so have alot of other game devs, and I think the comparison to Einstein is just bad. Einstein made discoveries; this guy makes games. Maybe you could compare him to a modern artist of some kind.
He is certainly innovating but no Einstein. Close one maybe John Carmack with the game Engine invention. I mean is really hard to compare anyone with Einstein.
By the way, I wanted to take the survey but I didnt find it. Thanks for making these Videos.
-Hesi
Art is science.
David Cage...gaming genius.
Nah. Miyamoto is the Newton. We haven't had Einstein yet. Games wouldn't be all that different without blow.
Interesting video interms of facts about braid, but don't compare a game developer to Einstein
I don't think Jonathan is Gaming's Einstein, since there are so many contenders for this title. I'll be honest and say that I don't know how much of an influence Jonathan has been on the gaming industry, but I can bet you that many other devs have made a much larger impact than Jonathan. I can respect what he has done, but I do think that there are others who could be more worthy of that title. To be honest, I do not think that gaming has an Einstein. There are just too many devs that I respect for what they have contributed to the gaming industry.
I usually
Notch!!
Jonathan Blow is the Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi of gaming
No he's not.... Einstein and Jonathan blow are two different people with two different fields.... These are video games nothing more... What Einstein did helped contribute to science and humanity... If anything to my knowledge Prince of Persia the sands of time did this this first when it comes to reversing time .. So why is braid any different
+Alan Mendez PoP's time reversal was a rather weak gimmick. Great idea, lackluster implementation. Have you tried Braid? Its time mechanic turns the platformer on its head, allowing the game to break all kinds of platformer design "rules" in the process.
Jeffery Wells
yes I have... in fact you could do that with prince of persia as well. still dont see how braid is any different
After reading the comments.
Yes, the title of the video comes off as a loaded question. No, Jamin is not saying Blow is gaming's Einstein but is really just describing his thought process. Yes, you would think Jamin is saying that if you're the kind of person who takes things out of context like a fucking radical. Yes, you all ignored the overall substance and the game design lessons of the video.
No that's the Caetor of Nintendo
Is Jonathan Blow Gaming's Einstein? No. He isn't. Not even close. He's great at what he does, maybe even totally-super-amazing. But Einstein? Either you don't really understand the impact Einstein had on physics, or you just pulled that out of... the air. "And if he isn't is there someone else who deserves the belt?" No-one, absolutely nobody... yet.
If "gaming's Einstein" should show up and start changing the way we look, think, and understand gaming, you would know. We ALL would know. Look, I love game design navel gazing as much as the next person who is a gaming philosophy and design junkie, but this comparison is just silly.
I'm so sick of the collective amnesia that motivates people to say Braid was "visionary" or original. How quickly we forget Prince of Persia.
This video had something interesting to say, but its trappings are bizarre.
The Einstein of gaming? Is there a scenario where that's a good approach to talking about his work, the eureka moment etc?
It intruded beyond being clickbait and the video is lesser for it. There are people who will be turned off unnecessarily when they might have found it interesting. I almost passed on it due to its title. I doubt this is the effect you're going for.
Calm down people. It's an analogy.