Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

A side note, if you've played The Witness but not yet The Looker[1], you probably have been missing out.

I quite enjoyed The Witness but The Looker was just great.

[1]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1985690/The_Looker/

Interested to play this but I think the trailer does it a huge disservice. Just a barrage of voice clips and no real structure to it. I think it would help the game a lot if they replace that trailer ASAP

In case you assume novelty, a comment [1] from ArsTechnica reader Jensen404 explains otherwise by linking to [2] a post on Bluesky.

[1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/12/jonathan-blow-has-spe...

[2] https://bsky.app/profile/draknek.bsky.social/post/3m7qybidq7...

I always find Jonathan Blow and Casey Muratori to be great educators and advocates on the “simplicity” end of the spectrum. Jonathan can be super abrasive and comes with some political baggage, but does a good job advocating against what he perceives as unnecessary complexity in software. Opponents would suggest his domain and cherry-picked examples create the perfect environment for his positions and that he does take a long time to ship stuff. That said, he pulls off some compelling games with relatively minimal resources.

FWIW, Sean and Alan's contribution to puzzle designs:

ref: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@nothings/115704420859870435 and: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@draknek/115704125102372454

He'll also be on the Wookash Podcast today [1] (small but nice Gamedev-related podcast)

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHFvEtIbf5E

If you count names and causes of death as separate puzzles, Return of the Obra Dinn is around 100 puzzles long. The two Portal games are less than 100 puzzles put together. Blue Prince is what? 50ish elaborate, intricate puzzles? (darts and parlour notwithstanding). Chants of Senaar, Opus Magnum, Space Chem are all in that same ballpark too. Puzzle games with a lot of levels, like Patrick's Parabox or Baba Is You, clock in at 250ish puzzles.

So... why would I want a game with 1400 puzzles? At one puzzle a minute, that's 24 hours of gameplay. There's no reasonable scenario where each individual puzzle is something you can savour while having the game be completable in a vaguely timely fashion. How many of those puzzles are going to be even remotely memorable?

I found the voice acting in the trailer very annoying, hope this can be turned off in the final game. Or maybe I'm just too used to the "voice" over this game is him ranting about software development, from watching his streams :D

This interplay between different worlds reminded me of Enigmash, by Jack Lance [1]

[1] https://jacklance.github.io/PuzzleScript/play.html?p=cfdcc6e...

Soooo we're just gonna bounce over his noxious politics, the smoldering trainwreck that is every collaboration he's ever been a part of, or his grotesque Twitter account. Cool.

I'm always a bit baffled by this project. While it's cool that he can create hundreds of hours of content for his puzzle game, does anyone actually want to play a single puzzle game for this long? Would it not be better to make a few different, shorter, higher quality experiences?

I wonder how much of the 10 years spent making "a programming language, an engine, and a game" were actually spent on each slice.

Hopefully, jai and the engine will help make the next game faster...

I'm really intersted in giving this game a shot since I'm a big fan of puzzle games

personally I've never really meshed with a number of blows opinions but it is interesting to hear his reasoning and where he's comming from which is what opinions are for

The folks that dismiss JB’s work by saying “this could have been done in <x>” are missing the point of why anything is done.

If you are entirely utilitarian in how you approach making a game (as in this case) then you’ll want to create as little as possible to make the game. An existing game engine, an existing programming language, existing libraries, etc.

If your goal is the economic return that making a game will (hopefully!) provide, this is understandable.

However, how I see JB based on his past work and talks is someone who wants to spend their life bringing things into existence. From all available evidence it appears the art of creating and the art of having created is his work and his legacy. The economic return is rhe by-product, but not the goal.

We are in this earth for a finite amount of years, and he is spending his time creating new things. It’s an admirable use of time, and at least from my perspective holds a universe of meaning that working under the utilitarian approach loses.

The Witness was a slog, maybe he's learnt how to make puzzles which are actually fun this time.

If you haven't already, and want to scratch a puzzle game itch (sokoban style) check out Void Stranger.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2121980/Void_Stranger/

For all that is holy, please don't read anything about it. And I really mean that! Just trust and go in blind. You will have an amazing time. It is truly one of the most unique gaming experiences and it is the kind of game you can only play once.

Weird that the post above this one in the front page has “Braid” in its title and it’s not about Blow’s famous game.

I hope the game will be released with the language.

Okay, but are the puzzles fun?

I hate this kind of headline. No, Jonathan Blow did not spend the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles. A team of developers made 1,400 puzzles and Blow directed them.

This headline is like writing "Walt Disney hand drew 60,000 frames of Snow White".

(correct me if I'm wrong)

So he spent 10 years making a pseudo-3D version of Sokoban with 2010 era graphics?

I think he must have spent 9 years working on his new programming language and one year working on the game.

Interesting read. As an indie puzzle dev (shameless plug: https://thinky.gg), I find the biggest leap happens when a system’s rules are rich enough that solving becomes about understanding the space and recombining elements, not memorizing solutions. Games with extensible grids and turn mechanics reward that kind of play and creation much better than static collections of challenges

One of the things I enjoyed most about the Witness were the environment puzzles where you had to align things in the scenery with your viewpoint to complete it. And also definitely the little philosophical voice recordings were great. It's a game that deserves playing with an open mind and spirit in order to fully appreciate everything it offers.