Jonathan Blow

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2021-08-04 11:30:07

Jonathan Blow is an independent video game designer and programmer. He created Braid (2008) and The Witness (2016) — two puzzle games that, when released, received widespread acclaim. Jonathan also created a new programming language called Jai, intended specifically for game development. He streams much of this work on his YouTube channel.

Famously, Jonathan spent years refining Braid, funding its $200,000 development himself. Similarly, he and his team at Thekla Inc. took over 7 years to make The Witness. In a profile in The Atlantic, Blow was called "the video-game industry’s most cerebral developer, but also as its most incisive and polarizing internal critic." He keeps a small team at Thekla, focusing on the details (like hiring architects to advise on the buildings) and bringing the most critical eye onto his own work.

DEVON: Hello, I’m Devon and you’re listening to the seventh episode of Pioneers, a series of conversations with the designers, engineers, and inventors who are shaping computing as we know it.