Feature: Jonathan Blow On Designing The Witness

As part of a new Gamasutra feature interview, Braid designer Jonathan Blow discusses the philosophy behind the design of his next game, The Witness, saying that he "treats the player as someone who's intelligent." Blow tells Gamasutra that he focuses on the player's mindset when designing the game. "My design thought is focused on what's going through the player's head right now... now... now... all the time. And so, that's just kind of the way that I see stuff. And so I'll think about a puzzle. And I'll think about it like, 'Well, okay, when the player sees this -- before they understand what it means -- what are they going to be thinking?'" Though Blow likes to think he can understand the player's frame of mind, he knows it's "impossible." He says, "I have some ideal player, who I don't know who that is exactly, but it's somebody who likes the kind of games that I like, or something. And so I just think about, 'What would that ideal player do in this situation?' And that guides some decisions sometimes. I don't know. It's really an off-the-cuff kind of process," Blow admitted. He told Gamasutra that he is designing a thoughtful adventure game, in which he treats the player respectfully and gives them the keys to solve the mystery he designed. "With adventure games, [there's] this idea that you have a key/door puzzle. 'I need to go find the key' -- and maybe there's a puzzle to even get the key -- 'and then I can open the door.' So this game has that all over the place, but the key is just in your head," says Blow. "I do think that there's an audience out there who appreciates this kind of thing, that's game-literate, that treats the player as someone who's intelligent, first of all, and who's thoughtful and who wants to have some choices to make." The full interview feature, which examines The Witness at length and in which Blow discusses his thoughts on the design of his own game, his hopes for a publishing deal, and the shortcomings of mainstream games, is live now on Gamasutra.