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> These games are the starting point, but the bulk of the game is new puzzles combining mechanics from different games together Seems like the puzzles are nove

> These games are the starting point, but the bulk of the game is new puzzles combining mechanics from different games together Seems like the puzzles are novel, but the mechanics are not?

lucraft 10mo ago
The basic mechanics look like very standard type of puzzle mechanics (e.g. Sokoban) that have been in many games over decades.
- christophilus 10mo ago
  He hired a level designer who also wrote a Sokoban game. (Can’t remember the name, but it was free and web-based, IIRC.) That game had some really great, unique ideas in it, and I’d be shocked if the new Blow game was bog standard.
  - nilstycho 10mo ago
    It was Jack Lance, who wrote Enigmash. Tragically, he died in 2023 at the age of 25. Jack Lance superlatively creative. I cannot find the words to express how much the world lost. I do not know of a finer puzzle designer. https://jacklance.github.io/games.html https://jacklance.github.io/games.html
    - christophilus 10mo ago
      Oh, man. Yes, that’s the one. I had no idea he’d died. :/
dgb23 10mo ago
With Blow the devil is simultaneously in the details and at the meta level. For example in the Witness, which I consider one of the best puzzle games ever made, you get a fairly simple core mechanic, but the game builds upon it in very interesting ways. It feels like a journey of learning and always challenges you in some novel way at each step. There are also several revelations along the way, where you discover new layers on top of the core puzzles. I would expect that this new game will feature similarly careful design.
- eps 10mo ago
  To each their own. I found the Witness to be excruciatingly monotonous, forced and, ultimately, boring.
  - blarg1 10mo ago
    What did you think of the puzzles?
    - tzcnt 10mo ago
      I found them quite boring since they are all repetitions on the same theme - just drawing lines on a square. It could have been a mobile game. The world doesn't feel connected to the puzzles, and the exploration aspect of it could have been a completely separate game. It feels like two games glued together, which is IMO not a good design. It's also not a game that's very demanding from a technical performance perspective, and really has very limited numbers of active entities / animations, so why should I care about his opinions on game architecture or anything else?
      - 0x1ceb00da 10mo ago
        > I found them quite boring since they are all repetitions on the same theme - just drawing lines on a square. And programming is just pressing buttons on a keyboard.
      - sean_bright 9mo ago
        > It could have been a mobile game. I tried to play it on iOS and found the controls clunky. Interacting with some of the puzzles was difficult with my thumbs in the way.
    - eps 10mo ago
      Monotonous. More of the same. I mean, I can appreciate the creativity behind squeezing every drop from the concept, but I saw no fun in solving them.
    - IshKebab 10mo ago
jan_Inkepa 10mo ago
interactions between the various mechanics in the games likely yield countless surprises, and let you build something considerably more elaborate than thesum of its parts..
- mcphage 10mo ago
  The Puzzle Boy / Kwirk series of games is Sokoban-based, but has 3 different mechanics on top of that: turnstiles, pits (that can be filled by blocks), and blocks larger than 1x1. One of the things I love about it is that, each mechanic is interesting on its own, and each combination of mechanics results in levels with very different feels. Lots of puzzles with a bunch of mechanics try to throw tons of them into each level, and each level ends up feeling very samey. But judicious use of combinations can lead to a lot of interesting variety.
  - jan_Inkepa 10mo ago
    (I'm a fan of Kwirk. I had it as a kid on Gameboy, and thought it would have aged badly, but no it's still good!)

> These games are the starting point, but the bulk of the game is new puzzles combining mechanics from different games together Seems like the puzzles are novel, but the mechanics are not?

lucraft 10mo ago

The basic mechanics look like very standard type of puzzle mechanics (e.g. Sokoban) that have been in many games over decades.

christophilus 10mo ago
He hired a level designer who also wrote a Sokoban game. (Can’t remember the name, but it was free and web-based, IIRC.) That game had some really great, unique ideas in it, and I’d be shocked if the new Blow game was bog standard.
- nilstycho 10mo ago
  It was Jack Lance, who wrote Enigmash. Tragically, he died in 2023 at the age of 25. Jack Lance superlatively creative. I cannot find the words to express how much the world lost. I do not know of a finer puzzle designer. https://jacklance.github.io/games.html https://jacklance.github.io/games.html
  - christophilus 10mo ago
    Oh, man. Yes, that’s the one. I had no idea he’d died. :/

dgb23 10mo ago

With Blow the devil is simultaneously in the details and at the meta level. For example in the Witness, which I consider one of the best puzzle games ever made, you get a fairly simple core mechanic, but the game builds upon it in very interesting ways. It feels like a journey of learning and always challenges you in some novel way at each step. There are also several revelations along the way, where you discover new layers on top of the core puzzles. I would expect that this new game will feature similarly careful design.

eps 10mo ago
To each their own. I found the Witness to be excruciatingly monotonous, forced and, ultimately, boring.
- blarg1 10mo ago
  What did you think of the puzzles?
  - tzcnt 10mo ago
    I found them quite boring since they are all repetitions on the same theme - just drawing lines on a square. It could have been a mobile game. The world doesn't feel connected to the puzzles, and the exploration aspect of it could have been a completely separate game. It feels like two games glued together, which is IMO not a good design. It's also not a game that's very demanding from a technical performance perspective, and really has very limited numbers of active entities / animations, so why should I care about his opinions on game architecture or anything else?
    - 0x1ceb00da 10mo ago
      > I found them quite boring since they are all repetitions on the same theme - just drawing lines on a square. And programming is just pressing buttons on a keyboard.
    - sean_bright 9mo ago
      > It could have been a mobile game. I tried to play it on iOS and found the controls clunky. Interacting with some of the puzzles was difficult with my thumbs in the way.
  - eps 10mo ago
    Monotonous. More of the same. I mean, I can appreciate the creativity behind squeezing every drop from the concept, but I saw no fun in solving them.
  - IshKebab 10mo ago

jan_Inkepa 10mo ago

interactions between the various mechanics in the games likely yield countless surprises, and let you build something considerably more elaborate than thesum of its parts..

mcphage 10mo ago
The Puzzle Boy / Kwirk series of games is Sokoban-based, but has 3 different mechanics on top of that: turnstiles, pits (that can be filled by blocks), and blocks larger than 1x1. One of the things I love about it is that, each mechanic is interesting on its own, and each combination of mechanics results in levels with very different feels. Lots of puzzles with a bunch of mechanics try to throw tons of them into each level, and each level ends up feeling very samey. But judicious use of combinations can lead to a lot of interesting variety.
- jan_Inkepa 10mo ago
  (I'm a fan of Kwirk. I had it as a kid on Gameboy, and thought it would have aged badly, but no it's still good!)