Games are interesting! A conversation with Jonathan Blow 

Exactly

I agree there is something wrong on the questions, not the content of them but way it's asked. Apart from that, very good interviewer

He's like that more often in interviews and talks

I think if you've closely followed his work over the years then you'd know he's a programmer first but for mainstream or casual audiences he's most likely just known as the guy who made those games.

He considers himself a designer first.

I think John said in the past that there is no difference between game design and programming. They're the same thing, for him. I think that makes a lot of sense when you remember that John is mostly, a puzzle game designer.

He probably means laypeople

I find his arrogance undermines his message sometimes.

There is no way the teacher didn't explicitly tell you it was a silly rule. It's intended as a silly rule. It's the same as "five sentences per paragraph" that you teach kids when they're first learning how to write. It's a rule for people who have no experience yet and need silly rules like that just to even get started. Obviously they're silly, that's the point: when you're just starting you know absolutely nothing, you're so dumb you need silly rules just to get started. The problem isn't that total beginners are given silly rules, the problem is if they are so monumentally stupid and incompetent that they never grow out of them.

@@fennecbesixdouze1794 I have no idea what goes on in schools now a days but when we were learning write anything they had a ton of rules. Nothing so specific as X lines or this or Y sentences of that. Rather some insistence on good grammar and unfolding of ideas in the text. All good stuff for normal people that we would like to be able to communicate in an understandable way. Perhaps not to be taken so strictly by those with intelligence and skill who can bend the rules to write brilliant works and invent new ways or expression. I have noticed that a CS/programming education also leans in the direction of such "rules of good practice" for its students. Those students are not "monumentally stupid". Of course only a few people with talent and imagination like Jonathan run up against the limitations of those folk lore rules and traditions and do something different. Same way there are only a few brilliant authors of books in English.

Yup, there's an entire genre of games that best represents this concept - interaction as the main story telling mechanism - most of which are heavily influenced, or direct homages to, Myst. Sadly, it's not a super popular genre so there are very few of them in general, much less ones at the caliber of Outer Wilds. I think people tend to conflate these types of games with "walking sims" or adventure games, when in fact they're completely different. I would argue that they have more in common with something like Shadow of the Colossus and Journey, at least in the sense that the story is told almost purely through your interaction with the game world, as opposed to dialogue or exposition.

It's a conversation with Jonathen Blow, not an interview with Jonathen Blow

I was scrolling the comments to see if anybody noticed that. That's a pity since the interview seems really good otherwise. I totally agree on that,nobody likes to be quoted in this way...

Pr0nogo has lots of video content related to SCBW specifically, which you can find here: fraudsclub.com/pr0nogo/video-gaming

He doesn't need to be baited to go off on modern software lol

Him and Casey Muratori have similar views. I do think they are a bit arrogant about it though.

A bit xd@@pythonxz

It costs money to host a podcast on spotify, so not yet, but eventually!

@@TheNoFraudsClub wait, I thought spotify is paying for the content, not the other way around?

Afraid not, as far as podcasts are concerned.

@@TheNoFraudsClub Screw Spotify. Do actual podcasting.

Also your half life critique is nonsense. It overgeneralizes the concept of "same experience". I can say that in rts game me and my friend also got same experience EXCEPT I built bases differently. Or like in doom it was harder for me to beat some level (but it released before half life so thats fine?) Your argument about half life is totally stupid and based just on that cutscenes in second game are boring. Which is a totally separate issue

It is a conversation not an interview, he is not only asking questions.

@@Pspet Well he starts talking with "I do have a question about... uuh.. so like [massive rant], but like, [actual question]?" If you just wanna chat, don't keep talking and phrasing things as though you only wanna pose questions.

Sometimes you just need some context for a question. I also for one moment had the feeling that he talks too much, and I want to hear Jon, but then I realized that he is saying very interesting things, and now my opinion is different. I think that he is talking too fast as if he think his thought are less important and I just want to say that no, don't do that, take more time to ask a question and give us all the context you want. There is no rush =)

If you have an n-line function f, you can split it into a two-line function f_1 and an (n-1)-line function f_2, where the second line of f_1 calls f_2. Repeat until you only have two-line functions in your program. This makes your program bad. If you understand and/or can articulate why, you know that there's an upward pressure on the best size of a function. There's also a downward pressure on the best size of a function, for other reasons. The best size is one where the pressures are equally strong-otherwise change in the direction of the strongest pressure-or at least close enough that the smallest sensible refactoring step doesn't reduce the pressure difference. I can't say that 8000 is wrong without knowing specifics. It sounds like a lot, but then again I suspect games tend to have long chains of state and data dependencies, and I don't know that it doesn't make sense to put one big chain into a single function. For example, if the function applies all the game rules for one simulation step, and it's the only function in its file, you can see whether A happens logically before B by seeing whether A comes before B in the source code. That's one advantage of a large function. I'm sure there are others. If you can explain to me why the disadvantages outweigh the advantages, without knowing the specifics, I'm all ears.

Best practices should be derived from observing what works. In addition , things like TDD , are not a best practices , but rather what is known as a "dominant strategy" in game theory. A dominant strategy being a euphemism for having zero clue what you are doing , and thus defaulting to a prescription that will yield decent results . Any code base that gets stuff done is kind of horrifying . Even our own DNA . Telomeres are a dirty hack if you think about it .

Creating order is like unspooling the rope into a nice knot

We found the thumbnail to be quite humorous, second only to your childish response demanding a change. Better luck elsewhere!

@@TheNoFraudsClub yeah offending people that have a different opinion it's a sign of being an adult... Don't worry about my luck I don't want to waste more of my time with you.

@@TheNoFraudsClub The only childish comment here is yours. The interviewers question are indeed too long and the selfstories are rather distracting. But good interview all in all, great preparation.

@@TheNoFraudsClub Not watching a channel with staff that have Pr0n in their names. Bye!

I read this thread a few times and I still can't quite understand what's going on here . Kind of reminds me of the one time someone told me not to swear so much in my tutorial videos . I am not sure how I responded . I think I may have ignored them .

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