"more and more away from being an artistic exercise and more and more of being an engeineering process..."
"by the time you fullfill those constraints, there is not much room left to do anything interestng..."
"structurally invasive... changing bearing toward the audience"
"those constraints invade the work, and changes the work that could be produced..."
"the shape of a container dictates what can be contained"
"anyone who tries, that kind of enderver with full forthrightness, with full honestly, and not just kidding themselves that they are trying to do that, but really really, putting everything they have as a design into trying to do that, then even you don't make it, it puts you into a rare and previledged group of individuals. "

what a boss.

I've watched maybe like 10 conference talks like this so far, and this is the first one to rock the boat at all.

What's wild is I didn't realize the industry needed boat rocking on this level - but it does.

wtf why would you not record the Q&A at the end???

I try to tell people this kind of stuff all the time, about game design having a lower ceiling and being self mutilated from inception, but it rarely ever takes root. I hope people take heed with what he's saying, as he knows his shit.

The game 'Journey' inspired feelings of awe

It stopped before the Q&A at the end. That makes me a sad panda.

There really are some good video's on youtube if you look (or are lucky enough to have cultivated an algorithm which shows you this 12 years later)

I wish they could keep the slides on screen for longer. Great talk anyway.
Im a gamedev and ive been seeing this for a long time. Thats why i love indie games.
The tools and environment always shape the content. The tools shapes the user too.

34:07 Papers Please made by "Lucas Covar"? lol It's Lucas Pope!

You really do understand.

I was clapping by myself at the end, haha, *awesome* talk.

Man, I love this guy.

Excellent Lecture.

The Witness proves you an amazing dev Jon

Thank you Jonathan Blow and Brian Moriarty for being true to yourselves and the best game designers out there.

the microphone shadow on the canvas

Goddamn, the stuff Jonathan Blow says toward the end, you'd think this was spoken word poetry! It's so amazing and inspirational.

Have never played this guys games but after this speech I would sure like to. And Yoko Taro’s games have inspired awe in me so I am sure Jonathan can too

I bored my gf so much by watching this video that she took out her phone and started playing a free to play game.

Great speech. Last ten minutes especially is so inspiring.