On Jonathan Blow's Latest Talk: 'How To Make Games That Touch People'

Braid's Blow: 'How To Make Games That Touch People'

Jonathan's talk probably is the closest thing to what I've been thinking about today's games among any keynotes or presentations on the same topic until now.

Today's games are structured in a way that if they were novels, we would be solving puzzles or other challenges in between chapters of the story. For example, first, we'd be reading dialogues, a character's thoughts, feelings, meaningful interaction with other characters. Then when that parts over and time to move to next part of the story, we're slammed with a caculus problem that we have to solve in order to discover what happens next.

While I really do want to see someone try a different path than this, I still want to be told of a touching story, an interactive one, that is. I really would be pissed if all we see in future is AAA version of "Gravitation" or "Marriage." While it certainly is a progression, it's missing story element that I hunger.

What if we take completely opposite way, and instead of suppressing linear story, we take away player control? What if we don't let players directly control anything, but instead, let them merely influence character's actions? I see the true merit of a medium being interactive in its ability to let players influence and thus customize the experience to his or her liking.

In this case, we'd have a game that looks more or less like movies or TV shows, but depending on how a player, or rather a viewer, influence characters, plot turns and twists in response to that.