[ImprobableTruth]

> 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?

[dgb23]

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]

To each their own. I found the Witness to be excruciatingly monotonous, forced and, ultimately, boring.

[lucraft]

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

[christophilus]

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.

[jan_Inkepa]

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]

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.