Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles for you

For many independent developers, of course, spending nine years on a single game idea is an unthinkable luxury. Financial constraints mean many game ideas have to be shipped “as soon as you get to the point where it’s fun and shippable,” Blow said, leading to games that “kind of converge to a certain level of complexity and then stop there.”

But thanks to the sales success of The Witness—which reportedly grossed over $5 million in just its first week—Blow said he and…