Earlier on this morning, PAX registered media members were given a tiny bit of floor time to ourselves–about 49 minutes to be precise–to get whatever we could in the relative calm before the storm of attendees flooded the floor. During our lightning round of demoing, interviewing, and other such coverage…ing, I ran into the one and only Jonathan Blow (Braid, The Witness) and was able to pull him aside for a couple minutes to grab his thoughts on whatever I could come up with.

Very fortuitously, Mr. Blow was assisting Chris Hecker’s frantic set-up of the SpyParty booth (indies helping indies right?) and was in a fairly talkative mood for someone you’d find in the dictionary under the word “mysterious.” I hope to get a longer, more fleshed out interview in the coming weeks, once things calm down a bit for everyone. Though for now, I’m quite happy to pass along the interesting tidbits.

First off, development of The Witness is really starting to ramp up, with Jon bringing on a team over the past several months to help with art and technical aspects. Previews of the title hit all over the place earlier this month, well except here (looking to remedy that soon.) As for a release date, well you know how it goes, sometime in 2012 when it’s good and ready; but he did mention that he’d be pretty upset if it slipped past that target into 2013.

Another item he was excited to talk about was Indie Game: The Movie, which will premiere in Santa Cruz this October. “In theory” he plans on being in attendance if scheduling allows to take part in QA session after the film  (so you know, our tickets are booked and DIYGamer will be there to report on the event and record the QA for all you fine folks.)

As some may already know, Jon plays a significant part in the piece along side the Super Meat Boy and Fez devs. He recently had a chance to view a preview, and expressed how impressive it is. He told me the filmmakers have hit there mark by pulling off  a captivating full-length work focusing on indie game development; complete with fantastic overarching themes, motifs, and such. Apparently, the magic we saw in the latest trailer is abundant in the full film as well. I really, really can’t wait for it now.

He also promised he wouldn’t be pulling the wool over our eyes again this year, and that the game would not be on display at all during the weekend. I asked twice to make sure he didn’t have any tricks up his sleeve, and honest-to-goodness it appears PAX attendees won’t get a chance to witness some witness this year. No worries though, the game’s dev blog has been very active, so interested parties can keep up there.

All in all some very good info coming from Number None’s number one. More PAX Coverage soon!

[Jonathan Blow]