He studied computer science and English at the University of California, Berkeley, but dropped out to start a game company.

He co-founded the Experimental Gameplay Workshop and wrote a monthly technical column for Game Developer magazine.

Full-time work on the language, code-named Jai, and a new game implemented in it began after the release of The Witness.

[1][4] When his parents noticed his interest, they bought him a TRS-80 Color Computer, on which Blow learned to program in BASIC, often using exercise books from RadioShack.

[2] In a 2020 interview, Blow said he was convinced 1996 was the most difficult time in history to start a video game company because of the transition from 2D to 3D titles.

[20] A number of components of the game were challenging to implement, but Blow learned from the experience—he said; "we went broke, and I was burned out for several years after that from working hard ... but that's how I became a good programmer".

Games he worked on include Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows.

[25][26] During this time, Blow moved to New York City, where he was introduced to an IBM research project about servers based on cell processors.

[27] Blow pitched them a proof of concept of a physics-intensive, online, multiplayer game about giant robots attacking a town.

[28] After submitting their final report to IBM, the team took the game to Electronic Arts, whom Blow said were not impressed.

Five months later, he began work on turning the prototype into a proper game, and by December 2005 the first version of what would be known as Braid was completed.

[35] For the story, Blow drew inspiration from some of his favorite books and films such as Invisible Cities and Mulholland Drive.

[35] The game's narrative is told through textual exposition between worlds, environmental art, and gameplay, and has been interpreted in many different ways.

[42] Blow appeared in the documentary film Indie Game: The Movie, in which he discusses his experiences developing and releasing Braid.

[45] Blow hoped to release The Witness in 2013 as a launch title for the Sony PlayStation 4, but the goal passed as the scope of the game increased.

Blow reported that the first week sales revenue of The Witness totaled over US$5 million, and was one of the top downloads on illegal BitTorrent websites.

[59] Towards the end of development of The Witness, Blow became frustrated with C++, the programming language Thekla used to create the game.

[60] In September 2014, Blow delivered a talk on his Twitch channel about the possibility of a new programming language designed for game development.

[67] Among other things, Blow hopes the language will improve the experience of game programming and allow programmers to build more functionality with less code.

[60] By working on the Sokoban game, its engine, and Jai at the same time, Blow is able to test the language's design and adjust it early in its lifetime.

[72] Thekla originally planned to launch the game in early 2021,[71][72] but it was pushed back, and eventually released on May 14, 2024 for multiple platforms.

Blow was frustrated with the weak reception to the launch, saying Anniversary Edition "sold like dogshit" and that Thekla could not afford to pay any of its employees.

In a retrospective on Braid, GQ noted the game was released at a time when the market was dominated by violent and repetitive first-person shooters, yet "made an earnest effort to make an artistic statement" that went beyond this trend.

[91] He used almost all of the profits of Braid to independently fund The Witness, noting that by doing so he had total creative freedom and thereby would not have to adjust the game to please the whims of a publisher.

[92] Blow does not schedule development time for games at Thekla, noting; "we don't do it like Electronic Arts.

[93] He has been described as a "prickly genius",[85] and as the game industry's "most cerebral developer, but also as its most incisive and polarizing internal critic".

[95] Stephen Totilo of Kotaku said Blow's criticism is not targeted towards individuals or specific games but industry trends.

[104] According to Blow, games have the potential to have a much-bigger role culturally[105] and help define the human condition.

[95][107] In 2019, he said the independent development scene had changed in that it was easier to make and release a game than ever before, but that in terms of game-design "progress has not been as large as people assume".

[110] He has a low opinion of modern C++, describing it in 2020 as a terrible language,[111] and was partly motivated to create Jai in order to improve the quality of life for programmers.