Meet Cliff Johnson, Puzzle Game DesignerCliff Johnson, NFT Puzzle Game Designer for Synesis One

Meet Cliff Johnson, Puzzle Game Designer
 Cliff Johnson, Puzzle Game Designer for Synesis One game entitled: Quantum Noesis

The games…naturally incorporate a lot of word games but also involve Message Ciphers, Concatenation Abracadabras, Jumbled Hubbubs, Chunky Fifths, Logic Reveals, and Slippery Sliders.

At the heart of Synesis One are words. And the mystery behind the word puzzles being created for Quantum Noesis is Cliff Johnson.

Background
Cliff Johnson began working in film (as well as making monsters for theme parks) after he attended the University of Southern California’s film school. But one day in 1984 he went into an Apple store and after some playing around, left with a Macintosh computer. And then from there on in he began to start making computer games, including the huge cult hit game The Fool’s Errand.

He describes how it came about:
“I was having a perfectly fine time creating films and animation. Then in late 1984, I bought a Mac, and then a clueless relative bought me Microprose Basic. A year and a half later, I had an award-winning puzzle game. It was Fool’s Errand in more than just title, but somehow it all worked out.”

A Cult Classic
The game was a huge success, involving solving puzzles and cryptic treasure hunt. It unfolds in the style of a story book, involving trippy, tricky puzzles. It still has a following today. It was based on a book he wrote, originally intended as a gift for friends and family. But it then occurred to him that this could unfold just as well on a small screen.

As he explains, it was a natural progression for him:
“Every film and animation I did was a complex production in itself. So it didn’t seem like a big hop, skip, and a jump into the complications of programming. My animation career was mostly avant-garde, for example for the Canadian Film Board and International Tournee of Animation. This allowed my graphic style to evolve into more expressive and abstract forms, allowing me to blend computer elements with traditional techniques.”

The Fool’s Errand won Best Puzzle Game of the Year from GAMES Magazine in 1987 and was declared “Best Retro Game Ever” by British GamesTM magazine. He then went on to direct the *FunHouse* production group for Philips Media, and also consulted and worked with companies including Mattel, Warner Bros. and Disney creating online puzzles and treasure hunts. In 2002, he designed a $100,000 challenge for the book Mysterious Stranger by street magician David Blaine. It was only solved in 2004.

New Opportunities
Cliff has come on board with Synesis One as our puzzle designer, after connecting with Tracy Spaight. He was drawn to the opportunity to create new conundrums and puzzles against the background of AI singularity and NFT word tokens.
And narrative is still likely to inform his work, although it will be more of a collaborative process whilst working with us at Synesis One.

He says:
“In The Fool’s Errand, 3 in Three, and The Fool and his Money, the stories are told in classic form, setting the tone and theme of the mythic adventures. The puzzles complement the story in subtle ways, but are not direct extensions of the story. Except when they are. But with Synesis One, Tracy Spaight heads the writing team for Quantum Noesis. This is a grand international affair.”
The games that he is creating for Synesis One naturally incorporate a lot of word games but also involve Message Ciphers, Concatenation Abracadabras, Jumbled Hubbubs, Chunky Fifths, Logic Reveals and Slippery Sliders.

The Future is Bright
The huge advances of gamification and popularity of online games seems only to be accelerating, with community games as well as single player games continuing to expand. Cliff remarks how, “Puzzles and games use structured rules to create order out of chaos. This seems like a natural progression to aid in teaching, presentation, and marketing. The spoonful of sugar, one might say.”
And as we continue to move forward into this world of gamification- what will this mean for computer games? Cliff is confidently optimistic, “More of them. Many, many more. In every shape, size, and interactivity.”

Biography
Johnson was born August 14, 1953 in Hanover, New Hampshire, the only child of Norman and Leatrice Johnson. He attended Bristol Eastern High School in Connecticut, where he started making Super 8 movies. In 1972, he had jobs “building monsters” for five different amusement parks. He later attended University of Southern California’s film school, where he became a teaching assistant in animation and created some of the Monty Pythonesque animations for Nickelodeon’s television series Out of Control.

In 1984, using his first computer, a 512 KBMacintosh, he learned to program and created the game The Fool’s Errand, which in 1987 won “Best Puzzle Game of the Year” from GAMES Magazine and was declared “Best Retro Game Ever” by British GamesTM magazine.

From 1990–1995, he directed the *FunHouse* production group for Philips Media, and from 1996–2001, he consulted with Mattel, Warner Bros. and Disney for online puzzles and treasure hunts.^[1]
In 2002, Johnson designed a $100,000 Challenge for the book Mysterious Stranger by street magician David Blaine. It was solved in 2004.


Authored games

• The Fool’s Errand (1987) — GAMES Magazine‘s Best Puzzle Game of the Year
• At the Carnival (1989)
• Disney’s Cartoon Arcade (1990)
• 3 in Three (1990) — MacUser‘s Best Game of the Year; GAMES Magazine‘s Best Puzzle Game of the Year
• Hanna Barbera’s Cartoon Carnival (1993)
• Merlin’s Apprentice (1994)
• Labyrinth of Crete (1995)
• The Fool and His Money (2012)^[2]

Other contributed works[edit]

• Game Design: Disney’s The Hunt for the Lost Toy, website contest, 1996
• Game Design: Of Light and Darkness: The Prophecy, 1998
• Treasure Hunt Design: David Blaine‘s Mysterious Stranger book, 2002