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 The Witness is a highly-anticipated Myst-inspired puzzle game by Jonathan Blow. You explore a mysterious island and solve puzzles. It is a very pretty game. It releases Janurary 26th, 2016 and will be released on Steam and PSN. A retail version, VR support (PC only), and an iOS version are supposed to come out later. Xbone is considered a possibility but no plans for it are announced yet. Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPMMKFX78x0  Who is Jonathan Blow and why should I care about his next game? Jonathan Blow is most noteworthy for his prior game, Braid released in 2008. Braid was a time-travel based puzzle game. It was really well-received (http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/braid) for its inspired art, absolutely mind-bending puzzles, an ambiguous postmodern plot, and a twist can be best described as being very cool and leaving it at that. It was also one of the first "premier" indie games, that really started to put indie games on the map to speak. It was one of the first games that showed non-AAA games could be worth playing (remember just a couple months before, Portal had to be packaged into the $60 Orange Box and there wasn't much of a mindset in the general public that $10-$40 games could be sold independently and amount to anything other than flash game filler). Mr. Blow is also known for being part of Indie Game: The Movie and being quite opinionated on game design, which can rile up the ire of some internet posters who consider him arrogant and pretentious. Blow also gives many talks and lectures about game design and computer science you can find on various places on youtube. He is one of the few true auters that exist in gaming. Think Ken Levine, but on an indie scale. Most people like him for being extremely passionate about games and constantly challenging the medium to move forward at an intellectual level and aspire to be more than ways for corporations to maximize profit-margins. The Witness is the next game by Jonathan Blow. After he became a millionaire from Braid, instead of being content to stay rich, Blow poured literally all of the money he made from Braid (as well as his savings) into his next game, The Witness, including going back into debt to help finish funding it. The game has been in development for around 6 years and has been highly anticipated ever since it first announced. Blow founded a small indie team to make the game including, among other things, hiring a professional architect to make sure every building is structurally sound. http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DeannaVanBuren/20151012/254238/Architecture_in_Video_Games_Designing_for_Impact.php  Okay cool, so what is this game about? The Witness is a puzzle game set on a mysterious island. Anyone who has played Myst will see it is obviously inspired by it. You explore the island and interact with grids that have line-maze type puzzles on them. A lot of these puzzles interact with the environment to an extent and are more than they appear at first glance. While I do know more about them than I am letting on, it is clear spoiler territory and is better left unsaid. The big sell on games like these are the sense of discovery and mystery that permeate around them so you reach "magic moment" epiphanies as you figure things out. The most recent game as an example I would compare this to is Fez. The only AAA series that really pulls this off is the Souls series although those are obviously more action games. I'll leave off with a quote from Blow about the game: “It's hard to explain, because it has to do with something that I don't want to spoil. The game is about certain kinds of magic moments that happen in the mind of the player. . . . You are fending for yourself and taking a great deal of initiative to solve problems, you know that it’s not just the solving the problems but what happens when you do. The game is designed to create many opportunities for epiphany moments, both small and large.” So it’s just a bunch of line-maze puzzles? Yes and no, but mostly no. The puzzles in the game all use the line grids as input mechanisms, but are not necessarily the puzzles themselves (although they can be). So some puzzles go beyond the borders of the line maze and are organic to the world itself while others are more self-contained logic-type puzzles (and sometimes they are mixed). The game is difficult to talk about because there is more than meets the eye initially but it would ruin the experience to explain how or why. I’ll just quote a preview from PC gamer on the matter: quote:The biggest question mark looms over puzzle variety. I was initially disappointed to learn that almost every puzzle involves tracing lines through electronic panels. That’s potentially 677 line-tracing conundrums—the number revealed by a recent ‘Puzzle Complete’ milestone, although some may yet be culled. The direction seemed needlessly restrictive. Drawing lines through grids doesn’t just sound unglamorous, it sounds dull—and certainly not an idea deep enough to sustain an entire adventure. (Pro tip: Pause the earlier trailer video at 1:08 and tilt your head 45 degrees counter-clockwise and you'll see an example of how there is more going on than what meets the eye)  Is there a story? Yes, although it is not a straight-forward narrative. There are audio-diaries around the island, but the backstory of the island and your character is fairly ambiguous and postmodern in its presentation. The audio-diaries tend to be philosophical musings, physicist quotations and other thematic asides. Anyone who has played Braid will understand what they will be like. Other examples of this style would be Dear Esther or the novels Gravity’s Rainbow and Invisible Cities, which Blow has cited as influences. There is top-level voice acting in the game, detailed in the blog post here: http://the-witness.net/news/2016/01/whose-voices-are-in-the-witness/ The "story" is completely skippable if that is your preference, it is only the audio diaries and whatever you gleam from the environment and gameplay. The steam page describes the story as follows: "You wake up, alone, on a strange island full of puzzles that will challenge and surprise you. You don't remember who you are, and you don't remember how you got here, but there's one thing you can do: explore the island in hope of discovering clues, regaining your memory, and somehow finding your way home."  $40? What is even the length of this game Reports from people currently playing the game, completing the game (i.e. reaching an initial ending state) takes 30-50 hours and involves completing some 300ish of the 600+ puzzles in the game (apparently the game does keep a puzzle count tally). Completing the game 100% (which Blow has defined as completing all of the 600+ puzzles) is estimated at taking 80-100 hours. The final puzzles are supposed to be extremely difficult, Blow estimated that for one of them, only 1% of players will be able to complete it. Brian Moriarity, a former game designer for LucasFilms, has been playing the game and completing the game fully took him 205 hours, "not counting time offline study of sketches, gnashing of teeth or curled-up sobbing”.  Impressions Note: If you are already sold on the game and are going to play it, I strongly recommend not reading or looking at reviews, it can only spoil things and there is no reason to look at them until after you played the game. They will still be there when you are done. http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/01/25/the-witness-review 10/10 http://www.destructoid.com/review-the-witness-335133.phtml 10/10 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/the-witness-review/1900-6416336/?ftag=GSS-05-10aaa0b 9/10 http://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/the-witness-review/1900-730/ 5/5 http://www.gameinformer.com/games/t...campaign=buffer 9.3/10 http://www.polygon.com/2016/1/25/10817632/the-witness-review-PC-PS4 8/10 http://www.pcgamer.com/the-witness-review/ 89/100 http://www.pcworld.com/article/3026013/software/the-witness-pc-review-uncovering-an-islands-secrets-one-line-at-a-time.html 4.5/5 http://time.com/4191490/the-witness-review/ 5/5 http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-01-25-the-witness-review Recommended http://kotaku.com/the-witness-the-kotaku-review-1754919626 Recommended http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/01/the-witness-review-an-island-where-knowledge-mystery-are-the-treasures/ Recommended http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/quick-look-the-witness/2300-10951/ - GiantBomb Quick Look Screenshots Long Screenshot #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4PD0skohfM Long Screenshot #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzNh-hdceiU           Development blog: http://the-witness.net/news Important message quote:This is a special game, and I strongly encourage everyone to truly let puzzles sit with them, rather than resorting to a walkthrough or wiki. I think most gamers (including me!) are willing to give a tricky puzzle an honest shot, but then if they're stumped, on to an IGN wiki or GameFAQS they go. So It Goes fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Jan 26, 2016 |
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Jan 20, 2016 21:48
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"Highly anticipated..." Oh? "...Jonathan Blow." Oh.
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Jan 20, 2016 21:56
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https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/690327260109283328
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Jan 22, 2016 06:42
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Looks poor. Could go forever without playing another "puzzle world" Myst-like.
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Jan 22, 2016 06:44
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I love Myst games, and Myst-likes sound great, and doing puzzles sounds great, but having another potentially over-pretentious Braid-like is exactly not what I want.
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Jan 22, 2016 07:10
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The only good Myst game was Riven, because of how well the puzzles were integrated into the world. It felt like bringing alien machinery to life. This looks like the exact opposite of that.
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Jan 22, 2016 07:14
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This game is very pretty, and I am excited about more Myst-style puzzling, but the game having "600+ puzzles" has me worried about the puzzles' individual quality. Unless it's like, 25 really neat, well-designed puzzles and the rest are just repetitive time-filler poo poo like the Talos Principle's tetris squares.
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Jan 22, 2016 07:19
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Asymmetrikon posted:This game is very pretty, and I am excited about more Myst-style puzzling, but the game having "600+ puzzles" has me worried about the puzzles' individual quality. Unless it's like, 25 really neat, well-designed puzzles and the rest are just repetitive time-filler poo poo like the Talos Principle's tetris squares. It's probably something like 10 or 20 different puzzle types and then lots of different puzzles within those frameworks. When you have like 30 rotate-the-blocks-so-they-fit-together puzzles and 30 connect-the-dots-the-right-way puzzles you start making big numbers very quickly.
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Jan 22, 2016 07:22
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I want to say in advance that I am fully in favor of people pissing this man off. Gloomy Rube posted:I love Myst games, and Myst-likes sound great, and doing puzzles sounds great, but having another potentially over-pretentious Braid-like is exactly not what I want. Jonathan Blow is wonderful at coming up with clever and creative puzzle ideas, and he has great ideas on art design. He is a terrible writer, and unfortunately nobody has made him aware of this yet. The books in Braid, to me, were obviously written by someone who cares more about being ~DEEEEEEP~ than about communicating anything, which is, you know, the whole goddamn point of writing. Also, here's a nice little tidbit: The game has no music. At all. Nothing but ambient sounds and audio logs. Because otherwise it might distract you from the extreme realistic task of line-drawing on a stylized deserted island.
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Jan 22, 2016 07:23
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Also, how big is this world that they can fit 600 puzzles in it, or are you going to be just tripping over puzzles left and right?
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Jan 22, 2016 07:28
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Kelp Plankton posted:It's probably something like 10 or 20 different puzzle types and then lots of different puzzles within those frameworks. When you have like 30 rotate-the-blocks-so-they-fit-together puzzles and 30 connect-the-dots-the-right-way puzzles you start making big numbers very quickly. I don't think so. They've been working on this game earnestly since 2009. I started reading the dev blog in 2011 and it seemed like they were almost ready to release in 2012 - the game looked essentially like it does now. Instead they spent four more years obsessively refining it. I didn't like Braid at all but I'm definitely curious to see what all that time and effort has gone into. I highly doubt any of the puzzles are recycled. All the previews seem to suggest they involve interacting with the surrounding environment in some unique way.
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Jan 22, 2016 08:41
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So It Goes posted:The final puzzles are supposed to be extremely difficult, Blow estimated that for one of them, only 1% of players will be able to complete it.
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Jan 22, 2016 08:55
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BiggerJ posted:Has there been any word on whether this puzzle will be optional? It almost certainly is. The game is open-world and AFAIK every puzzle (after tutorial) is technically optional to "beat" the game.
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Jan 22, 2016 15:51
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So It Goes posted:It almost certainly is. The game is open-world and AFAIK every puzzle (after tutorial) is technically optional to "beat" the game. Well, the same is technically true of Myst, but you need to beat the game properly to get the required information - that or stumble upon the grid book (which looks like a normal burnt book) and brute-force the fireplace with every grid. Actually, that gives me an idea. Theory: the final puzzle requires information gained by beating certain other puzzles, one of which is the One Percent Puzzle. The more information you have, the easier it will be to brute force the final puzzle - which will actually be the intended method for 99% of players.
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Jan 23, 2016 07:49
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FactsAreUseless posted:"Highly anticipated..." Oh? "...Jonathan Blow." Oh. Assertion: Braid was good.
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Jan 23, 2016 08:09
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Its like... how much time does it really save not having to get up to take a piss? Riddle me that mr. auter I do think this looks good though, and I'm saying that having never played braid.
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Jan 23, 2016 08:31
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Maybe I'm the only one but I'm super loving excited for this game. Myst was good, Braid was good, and this looks loving incredible. That being said, the piss jug is something pretty amazing.
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Jan 23, 2016 08:34
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Oh wow, I didn't realize this was coming out so soon. I hope it's good, I thought Braid was pretty decent. Setting aside all of Jonathan Blow's personality poo poo which I don't really care about.
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Jan 23, 2016 08:47
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Asymmetrikon posted:Also, how big is this world that they can fit 600 puzzles in it, or are you going to be just tripping over puzzles left and right? You cannot even take a poo poo without hitting puzzle
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Jan 23, 2016 09:01
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Kakarot posted:You cannot even take a poo poo without hitting puzzle A true gentleman leaves no puzzle unshat.
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Jan 23, 2016 12:23
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God, the island looks like a near carbon copy of the Myst island from above. 
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Jan 23, 2016 17:17
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I've never played Braid but the art style looks great so I'm tentatively excited. Also Jonathan Blow is very much aware that a lot of people think he's pretentious from what I've seen in interviews.
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Jan 23, 2016 17:35
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Braid had some excellent puzzles. It was also a very good game. Not really a fan of Myst-like games though, but this definitely looks cool.
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Jan 23, 2016 17:45
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BiggerJ posted:Well, the same is technically true of Myst, but you need to beat the game properly to get the required information - that or stumble upon the grid book (which looks like a normal burnt book) and brute-force the fireplace with every grid. I'll put general structure stuff in spoilers, the following is a quote from Blow with the Daily Dot about the game structure: The way the game is structured is there’s a tremendous amount of optional stuff. To actually win the game there’s a certain amount of things that you need to do, but only a very small portion of it is required. There’s all these different areas you can explore, and you need a certain number of them solved, but no specific one of those areas have to be solved. Seven of them out of 11 have to be, and you can pick. I imagine completing the optional stuff will just "unlock" more of the backstory, which might or not might matter to people. Personally, I just like puzzles. I got all the puzzle pieces in Braid on my own, but none of the stars so I will be trying to complete all I can as a personal challenge. The open-world nature of this game has made me realize what a nightmare it will be to discuss the game as you play it as people will want to talk about different areas. I guess make sure spoilers are well-marked as to what specific locations they are talking about but I imagine there will be fringe cases where even mentioning a certain puzzle exists somewhere is a spoiler. Honestly, I would strongly recommend people try to get as far as they can before reading online stuff cause it is just asking for trouble. Will probably do that myself. Neron posted:Braid had some excellent puzzles. It was also a very good game. Not really a fan of Myst-like games though, but this definitely looks cool. I share this opinion. My biggest problem with Myst games is the obtuseness that permeates around all the point and click games from that era where you don't even know what is interactable and what inventory objects can combine and its a lot of trial and error that feels like wasted time pixel hunting as opposed to time actually spent solving puzzles and exploring the landscape. I like Blow's idea of fixing that by having a standardized "solutions grid" with the line mazes. We will see how it turns out but I am optimistic or I wouldn't have bothered typing up the thread.
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Jan 23, 2016 19:17
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The buzz from various people makes it sound like the game will be awesome, but hard. Hope I'll be able to do everything myself instead of simply looking online for solutions once I get the slightest bit stuck. (Like I usually do, sadly) https://twitter.com/georgeb3dr/status/690593820354879489
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Jan 24, 2016 06:29
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ymgve posted:The buzz from various people makes it sound like the game will be awesome, but hard. Hope I'll be able to do everything myself instead of simply looking online for solutions once I get the slightest bit stuck. (Like I usually do, sadly) I don't trust somebody that would make such a terrible analogy. I mean unless the game forces you to re-solve puzzles or something.
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Jan 24, 2016 06:38
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Well it's not just ol' George "Duke Nukem Forever" Broussard. Some early impressions stolen from a NeoGAF post: Podcast Beyond Episode 427 quote:- "This game is awesome...incredible" Eurogamer Podcast #1 quote:-"Fairly close to Portal or Portal 2 in terms of a game that has obvious scale and production values but zero combat and is very much focused on quite involved puzzling" IGN's Justin Davis: quote:Originally Posted by GDJustin I wonder if you can run, though. Sure, it's a nice stroll the first time you go through an area, but if there's a lot of going back and forth between areas it'd get tiresome, especially if you have the walking speed of Dear Esther. Talos Principle did it well - you could zip around at lightning speeds, and if that wasn't enough you could crank up your movement even more in the game settings.
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Jan 24, 2016 06:59
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I thought Braid was fun enough but did not care to do the stars thing, I might buy The Witness because it looks very pretty and chill, and I kind of want that from a game right now.
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Jan 24, 2016 07:06
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Geight posted:I thought Braid was fun enough but did not care to do the stars thing, I might buy The Witness because it looks very pretty and chill, and I kind of want that from a game right now. It is not exactly chill. Like, it's a very serene setting for the most part, but the puzzles have me thinking harder than I have about pretty much any game I've tried in the last year.
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Jan 24, 2016 07:42
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSXofLK5hFQ
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Jan 24, 2016 07:52
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Jetfire posted:It is not exactly chill. Like, it's a very serene setting for the most part, but the puzzles have me thinking harder than I have about pretty much any game I've tried in the last year. Yeah I figured it will probably have some brain busters, but I'm down with that. I've mostly been playing twitchy stuff lately and wouldn't mind the change of pace to something slower.
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Jan 24, 2016 08:10
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Jetfire posted:It is not exactly chill. Like, it's a very serene setting for the most part, but the puzzles have me thinking harder than I have about pretty much any game I've tried in the last year. Did you get a prerelease copy or something?
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Jan 24, 2016 08:38
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The gameplay looks fun and stuff, but I'm pretty sure when I sit down to play it it'll just turn out that the island is a metaphor for george bush or something.
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Jan 24, 2016 09:01
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3d games don't require someone to check to see if the 3d building is structurally sound like a real life building. Why would someone spend money on that?  That's not going to help realism, people who design buildings in CAD base them off of blueprints that somebody already drew up. Like that is the full extent of how 3D is used for real life buildings.
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Jan 24, 2016 09:11
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Blow might occasionally say something silly, he's an extremely good designer. I'm very excited to explore the stuff this man creates.
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Jan 24, 2016 10:30
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Canine Blues Arooo posted:Blow might occasionally say something silly, he's an extremely good designer. I'm very excited to explore the stuff this man creates. All I keep thinking of is Boyhood, except instead of 12 years to make they only took 6.
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Jan 24, 2016 10:38
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Jetfire posted:It is not exactly chill. Like, it's a very serene setting for the most part, but the puzzles have me thinking harder than I have about pretty much any game I've tried in the last year. Did you play Talos Principle? Is the game red puzzle pieces hard, or hidden stars hard?
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Jan 24, 2016 15:36
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Suspicious Dish posted:Did you get a prerelease copy or something? Review code. Deadlines for games you're awful at are a hell of a thing. ymgve posted:Did you play Talos Principle? Is the game red puzzle pieces hard, or hidden stars hard? No, but it's probably something I should put on my to-do list.
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Jan 24, 2016 18:34
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Do you work at a major review firm, or do they hand them out to anybody with a blog and asks politely?
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Jan 24, 2016 18:46
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Suspicious Dish posted:Do you work at a major review firm, or do they hand them out to anybody with a blog and asks politely? They reached out to me, so I'm in press. Though I wouldn't call where I work a "review firm," quite the opposite really 
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Jan 24, 2016 19:35
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