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The Witness: An 8-year time line puzzle of progress

M

More_Badass

Member
The Witness finally, at long last, is releasing in just under 3 days. It's the culmination of eight years of development and I thought it would be cool and insightful to go through the years to see how the game grew and evolved over its near-decade of progress

---

2008
- G4TV Interview
What are you working on next?
I have a file of like 60 ideas I’ve had… my next game, which I haven’t really started working on yet, is a bigger game than Braid. Maybe twice the budget of Braid. It’s 3D, so it’s going to be higher budget game than Braid, but it's too early to predict by how much.
Click to expand...

2009
- The Witness officially announced, along with a bare-bones website. Release is planned for late 2011...hopefully
Braid creator's new game is The Witness
Jonathan Blow's Next Game Is Called The Witness
trx2SCR.png


2010
- New site and development blog launched. Concept art revealed
q3wTSlR.jpg

As well as the first screenshot of the island. The Witness has 5 hours of gameplay at this point
cXHqA2r.jpg


- An early playable build of The Witness was quietly shown at PAX 2010 (3 minutes of gameplay)
Kotaku preview: A Tantalizing Session With The Witness
UvviC0k.jpg
waiting-290x300.jpg


2011
- Thekla Inc. expands and hires more programmers and a 3D artist

- An early press build of The Witness was shown at PAX. In a podcast interview, Blow states that there are currently 10 to 11 hours of single player gameplay
Another Kotaku preview: Two Hours with Jonathan Blow's The Witness, an Abbreviated Wonder
Giantbomb: Unraveling The Witness With Jonathan Blow
Gamespot: We put our puzzle-solving skills to the test in Jonathan Blow's intriguing new adventure

- Blow also playtested The Witness at GDC that year. At the time, the game had 275 puzzles.
2GT0msv.jpg


2012
- Indie Game: The Movie is first shown at Sundance in January.
yZNprgE.jpg


- Blow reveals plans for a mobile version of The Witness, shows an early screenshot of the game on iPad
ipad-286x3841-260x349.jpg


- The game currently has over 400 puzzles
28x1mLX.jpg


2013
- The first official gameplay trailer of The Witness is released. Sony also reveals that the game will be coming to PS4

- Footage of a more polished iPad version is released
4DyllE3.jpg


The game is show at E3 in a hands-off private presentation
Destructoid: Blow's enigmatic The Witness is the highlight of the PS4
Game Informer: The Witness - Five Features That Define The Game

- Wallpapers show off the shot seen in the initial concept art and 2010 build
YaZkDHN.png


- The game now has 595 puzzles
OVMQEzC.jpg


2014
- Blow shows off the game at PSX. 15 minutes of footage

- The game is nearing completion; team is in "finish-the-game" mode

- Oculus and Steam controller support is revealed
oLGoxUB.jpg


2015
- Blow reveals that he spent his Braid earnings on The Witness, as well as borrowing more funds to finish the game

- The Witness finally gets an official release date, along with a new trailer
hgf9AOB.jpg


2016
- The voice actors of the game are revealed

- Preorders become available on January 19th. Review embargo ends on Monday.

GcxJEyj.png
 
L

Lingitiz

Member
It's really cool that so much is going into this game.

I just hope it doesn't result in a bloated game though. The idea of a 50+ hour ~600 puzzle game is more of a deterrent than a feature IMO.
 
Z

Zia

Member
Braid is not only one of my all-time favorites, but the reason I'm now involved in the independent development scene.

If it turns out poorly I might cry. For real.
 
GlamFM

GlamFM

Banned
Thank you for this super awesome thread! Will watch all the videos tomorrow first thing in the morning.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Zia said:
Braid is not only one of my all-time favorites, but the reason I'm now involved in the independent development scene.

If it turns out poorly I might cry. For real.
Click to expand...
It won't. Some early impressions have already gotten out pre-embargo

Podcast Beyond Episode 427
- "This game is awesome...incredible"
- "Feels like Myst in terms of its atmosphere, its loneliness...you arrive at a place that has a history and you're uncovering that history"
- "Freaking gorgeous", with some "mindblowingly difficult" puzzles
- "Amazing aha moments"
Click to expand...

Eurogamer Podcast #1
-"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"
- "Discovery of the game world.. of the mechanics is everything"
- "Even if this came from a no-name developer...the word would get around that it was something unique and quite special"
- "Quite lavish, a really really beautiful game"
Click to expand...

IGN's Justin Davis:
GDJustin said:
There's something massive about The Witness that won't reveal itself to most players until many many hours in, fyi. To say anything more is a spoiler.

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.

Please do not do that, with The Witness. It's an open world game - go mess with another part of the island. Come back after you've slept on it or a few days later. To do anything else is to deprive yourself of something really special. Just this once, really try to let the puzzles and let the game soak in and sit with you.

Think about it like this - you only get to play The Witness for the first time once. If you give in and look up puzzle solutions, you'll enjoy the game. It's very pretty, you'll feel smart at parts, etc. But if you resist doing that, and truly solve everything youself, you'll enjoy it on an entirely different level.

To put it another way - the puzzles are the game. Looking up solutions is akin to letting someone else beat a tough shooter level for you, or giving in to the kiddie star after failing a tough Mario stage enough times.

...and plus every time you look at a walkthrough you run the risk of having The Thing spoiled for you, which you do not want.
Click to expand...
 
Majmun

Majmun

Member
Can't wait to play it. Seeing people complain about the price of this game makes me sad. There seems to be so much dedication and content put into this project. I'll be glad to support them.
 
Se_7_eN

Se_7_eN

Member
Soooo.... The game looks great, and I will most likely buy it day 1 but I really have no idea what you do other than solve puzzles.
 
J

jon bones

hot hot hanuman-on-man action
Braid was a seminal moment in gaming for me, and I've been eagerly awaiting Blow's next project.

Tuesday can't come soon enough.
 
S

STEaMkb

Member
Se_7_eN said:
Soooo.... The game looks great, but other than walking around solving puzzles, what is the game about?
Click to expand...

They are not puzzles. It's an easy mistake to make. The Witness is just a series of colourized pixels swapping in and out of addressable space.
 
I

Icyflamez96

Member
I already know this game is gonna stump me so hard. I'll be very surprised if I beat it in under a month of chipping away at it.

It'll probably take a lot longer than that tbh. Took me forever to beat Portal 2.
 
Acerac

Acerac

Banned
Such a cool looking game.

Like Myst, I will fail horribly when trying to complete it. Maybe I'll just watch my boyfriend play and try to help with puzzles.
 
C

Catvoca

Banned
Great OP, thanks for putting this together. I'm actually so hyped for this game, I can't wait until tuesday. I hope it's story engages me as much as it's puzzles, the way Blow talks about using the medium to it's full potential makes me very intrigued to see what sort of meaning the Witness will have.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
For people curious about the game, the 2013 gameplay trailer actually does a better job IMO than the release date trailer, at showing what the panel puzzles are actually used for
 
B

border

Member
I had no idea that footage was shown so incredibly early. I thought the Playstation 4 unveiling was the first time the game had ever been seen.

Was it originally running on Xbox 360? Or PC?
 
A

antitrop

Member
I need to play this. I have to see what this guy came up with in 8 years. I'm not even good at puzzle games, but damnit, I'll give it a shot.
 
C

Chev

Member
Wowfunhappy said:
Can anyone explain how the line puzzles tie into exploring the larger world?
Click to expand...
At forst they just serve as locks, then they also become actual control systems for various things, and solving them or even understanding them requires understanding things about your environment.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Wowfunhappy said:
Can anyone explain how the line puzzles tie into exploring the larger world?
Click to expand...
You know in Deus Ex, you'd hack a terminal to open a door or manipulate a security system? The line puzzles are the same here. They're your means to open doors, unlock bridges, activate machines, alter the environment, etc. And the puzzles themselves might require knowledge from the environment or be tied to the surrounding area
 
M

MastaKilla

Member
I think i'm going to buy the game just to support this poor fella. Sounds like he's put all of his money and life into this damn game.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Wowfunhappy said:
Can anyone explain how the line puzzles tie into exploring the larger world?
Click to expand...
The release date trailer shows several instances of
the player moving through mazes themselves
in addition to....

Remembrance said:
This official screenshot is a good example.
Click to expand...
...this sort of thing. It's important to note that relatively little of the actual game has been shown, and in particular of the later mechanics. The game is about exploration and discovery and Blow is preserving an unusually large proportion of the game to discover rather than show it in previews.

border said:
I had no idea that footage was shown so incredibly early. I thought the Playstation 4 unveiling was the first time the game had ever been seen.

Was it originally running on Xbox 360? Or PC?
Click to expand...
PC, until the PS4 reveal. Since then it's been both platforms.
 
V

Vexidus

Member
Nice thread, and a really interesting collection of pieces about the game. I've been excited for The Witness for years now, before the PS4 reveal, but I've sort of kept it in check since the release was so far off. Then when we had the actual release date I got excited again, but January still felt like an eternity.

Now, these past few days have felt like an eternity, and my excitement is completely off the rails. I have hand-drawn a map of the island on my graph paper based on dev blog materials/design docs from way back. I plan to add lots of annotations to it as I explore every nook and cranny. I am completely ready to dive into this world and work out its deepest mysteries.

Games like this don't come along very often, and I intend to savour the hell out of the experience. Tuesday can't come soon enough!
 
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