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Engadget: Braid creator Jonathan Blow sacrifices his fortune to build The Witness

B

border

Member
This seems like a phenomenally bad idea.

A Braid-like success is not likely to happen again in a marketplace as crowded as it is. Especially not for a 1st person Myst-inspired puzzle game. Braid was far far more approachable for the average player.

Could he really not find a publisher for this project? It seems like he's already halfway in bed with Sony anyhow.
 
E

Etnos

Banned
Like the hat? said:
Calling it the original indie game is like when people say pong was the first video game, or wolf3d was the first fps. Not first in the timeline sense, but first in the making it a thing that mainstream people paid attention to sense
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False! The media doesn't get it, they know nothing, all they do is write nonsense, they think their fancy degrees mean something, they wrong... wrong WRONG! #StopSpreadingLies #LazyJournalist #Learn2Write
 
M

Marcel

Member
Etnos said:
But the media doesn't get it, they know nothing, all they do is write nonsense, they think their fancy degrees mean something, they wrong... wrong WRONG! #StopSpreadingLies #LazyJournalist #Learn2Write
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Your straw man looks like it would tip over at the slightest breeze.
 
M

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
John Kowalski said:
I don't mean to push this farther than i ought to, because Blow deserves the spotlight, but i almost feel like he's agree with me on this. Braid may have been a very visible and successful indie game that was released during the early years of indie gaming revitalization, but it is hardly representative of it. At that point in time, Derek Yu had released Aquaria a year earlier, and would release Spelunky a year after. Jason Rohrer was getting more and more recognition, especially with Passage. Tales of Tales was also making the rounds. It was also when the "art game" nomenclature gained wide recognition, something fueled as well by independent games. And as others have noted Cave Story had been translated and published worldwide some years earlier. The scene was starting to become very prolific back then, and Braid may have been one of the most successful, but to call it the original?

That's hella revisionist.
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I agree. If he had written "one of the original indies" or "one of the most popular early indies" or something like that, it wouldn't be an issue. Even if it's not meant to be literal, it's sloppy writing regardless.

hawk2025 said:
It's like someone wrote about how The Ramones were an important punk band and you guys are going "lel, Velvet Underground! The Stooges!".

...yeah, you are right, but totally missing the actual point.
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No, a better analogy would be if they called The Sex Pistols "the original punk band", rather than "an important punk band". And then people would legitimately criticize that even if it's "not meant literally" because it's stupid, reductive and misleading.
 
H

harSon

Banned
I assumed it was being partially funded by Sony for some reason. Props for betting the farm on his passion though. Most people aren't willing to take such a gamble to realize their dreams.
 
S

SlipperyMoose

Member
The current console generation kicked off in late 2013 with the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One,
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2441703-jmmvtnrefmure.jpg
 
R

riotous

Banned
Marcel said:
As an Xbox 360 owner in the previous gen, it was basically a content graveyard in the late going. Microsoft abandoned it.
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Even at it's peak it's sales numbers were tiny relative to retail.

An entire years worth of XBLA revenue was far less than the revenue their big retail titles generated just on their release days.

Minecraft being about the only exception.
 
R

Rajang

Member
I will be supporting him when Witness releases.

The first trailer that was shown at the PlayStation reveal really caught my attention. I love the colorfol look of the game. It reminds me a little bit of Myst.

Hopefully it will release in 2015.
 
D

DrZeus

Member
Still have yet to play braid. Maybe it should be released on current Gen at some point. Hope this works out for him. The witness was at the ps4 reveal 2 years ago and was already 4 years into development? Sheesh. It looks glorious nonetheless. I'm hyped for it whenever it drops.
 
G

Gestault

Member
Marcel said:
I didn't make first mention of the Talos Principle since I was merely reacting to your statement about it. I'm not the only one who feels this way as you can go to page 1 to find others.
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This isn't a convincing explanation to someone pointing out that the points you've raised are basically at odds.
 
S

Saty

Member
He really needs to put out a demonstration of the game that has more complex puzzles than drawing those lines. Even in the risk of spoiling them - he got 600+ puzzles so he can sacrifice some to show us something more.

I also still don't know if it's every set of panels that is counted as one puzzle or if every panel by itself is one puzzle..
 
M

Miles Quaritch

Member
DJSharpeCheddar said:
Set aside the concept of the 'indie scene'--Braid made indies on consoles a big deal. That's not, like, an opinion. It's what happened. After Braid, independent games blew up. They were talked about, they were anticipated, they started getting reviewed alongside (and better than, in some cases) your average AAA titles, and the console companies started taking them very seriously, which continues to this day. Braid wasn't the first, but it was definitely the turning point.
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I agree that Braid was perhaps the one first big indie hit on consoles one that allowed for indies to make the transition from digital novelties to something that people actively looked forward to and sought out, but I also think that Braid just happened to take advantage of a movement that had been building up steam for some time prior to its release.

Indies were becoming more and more elaborate in their execution. They were beginning to offer experiences that resembled AAA gaming but also took risks that allowed for more innovation and more engaging types of gaming that simply wasn't available in the AAA line up that had started to become more restrictive and offered much less in the way of variety.

walltowall said:
The fact that I share a cold blooded animal's sentiments exactly is very,very frightening.
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Hehe.

It's good feeling. Let the cold slowly envelope you.
 
R

riotous

Banned
pager99 said:
Good point a nice and gentle vr game to ease you into vr, hope. He does that
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The best VR experiences are generally when you play by controlling a machine (racing, flying, mech games.)

Not saying it would be some terrible choice for a VR bundle, but the best way to ease people into VR would probably be something like kart racer.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Tain said:
Last footage I saw of this had all of the logic puzzles taking place on panels. Is that still the case? Or is that just a small minority of the game's puzzles?
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They've only shown the first set of puzzles from the first area in the game. Blow has hinted that they evolve considerably as the game progresses, but he's keeping nearly all of it quiet until the game has shipped. He feels that, in a game about discovery, showing too much would undermine the game.
border said:
This seems like a phenomenally bad idea.

A Braid-like success is not likely to happen again in a marketplace as crowded as it is. Especially not for a 1st person Myst-inspired puzzle game. Braid was far far more approachable for the average player.

Could he really not find a publisher for this project? It seems like he's already halfway in bed with Sony anyhow.
Click to expand...
He does not want a publisher, it's self-published. He has a rather low view of publishers.

For those wondering why it's taken so long, the Witness dev blog is a good read. The short answer is, polish and exploration of ideas. The visual style changed greatly over the years, as did the scope of the game. Blow has been fine tuning the puzzles for a couple years. Now that they are done, it should come together pretty quickly, if the last few updates are any indication.

They've done a long series of "island snapshots" showing how the game world and style have evolved, which I have enjoyed following.

August 2010

shot_2010.08.18__time_21_03_n01.jpg
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September 2011

shot_2011.09.17__time_17_22_n01.png



August 2012

shot_2012.08.29__time_17_26_n01.png



October 23, 2012

shot_2012.10.23__time_17_20_n02.png



December 10, 2012

shot_2012.12.10__time_17_20_n02.png



January 3, 2013

shot_2013.01.03__time_17_05_n01.png



March 4, 2013

shot_2013.03.04__time_12_28_n01.png



April 9, 2013

shot_2013.04.09__time_10_34_n01.png



May 29, 2014 in which they tore down a big part of the island and redesigned it.

shot_2014.05.28__time_15_49_n01.png



June 4, 2014 which focused on the new area.

shot_2014.06.03__time_18_11_n01.png
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Currently the game looks like this:

shot_2014.08.15__time_10_17_n04.png
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The changing puzzle count with each update has been fun to watch as well.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Marcel said:
There's no guarantee of success for the type of game he's making. If Myst-like is true then we can go by Uru's performance, which failed spectacularly and caused financial problems for Cyan Worlds.
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But Myst was attempting to be an MMO as well as a sequel to the previous adventure games. I don't think it's an apt comparison (but this is only going by how much I know of Witness, which is admittedly little, so correct me please if I'm misinformed.)

Cavalier said:
Why risk so much when he could've just kickstarted it? I would've supported that Day 1.
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Kickstarter seems like it can be more trouble than it's worth depending on your project, especially since now you've got to worry about updates and backer rewards and logistics rather than just getting the game out.
 
I

Izuna

Banned
So he didn't tuck away any money from Braid so that he is actually screwed if Witness doesn't sell well?
 
D

Deleted member 125677

Unconfirmed Member
Really looking forward to this! Braid was the work of a genius.
 
O

outunderthestars

Banned
Really excited for the game, though I wonder if he should just set a release date and stop what seems like endless development on the game. At some point he needs to put the damn thing out.
 
H

hydruxo

Member
outunderthestars said:
Really excited for the game, though I wonder if he should just set a release date and stop what seems like endless development on the game. At some point he needs to put the damn thing out.
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Hopefully it'll be out before by end of the summer or fall since they are done with the puzzles now. They're probably just polishing everything up at this point
 
B

Branduil

Member
Between Kickstarter and the indie boom he couldn't find outside financing for this? It seems like a bad idea to spend all of the money from what will probably be your biggest hit on another game.
 
B

BPoole

Member
Alcoholikaust said:
Blow has my money when the witness drops- man is good at what he does
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Is he though? Not saying he isn't, but he's only made 1 game. That is hardly a reliable pedigree.

Notch made one of the biggest games ever created. I don't think he could make another game that is even a quarter as successful as Minecraft. Braid came out at a time when indie puzzle platformers weren't that common. Now, they're a dime a dozen, and even the good ones often fail to get mainstream recognition.
 
RedAssedApe

RedAssedApe

Banned
kind of interesting that he wasn't able to get funding. i'm assuming he at least got something for the ps4 timed exclusivity?
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Honestly, the Witness is going to cost $20-30; his company will get $14-21 of that. 250,000-500,000 copies to break-even if you assume a mid-single millions budget (and "break even" is sort of a moot thing; the spent money is spent, the real question is whether or not it generates enough revenue for him to want to make another game afterwards). Even if it's significantly less successful than Braid was, he'll do OK.
 
W

Withnail

Member
henhowc said:
kind of interesting that he wasn't able to get funding. i'm assuming he at least got something for the ps4 timed exclusivity?
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He wanted to self-publish. His experience dealing with Microsoft on Braid seems to have put him off publishers for life. LOL.

As for the PS4 deal, these things tend to be about marketing, promotion, and possibly development/QA support rather than cash.
 
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