Jonathan Blow's new game, The Witness, is out • Hacker News Board

Re: Jonathan Blow's new game, The Witness, is out

#111

Post by dharma1 » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 3:37 PM UTC

yoklov wrote: post #82

dharma1 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a quick look at the trailer and it looked to me like it could have been built with Unity or Unreal Engine... wondering why own engine, given the effort to then port the game to other platforms?

This level of polish would be somewhat herculean to pull off in unity, and was not even close to possible when the game's development was started 8 or so years ago. Unreal maybe, but it also wasn't as viable a choice 8 years ago. Source: I use unity professionally at my day job.

oh, they've been working on it for 8 years? Yikes

Re: Jonathan Blow's new game, The Witness, is out

#112

Post by webkike » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 3:39 PM UTC

One of the things I did not like is the sometimes incredibly obfuscated association of symbols with mechanics. For example, the panels with sun symbols. [Spoilers] It didn't take me incredibly long to figure out that they needed to be grouped in twos, but it did take me longer to figure out than to solve the first ~8 introductory panels. And the worst part, how is a star in any way connected with grouping by twos????

Re: Jonathan Blow's new game, The Witness, is out

#113

Post by Narishma » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 3:42 PM UTC

mrmondo wrote: post #46

Looks really very intriguing, I'm not about to install Windows to play it though - it doesn't seem there is a Mac / Linux version available?

It's currently available on PS4 as well, and may come to other platforms in the future.

Re: Jonathan Blow's new game, The Witness, is out

#114

Post by slantyyz » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 3:45 PM UTC

em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #32

pferde wrote: post #3

Is that the guy who was unable to install Ubuntu properly, so he declared that supporting Linux versions of his game is not worth the effort? Color me disinterested. "No Tux, no bucks."

I'm going to wait for Linux version to buy...that way will incentivize devs to make Linux versions.

> I'm going to wait for Linux version to buy...that way will incentivize devs to make Linux versions.

I'm not sure that's going to incentivize anyone, especially if they're making plenty of money on the platforms they chose to release on.

Spending your money on existing Linux games in the same genre (and encouraging your Linux friends to as well) is more likely to incentivize devs. At least they can see that a Linux port sells, and they can find sales stats to assess whether the market for a particular genre is large enough to be worth the investment.

Re: Jonathan Blow's new game, The Witness, is out

#115

Post by jslakro » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 3:45 PM UTC

Nice to have an indie developer exposed by HN. Sad to see there are no other cases. Blow had its relevance due to XBOX but many indies have been out there before on PC, so it sounds unfair when you think in the whole scene

Re: Jonathan Blow's new game, The Witness, is out

#116

Post by myth_buster » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 3:45 PM UTC

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #102

myth_buster wrote: post #92

JBlow is featured in the documentary Indie Game[0][1] which follows the trials and tribulations of development and launch of two indie games Super Meat Boy and Fez. It's surprising how similar the whole experience is to launching a startup! [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indie_Game:_The_Movie [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1942884/

That movie is really unfair to him. It more or less mocks him and paints him as this out of touch primadonna instead of focusing on his work. I feel it was very unfair to him and dramatized for the audience at his expense.

I came out thinking that he is an idealist and I respected him for that.

Re: Jonathan Blow's new game, The Witness, is out

#117

Post by rwc » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 3:47 PM UTC

Looks like Myst but without the cutting edge 1993 graphics.

Re: Jonathan Blow's new game, The Witness, is out

#118

Post by on_and_off » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 3:52 PM UTC

AsyncAwait wrote: post #95

I like the potential of the game, but sadly it did not meet my expectations. I saw it as a Myst-style game, where you have puzzles, but you also have a lot of interactive environment around you to explore. Here, I was getting taken it by a lot of beautiful scenarios in the distance, only to realise that there is nothing to do there, but solve more panels. It simply feels like this beautiful island is going to waste,…

two hours or so into it so far, so I don't have an overview of the whole game.

The puzzles so far have rarely asked for more than 10 seconds to find a solution.

Navigating the island does feel like an artificial overgame at the moment. Some of the puzzles have caused changes in the 3D world but in very small ways.

I guess that things are going to get more complex soon though.

Re: Jonathan Blow's new game, The Witness, is out

#119

Post by jamesgeck0 » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 3:53 PM UTC

fulafel wrote: post #26

donatj wrote: post #20

Windows and PS4 huh? As the exclusive owner of Macs and an Xbox One, that's little irritating. I'd at least imagine a Windows to Xbox One port to be reasonable.

They have a timed exclusivity agreement with Sony, hence PS4 first. "It will be released on the PC and the PlayStation 4 on January 26, 2016. The game will come to iOS some months after that, and other platforms a bit later." ( http://the-witness.net/news/about/ ) Fingers crossed for a Linux port at some point! For Blow's last game (Braid) I think the Linux port was done by a third party. Or maybe it's time to get a…

Blow made a comment a few years ago along the lines that even if there wasn't a console exclusivity agreement, they didn't have the resources to launch on multiple consoles simultaneously.

Re: Jonathan Blow's new game, The Witness, is out

#120

Post by Tarrosion » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 3:54 PM UTC

kdamken wrote: post #83

StavrosK wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Braid is a masterpiece, just go get it now and play it WITHOUT WALKTHROUGHS (they'll just spoil the game for you). I'm not sure the Witness can live up to Braid, but we'll see.

I think a lot of times people tend to over-exaggerate when using terms like 'masterpiece', but in this case it's warranted. The puzzles and gameplay are brilliant, and then when you discover what the story is actually about it really blows you away.

I don't mean to invoke any sort of death of the author, the story isn't about anything except what you bring to it kind of vagueness...but part of the genius of Braid is that it's intentionally unclear what the story is about.

The famous quote in the epilogue makes you think of an important historical event, but plausibly that's metaphorical and the game is about something more personal, existential. Maybe the game isn't about anything but making you reflect. Maybe it's an expression of particular events in Blow's life. Maybe all of the above.