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

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

#211

Post by hibikir »

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,…

The game suffers from the fact that its first hour or two can be solved without looking at the island at all, but there are MANY puzzles that aren't really about the panel: The panel is just where you enter the answer that you got from everything around it.

A couple of good, early examples (although they don't really show the game's real environmental power), are the temple in the desert, the temple in the woods, and the 'pink forest': All solvable without any information from a different part of the game, and absolutely not solvable by just staring at the panel itself: Entire series of 20+ puzzles have the EXACT SAME PANEL, just placed in a different location.

And panel solutions affect the environment. There are elevators operated by panels. a boat operated by panels. bridges built by solving panels that have more than one solution, in ways that match what you want to do physically in the game.

It's just a big pity that the beginning of the game shows so very little of that.

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

#212

Post by hibikir »

no_wave wrote: post #124

The hype machine around this is strange - tons of superficially positive reviews but without a whole lot of passion behind them. Does anyone else smell something off about the response to the game so far? Have people convinced themselves that this is a great game before they started enjoying it?

It's just very difficult to explain what is so good about the game without spoiling the heck out of it, and since a big part of the experience is discovery, people that really like the game will hate do not want to spoil it for new players.

I play puzzle hunts, and have played a whole lot of puzzle based games over the years. I do not like Braid that much. However, I think The Witness is, gameplay wise, better than Portal, Talos Principle, Myst, 7th Guest or anything from the Professor Layton series. The puzzles get to be very hard, but they never felt unfair.

If anything, the negative reviews come from how the very beginning of the game starts too slowly, making sure you understand a little piece of the game, when, in practice, there's a whole lot more to it. The tutorial area is simple and generic, on purpose. Right afterwards, you get to an area that is just confusing, with puzzles you really shouldn't even attempt. Go anywhere else though, and the real game opens up, and it's wonderful.

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

#213

Post by Narishma »

spatten wrote: post #198
cpach wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great to see OS X-compatible game recommendations on HN. Personally I find it quite challenging to find interesting games for OS X.

From what I can see, it's not available for OS X at all. According to Wikipedia[1], it is currently available for PC and PS4 and will be released for iOS "at a later date" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witness_(2016_video_game)

He's talking about Braid.

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

#214

Post by narrator »

hibikir wrote: post #209
amichail wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it like those ill-defined puzzles where you need to say what number comes next? Any number can come next.

There are two major kinds of puzzles: 1)Puzzles about getting a solution that follows a set of rules, which can be deduced, and are reused from puzzle to puzzle. The game just checks that the rules are followed, so there is more than one valid solution sometimes. The different solutions might even have different effects. 2)Environmental puzzles, where the right solution is indicated by the environment. Without giving…

Sounds a bit like Raven's progressive matrices, a classic intelligence test.

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

#216

Post by sdrothrock »

mwill wrote: post #77
amichail wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it like those ill-defined puzzles where you need to say what number comes next? Any number can come next.

I've solved ~300 puzzles (out of 600) but am able to trigger the ending, so I am finished but not 100% completed yet. I haven't found ANY puzzles where I feel like you're guessing at the solution. Every puzzle I've solved has had well defined rules. I don't want to give too much away, but broadly speaking there are two types of puzzles: Those that rely on the symbols, where whats on the screen in front of you is all…

> I think deaf players will be unable to 100% this game because of a handful of puzzles, and theres no indication that the piece of the puzzle you're missing is sound.

This is the first time I've seen this mentioned, so thank you. I've been thinking about buying a PS4 just for this game, so that's a major bummer. I hope there's a patch in the future for some kind of visual indicator or subtitle to make it a bit easier.

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

#217

Post by prawn »

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,…

Would it be appropriate to share with a smart 3yo watching alongside? Is there anything likely to be nightmare-inducing?

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

#218

Post by ethanhunt_ »

ericye16 wrote: post #91
seivan wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard not to admire Blow. Not only does he make amazing games, but he actually powers through and finishes them. That's a talent on its own. I mean put aside his engineering and design skill-sets, actually finishing should be part of what one would have to 'learn'. At least for me.

One of my favourite talks from a developer was his talk on "Deep Work,"[0] where he talks about how he manages to keep working on projects that take a very long time to complete. He has some pretty good advice with regards to managing one's own psychology and avoiding burnout while being productive. [0] https://vimeo.com/94259578

Watching the talk but the crowd noise is exhausting to the ears. Would be nice if someone could filter it somehow and reupload.

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

#219

Post by drdrey »

minimaxir wrote: post #74
nailer wrote: post #28

For those wondering, Jonathan Blow is the author of the critically acclaimed time travel platform game 'Braid'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Blow

It's worth noting that Blow used all the money earned from Braid to develop The Witness (as a result of long development time, though) http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/06/the-witness-money/

It's probably more correct to say that all the money used to develop The Witness comes from the money earned from Braid.
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