
Jonathan Blow's new game, The Witness, is out - Audiophilip
http://store.steampowered.com/app/210970/
======
nailer
For those wondering, Jonathan Blow is the author of the critically acclaimed
time travel platform game 'Braid'.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Blow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Blow)

~~~
chrismbarr
And for all those wondering, YES you should go buy & play Braid if you haven't
already. It's an astounding game. A 2D platformer-style game that deals with
in-game undo, time travel, time distortion, and multiple realities. It's mind
bending, fun, and beautiful. Watch the trailer for it here if you haven't seen
it before:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqtSKkyJgFM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqtSKkyJgFM)

~~~
StavrosK
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.

~~~
kdamken
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.

~~~
Tarrosion
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.

~~~
apozem
There was an interview with Jonathan Blow several years ago in Game Informer,
close to when Braid came out. Blow said he'll never explain publicly what the
game meant to him so people could have their own explanations not be
overshadowed by his authorial intent.

He also said he responded to people who emailed him their interpretation. At
the time of the interview only one person correctly guessed Blow's own
interpretation.

I can't even imagine what the real answer could be.

------
sp332
Although it's tempting, this is a game you really don't want any spoilers
about (if you are ever going to play it). Vi Hart, who has been playtesting
the game for months, said:

> Tips for playing The Witness: give yourself a week or two, no hints, no
> reviews. Sleep on it. Take breaks. It's a big game. Nothing like it.

> If you can't spend all day every day playing The Witness, give yourself
> months. Engage deeply with The Witness and it will stare back.

> Don't watch twitch streams or look at screenshots or read reviews. Just play
> it, seriously.

~~~
cstuder
Since the game turns out to be pretty polarizing, I would suggest reading a
review or two. Most reviewers appreciate the design of the game and keep it
spoiler free.

My recommendation: [http://www.polygon.com/2016/1/25/10817632/the-witness-
review...](http://www.polygon.com/2016/1/25/10817632/the-witness-review-PC-
PS4)

"The Witness is maze puzzles. Full Stop."

~~~
teddyh
> _" The Witness is maze puzzles. Full Stop."_

You cut out the important bit of the very next sentence:

‘ _That 's also a highly reductionist take. It's like saying that a book is
"just words."_’

------
AsyncAwait
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, being a little more
than a hiding place for the panels.

How's everyone feeling about this?

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

~~~
evan_
I don't think so, but obviously you know your 3yo better than I do.

The only thing that I could even imagine coming close are some marble statues
of men and women that appear throughout the island. They aren't all that
creepy but an imaginative child see them that way.

It's rated E for Everyone:

[https://www.esrb.org/ratings/Synopsis.aspx?Certificate=34184...](https://www.esrb.org/ratings/Synopsis.aspx?Certificate=34184&Title=The+Witness)

~~~
prawn
Thanks. Just realised it's PC and PS4, while I'm on a Mac and have a 360, so
doubt I'll get to play it anyway.

------
moultano
I'm a few hours in and have already had so many moments of pure euphoria. It
is a full sensory game. It uses my whole brain. Aesthetically, intellectually,
even spiritually.

A quote in one of the audio logs is so exquisite that I just have to share.

 _One nature perfect and pervading circulates in all natures_

 _One reality, all comprehensive, contains within itself all realities_

 _The one Moon reflects itself wherever there is a sheet of water_

 _And all the moons in the waters are embraced within the one moon_

 _The Dharma body [the Absolute] of all Buddhas enters into my own being_

 _And my own being is found in union with theirs_

 _The Inner Light is beyond praise and blame_

 _Like space it knows no boundaries_

 _Yet it is even here, within us, ever retaining its serenity and fullness_

 _It is only when you hunt for it that you lose it_

 _You cannot take hold of it, but equally you cannot get rid of it_

 _And while you can do neither, it goes on its own way_

 _You remain silent and it speaks, you speak and it is dumb_

 _The great gate of charity is wide open, with no obstacles before it._

\- Yung-Chia Ta-Shih

------
muraiki
One thing to note is that some of the optional puzzles are likely to be
unsolvable by colorblind and hearing impaired players:
[http://kotaku.com/colorblind-and-hearing-impaired-players-
wo...](http://kotaku.com/colorblind-and-hearing-impaired-players-wont-be-able-
to-1755459642)

As someone who is colorblind, I've been happy to see many games come out with
options to enable filters for one or more types of colorblindness. It's
disappointing that such a feature isn't present in this game.

~~~
michaelbuddy
Send him the info. Despite the success he's still an indie dev, and maybe
didn't have the resources at the outset, or just didn't get to it or know
about it. but maybe it could be in an update.

~~~
dr_zoidberg
From the linked article:

> “We definitely thought about colorblindness but ultimately there was not
> much we could do in terms of the individual puzzles,” the game’s lead
> developer, Jonathan Blow, told me today.

It's been a decision by the devs. Still, it would be nice if they updated the
puzzles for those who are colorblind.

------
tgb
Some of my absolute favorite memories are playing Myst as a kid with my
family. We'd huddle around the computer, take notes, kibitz about where to
explore, be amazed at the visuals (those gondola-style rides were breathtaking
at the time!). Riven might have been the high point of the series for us with
the feeling of exploration it had being so great and involving.

I wish modern exploration/puzzle adventures in the Myst vein were made to be
more easily navigated by my parents, who just can't handle FPS-style controls,
quick action, jumping puzzles, etc. So I can't have them try Braid or Fez or
most other modern games despite having some great puzzles. Machinarium worked
great, Her Story was good but quite different, but other than that we'll
probably never get to share that same Myst-style experience again. At least
Cyan is working on a Myst-esque game again, Obduction.

~~~
nilkn
I'm just waiting for the inevitable Myst game in VR. It's pretty much the
perfect medium for it, since it solves the locomotion problem by just removing
locomotion and replacing it with a set of discrete locations to stand at.

The only downside is that it would be a very solo experience and certainly
couldn't be enjoyed as a family.

------
danso
I've been wanting to play this ever since Casey Muratori wrote about the
process of generating grass for the terrain in an eye-pleasing distribution:

[http://mollyrocket.com/casey/stream_0015.html](http://mollyrocket.com/casey/stream_0015.html)
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7692332](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7692332))

~~~
remybach
Well there goes my afternoon.

------
hoorayimhelping
> _The bulk of the game feels like taking an IQ test._

This is from a negative (but helpful) review of this game and it echoes
exactly how I felt about playing Braid. His games feel like they're
constructed so everyone will admire the genius of the creator for thinking up
these kinds of interesting puzzles. And if the player ends up enjoying the
game while they're admiring its creator, well that's an added benefit I guess.

~~~
eamsen
I've tried hard to like Braid despite it being a platform game (Flashback
(1992) is the only game in that genre that I've enjoyed so far). It's
gorgeous, clever and polished, yet it felt pretentious to the point where it
would distract from the beauty of the game. And I didn't know anything about
the creator of the game before trying, so that couldn't have been personal
bias (not implying that would have been the case otherwise).

~~~
blablablame
I agree. I tried to play Braid many times but just couldn't get myself to play
for more than a bit and switch to another game. Interesting enough, Flashback
is probably one of the games I use as a reference for platform games so maybe
that has something to do with it.

For anyone that hasn't played Flashback, give it a go. The graphics while low
res now, still look very much alive and nice to look at even on modern
monitors.

------
agentultra
I was rather struck by this game. The puzzles are indeed clever and was
immediately enamoured with the combinatoric spaces and visual appeal. Perhaps
it is my experience with Go as a "conversation with hands," that drew me in to
The Witness as a "conversation with the designer."

I hope Jonathan feels very lucky to have made this game. It is great and I
find myself envious and over-joyed that he has had the time, privilege, and
skill to build it (and many thanks to the team behind it as well).

------
myth_buster
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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indie_Game:_The_Movie)

[1]
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1942884/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1942884/)

~~~
seivan
I feel like it's hard to launch a game as an MVP. You can try it out, but
actually selling it without having all the aspects of the game (sound,
graphics, performance, etc) might be hard.

~~~
j2bax
It seems that this is the purpose that Steam's Early Access program fulfills.
Players know well that the game is unfinished, but there is still enough there
to explore. Users even pay for this early access and then they provide
valuable feedback to the developers. Sounds like an MVP to me!

------
Kurtz79
Although I have a backlog of unplayed games which could last me for an
eternity or two, I will probably buy the game regardless at full price now,
instead of waiting for the inevitable sale a few months down the line.

While Jonathan's opinions can be a bit divisive, he is obviously a passionate
programmer and gamer, and he financed the game from the sales of Braid,
without kickstarter shenanigans.

(And of course the game appeals to me regardless as an old-school adventure
games lover).

------
mrmondo
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?

~~~
cstuder
Coming to iOS "in a couple of months", other platforms later.

Currently Windows and PS4 only.

~~~
galapago
Source?

~~~
cstuder
[http://the-witness.net/news/about/](http://the-witness.net/news/about/)

------
edem
It is interesting that the game's rating is very positive but no one
recommends it if I read the reviews. It seems that this game is not like Myst
but a sterile puzzle collection without a story. Did I miss something?

~~~
clentaminator
I think the default sorting for Steam reviews is by how helpful a review was.

Looking through some of the positive and negative reviews, it seems like the
positive reviews are fairly short and don't say much about the game, while the
negative reviews are longer and the reviewers do mention what they thought did
and didn't work about the game, so the longer reviews that have a negative
opinion end up being the most helpful. Just telling someone you liked
something isn't going to cut it for everyone.

I can only guess that everyone who wanted to write a more in-depth positive
review was just so keen to get back to playing the game that they cut their
review short ;)

~~~
Gigablah
The proportion of votes for negative vs positive reviews seem way off. I
wouldn't be surprised if there was some vote brigading going on for whatever
reason. Either that or people mindlessly vote for the longest review.

~~~
archagon
Seriously. I posted a short review about how I liked the game (with some minor
reservations) and immediately got, like, 3 downvotes.

Gamers these days are children.

~~~
user85348905
> (with some minor reservations)

That is why you were downvoted. Blow's fans are children.

------
Mahn
Looks like it's getting panned in steam reviews as people play it. Very
surprising.

~~~
moultano
I think it's too hard to explain what's good about the game without spoilers,
so the positive reviews don't have much content.

------
no_wave
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?

~~~
hibikir
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.

------
teekert
Wow, back in the day I loved Atlantis the lost tales [0], this definitely has
that feel. I would have bought it already if I had more than just Linux at my
disposal...

With the Steambox/machine now in production I thought the divide windows/Linux
was shrinking rapidly. I'm not at all a gamer though.

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYlzsZcuVkY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYlzsZcuVkY)

~~~
eridius
Any consoles? It's on PS4 too, and while I haven't checked I'd guess it's on
Xbox One.

~~~
teekert
Yes, but PS4 only.

~~~
eridius
Huh, you're right. I'm a bit surprised that a Windows game with a console
version would be PS4-exclusive.

------
archagon
(SPOILERS, obviously. Mostly surface-level.)

I absolutely love the game, but for the sake of discussion, I have to admit
that I'm slightly disappointed by the puzzle-paneliness of it all. I didn't
read many spoilers over the 8 years of its development, but Jonathan Blow
always made a point to emphasize the epiphany-based nature of the game. I took
this to mean that as you gain knowledge from the panels, you slowly begin to
understand how to use them to engage in more interesting ways with the world.
Instead, the opposite is true: the world simply provides different kinds of
masks to solve the puzzles with. In other words, the panels are still the
beating heart of the game, while the world is mostly static.

To me, this goes against what I like most in games. I find that one of the
primary advantages of this interactive medium is the ability to solve puzzles
by intuition. Braid was particularly good at this: instead of having to stand
in front of a challenge and reason it out in your mind, you could dive right
in and play around with the mechanics until your mind took on the solution all
on its own. Over time, you acquired a feeling of natural mastery over these
new elements. The Witness does not feel like this; more often than not, you
have to logic out the puzzles in your head or on paper, and it never feels as
good as using the game world to interactively solve a problem.

(Yes, I'm aware of the obelisk puzzles, but it seems they still follow more or
less the same formula. But I haven't gotten very far in that direction, so
we'll see.)

The game also makes me think about the problem of hidden knowledge in open-
world games. Most metroidvania-style games gate the player with keys or
abilities, but a few are starting to add paths that are closed solely based on
the player's knowledge. One of the first games I remember doing this is Super
Metroid: the wall jump and high jump allowed you to get to a lot more places,
but they were nearly impossible to discover without the bird helpers. Fez did
this with its Tetris language. La-Mulana did it with its obscure inscriptions.
And The Witness does it with the ruleset of its various puzzles -- more
completely than any other game before it. Still, I wonder if there's a better
way to stash away that kind of knowledge. The puzzle panels are a bit too
abstract for my tastes. I'd love to see a game where the hidden knowledge you
find is entirely ability-based, but not obscure like in Super Metroid.

Again, The Witness is a masterpiece and one of the few games I'd gladly call
art. It would be worth $40 just for the opportunity walk around the incredibly
beautiful world. Just some food for game design thought! :)

~~~
kayamon
You might want to check out Toki Tori 2.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=084BUNlI7Gk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=084BUNlI7Gk)

~~~
archagon
Oh yeah, how could I forget Toki Tori? I really love the concept behind that
one, except I wish the game was entirely contiguous and didn't rely on a map
screen. (Also, Toki Tori 1 was a fantastic straight-up puzzle game.)

------
iandanforth
I was going to buy this game until I read the steam reviews. If you're
considering this purchase I highly recommend reading the top-rated helpful
reviews. They changed my mind, they might change yours.

TLDR for the reviews - Only buy this if you like puzzles for individual
puzzle's sake, not as means to unlocking a larger story.

~~~
taloft
Fascinating, but honestly you shouldn't be warning people off a game you
haven't even played based on hearsay.

~~~
iandanforth
Hrm, I appreciate your point. Personally I like reading comments that
challenge hype, but if second hand hearsay carries no weight for you, or you
find it offensive in some way, please ignore my original comment and accept my
apologies for wasting your time.

------
jslakro
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

~~~
chc4
I'd hesitate to call Jon Blow an indie dev anymore, expect in the "not a AAA
studio" sense. With the success of Braid and including in Indie Games the
movies, he is probably one of the most well recognized game developers. The
Witness has a massive budget, multiple developers, and high-end voice actors.

------
krige
Oh goodie, he's moving complaints and unfavourable opinions to "Dumb Internet
Questions". I recommend reading the reviews, especially the longer ones,
before buying.

------
donatj
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.

~~~
fulafel
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/](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 copy of Windows and set up a VM with GPU
passthrough...

~~~
jamesgeck0
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.

------
lobster_johnson
Congratulations to Jonathan Blow on finishing his game — I was afraid that he
would never be done. I look forward to playing it, and I hope it sells well.

For entirely selfish reasons, I'm now really hoping this release means he now
has some breathing room to spend more time on developing his programming
language, Jai.

------
oilywater
This game is the perfect tool for testing your problem solving skills. It puts
you in a new framework and tests your cognition.

Portal, The Talos Principle, all have the same goal.

I wonder if people could become excellent problem solver by playing these
games instead of honing the skills in the mathematics, physics or similar
frameworks.

~~~
agentultra
You may begin to realize that you are doing maths without realizing it.
Thinking mathematically is quite natural for a curious, motivated person. It's
writing down these thoughts which people find difficult. It's not easy for us
to be precise!

It could augment your skills in mathematics. Most people are much better than
they think they are or are given credit for.

I gave my niece the game, Set, over the holidays. She was able to beat adult
players after a few rounds. Similar experiences with
[http://dragonbox.com](http://dragonbox.com) as well.

~~~
oilywater
I believe it is called problem solving, not math.

Mathematics is a framework for problem solving which requires problem solving
skills and knowledge of mathematics.

I believe anyone using a piece of paper and writing down their thinking is
doing problem solving on problems that are presented in the game. Yes, it is
probably equivalent to some algorithms present in computer science but they
are (if not familiar) discovering everything by themselves.

The game provides the framework for problem solving, so instead of having
knowledge of math/algorithms, you build that knowledge yourself and improve
your problem solving skills as you go.

The way math is commonly taught seems to be knowledge oriented - which leaves
a lot of people completely stuck when it comes to problem solving.

That's why I'm interested if you could, playing these games, improve your
general problem solving skills, so that only thing you have to do, when you
start with a different framework, is to get the knowledge - but your thinking
previously trained without it and it should work now when you're familiar with
the framework.

At least that is what I would expect form a general problem solver that got
one's skills by solving problems in maths, or physics. I would assume that
they could solve problems in other areas if they knew the terminology, if they
acquired knowledge.

~~~
agentultra
Believe what you will but a rose by any other name...

Maths is problem solving, recognizing patterns, and the ability to express
those ideas and solutions. The language is rather difficult to learn but most
people can do the former intuitively without being told they're doing maths.

Without giving away the game there are beautiful mathematical concepts built
into it. You may not realize that as you encounter new puzzles and constraints
you are internalizing a vocabulary for the patterns you start to recognize.
Once you start writing down this language you will appear to be doing what
people recognize as maths. However I find myself content with simply having
the conversation... for now.

It is certainly tempting to start formulating a proper solution to some of the
puzzles and write programs to test out my theories.

Regardless of what you want to call it I think you can certainly hone your
"problem solving" skills in this game.

------
Eric_WVGG
There’s been a lot of coverage about the puzzles and ingenuity of the
gameplay, but equal attention should be given to the amazing artistic style of
the game.

a couple of blog posts about the making of the trees: [http://the-
witness.net/news/2013/06/2157/](http://the-witness.net/news/2013/06/2157/)
[http://the-witness.net/news/2011/06/witness-trees/](http://the-
witness.net/news/2011/06/witness-trees/)

I’d love to see more videogames step away from uncanny-valley and ill-advised
attempts at photorealism and instead embrace unique artistic style.

~~~
LesZedCB
That's been really big for Oculus games from what I can tell. It has the added
benefit of being faster to render, allowing for a GTX970 (the minimum spec
card for oculus) to be able to drive games at the required speed. Lucky's
Tale[1] is a good example of this.

[1] [http://playfulcorp.com/](http://playfulcorp.com/)

------
robohamburger
This game is indeed great! Push the envelope forward for puzzle games and
games in general. The game feels pretty heavy with potential like there are
layers I am not even seeing yet and I am 10 hours in!

Some what spoilery I made a solver for one of its puzzles:
[https://gist.github.com/robo-
hamburger/2269ef76603263ce1061](https://gist.github.com/robo-
hamburger/2269ef76603263ce1061)

Amusingly I ended up not really needing it but fun to code.

------
autoreleasepool
How far along is he with implementing his game dev language, Jai? I haven't
kept up, but I was interested in his early demonstrations.

~~~
topspin
He's still doing live coding sessions on Twitch. Nothing has been released
yet. Despite that there is already at least one comprehensive Jai language
tutorial that I've seen and also syntax highlighting rules for at least one
editor.

------
nickpeterson
My daughter is going to be about 4, and she loves puzzles. I was thinking
about picking this up for the apple tv to play along with her. Is it
conceptually too difficult for children?

~~~
6x9equals42
The world is beautiful so she might enjoy playing it, but you would be doing
the actual puzzle solving. It gets very challenging.

~~~
nickpeterson
Thanks, I couldn't gauge from the pictures how hard it actually is.

------
phodo
Here is a Jonathan Blow interview on The Witness.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OV2rYM6mRo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OV2rYM6mRo)

------
aaronsnoswell
I have two questions that the steam page didn't answer; Can I play this in VR,
and if not, why not? Jonathan Blow is a master artisan - I can't wait to try
this game.

~~~
saluk
You kind of can with a hack, but it's not a comfortable experience. The game
was not really developed with VR in mind, though the team experimented with VR
support.

------
wnevets
$40 is a bit too steep for me. I'll wait till a steam sale.

------
sandworm101
So it's basically Myst but without the story?

------
seanp2k2
Titles like this could be amazing with VR. Can't wait until Rift + Vive
finally start shipping :)

------
programmarchy
Would love to play this... on my Mac. :/ There's rumors of an iOS version in
the future.

------
imron
Excellent. Now hopefully he has more time to work on his programming language
:-)

------
mempko
MIST for a newer generation! I'm surprised nobody else mentioned MIST here.

------
kevinSuttle
Love the music. Can't wait for the soundtrack to be released.

------
rwc
Looks like Myst but without the cutting edge 1993 graphics.

------
gravypod
Is this the game he wrote in his new programming language?

~~~
Narishma
No. It's written in C++.

~~~
gravypod
Has he given any hint when we will see him using his programming language in
the real world?

------
ryan-allen
It's awesome. Someone please nuke the spoilers!

------
ericfrederich
Nothing but bad reviews on the link provided. Wow.

------
fasteo
Anyone knows the music of the first teaser ?

~~~
fasteo
Shazam to the rescue: Zoe Keating, escape artist

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ufe2JtYqZI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ufe2JtYqZI)

------
highCs
Someone knows who the art director is?

------
nod
Is this an heir to Myst?

------
gtkspert
This looks awesome

------
Keyframe
Premise sounds exactly like Myst.

~~~
krige
It's quite unlike Myst actually, lacking anything resembling a story, and the
interaction with environment is minimal.

~~~
Keyframe
I don't know what the game is like, but I've said the premise sounds exactly
like Myst. Even the video supports that. Here's a brief from the linked page:

 _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.

The Witness is a single-player game in an open world with dozens of locations
to explore and over 500 puzzles. This game respects you as an intelligent
player and it treats your time as precious. There's no filler; each of those
puzzles brings its own new idea into the mix. So, this is a game full of
ideas._

Difference in the premise being instead of your amnesia and finding about you,
there's a book and you're finding about island's characters.

------
hbex5
And it is _wonderful_.

It's one of those games that manages to push buttons in your brain you never
knew you had, and make you feel like a genius when something finally clicks.

And it does all this without ever needing to explain anything.

Jonathan Blow's enigma variations. A meandering meditation on the means by
which humans gain knowledge and understanding of the world, by standing on the
shoulders of a hacking minigame.

Also it's gorgeous.

Did I mention it's BRILLIANT?

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

~~~
mwill
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 thats
required and those that...don't.

The first category, you slowly build up your understanding of the various
rules as you progress, and they all play by the same rules. The second
category though, the real puzzle is to figure out what you're missing,
generally by observation.

But once you learn the difference between the puzzles that you can take a face
value, and the puzzles where you should look around, it feels much more fair.

The only time I felt truly frustrated was the few puzzles that introduce audio
as a mechanic. 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.

~~~
sdrothrock
> 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.

~~~
unimpressive
To elaborate on what was said in other replies to this comment. Jonathan Blow
has said previously that he got around some of the puzzles being fiendishly
hard by not requiring all of them to be completed to get to the end of the
game. He didn't want somebody to get stuck on one puzzle and then not be able
to see the rest of the game over it, so you should be able to complete the
vast majority of the game including the ending just fine without those audio
based puzzles.

~~~
sdrothrock
I've read that, but it's still a bit of a shoddy response to people who want
to get 100% or get the rewards for completing non-critical subsections.

Imagine if you paid for a book and there were appendices about characters or
something extra, but written in a language you didn't know. It would kind of
suck.

Edit: As a side note, these comments seem to be the internet equivalent of:

A: =~#$())##~

B: Sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you.

A: Nevermind, it's not important.

Which I think most people would agree is incredibly rude and dismissive.

~~~
clentaminator
>Imagine if you paid for a book and there were appendices about characters or
something extra, but written in a language you didn't know.

If you don't already know about it, you may want to check out the book
Finnegan's Wake :)

Joking aside, I think you're right that there should be some kind of notice
somewhere, in-game or out (even on the Steam page) that indicates that some
parts of the game are difficult or inaccessible for players with a degree of
hearing loss.

Even better might be to have an option in the game that turns on an additional
visual cue that could augment whatever the original audio cue was. Actually
designing it to make sense in the same way would of course be difficult, but I
don't doubt that there are enough players that would appreciate that option.

------
webkike
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????

~~~
bendykstra
When a new rule is introduced, the early panels can be easily solved by trial
and error. However, it's a mistake to continue until you can articulate the
rule. That means experimenting with a panel even if you accidentally get the
correct answer on the first try.

Edit: I'm reminded of this game from the New York Times from October:
[http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/03/upshot/a-quick...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/03/upshot/a-quick-
puzzle-to-test-your-problem-solving.html)

~~~
webkike
I do not mind new panels introducing concepts; what I mind is the symbols not
always being clearly connected with the mechanic they introduce. For example,
the black and white symbols that needed to be separated were intuitive.

~~~
devindotcom
___MINOR SPOILER /HINT BELOW_ __

While I sort of agree, I must say that part of the fun of the game (and much
of the challenge) is learning the 'language' of each puzzle. In the case of
the little orange suns, it was like learning from scratch, one letter at a
time.

First panel: "Okay, I can't go between them."

Second panel: "Oh, I can, but have to end up on one side... which amounts to
having them in the same section. How is that different?"

Third panel: "There were 4, and the only path that worked divided them? What
the hell?"

Fourth panel: "Oh with six I have to make them into groups of two - so maybe I
have to divide them equally?"

Fifth panel: "Aha, no, it's groups of two!"

And now that's part of your vocabulary; you discovered it organically, not by
bringing in some outside knowledge like symbols from off the island. Notice
there aren't any numbers or letters? Like, anywhere? That's part of it...

~~~
Chris2048
Spoiler Alert?

~~~
devindotcom
True, I should have mentioned that and have added. Pretty much everything is
spoilery in threads about the game, though. What I described is fairly early
and basic, though, not some big revelation. Go try the game if you haven't!

------
pferde
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."

~~~
colinramsay
This is going to be one of the most popular games of 2016, and is releasing
for Windows and PS4. Compared to those platforms, do you think that the time
it would take to get a Linux version up and running would be cost-effective?

There are some Linux sales figures kicking around [1] and they generally show
that the Linux share is under 3%.

[1] [https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/sales-statistics-
for-...](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/sales-statistics-for-linux-
games-from-different-developers-part-4.5253)

~~~
hellofunk
And OSX. Apparently Macs are the fastest growing segment of the desktop/laptop
industry, but they are often the last to get the big games.

~~~
Tepix
The main reason these days is that Macs don't have good GPUs for games.

~~~
rangibaby
That's not true. Even current Macs with IGPs can play nearly any game at low
settings adequately.

~~~
fluxquanta
I'm sure game developers are really looking to capture the "low setting
adequacy" market.

~~~
rangibaby
They certainly are. Look at the current top 10 for Steam; there are exactly
two games, Fallout and GTA, that require anything more than the world's
crappiest computer to play. I have no clue about the games not represented on
Steam (basically Battlefield and the Star Wars edition of Battlefield), but I
bet they follow the same pattern.

The Witness has has a peak of less than 5,000 players at one time so far.

The top two games (and basically the only active "pro" games at the moment),
which together have about one million players playing at any given time are
both carefully tuned to run on toasters according to Valve's hardware survey.

I like Valve's current micro transaction model. You can buy cosmetic items,
but that's it. I can't speak for DOTA2, but in CS:GO they don't impact the
game negatively like they did with TF2. Trading from free drops also allows
kids and poor people to participate in the economy, which allows them to make
more money for Valve than begging mom to buy a $60 game would.

------
eXpl0it3r
And why exactly is this on Hacker News?

~~~
clentaminator
"On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes
more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the
answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

An open world puzzle game seems exactly like the kind of thing that might
gratify one's intellectual curiosity. Plus it does make a nice change from
reading the latest thing about React ;)

~~~
dang
That, plus its creator is one of us:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=jblow](https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=jblow).
Of course this belongs on HN.

------
darklajid
I've gotta be honest. I have no idea who Jonathan Blow is. I checked the Steam
Store page and it seems .. to be not my thing.

That said, I recently found, bought and played 'Pony Island' (if you don't
know what that is: Do NOT watch videos. Think '6th Sense' \- you'll ruin the
game). That wouldn't have caught my eye based on random videos/screenshots
either and it's right now my 'best game ever'.

Can someone explain why 'The Witness' is interesting? Why would it trend here?
What's the relation between HN and Jonathan or this game?

~~~
simoncion
> I checked the Steam Store page and it seems .. to be not my thing. ... Can
> someone explain why 'The Witness' is interesting?

If it's _truly_ not your thing, then you won't understand why it's
interesting. If it _is_ your thing, then it's _very_ , _very_ , _very_
interesting.

ROT13'd probably-spoiler-free-but-maybe-contains-tiny-spoilers overview of
what makes the game good follows:

Gur Jvgarff vf n chmmyr tnzr. Gur chmmyrf enatr va qvssvphygl sebz gevivny gb
irel _engure_ uneq. Vg vf fvzvyne va _fcvevg_ gb Zlfg, ohg abg ng nyy gur fnzr
nf Zlfg. Gur neg naq fbhaq vf tbetrbhf. Gur tnzr'f cnpvat vf ernyyl tbbq.

