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[Dineren]

Once they made the decision to publish digitally, Blow build out the remaining dev schedule for that. So while it seems to be running tight, I don't think that means it was running behind. From the blog and Twitter, the plan was to finish it very close to release.

All the audio recordings have been in the game for a long time, but with Blow reading the dialogue. So once they recorded it they would basically just have to swap it out. I really want to hear the temp tracks. :lol

That would be an amazing extra.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Don't mean to put any pressure on you, but the best thing to do with generosity is to pass it on and make another Gaffer's day, even with just a little surprise

Hahaha, indeed. Might have to do something in the Indie / Steam thread soon!

 

[Vexidus]

How incredible would it be if The Witness had in-game commetary? Like Gone Home or Portal. I really don't expect that from Jonathan Blow as he tends to let people come up with their own ideas and meanings, but I can dream!

 

[SmiteOfHand]

Is it time that we start referring to the line/grid puzzles by what they really are or is it still fun to watch Angry Internet Men rant about? I guess I'll user spoilers to be safe..

Spoiler

They are circuitry/breadboard puzzles for electrical current connectivity (and likely more)

, and we have known this for over a year now.

Spoiler

The cables laying around EVERWHERE even light up bright-ass neon colors when connections are made. Look at the ground in the video as the dude walks away after finishing the sequence of puzzles. Their purpose is connectivity, not just 'lock mechanism'.

I am glad Blow has not been beating people over the head with this stuff even with the backlash of $40 FOR LINE PUZZLES WTF!? I can't wait to start pulling together this massive puzzle box.

 

[viveks86]

How incredible would it be if The Witness had in-game commetary? Like Gone Home or Portal. I really don't expect that from Jonathan Blow as he tends to let people come up with their own ideas and meanings, but I can dream!

I think he mentioned that they are all in the form of audio logs

I mean behind the scenes developer commentary, like a new game plus bonus.

Ah ok. I misunderstood. Yeah that'll be cool

 

[Vexidus]

I think he mentioned that they are all in the form of audio logs

I mean behind the scenes developer commentary, like a new game plus bonus.

 

[Deputy Dangle]

How incredible would it be if The Witness had in-game commetary? Like Gone Home or Portal. I really don't expect that from Jonathan Blow as he tends to let people come up with their own ideas and meanings, but I can dream!

I really hope this happens. This past week I've been listening to a bunch talks and podcasts with him on them to satiate my anticipation. I could listen to the guy talk for hours.

 

[Saty]

Are the keyboard's arrow keys usable for the line puzzles?

 

[Remembrance]

New interview about the puzzle design: http://www.dailydot.com/geek/jonathan-blow-interview-the-witness/

We have hard numbers now: you can win the game by solving any 7 of the 11 areas of the island.

 

[PolishQ]

Here's an interview from a couple weeks ago that I missed. Good examples of puzzle variation for the naysayers:

In my time with the game—I was granted only an hour with it—this interplay between ideas and objects was palpable. Sometimes it came together with a lapidary grace; other times it felt comically awkward. One early puzzle is built around three panels in a building that hangs precariously over the ocean. The second and third panels are exact copies of the first, but melted in varying degrees, distorting the proportions and symmetry of their grids. The traced line to unlock each is identical in practice, but the warped visual references make the repetition feel like mystical guesswork or outright divination. Another puzzle is set in a clear panel with no suggestions for which pattern you should trace—until you notice it perfectly frames an outcropping of rocks in the bay. Outlining them completes the circuit. A later puzzle obscures rock formations with bushes, leaving you to guess at their final shape.

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/01/07/ready-player-none/

 

[Remembrance]

I have a hard time arguing about the "line drawing" thing with second-hand examples. Like, these are not the kind of mindblowing puzzles that will bowl someone over. And the ones that would, I wouldn't want to spoil for myself right now!

Plus these particular examples really need to be seen. Putting them in words really takes a lot of impact out.

Until I have played it, I'm going to concede that me trying to describe the puzzles to other people would probably not ring true.

 

[Mifune]

Yikes, that Paris Review piece ruins some of the puzzles. Tread carefully, friends.

 

[GhaleonEB]

New interview about the puzzle design: http://www.dailydot.com/geek/jonathan-blow-interview-the-witness/

We have hard numbers now: you can win the game by solving any 7 of the 11 areas of the island.

Sometimes I do things and they seem pretty obscure, and I’m like, “Oh, not many people are going to get this,” and in some cases if it’s not a very good idea in the first place, it’s like “We’re just going to cut that, because it’s not that good, and it’s not going to work for most people.”

But if the idea is good, what you really want as a designer is other ways of incorporating that into the game where it’s not a requirement for everybody, but the people who get it can get it, and the people who don’t need to get it or don’t like it don’t have to.

The way the game is structured is there’s a tremendous amount of optional stuff. To actually win the game there’s a certain amount of things that you need to do, but only a very small portion of it is required. There’s all these different areas you can explore, and you need a certain number of them solved, but no specific one of those areas have to be solved. Seven of them out of 11 have to be, and you can pick.

I really like this approach to the game. Beating the game will still require a pretty long time, but those who want a challenge have a pretty long ramp to go and find them.

 

[Remembrance]

I really like this approach to the game. Beating the game will still require a pretty long time, but those who want a challenge have a pretty long ramp to go and find them.

What intrigues me are Blow's 100% run tweets from last year. It took him about 4 hours 40 minutes to get to 80% completion, and 7 hours 40 minutes to get to 100%.

Speculation:

Spoiler

Something about those last puzzles takes time to execute, not just to figure out.

 

[cpp_is_king]

What intrigues me are Blow's 100% run tweets from last year.

Spoiler

It took him about 4 hours 40 minutes to get to 80% completion, and 7 hours 40 minutes to get to 100%.

Something about those last puzzles takes time to execute, not just to figure out.

That's... kind of a spoiler, even if it's just a hypothesis. Please don't do that again without spoiler tags. Since you've already spoiled part of it, I'll continue.

Spoiler

Maybe something has to be done at a specific time of day.

Edit: I spoiler tagged your quote, in case you want to use this opportunity to spoiler tag your original post.

 

[Vexidus]

Yikes, that Paris Review piece ruins some of the puzzles. Tread carefully, friends.

Yeah, my heart sank a little bit after reading the solution to one of the puzzles. One that would have felt revelatory to solve on my own. I'm sure there will be plenty of those kinds of moments though. In one interview, Blow says that he wanted to create as many Eureka! type moments as possible, which is cool.

 

[skynidas]

That's... kind of a spoiler, even if it's just a hypothesis. Please don't do that again without spoiler tags. Since you've already spoiled part of it, I'll continue.

Spoiler

Maybe something has to be done at a specific time of day.

Edit: I spoiler tagged your quote, in case you want to use this opportunity to spoiler tag your original post.

that's not a spoiler, lmao

 

[GhaleonEB]

That's... kind of a spoiler, even if it's just a hypothesis. Please don't do that again without spoiler tags. Since you've already spoiled part of it, I'll continue.

Spoiler

Maybe something has to be done at a specific time of day.

Edit: I spoiler tagged your quote, in case you want to use this opportunity to spoiler tag your original post.

It's not really a spoiler. Do the math: that speed run works out to solving about 1.5 puzzles per minute (assuming the old 677 puzzle count is still directionally accurate). That's just going from panel to panel entering the solutions, which is not really what the game is about anyways. It's going to be a long run given the sheer number of puzzles.

 

[PolishQ]

Yeah, my heart sank a little bit after reading the solution to one of the puzzles. One that would have felt revelatory to solve on my own. I'm sure there will be plenty of those kinds of moments though. In one interview, Blow says that he wanted to create as many Eureka! type moments as possible, which is cool.

The article is only about the first hour of the game, so it's not giving away anything too advanced.

 

[cpp_is_king]

It's not really a spoiler. Do the math: that speed run works out to solving about 1.5 puzzles per minute (assuming the old 677 puzzle count is still directionally accurate). That's just going from panel to panel entering the solutions, which is not really what the game is about anyways. It's going to be a long run given the sheer number of puzzles.

It very much is a spoiler. Before reading that post, do you think anyone was like

Spoiler

"Oh I wonder if some of the puzzles depend on the time of day"

? I very much doubt it. Some people don't like to be spoiled at all, even about stuff like that. And even if it turns out to be wrong. And yea, I was the one who said it, but only because it's the logical conclusion that you can't *not* think of after reading that post.

 

[SmiteOfHand]

I don't get

Spoiler

time of day

as being part of the solution at all from both that person's post and what Jon was talking about, but I am all for liberal use of spoiler tags.

 

[cpp_is_king]

I don't get

Spoiler

time of day

as being part of the solution at all from both that person's post and what Jon was talking about, but I am all for liberal use of spoiler tags.

It was this part about his post that I consider spoilerish:

Spoiler

Something about those last puzzles takes time to execute, not just to figure out.

The natural corollary to this is that

Spoiler

the puzzles take a long time to solve, even if you know exactly how to solve them. For something as simple as a line puzzle, that can only mean that things have to happen at a certain time.

Anyway, maybe I'm reaching here, but I still consider that spoilerish, especially for a game such as this where figuring things out is the entire point of the game.

 

[PolishQ]

It was this part about his post that I consider spoilerish:

Spoiler

Something about those last puzzles takes time to execute, not just to figure out.

The natural corollary to this is that

Spoiler

the puzzles take a long time to solve, even if you know exactly how to solve them. For something as simple as a line puzzle, that can only mean that things have to happen at a certain time.

Anyway, maybe I'm reaching here, but I still consider that spoilerish, especially for a game such as this where figuring things out is the entire point of the game.

It could just mean

Spoiler

a lot of legwork.

 

[Dinjooh]

All the audio recordings have been in the game for a long time, but with Blow reading the dialogue. So once they recorded it they would basically just have to swap it out. I really want to hear the temp tracks. :lol

Reminds me of a french game I playtested some years back. All the dialogue was a mixture of the developers and MS Sam speaking to me. What was supposed to be serious scenes turned out to be incredibly hilarious.

 

[Remembrance]

All right, I don't mind accommodating for different levels of spoiler aversion for everyone.

We're all in this for the long haul.

 

[SmiteOfHand]

I think it might be that I latched more onto the word execution, as in the "boss puzzles" (THAT'S RIGHT I SAID IT)

Spoiler

take particularly exceptional mechanical execution to pull off. Braid had some of that with some tricky jump execution so not out of the realm of possibility.

▽ I think that's fair.

 

[cpp_is_king]

It could just mean

Spoiler

a lot of legwork.

It could mean other things too, but the point is that it gives you ideas that are supposed to come from playing the game. Anything that could be construed as a hint about how the puzzles work is a spoiler IMO

 

[Fhtagn]

For me, it seems to hit on many of the things that my favorite games have had:

- a hand-crafted world to explore, where everything is there for a reason
- content that inspires (or even requires) intellectual thought
- secrets, some hidden extremely deeply

I'm more excited for this game than I am for Dark Souls 3, and I really like Dark Souls.

Yeah, Honestly, I'm more excited for Dark Souls 3, but this is second on my most anticipated list. I don't even know what's third, beyond these two there's a group of games I'm looking forward to but none at this intensity. And those reasons are exactly why.

 

[Remembrance]

I went back and tagged speculative posts on the last few pages too.

I am basically trying to figure out as much as I can from information that Blow chooses to reveal, which is probably going to be more than other people want to know in advance.

 

[SmiteOfHand]

First game to spawn a pre-release spoiler thread?

Spoiler

I jest.

 

[Vexidus]

That's... kind of a spoiler, even if it's just a hypothesis. Please don't do that again without spoiler tags. Since you've already spoiled part of it, I'll continue.

Spoiler

Maybe something has to be done at a specific time of day.

Edit: I spoiler tagged your quote, in case you want to use this opportunity to spoiler tag your original post.

This makes me wonder, have we seen any screenshots that

Spoiler

take place at night?

I don't remember seeing any, but maybe I'm just forgetting. I would actually love to

Spoiler

see the island and the lasers and the stars/moon at night

.

 

[Remembrance]

This makes me wonder, have we seen any screenshots that

Spoiler

take place at night?

I don't remember seeing any, but maybe I'm just forgetting. I would actually love to

Spoiler

see the island and the lasers and the stars/moon at night

.

No, but someone on Twitter did say that the game is

Spoiler

easy to spoil

, which now makes me suspect that there will be

Spoiler

a major environmental change like that

.

And now

Spoiler

saying that the game is easy to spoil

has become a spoiler.

 

[Vexidus]

No, but someone on Twitter did say that the game is

Spoiler

easy to spoil

, which now makes me suspect that there will be

Spoiler

a major environmental change like that

.

And now

Spoiler

saying that the game is easy to spoil

has become a spoiler.

Yeah, I think I am going to avoid these threads when the game comes out, and come back to them after I'm done with the game to read what everyone was saying.

Even watching a Giant Bomb quick look could be dangerous, and you would almost certainly see some puzzles solved in different orders you did and perhaps ones you haven't seen yet.

 

[The Technomancer]

Is this a spiritual successor to Myst or something...just the zoom out of the Island at the end reminds me of Myst for some reason.

Also wheres that music from?

The promo images of the island are almost certainly a deliberate homage to Myst. They positioned the peak at the righthand side in a way that makes the proportions too close to ignore

 

[hey_it's_that_dog]

No, but someone on Twitter did say that the game is

Spoiler

easy to spoil

, which now makes me suspect that there will be

Spoiler

a major environmental change like that

.

And now

Spoiler

saying that the game is easy to spoil

has become a spoiler.

I took the tweet to mean simply that exploring for yourself contributes greatly to the enjoyment of the game and even something small like seeing locations in screenshots instead of finding them yourself for the first time is a detriment to the experience.

 

[Vexidus]

I took the tweet to mean simply that exploring for yourself contributes greatly to the enjoyment of the game and even something small like seeing locations in screenshots instead of finding them yourself for the first time is a detriment to the experience.

I think this is definitely true. I mean, screenshots thus far have been very carefully curated for release. The kinds of screenshots that will pour out after the game launches will surely have all kinds of surprising and remarkable things in them. Luckily for myself, I plan on playing the game as soon as possible and go on a mini blackout while I play.

 

[petethepanda]

*walks in*

*sees walls of whited out text*

 

[Icyflamez96]

 

[The Illiterati]

Yeah, as sad and isolating as it is, I will stay away from these threads even if stuck. I will attempt to bask in this game for as long as I can, no need to speed it along.

 

[Mikey Jr.]

*walks in*

*sees walls of whited out text*

Honestly, fuck this thread.

Peace out bitches.

 

[SmiteOfHand]

Is there anybody out there?

 

[GhaleonEB]

It was this part about his post that I consider spoilerish:

Something about those last puzzles takes time to execute, not just to figure out.

The natural corollary to this is that the puzzles take a long time to solve, even if you know exactly how to solve them. For something as simple as a line puzzle, that can only mean that things have to happen at a certain time.

Anyway, maybe I'm reaching here, but I still consider that spoilerish, especially for a game such as this where figuring things out is the entire point of the game.

That's total speculation, not a spoiler. He looked at how long the speedrun took and thought some puzzles must take some time to solve. That's it. He might be right. He might be wrong. But there's no reason to spoiler tag total guesses about puzzle design based on how long the developer spent to complete a speedrun, based on nothing but how long it took him to do it.

All that does is make people paranoid actual game spoilers are out there and being discussed, which is not the case.

 

[Chezzymann]

New interview about the puzzle design: http://www.dailydot.com/geek/jonathan-blow-interview-the-witness/

We have hard numbers now: you can win the game by solving any 7 of the 11 areas of the island.

And it takes at least 20 hours to beat the game? Shit, those must be really elaborate puzzles

 

[GhaleonEB]

And it takes at least 20 hours to beat the game? Shit, those must be really elaborate puzzles

Some are apparently very complex. But there's also travel time between puzzles, exploration of the island and time spent figuring out how to solve a puzzle.

There's also a lot of them. Nearly 700.

 

[cpp_is_king]

That's total speculation, not a spoiler. He looked at how long the speedrun took and thought some puzzles must take some time to solve. That's it. He might be right. He might be wrong. But there's no reason to spoiler tag total guesses about puzzle design based on how long the developer spent to complete a speedrun, based on nothing but how long it took him to do it.

All that does is make people paranoid actual game spoilers are out there and being discussed, which is not the case.

It's not that outrageous to think that different people are comfortable with knowing different amounts of information about the game in advance. You can glean information about the nature of the puzzles from the fact that the guy who designed it took 60% of his time completing 20% of the content. You just can. Call it a spoiler, call it whatever you want, but if that type of info is fair game for open discussion, then I'm out of this thread as well as the OP. Because it's a spoiler to me. As in, it's something I wanted to figure out on my own, and now I can't.

 

[GhaleonEB]

It's not that outrageous to think that different people are comfortable with knowing different amounts of information about the game in advance. You can glean information about the nature of the puzzles from the fact that the guy who designed it took 60% of his time completing 20% of the content. You just can. Call it a spoiler, call it whatever you want, but if that type of info is fair game for open discussion, then I'm out of this thread as well as the OP. Because it's a spoiler to me. As in, it's something I wanted to figure out on my own, and now I can't.

Different people are going to have different levels of spoiler tolerance, yes. But that does not mean we need to adjust how spoiler tags are enforced to accommodate everyone. If you are worried that Jonathan Blow's tweets from a long time ago about how long it took him to speedrun the game he designed constitutes spoilers about the puzzle design, then yes, you should bail on the discussion.

Needless spoiler tags discourages discussion. We already have people seeing the black bars and bailing on the thread, when absolutely no spoilers about the game are in any of them.

 

[BTA]

I think it's fine to want to use spoiler tags for speculation so people can avoid it, but it already seems to just be fueling some paranoia, yeah.

It very much is a spoiler. Before reading that post, do you think anyone was like

Spoiler

"Oh I wonder if some of the puzzles depend on the time of day"

?

I'd like to comment on this though- I would find it kinda surprising if a lot of people weren't thinking about stuff like that. If this game's going to have at least some obscure/ARG-like puzzles, which is pretty much what's expected of it at this point, then that's an easy bet. Hell, even before that point it'd be the sort of gimmick I'd expect from a game like this. Maybe that's just me?

 

[Neoweee]

This is, like, the fourth Steam game I've preordered, out of 400+ games in my collection. Nothing I've seen, read, or heard indicates that the price is out of line with the content.

 

[Manny Calavera]

I was pleasantly surprised this is coming out so soon already. Even though I'm really looking forward to this somehow it dropped off my radar for a while. Definitely day one for me.

 

[Remembrance]

Wow, that was bad. Sorry for overcompensating.