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The Witness - Release Date Trailer, coming 26th January 2016

P

Putty

Member
I'm really curious with this. Looks gorgeous and seems like one of those you can just get lost simply wandering about.....ill probably wait to see what price it launches at.
 
M

Mivey

Member
KainXVIII said:
Only with same type of puzzles and i have doubts about plot =)
Click to expand...
A unified interface does not make all puzzles identical. Could be the case, but since this is the guy who made Braid, and who spent 8 years on it, nah can't see that being the case.
As to plot, who plays puzzle games for the plot anyway? I mean, there are things like the Layton games, but those are clearly the exception. I don't look at Hexcells and wish that thing had characters and a story.
 
S

saunderez

Member
Micerider said:
One week away and still no public price? I'm interested by the game but please, this is getting late.
Click to expand...
I heard on Bombcast it's still under active development. I expect we'll get news of a delay in the next few days if that's the case. It ain't gonna make the 26th.
 
KainXVIII

KainXVIII

Member
Mivey said:
As to plot, who plays puzzle games for the plot anyway? I mean, there are things like the Layton games, but those are clearly the exception. I don't look at Hexcells and wish that thing had characters and a story.
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Well, then comparison with Myst and especially Riven is wrong, because plot is pretty interesting in this series (and it continued in good books).
Also The Talos Principle says hello.
 
M

Mivey

Member
KainXVIII said:
Well, then comparison with Myst and especially Riven is wrong, because plot is pretty interesting in this series (and it continued in good books).
Also The Talos Principle says hello.
Click to expand...
Beautiful story in that game, but I would have still loved it, if it didn't have any of that. Or rather, if the plot was totally "optional". So no/few voice overs, far less texts. Since The Witness will have some voice acting, and we know from Braid that Blow is no stranger to subtle ambiguous story telling, where a few ideas are thrown around without forcing some sort of narrative on you, I am guessing that is what the plot will be in this game. So more about figuring things out, but no absolute answers to be found.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
KneehighPark said:
Based on the lack of news regarding its price or press/review copies, and the fact that Jonathan Blow just mentioned on Twitter that he is still finishing parts of the game, I'm thinking we will see another small delay
Click to expand...
He said he finished the last bit of content yesterday, was tweeting about looking for a venue for a release party, the PSN page is up, etc

All signs point to it releasing on time
 
GribbleGrunger

GribbleGrunger

Dreams in Digital
More_Badass said:
Did anyone notice this before? In the recent poster:
cmnvrKQ.jpg
Click to expand...

Is that a Journey Easter egg?
 
D

Deputy Dangle

Member
More_Badass said:
He said he finished the last bit of content yesterday, was tweeting about looking for a venue for a release party, the PSN page is up, etc

All signs point to it releasing on time
Click to expand...

Jonathan's team at Thekla have been working on this for so many years. I can't imagine them settling on a firm date if they weren't confident they could hit it. Plus its not unusual for independent releases like this to be worked on up until the final hours. I'm just curious what the review copy situation is like.

Mula said:
is this on rails like myst ?
Click to expand...

Nope. It's like recent first person exploration games. You can walk anywhere you want in any direction you want.
 
W

WITHE1982

Member
I'm so getting this day one.

I'm guessing it's a lot like The Talos Principle (which I've got but have yet to start).

I wish they'd just go ahead and announce a price. I'm hovering over the buy button on A Boy and His Blob but will have to hold off if this is gonna be £40+.
 
R

Ryo Hazuki

Member
WITHE1982 said:
I'm so getting this day one.

I'm guessing it's a lot like The Talos Principle (which I've got but have yet to start).

I wish they'd just go ahead and announce a price. I'm hovering over the buy button on A Boy and His Blob but will have to hold off if this is gonna be £40+.
Click to expand...

You should really start The Talos Principle as soon as you can. Amazing game.
 
S

SmiteOfHand

Member
To offer a little less snark and more directly demonstrate for those having a hard time seeing only dumb minigame puzzles. Focus on the segment starting at 0:22 - 0:50

https://youtu.be/SPMMKFX78x0?t=21

Besides the grid puzzles, which from the few variations we have seen have already shown loads of variance, we see in this short segment:
  • Segmented bridge mechanic tied to grid puzzles
  • Grid segments being completed as you walk on the glass tiles (it is quick but watch the green grid puzzle through the doorway)
  • Maze with sliding walls (Maze is grid shaped from a birds eye view)
  • Water lowering, boat door opening, boat ride! (This is incredibly Riven)
  • Turning on Lazers to point at the central mountain.
That isn't even getting into some of the spoilery speculation that people have already started working out. This is just a short 25 second montage in the trailer for a game with 600+ puzzles in development more than 5 years by the dude who made Braid, who has proven he has solid puzzle design and complexity pacing skills, and knows when a mechanic has worn out its welcome.

If you think it is going to be 25 hours of boring sliding puzzles equivalency then you haven't been paying attention.
 
H

Hyperbole

Banned
SmiteOfHand said:
To offer a little less snark and more directly demonstrate for those having a hard time seeing only dumb minigame puzzles. Focus on the segment starting at 0:22 - 0:50

https://youtu.be/SPMMKFX78x0?t=21

Besides the grid puzzles, which from the few variations we have seen have already shown loads of variance, we see in this short segment:
  • Segmented bridge mechanic tied to grid puzzles
  • Grid segments being completed as you walk on the glass tiles (it is quick but watch the green grid puzzle through the doorway)
  • Maze with sliding walls (Maze is grid shaped from a birds eye view)
  • Water lowering, boat door opening, boat ride! (This is incredibly Riven)
  • Turning on Lazers to point at the central mountain.
That isn't even getting into some of the spoilery speculation that people have already started working out. This is just a short 25 second montage in the trailer for a game with 600+ puzzles in development more than 5 years by the dude who made Braid, who has proven he has solid puzzle design and complexity pacing skills, and knows when a mechanic has worn out its welcome.

If you think it is going to be 25 hours of boring sliding puzzles equivalency then you haven't been paying attention.
Click to expand...
I agree. Braid spoilers:
there were several time mechanics throughout braid. 4 or 5 if I recall. And I recall only knowing about rewind before I played it. It's possible and perhaps likely that what we have seen is just the first and most basic form of puzzle in the witness, and that they build and twist the formula as the game goes on.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
MikeSan said:
Any idea for the price ? Still not possible to buy it on Steam or the PSN ?
Click to expand...

Blow mentioned that he only recently discovered that PSN pre-orders have to be set up months in advance. There are no barriers on Steam when it comes to setting up pre-orders, but I assume the lack of such an option there is so he doesn't have people complaining about the disparity.
 
H

hawk2025

Member
JaseC said:
Blow mentioned that he only recently discovered that PSN pre-orders have to be set up months in advance. There are no barriers on Steam when it comes to setting up pre-orders, but I assume the lack of a pre-order option there is so he doesn't have people complaining about the discrepancy.
Click to expand...


There's been a discrepancy multiple times in both directions and no one complained.

Makes no sense.
 
M

Mivey

Member
hey_it's_that_dog said:
He may have changed his mind since 2011.

(I hope so.)
Click to expand...
Maybe he applies what he learnt from The Witness and Braid: A stealth game where you are on an island and can change the world by solving panel puzzles and rewind time if you make a mistake, but some enemies and object are immune to time manipulation.
Edit:
Of course, this wasn't meant as a light joke, I am totally convinced that will be his next game.
 
H

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
Mivey said:
Maybe he applies what he learnt from The Witness and Braid: A stealth game where you are on an island and can change the world by solving panel puzzles and rewind time if you make a mistake, but some enemies and object are immune to time manipulation.
Click to expand...

I would guess his next game will have very little in common with either of his previous games. He just spend 6-7 years on an island puzzle game. Hopefully he feels like he has made the statement he intended to make with The Witness and doesn't need to base his next game on a similar foundation. Of course he'll carry the lessons he learned with him, but that doesn't need to substantiate in a way that is reminiscent (even superficially) of his past work.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Mivey said:
Maybe he applies what he learnt from The Witness and Braid: A stealth game where you are on an island and can change the world by solving panel puzzles and rewind time if you make a mistake, but some enemies and object are immune to time manipulation.
Click to expand...
Hey, Bithell went from 2D puzzle platformer to stealth game.

I'd actually be pretty interested to see how Blow would create stealth gameplay around his game design principles. Stuff like teaching through level design and such rather than straight-up tutorials, focusing on important details and information that matters to gameplay without much extraneous details, building and evolving upon a core mechanic, etc.
 
A

amnesiac

Member
I am pumped for this. I have been mildly excited ever since they announced the release date but I just watched that trailer again and now I can't wait for it.

Also, it's gotta come out on the 26th. If the possibility of a delay occurred to them they would have delayed the game a long time ago. I'd hope so at least.

Next week can't come soon enough!
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
PurpleMoustache said:
There's a preorder and price info post on the site but it's being slammed :(
Click to expand...

Google has it cached:

A lot of people have been asking about the price, so: The price of the game on both Steam and PSN will be $39.99 / €36.99 / £29.99.

A lot of people have been asking about preorders too. Preorders will go live on Steam and the Humble Store (and on this web site) today at noon PST. Unfortunately we won’t have preorders on PSN, because apparently developers have to set those up months in advance and we didn’t know that!

The preorders are regular price! They contain an amazing bonus pack-in: the warm fuzzy feeling that you have pre-ordered the game. (And that’s all). So it’s exactly the same as buying the game at launch, except earlier.

If you buy from the Humble Store, 10% of the price goes to the Against Malaria Foundation.
Click to expand...

Glad to see I was wrong vis-a-vis PC pre-orders.
 
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