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

Shepard

Member
Officially it's "No refunds" (including pre-orders, which is utterly ridiculous), but some people have been thrown a bone if they had a good reason. You definitely can't count on that, though, because the far more likely outcome is that you'll just be told that refunds aren't possible.

Hmm, another reason to buy on PC. Steam refunds made me pre-purchase games a lot more, even though I never actually used the system.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
There's something massive about The Witness that won't reveal itself to most players until many many hours in, fyi. To say anything more is a spoiler.

This is a special game, and I strongly encourage everyone to truly let puzzles sit with them, rather than resorting to a walkthrough or wiki. I think most gamers (including me!) are willing to give a tricky puzzle an honest shot, but then if they're stumped, on to an IGN wiki or GameFAQS they go.

Please do not do that, with The Witness. It's an open world game - go mess with another part of the island. Come back after you've slept on it or a few days later. To do anything else is to deprive yourself of something really special. Just this once, really try to let the puzzles and let the game soak in and sit with you.

Think about it like this - you only get to play The Witness for the first time once. If you give in and look up puzzle solutions, you'll enjoy the game. It's very pretty, you'll feel smart at parts, etc. But if you resist doing that, and truly solve everything youself, you'll enjoy it on an entirely different level.

To put it another way - the puzzles are the game. Looking up solutions is akin to letting someone else beat a tough shooter level for you, or giving in to the kiddie star after failing a tough Mario stage enough times.

...and plus every time you look at a walkthrough you run the risk of having The Thing spoiled for you, which you do not want.
This post just convinced me to take Tuesday off work. Appreciated.

This ain't nothing like Rapture. If you want, you can check out six years of development blog posts to read about Blow's puzzle design philosophy and such, and all that. Dude is a genius at game design. People have been playing builds of this game for years. There are already some impressions from IGN and Eurogamer, 20 hour previews from other places, and of course Justin's comments in this thread; the anticipation here is completely justified
Yup. He also has a track record with Braid, which puts The Witness into instapurchase territory for me even before the good previews started coming out.
 
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..

They are circuitry/breadboard puzzles for electrical current connectivity (and likely more)
, and we have known this for over a year now.
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.

Is this a big spoiler? Or is it just kind of part of the premise of the game. Accidentally clicked on it a while back while scrolling. Screw browsing with touch controls lol.
 

PolishQ

Member
Is this a big spoiler? Or is it just kind of part of the premise of the game. Accidentally clicked on it a while back while scrolling. Screw browsing with touch controls lol.

Not a spoiler at all. The opening tutorial area has you solving panels to divert power to another panel which, upon solving, disables a forcefield.
 
Yeah, it is something you figure out almost immediately, I just used spoilers in case casual observers want to save even early discoveries. Also it seems pretty clear that is nothing in terms of discoveries so I wouldn't sweat it.

Probably best we still call them line puzzles at least until it is more common knowledge.
 

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
There's something massive about The Witness that won't reveal itself to most players until many many hours in, fyi. To say anything more is a spoiler.

This is a special game, and I strongly encourage everyone to truly let puzzles sit with them, rather than resorting to a walkthrough or wiki. I think most gamers (including me!) are willing to give a tricky puzzle an honest shot, but then if they're stumped, on to an IGN wiki or GameFAQS they go.

Please do not do that, with The Witness. It's an open world game - go mess with another part of the island. Come back after you've slept on it or a few days later. To do anything else is to deprive yourself of something really special. Just this once, really try to let the puzzles and let the game soak in and sit with you.

Think about it like this - you only get to play The Witness for the first time once. If you give in and look up puzzle solutions, you'll enjoy the game. It's very pretty, you'll feel smart at parts, etc. But if you resist doing that, and truly solve everything youself, you'll enjoy it on an entirely different level.

To put it another way - the puzzles are the game. Looking up solutions is akin to letting someone else beat a tough shooter level for you, or giving in to the kiddie star after failing a tough Mario stage enough times.

...and plus every time you look at a walkthrough you run the risk of having The Thing spoiled for you, which you do not want.

This reads like my first run of The Swapper. I didn't want to ruin the experience by looking at guides there either because it felt wrong. Anyway, really hyped for this game now.
 
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..

They are circuitry/breadboard puzzles for electrical current connectivity (and likely more)
, and we have known this for over a year now.
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.

Damn Jon looks like he's cold as hell in that video. An overcoat?? More like overkill.
 

Nzyme32

Member
There's something massive about The Witness that won't reveal itself to most players until many many hours in, fyi. To say anything more is a spoiler.

To me, this has been incredibly obvious from what has been mentioned and the hesitation to explain much further than the beginning sections of the game.

Plenty of GAF folks seem happy to dismiss anything of this nature as whatever blanket term occurs to them first and seemingly some don't even like the idea of an "indie" game being worthy of a high price, even with such a large amount of playtime illustrated by journalists.

For me this is the stuff I absolutely relish. Can't wait to go through the game with no understanding of where it will go and sat around with a pen and paper musing over the puzzles like with some of the older puzzle games like Myst.
 
I'm not sure what to ask to answer what I want to know...

I really don't want to watch or read too much but I see people saying it isn't just a bunch of line puzzles, or that the lines puzzles are just an input for the answers or whatever...but what does that mean? What are the puzzles then?

Basically I'm asking if the line puzzles simply correspond to the flow of water or electricity or some basic thing like that? And then you input the answer on the device...or is it something quite different than that? Or is that possibly just one example out of many different types of line puzzles?

Is there a good non spoilery video I can watch to help answer my question?

Ugh I just want this game to release. From the little I've seen it just looks so awesome.
 
To me, this has been incredibly obvious from what has been mentioned and the hesitation to explain much further than the beginning sections of the game.

Plenty of GAF folks seem happy to dismiss anything of this nature as whatever blanket term occurs to them first and seemingly some don't even like the idea of an "indie" game being worthy of a high price, even with such a large amount of playtime illustrated by journalists.

For me this is the stuff I absolutely relish. Can't wait to go through the game with no understanding of where it will go and sat around with a pen and paper musing over the puzzles like with some of the older puzzle games like Myst.
All I know are the basics. Open world island, audio logs and other story bits, the line puzzles and the different mechanics of some of the areas, and whatever was in that release date trailer. But nothing else besides that. Already preordered, not reading any reviews

And I have no class on Tuesday so I have all day to devote to this
 
Luis Antonio, an artist at Thekla, did a recorded GDC presentation about the creative process behind finding the art style of The Witness a couple years ago. There's nothing too revelatory here, but it's neat seeing how they created an environment that's intended to feel harmonious and inviting. I remember Jonathan mentioning on podcasts that he liked going dancing and doing meditation to clear the mind and get the creative juices flowing. I think some of that mentality can be found in the art design shown in this presentation.

Also, my favorite observation was that they took inspiration from anime backgrounds, like in Ghibli and (I think) Makoto Shinkai films, for creating a balance between simplicity and detail in the vegetation.
 

Daffy Duck

Member
I've never even looked at Braid before, but this game has made me look at it....Wow, I need to buy that game.

I also need to top up my PSN account for this too.
 
Basically I'm asking if the line puzzles simply correspond to the flow of water or electricity or some basic thing like that? And then you input the answer on the device...or is it something quite different than that?

The line puzzles can potentially correspond to anything in the surrounding environment. Two examples we know:
lines can correspond to the branches of a tree
, and
lines can correspond to the shape of rocks in the background
.

We can expect that later on the lines will have even more complex relationships to the game world. Figuring out how is the point of the game.
 
I've never even looked at Braid before, but this game has made me look at it....Wow, I need to buy that game.

I also need to top up my PSN account for this too.
Where have you been for the last eight years :p
No, but really, the game is great and the twists on the core time mechanics, and the way the puzzles revolve around those twists, are just brilliant
 
D

Deleted member 22576

Unconfirmed Member
Been getting used to the look controls on the steam controller in anticipation for this! Tuesday is gonna be real exciting, it's been a long long haul.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
I'm not sure what to ask to answer what I want to know...

I really don't want to watch or read too much but I see people saying it isn't just a bunch of line puzzles, or that the lines puzzles are just an input for the answers or whatever...but what does that mean? What are the puzzles then?

Basically I'm asking if the line puzzles simply correspond to the flow of water or electricity or some basic thing like that? And then you input the answer on the device...or is it something quite different than that? Or is that possibly just one example out of many different types of line puzzles?

Is there a good non spoilery video I can watch to help answer my question?

Ugh I just want this game to release. From the little I've seen it just looks so awesome.

This is second-second hand information I heard from the latest Idle Thumbs, but the best description I've heard so far is that the line puzzles are your "answer sheet". It's your way of signalling to the game that you understand something about the island. It isn't, like, walking around and solving a bunch of Picross games or something.
 
This is second-second hand information I heard from the latest Idle Thumbs, but the best description I've heard so far is that the line puzzles are your "answer sheet". It's your way of signalling to the game that you understand something about the island. It isn't, like, walking around and solving a bunch of Picross games or something.
The analogy I used earlier in the thread was to imagine the line drawing as the pencil you use to fill out a crossword puzzle. It's just a tool to fill in the answer. Mulling over the crossword clues and figuring out what you need to write with that pencil is the real challenge
 
D

Deleted member 22576

Unconfirmed Member
It really is hard to believe this game is finally out. (Nearly)
 
The line puzzles can potentially correspond to anything in the surrounding environment. Two examples we know:
lines can correspond to the branches of a tree
, and
lines can correspond to the shape of rocks in the background
.

We can expect that later on the lines will have even more complex relationships to the game world. Figuring out how is the point of the game.

Ah thanks...I'm a little cautious but that sounds good to me. I don't know about 600 puzzles fun, but definitely should be fun.
 

PolishQ

Member
I'm not sure what to ask to answer what I want to know...

I really don't want to watch or read too much but I see people saying it isn't just a bunch of line puzzles, or that the lines puzzles are just an input for the answers or whatever...but what does that mean? What are the puzzles then?

Basically I'm asking if the line puzzles simply correspond to the flow of water or electricity or some basic thing like that? And then you input the answer on the device...or is it something quite different than that? Or is that possibly just one example out of many different types of line puzzles?

Is there a good non spoilery video I can watch to help answer my question?

Ugh I just want this game to release. From the little I've seen it just looks so awesome.

So, here's an example.

At the very beginning of the game, you're dropped into a courtyard and the only way out is blocked by a forcefield. There is a panel next to the forcefield but the screen is not active.

There are cables leading from the dead panel to several other active panels in the courtyard. Each panel has a simple maze puzzle where you must draw a line from the "entrance" to the "exit". These puzzles are deliberately simple as to teach you how the interface works.

When each panel is solved, the dead panel by the forcefield is partially activated. When all of the panels are solved, the dead panel is fully active and the forcefield can be turned off (again, by solving a simple line puzzle).

So, this is obviously the simplest situation in the game, but you can understand that the "puzzle" is not "how do I solve these panels?" (although that's part of it) but "how do I escape this courtyard?" Expect the rest of the game to offer similar "objectives", as well as complications such as the panels having multiple solutions that may do different things (such as diverting power to one machine or another).
 

Daffy Duck

Member
Where have you been for the last eight years :p
No, but really, the game is great and the twists on the core time mechanics, and the way the puzzles revolve around those twists, are just brilliant

Pretty much living under an FPS (CoD) rock, gaming time is/was limited with kids so spent my time there mostly, didn't pay attention to puzzlers.
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
For me this is the stuff I absolutely relish. Can't wait to go through the game with no understanding of where it will go and sat around with a pen and paper musing over the puzzles like with some of the older puzzle games like Myst.

Precisely. I saw the first videos about this game and knew it was going to be amazing. This game should hit all the right notes for me.
I missed playing through Fez until it came out on PC and somehow managed to avoid all spoilers. Luckily, I won't have to avoid clicking on anything related to The Witness this go around.

It's been a long wait and I believe it will be worth it.
 

Dominator

Member
Wish it would release today, gonna be snowed in all weekend and this would be great for that. I guess I'll get my brain going and finish The Talos Principle.
 

Nzyme32

Member
Been getting used to the look controls on the steam controller in anticipation for this! Tuesday is gonna be real exciting, it's been a long long haul.

I've been working my way through the Talos Principle with it. So much fun. I'll definitely be playing with the Steam Controller via BPM and the TV for The Witness. Might as well roll with the "comfy couch" so I can pass out after an inevitable bout of being completely defeated by a puzzle for a while

8+ years. It really is amazing. I thought waiting three years for Rain World was tough.

Yeah, it's pretty incredible the amount of time and effort that has gone into this, as well as Blows own fortune. Not looked forward to a game like this in a very long time.

When do review embargos lift?

Monday
 
I've been working my way through the Talos Principle with it. So much fun. I'll definitely be playing with the Steam Controller via BPM and the TV for The Witness. Might as well roll with the "comfy couch" so I can pass out after an inevitable bout of being completely defeated by a puzzle for a while

Didn't even realize The Talos Principle released on PS4 until after reading this thread and going off to google it. Why didn't anyone ever say anything? Never played it, guess it's time to go pick it up.
 
I'm not sure what to ask to answer what I want to know...

I really don't want to watch or read too much but I see people saying it isn't just a bunch of line puzzles, or that the lines puzzles are just an input for the answers or whatever...but what does that mean? What are the puzzles then?

This is second-second hand information I heard from the latest Idle Thumbs, but the best description I've heard so far is that the line puzzles are your "answer sheet". It's your way of signalling to the game that you understand something about the island. It isn't, like, walking around and solving a bunch of Picross games or something.

Given the frequent comparisons to Myst, I'm guessing (or maybe just hoping) that it'll be something like the way puzzles work in Myst 2: Riven, where there are only a handful of puzzle "solutions" to enter, but the process of discovering those solutions involves a very involved process of exploration, observation, and deduction of how things work and what they signify in the world. Anyone who's completed Riven probably remembers the marble dome puzzle, which is "just" putting a bunch of marbles onto a table in a certain configuration, but figuring out that configuration takes up at least half the game and requires you to piece together a lot of disparate pieces of information across all of the game's islands. The moment when it dawns on you exactly what the puzzle represents and how the game has been subtly leading you to the solution is one of my favorite moments in any video game.

If the puzzles in The Witness are half as cohesive and well-integrated into the game world as that, I will be very happy.
 

PolishQ

Member
Given the frequent comparisons to Myst, I'm guessing (or maybe just hoping) that it'll be something like the way puzzles work in Myst 2: Riven, where there are only a handful of puzzle "solutions" to enter, but the process of discovering those solutions involves a very involved process of exploration, observation, and deduction of how things work and what they signify in the world. Anyone who's completed Riven probably remembers the marble dome puzzle, which is "just" putting a bunch of marbles onto a table in a certain configuration, but figuring out that configuration takes up at least half the game and requires you to piece together a lot of disparate pieces of information across all of the game's islands. The moment when it dawns on you exactly what the puzzle represents and how the game has been subtly leading you to the solution is one of my favorite moments in any video game.

If the puzzles in The Witness are half as cohesive and well-integrated into the game world as that, I will be very happy.

Yep. That's pretty much my yardstick. If The Witness can live up to Riven, it'll meet my expectations (and so far all signs point to yes).
 
Considering all the Myst and Riven talk, what are your expectations for Obduction? I only played Myst last year and only picked up Riven on my iPad this month, so my expectations aren't that high
 
Yeah, it's really Riven that this game needs to live up to rather than Myst itself.

(But that's even harder to work into an OT title)

I think you've hit upon exactly the kind of discovery that this game is aspiring towards, but obviously that's just a gut feeling for now.
 

mattp

Member
curious, if anyone playing an advanced copy for review can answer this:
how's the FOV? how fast is the player movement speed? is there head bob? and does the game ever require you to move around quickly?

most first person games give me a headache or motion sickness, especially with a narrow fov. but if the game is as slow paced as i'm thinking it is, i'm fairly sure it won't bother me much
 

Wok

Member
To me, this has been incredibly obvious from what has been mentioned and the hesitation to explain much further than the beginning sections of the game.

Plenty of GAF folks seem happy to dismiss anything of this nature as whatever blanket term occurs to them first and seemingly some don't even like the idea of an "indie" game being worthy of a high price, even with such a large amount of playtime illustrated by journalists.

For me this is the stuff I absolutely relish. Can't wait to go through the game with no understanding of where it will go and sat around with a pen and paper musing over the puzzles like with some of the older puzzle games like Myst.

The game descrption reminds me of Antichamber. There was
this gun
that you get which changes the gameplay. I am as hyped as I was for Antichamber actually.
 

Afro

Member
There's something massive about The Witness that won't reveal itself to most players until many many hours in, fyi. To say anything more is a spoiler.

This is a special game, and I strongly encourage everyone to truly let puzzles sit with them, rather than resorting to a walkthrough or wiki. I think most gamers (including me!) are willing to give a tricky puzzle an honest shot, but then if they're stumped, on to an IGN wiki or GameFAQS they go.

Please do not do that, with The Witness. It's an open world game - go mess with another part of the island. Come back after you've slept on it or a few days later. To do anything else is to deprive yourself of something really special. Just this once, really try to let the puzzles and let the game soak in and sit with you.

Think about it like this - you only get to play The Witness for the first time once. If you give in and look up puzzle solutions, you'll enjoy the game. It's very pretty, you'll feel smart at parts, etc. But if you resist doing that, and truly solve everything youself, you'll enjoy it on an entirely different level.

To put it another way - the puzzles are the game. Looking up solutions is akin to letting someone else beat a tough shooter level for you, or giving in to the kiddie star after failing a tough Mario stage enough times.

...and plus every time you look at a walkthrough you run the risk of having The Thing spoiled for you, which you do not want.

This is important enough to put in the |OT|, honestly. I love this post. The |OT| is turning out pretty cool btw. Trying to keep it as minimal as possible.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
I've never actually played Myst or Riven, which is kind of embarrassing at this point. I bought Myst yesterday and will probably play it today. Are there any things I should look for as a first-timer playing it in 2016 (re anything from obscure gameplay things that may have been obvious at the time of release, through to weird modern PC compatibility issues)?
 

PatzCU

Member
So excited for this one. I'll likely buy this at full price ($40) day 1 even though I have no time to play it at the moment. This is not my usual practice for single-player games but I feel the devs have earned every penny in this case.
 

PolishQ

Member
I've never actually played Myst or Riven, which is kind of embarrassing at this point. I bought Myst yesterday and will probably play it today. Are there any things I should look for as a first-timer playing it in 2016 (re anything from obscure gameplay things that may have been obvious at the time of release, through to weird modern PC compatibility issues)?

I would skip Myst and go straight to Riven, honestly. Myst is kind of abstract and arbitrary, where it feels like the developer said "here, solve these puzzles" without thinking very deeply about why those puzzles would be there. I mean, there's a story and some level of justification, but...

Riven is on another level entirely. It's possibly the most cohesive game world I've experienced, in the sense that every detail of the environment has a reason for being there and some information to impart to you, which is often both "lore" and something that you'll need to solve a puzzle down the road. And the puzzles rarely feel like puzzles, but rather (as faceless007 said earlier) tests of your understanding of the world and how it works. It's amazingly nuanced and subtle in its gameplay, which for the most part simply involves wandering around, exploring, and noticing things.
 

Vexidus

Member
Ah thanks...I'm a little cautious but that sounds good to me. I don't know about 600 puzzles fun, but definitely should be fun.

The beauty of the open world element is that you don't have to complete every single thing if you don't want to. You can do enough to finish the game, and if you feel satisfied by that, you're good. Or you can go the extra distance to really dig deep and unravel the biggest mysteries of the island.

Sorta like Yoshi's Island. You can just play the levels casually and have a blast, or you can really get into it and 100% every level. Or more appropriately, Talos Principle where you go back and get all the hidden stars. The extent of which you choose to lose yourself in the world is up to you.
 
I would skip Myst and go straight to Riven, honestly. Myst is kind of abstract and arbitrary, where it feels like the developer said "here, solve these puzzles" without thinking very deeply about why those puzzles would be there. I mean, there's a story and some level of justification, but...

Riven is on another level entirely. It's possibly the most cohesive game world I've experienced, in the sense that every detail of the environment has a reason for being there and some information to impart to you, which is often both "lore" and something that you'll need to solve a puzzle down the road. And the puzzles rarely feel like puzzles, but rather (as faceless007 said earlier) tests of your understanding of the world and how it works. It's amazingly nuanced and subtle in its gameplay, which for the most part simply involves wandering around, exploring, and noticing things.
I just started playing Riven today (for the first time) and the world is incredible. If Witness can capture this similar feeling of exploration and discovery...
 

Alastor3

Member
me and two of my friends are going to buy the game at his release and play through the game and tell each others where we are, it's going to be amazing, I just hope my computer can run it (not on max) but enough so it can still be beautiful. I don't want to refund it and wait for my computer parts to arrived.
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
No idea how I missed this release date thread. I know I've seen the trailer. Maybe just put it out of my mind.

EDIT: And it runs at 60FPS on PS4. Sold.
 
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