Myst The Witness - first-person puzzler in the vein of Myst

[J1M]

While Jon may be a hipster, he's also a fucking genius. He's currently working on a programming language tailored for game development to finally take down C++ as the norm. (It's called Jai FYI)

C Plus Equality but for games?

He has a few youtube videos explaining his goals for the language and a demo of it in action if you are actually interested.

Jonathan Blow strikes me as a fairly intelligent guy who has made some games that are worth playing but is also completely willing to spin the gaming media to his advantage at the risk of making himself look like a wanker. See: the story in Braid.

 

[AN4RCHID]

he had a kind of funny response when people asked him about Braid's story in that AMA

It is easy to get the wrong impression from the movie, because like all movies of that kind it is a quick summary of ideas.

The real thing that bothered me was not response from players, but from pundits or critics. I felt like they all came from this English-major kind of school of thought and only wanted to talk about the story part of the game as the bit that had meaning, when in fact the game design and other aspects of the presentation are obviously very important. I felt like there were many folks proclaiming "we are the people who are smart and who understand video games, and we will tell you what this game is about!", but those people had a very poor understanding of the game! The thing that really bothered me was that these people, if loud enough, might permanently damage the way the world sees the game... in the first couple of weeks this seemed pretty likely, but as time has gone on, it hasn't come to pass. Not too much anyway.

In the movie it seems like I am worried about players generally, or Soulja Boy or something, but that is not the case. It was pundits.

Bonus:

I don't believe that I make games to "tell a story", and I don't encourage people to think about things that way, if they want to be good game designers.

I wouldn't even really say I try to "craft an experience" either -- that kind of mindset leads to very restrictive games that often aren't very good.

 

[Machocruz]

Taking shots at storyfags and muh experiencefags? I think I like this guy.

 

[you know what time it is]

5 mills and still no graphics options ? the fuck is this shit

'power users' my ass

At least music in trailer was nice. Speaking of good trailer music.

 

[ManjuShri]

 

[v1rus]

Sure, Blow is autistic af, but I like Witness quite well, for now. Still haven't made it far in the game (got liek 2 beams?), and if it keeps up the pace, its gonna be hell of a ride. Those cryptic scientist quotes can go fuck themselves together with Blow's idiotic opinions, but, like Braid, the game is both visually mesmerizing and deeply intriguing mechanically. Also, jumping on the "ofc it isnt about a fucking bomb you fuckwits" bandwagon.

A supreme being like Blow doesn't care about wars, deaths and the rest of that earthly bullshit. He's seeking something eternal, transcendent, a moment that lasts forever and never, the ultimate answer. He is locked in an eternal, agonizing quest against the absurdity of the universe. Ever since he could remember, he was looking for the answer, and yet, it has always eluded him and always will. This world makes no god darn sense to him, and it's driving him crazy.

Such a shame he has no friends to tell him the answer is getting laid.

 

[HoboForEternity]

i hate the sound puzzle so much. maybe i am just melodically and musically inept, but they suck, just fucking suck. i can't even tell the difference between high pitch and low pitch and whatever shitty sound they make to obscure the puzzle pitch itself.

aside from some of the the "secret" puzzles where you draw lines outside the boards it is the only one where i have to use guide

 

[J1M]

i hate the sound puzzle so much. maybe i am just melodically and musically inept, but they suck, just fucking suck. i can't even tell the difference between high pitch and low pitch and whatever shitty sound they make to obscure the puzzle pitch itself.

aside from some of the the "secret" puzzles where you draw lines outside the boards it is the only one where i have to use guide

One of the sound puzzles had a bug. It played the wrong audio file.

 

[v1rus]

There are sound puzzles?


T_T

 

[HoboForEternity]

There are sound puzzles?


T_T

yes. it's only 1 area tho and it is annoying as fuck. just look up guide when you reach it. not worth tearing off your cochleas

 

[v1rus]

There are sound puzzles?


T_T

yes. it's only 1 area tho and it is annoying as fuck. just look up guide when you reach it. not worth tearing off your cochleas

Half the reason I enjoy the game so much is cause I can just play some music in background. Oh well, technically, if I use a guide, I wont have to turn it off

 

[Leechmonger]

Binge-played The Witness this weekend, it was pretty good. I found the difficulty level to be mostly just right, although I didn't do the desert area (didn't even start it), didn't finish the town, never figured out the purpose of the puzzle tablets, and finished the game unaware of the existence of environmental puzzles (or the point of the monoliths). I do think the game is overly annoying sometimes for no good reason. Some of the shadow puzzles for example, or the final bird chirp ones. Some of the ones with fucked up screens too. But it was mostly fair. I really liked some of the end-game puzzles, but I had hoped that more of the game would be like that.

I will say:
1. I probably liked Braid better
2. This game is not worth $40. I'd say closer to $20.

 

[Leechmonger]

I did the desert area after looking up how to do the first puzzle, the rest of it is really easy. Also finished the town, and beat the secret area (googled how to find it) and the final challenge. My reward was a pretentious video that I stopped watching after 5 minutes. Which really epitomizes the (The) Witness experience.

PS: Never thought I'd complain about RNG in a puzzle game.

 

[v1rus]

almost beat it, and final sentiments - it might be pretentious af, but the darn thing is a masterpiece, that's for sure

got 11 beams, now its time to climb that ferkign mountain

 

[Tramboi]

While Jon may be a hipster, he's also a fucking genius. He's currently working on a programming language tailored for game development to finally take down C++ as the norm. (It's called Jai FYI)

He might be a genius for game design, I don't know, but he doesn't know much about computer language design. His arrogance really shows there.

 

[Boleskine]

 

[Zombra]

So it's good? 2 year anniversary, 75% off. Guess it's time to grab.

 

[RoBoBOBR]

This review may help you, Zombra (although pay attention to spoiler warnings)

 

[AN4RCHID]

That video contains major spoilers from the beginning through to the endgame to the optional content. I would not watch until after you've finished the game, if ever.

 

[Zombra]

Yeah, I never watched the video, I don't like spoilers.

Started playing the game last night, and I really like it so far and also have a couple big problems with it.

First, a mundane complaint, there are puzzles everywhere but no map and no way to mark what I've solved and what I haven't. Talos Principle was very orderly and had signs everywhere that updated your progress so I knew when an area was "cleared". Here I'm wandering around a chaotic environment with no way to mark where I've been or where I'm going. There's not even a compass. So if I find a puzzle but decide to come back and solve it later, I just have to remember it. And of course the game world has a thousand puzzles sprinkled around, so it's a lot to remember.

Second, the game sets a pattern and then abandons it, which is frustrating. The first few puzzle types have excellent tutorials that taught me the language they speak, starting with simple puzzles and building up to more complex ones to make sure I understood the concepts. In essence they start with the alphabet, move on to "See Spot run", then gradually progress to Herman Melville. After several of those, making me feel smart, now they're introducing new puzzle types that start immediately at Melville, so I have no opportunity to work my way up to understanding them. I just have to "guess and check" complicated solutions to arbitrary symbols. Essentially they're handing me a copy of Moby Dick translated into Japanese and expect me to start reading it out loud, never having studied the language before. I guess the idea is they already taught me Spanish and French, so I should know how to learn another new language instantly without intermediate steps. I'm sure I'll feel smart if I ever crack some of these, but I feel a bit betrayed.

Either one of these complaints would be bad enough, but both together makes it seem way more likely that I'll end up abandoning it. Hopefully I'll look back on this post in a few months and laugh at my pessimism.

 

[AN4RCHID]

Without spoiling anything, the game eventually has ways of signposting what content is complete. If you miss stuff early on it's not a big deal.

 

[Leechmonger]

As I recall if you think a new type of puzzle is too complicated, it's because you've stumbled on an advanced set without having gone through the beginner ones first. It happened to me in an area with water pools and metal bridges.

Just move on to another area.

 

[Zombra]

As I recall if you think a new type of puzzle is too complicated, it's because you've stumbled on an advanced set without having gone through the beginner ones first.

Yeah, I got that feeling several times. I started to get suspicious when I found several areas in a row like that though. "Am I too dumb to realize these are the beginner puzzles?"

 

[Zombra]

God damn this shit is infuriating/excellent. Every time I feel completely stumped everywhere, I go to sleep and come back 24 hours later and solve several more things. Then I get stumped again and sleep on it again, solve more things etc.

 

[AN4RCHID]

That's how the puzzles were for me too. I'd come across one that seems completely unintelligible based on the rules I learned so far. The next day I come back and it all clicks into place like I worked it out subconsciously while I was away.