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

[Hobknobling]

Fun parody.

Damn I thought this was just a throwoff shitpost of a game but it's a wonderfully cheeky and clever homage, crafted with care and obvious affection for the original. Well worth anyone's time.

Even funnier that Jonathan Blow is apparently absolutely FUMING about this being made and how it DEMEANS his pristine vision.

Jonathan is a special kind of a perfectionist autist. He can't stand any sort of feedback because nobody else has been staring the same codebase for +10 000 hours and therefore can't have a valid opinion on his work. He is unbelievable emotionally attached and obsessive with his work which is his strength and weakness at the same time.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Fun parody.

Damn I thought this was just a throwoff shitpost of a game but it's a wonderfully cheeky and clever homage, crafted with care and obvious affection for the original. Well worth anyone's time.

Even funnier that Jonathan Blow is apparently absolutely FUMING about this being made and how it DEMEANS his pristine vision.

Jonathan is a special kind of a perfectionist autist. He can't stand any sort of feedback because nobody else has been staring the same codebase for +10 000 hours and therefore can't have a valid opinion on his work. He is unbelievable emotionally attached and obsessive with his work which is his strength and weakness at the same time.

That . . . Actually makes sense just from how his games are.

 

[Darkozric]

Putting Myst in the same sentence with this shit is a disgrace. This is the definition of anti-adventure.

Insulting puzzle philosophy, artless visuals, "perfectionist" butthurt developer, yep into the trash bin it goes.

 

[Neuromancer]

Even funnier that Jonathan Blow is apparently absolutely FUMING about this being made and how it DEMEANS his pristine vision.

Do you have some quotes?

 

[3 others]

Even funnier that Jonathan Blow is apparently absolutely FUMING about this being made and how it DEMEANS his pristine vision.

Do you have some quotes?

No.

 

[Morgoth]

No wonder this guy gets never anything done with such incoherent thoughts...

 

[Darkozric]

No wonder this guy gets never anything done with such incoherent thoughts...

"How many games make you feel like you're a better person after you played the game than before you played the game?"
This dude is wasted out there, he should've been here to make threads like this one.

You should play the witness bro, it will turn you into a better person, like jonathan blow.

Ok, out of curiosity I've just listened to a few of his random ramblings in x1.7 speed but I couldn't stand him for too long.
I think his head is a good replacement for the "it was aliens" button.

 

[Morgoth]

"...has sold like dog shit"

 

[3 others]

A Braid remaster was always going to be a tough sell. The original game still looks very nice and iconic, and is probably available at $1,99 or something at this very moment. The added commentary tracks - while interesting and very, very, thorough - are a niche attraction, and they're largely available as full-fledged interviews on Jonathan Blow's own Youtube channel.

The promotion has also been nonexistent. I found out the game was released when I was looking for programming stuff to listen to on road trips and started listening to these Blow/Muratori interviews. Then I bought it, played through Braid again, listened to a few commentary tracks, tried a few extra puzzles, and stopped playing. The game's still good, of course, but the extra stuff is nothing essential really.

 

[Hobknobling]

A Braid remaster was always going to be a tough sell. The original game still looks very nice and iconic, and is probably available at $1,99 or something at this very moment. The added commentary tracks - while interesting and very, very, thorough - are a niche attraction, and they're largely available as full-fledged interviews on Jonathan Blow's own Youtube channel.

The promotion has also been nonexistent. I found out the game was released when I was looking for programming stuff to listen to on road trips and started listening to these Blow/Muratori interviews. Then I bought it, played through Braid again, listened to a few commentary tracks, tried a few extra puzzles, and stopped playing. The game's still good, of course, but the extra stuff is nothing essential really.

I think Blow hasn't gotten the memo on how competitive the space is now. He lucked out massively with Braid and The Witness was also kinda early in the indie market. Latter is also a much better game in my opinion.

You can't just release rehashes like this and hope it snowballs. You have to build a community if you want to pull things like this off. He is quite outspoken and could easily play the modern parasocial community game, but he has refused to do it. I don't think he even did things like built up the Steam wishlist numbers before releasing.

 

[3 others]

I disagree that Blow just "lucked out" with his two hits. Sure, the indie space was orders of magnitude sparser than now. But especially with Braid, his team had much more pioneering to do to prove the commercial viability of a small-scale art game, and to just get an unconventionally produced game released on the market.

The timing was fortunate with the indie expansion of Xbox Live Arcade, but Braid was one of the very best games released on it back then, and is rightfully one of the games to leave its mark in the era.

 

[Hobknobling]

I disagree that Blow just "lucked out" with his two hits. Sure, the indie space was orders of magnitude sparser than now. But especially with Braid, his team had much more pioneering to do to prove the commercial viability of a small-scale art game, and to just get an unconventionally produced game released on the market.

The timing was fortunate with the indie expansion of Xbox Live Arcade, but Braid was one of the very best games released on it back then, and is rightfully one of the games to leave its mark in the era.

I admit, it is a bit of an exaggeration. You had to build everything from scratch back then and I believe he got rejected by Valve multiple times before getting the big break with XBLA Summer of Arcade.

It is by the way funny how early Microsoft was in the indie game thing, but they completely fumbled their digital store strategy both on PC and mobile (Windows Phone).

 

[Hobknobling]

Jonathan has been actively doing interviews again. He is working on these things right now:

- his programming language JAI (name might change) which is a C++ replacement for game development
- 3D engine on that language
- Sokoban game on that engine
- VR music game on that engine
- some long-term secret mystery game to end all games which takes 20 years to develop