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The Witness > General Discussions > Topic Details
 This topic has been pinned, so it's probably important
♔ eBunny Jan 21, 2016 @ 12:31pm
Useful links and information
Hey everyone.

I don't think many people read my previous thread and I definitely don't blame people for it, it was quite a lot of text. But one of the suggestions I made in it was to have some stickied threads in these Steam forums with perhaps some useful links and information.

I was thinking of there being some kind of FAQ that answers a lot of people's questions and concerns, especially for people who perhaps aren't that familiar with the The Witness or it's developer, Thekla, Inc. However, like I mentioned in that thread I'm not one of the developers and I don't want to act like I'm one or speak for them, I'd just like to help out a bit.

What I think I can do though is simply make a thread with some links and maybe some information and then perhaps other people could contribute to it or give some feedback on it if they'd like as well.

Why, you ask? Because why not? :)
And maybe it could make things a little bit easier or more convenient for some people.

My main goal with this is to be as inclusive as possible.


The Witness

The Witness is a 3D puzzle video game created by Jonathan Blow and developed and published by Thekla, Inc. The Witness was released on January 26, 2016 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4, with the iOS version scheduled for a later date.

Inspired by Myst, The Witness has the player explore an open world island filled with a number of natural and man-made structures. The player progresses by solving puzzles which are based on interactions with mazes presented on panels around the island. The rules and outcomes of solving the individual mazes are part of the puzzles that the player will have to come to learn themselves through both visual clues around the island and through audio logs that the player can find. Blow aimed to include as little instruction as possible, wanting to have players come to understand the rules of these puzzles for themselves and coming to moments of realization while exploring the island. The final game will have about 650 total puzzles to be solved, though the player is not required to solve them all to finish the game.

Though originally announced in 2009, The Witness has had a lengthy development period. Blow started work on the title in 2008 after a short break from releasing Braid. The financial success of Braid allowed him to hire a larger team to develop the title and maintain his vision of what the final game would be without making any sacrifices. This led to a protracted development period, extending the game's release from 2011 to 2016, spanning a console generation. Original plans for release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were abandoned because the game's engine became too demanding, and Blow opted to develop the console version for the PlayStation 4 as Sony was more open towards independent developers.

source[en.wikipedia.org]

Additional Information
  • The game will have no DLC.
  • If you buy the game from the Humble Store[www.humblebundle.com] or from the official website[the-witness.net] with the humble widget, 10% of the price goes to the Against Malaria Foundation.

Links

Main Website

Information

News, discussion and social networking

Jonathan Blow

Lectures and interviews

Articles

Reviews

Miscellaneous

Media (may contain spoilers)

The Witness - Noclip Documentary
What lies at the heart of Johnathan Blow's island of mystery? We talk to the famed indie designer about how one of his earliest design ideas blossomed into The Witness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdSdvIRkkDY

IGN Game Changers - How One Man Changed the Video Game Industry Forever
An inside look at how Jonathan Blow's Braid significantly strengthened the indie scene and revived a genre.
Title might be a bit overblown and/or "clickbaity", but I think the video itself is pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSwgEYAJUko

Gameplay walkthrough of an early part of the game
A walkthrough by Jonathan Blow, showing how a very difficult puzzle can be solved using knowledge gained from other parts of the island. This might address the concerns of some people about the line-tracing mechanic being repetitive, boring and not connected to the rest of the island.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDSrYiheVow

Playstation Experience Gameplay
A preview that takes players through the tutorial area of the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZbRBen7rCc

Jonathan Blow explains a puzzle from The Witness
This is one of the early puzzles from the game—it gets much more complex from here, but this area gives a sense of the "puzzle vocabulary" of the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgSL54NAT5Q

The Witness: Long Screenshot #1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4PD0skohfM
The Witness Long Screenshot #2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzNh-hdceiU
The Witness Long Screenshot #3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJgkwRbW46k

If there is anything you feel belongs in here or if there's something you feel shouldn't be in here, please let me know. Everything here is subject to change and I'll be trying to update it as I find more things to put in here or change.

Thanks to the following people for contributing to this thread:
Tapestry, Brokenshelf, RabidJellyfish, rmb201, yo gimme my funyuns, Virgile [FR], Harest
Last edited by ♔ eBunny; Apr 2, 2017 @ 10:32am
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Showing 31-45 of 51 comments
stob Feb 1, 2016 @ 1:56pm 
After Patch i have problem Witness64_d3d11.exe not run. Pleas help
#31
Virgile Feb 4, 2016 @ 2:34pm 
For those interested, you could see the original prototype game, before it was even a puzzle game, here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISutk1mauPM

Galstaff around 4min.
#32
宸桜Shin Feb 9, 2016 @ 9:14am 
thanks for sharing.
#33
♔ eBunny Feb 9, 2016 @ 12:02pm 
Originally posted by Virgile FR:
For those interested, you could see the original prototype game, before it was even a puzzle game, here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISutk1mauPM

Galstaff around 4min.
Thank you, I added it to the 'Lectures and Interviews'

I'm sorry for my inactivity as of late, just been doing some other things. Don't be afraid to continue contributing to the thread though, I'll try to get to it as soon as I can.
#34
♔ eBunny Feb 12, 2016 @ 11:25pm 
Added this article[www.artofluis.com] about the art of The Witness.
Last edited by ♔ eBunny; Feb 12, 2016 @ 11:25pm
#35
♔ eBunny Feb 13, 2016 @ 1:25pm 
The new Long Screenshot #3 video reminded to add those to the media section of the post.
#36
Virgile Feb 18, 2016 @ 11:04am 
MASSIVE SPOILER : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhEDARvLf90

Recent interesting long interview about the making and origins of the Witness
Last edited by Virgile; Feb 18, 2016 @ 11:07am
#37
♔ eBunny Feb 18, 2016 @ 11:20am 
Originally posted by Virgile FR:
MASSIVE SPOILER : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhEDARvLf90

Recent interesting long interview about the making and origins of the Witness
Thank you. Added it to the lectures and interviews.
#38
Stinkflipper Incarnate Feb 22, 2016 @ 7:17am 
Review in Norwegian: http://spillhistorie.no/2016/02/22/inntrykk-the-witness/
#39
♔ eBunny Feb 22, 2016 @ 11:15am 
Originally posted by Stinkflipper Incarnate:
Review in Norwegian: http://spillhistorie.no/2016/02/22/inntrykk-the-witness/
Thank you, I added it to a new 'Reviews' section I made, along with a bunch of reviews from some of the bigger gaming websites. Feel free to post more reviews and I'll make sure to add them.
#40
♔ eBunny Mar 6, 2016 @ 6:19am 
Added the AMA Jonathan Blow did a little while ago to a new section I named 'Miscellaneous', since I wasn't sure where else to put it.
#41
♔ eBunny May 13, 2016 @ 3:58pm 
Added 3 more talks/interviews to the 'Lectures and interviews' section that I found today.
All three are post-launch.

https://youtu.be/z9c915x7x8I
https://youtu.be/UwBl7Rnkt78
https://youtu.be/tRHnHlV96Jg (mostly audio)
Last edited by ♔ eBunny; May 13, 2016 @ 3:59pm
#42
♔ eBunny Jan 16, 2017 @ 6:39am 
Added this video and this one to the lectures and interviews section and added this video to the media section.

It's been a while since I last updated this thread, due to various reasons I won't get into here.
But I just got back into watching Jon Blow related content recently and finally started playing the game again, as I'd taken a pretty long break from it. Looking forward to hopefully finishing it in the near future.
#43
♔ eBunny Jan 16, 2017 @ 5:19pm 
I added this[www.gamepressure.com] review from Gamepressure.

minor spoilers

The reasons for this is that after playing the game for a while today I realized that it really reminded me of Dark Souls in some ways. Anyone who has played both games, or at least a part of either, might know why. Although this is obviously an oversimplification, I called it "The Dark Souls of puzzle games". So I just thought I'd look up "The Witness Dark Souls" on Google and low and behold, I wasn't the only one who thought of that.
Last edited by ♔ eBunny; Jan 16, 2017 @ 5:23pm
#44
Koitenshin Apr 1, 2017 @ 12:56pm 
I think more people need to learn about Running in the game.
I didn't see this mentioned anywhere and only found out how to do it by accidentally pressing Left Shift.
#45
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The Witness > General Discussions > Topic Details
Date Posted: Jan 21, 2016 @ 12:31pm
Posts: 51

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