Jonathan Blow Wants to Test Your Brain With The Witness

Am I alone in thinking this looks stylistically awesome, but incredibly dull?

Looks potentially very enchanting. Looking forward to it.

This game looks beautiful.

So, if his last one was about the atom bomb (maybe?), then is this one about Agent Orange?

I want this game more than anything , I think .

If Jonathan Blow getting behind Sony than things are looking good.

I want this pretty bad. I've been waiting for Jonathan Blow's new game for a while, and I have never been more excited for it.

This game looks beautiful and what hints of the gameplay we've seen look super intriguing. I mean, it might be a decade of game-adrenaline burnout, but I am finding myself drawn more and more to calmer fare like this, Proteus, and Antichamber... if only for a mental palate cleanser between the more stress/conflict-heavy big name titles.

This painterly, cel-shaded art style makes me wonder what a new Jet Set Radio or XIII might look like.

This game has a definite Myst vibe to it.

Myst minus the convoluted plot and bad acting? Sure, I'm interested. (Brad Dourif could still be in it though).

Myst 2.0! I'm super excited for this!

Probably my absolute most anticipated game of this year. So ready for this.

So they've just ripped off Riven / Myst etc and packaged it up with shiny pixels for the PS4....no thanks.

This is probably my favorite of the conference games showed. Looks intoxicating.

@mooseymcman said:

This probably isn't the place for this, but Braid isn't "about" the atom bomb, at least not in the way that I read it. It just used the search for the atom bomb as one of its several avenues for exploring the idea of what it means to get what you've been looking for for what feels like your whole life. Braid is a game where the story is truly there in service of what the gameplay is communicating, which is one of the things that makes it such a compelling experience. The endless search for what Braid is "about" is a bit misguided, because Braid isn't at all convoluted or duplicitous about what it's about; Braid is about solving puzzles.

Braid does have the side effect of being one of gaming's great Rorschach tests, though. Everybody either thinks it's about the atom bomb or thinks it's about an abusive relationship. Which story thread a person thinks is a metaphor for the other probably says something about him or her.

Anyway, hot damn I am all the way excited for The Witness. As I think I've posted before here, this game is probably my most anticipated thing coming out this year, across all media.

25 hours of next-gen Myst? No thanks, 30 minutes of the first one was enough for me.

Mediaeval Baebes - Glass Window

You're not alone. I can't help but feel like I'm missing something based on how pumped a lot of other people seem to be. I'm just not seeing the fun. I can clearly see how beautiful it is graphically but that be said for a good deal of these next gen titles.

Looks fantastic. It'll probably hit PC before I'm ready to spring for a PS4, though. Also, Jonathan Blow is still kind of a smarmy dick, a talented dick whose games (okay, game) I like, but still a dick.

@peanut said:

No. I could see it being a real snooze fest. However, I could also seeing it being really addictive if the puzzles and world are engaging. It could go either way.

@sixpin said:

The fun comes from where the fun comes from in any environmental puzzle game. It's in the process of observing the environment (certainly helped by the fact that the environment is gorgeous) and then coming to conclusions, with those conclusions being expressed abstractly by those maze looking things. It's also probably about marveling at the number of distinct, enjoyable puzzle experiences Jonathan Blow has managed to cook up using what appears at first to be the same structure (observe environment, input solution) but ultimately is revealed to have nearly infinite possible permutations.

Basically, Jon Blow is trying with all his might to drag video games into modernism. Braid was his Mrs. Dalloway and The Witness appears to be his To The Lighthouse.

Been looking forward to seeing this. Should be interesting at the very least.

Braid is about a young man who drove away his loved one by creating a weapon that makes him the ultimate monster. That's my take on it.

I was wondering if I'd be the first to mention Myst. Those could be some big shoes to fill.

this music is ren-fair as fuck

This game made me the most excited during the conference.

@theht: Thanks! I didn't even have to ask.

I'm pretty sure out of all the game's shown off at today's event this is the one that has me the most excited (and that I would pick to play right now, if I could only pick one).

I recommend that anyone who's wondering at the similar appearance of this game's puzzles go read Ryan's and Patrick's articles from their first viewing of the game. Frankly, it seems like one of the most promising games demoed at Sony's press conference.

Looks pretty fucking dumb. BUT THAT is just me

@peanut: Nope, not alone. Seems like all the gameplay is in those little screens.

Am I alone in thinking Johnathan Blow, literally, blows?

It could be about anything, it could be about a lost album like SMiLE, it could be about the atom bomb, it could be about a lost and twisted love, et cetera. I agree that pigeon holing it as "about the atom bomb" is lame, dumb, and kind of depressing that people dropped it as a pretentious atom bomb metaphor game. The brilliance is that it is intuitively integrated into the game and its mechanics.

Anyway, this game looks like a lot of fun. Running around a gorgeous island solving fun puzzles? As long as the movement of your character or w/e you want to call it is fast/fluid, sounds wonderful.

100% agree. i can see why some people don't care for jonathan blow- but this is one of my most anticipated games.

The way he was building it up it sounded like each puzzle would be something unique - then you see the game and it's all seemingly based on the little widget thing. Yawn.

I'm so excited for this game. I will buy anything Jonathan Blow tries to sell to me.

@plasticpals: Yeah, if I had spent three and a half years on a game I would definitely show every gameplay mechanic in the very first trailer.

I love listening to people debate over the true meaning behind braid, but you're right about it being Rorschach-like. I always saw the game being about regret... Jesus..

Can't wait for this. Pity it seems we now have to wait longer for the PC version.

@allison: The dude isn't gay, so no. But since I heard him on the E3 bombcast I thought that he was full of himself. It seems like just because he made Braid he thinks that he's better than everyone else.

@verysexypotato: @bvilleneuve: Maybe it ist even that strong in revealing what's "inside you". Blow often stated it's a very personal game. And it is in fact about relationships ie. "Your princess is in another castle", else it would use relationships as symbol. Apparently it's also about technology. Well, I'd conclude that it's about Blow's search for a partner and about his failure to finish a gaming product and thus, as you mentioned, people pick the thing that strikes them the most on the background of their past experience.

Him being a complete asshole about the games that were shown before his on the stage in front of 2.6M people certainly reinforces this idea of him being an asshole.

Myst + Cartoony Graphics = Interesting (at least to me).

This is one I can't wait for a quick look/review of.

@groverat said:

I'm not sure what you're referring to here. When was Jon Blow a complete asshole about the games shown before his? Maybe I'm just not tuned to pick up on Jon Blow's assholeishness, but I've always found him to be an extremely passionate, intelligent, and well-spoken guy.

@gunsaredrawn said:

He is better than everyone else.

I don't remember him sounding "arrogant" so much as he sounded emboldened. That it was now within his grasp and the grasp of others to make games as personal statements, instead of for a pre-existing demographic, and for those games to be successful both artistically and commercially. And yeah, he took a serious risk on Braid, and it worked.

I think Jonathan Blow is a pretty interesting guy and I really liked the sort of game that Braid was, so I am very much looking forward to this.

I am going with the Myst sentiment that's up in here.

I still need to finish Braid, other than that, this looks decent for PlayStation 3, but meh for PlayStation 4.

@peanut: I GUESS YOU LIKE SHIT GAMES THEN - Jonathan Blow

Yes. Nobody has played the game, yet you feel fit to make sweeping generalizations.