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Jonathan Blow Wants to Test Your Brain With The Witness

The designer's follow-up to Braid had its coming out party at the PS4 reveal (it's coming to other platforms, too).

Feb. 20 2013

Posted by: Patrick

In This Episode:

The Witness

70 Comments

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kevslider

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Hey guys...it's out tomorrow!

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BisonHero

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@dan_citi said:

@legion_ said:

@bvilleneuve said:

@mooseymcman said:

This game looks beautiful.

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

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.

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.

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.

Yeah, that's the most frustrating part. People can think whatever they want about Braid, just so long as they don't think that the line referencing the atom bomb is some The Sixth Sense late-game twist where you're supposed to suddenly recall every other story beat in the game and go "Ohhhhh, it was about the atom bomb the whole time". No, it wasn't, not in the slightest; anyone who thinks that conclusion makes even a bit of sense is a simpleton.

The atom bomb reference at the end is a brief extension, an addendum, to the theme the game is exploring, but is by no means the point the game was building to the whole time.

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sahest

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Looks great, love the artstyle. But I think I'll pass - don't want to contribute to Blow's already bloated ego.

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Rekt_Hed

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Edited By Rekt_Hed

cool!

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IcarusFoundYou

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Looks like Riven a little bit

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LoopyChew

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This is the prettiest Nonary Game chamber ever.

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selbie

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Edited By selbie

So realMyst mixed with Antichamber? :P

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mattymjp

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Just watching the trailer for this game makes my brain hurt

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Edited By bvilleneuve

@mumrik said:

@statiknights said:

This just screams Myst to me.

I'm so split on this game. The gameplay looks like a Myst-ish relic from the past that I want nothing to do with. The visuals and the art is amazing. The gameworld looks gorgeous

I feel like there's something timeless about environmental puzzle games. I can play Myst today and what it does right is still amazing. This game looks like it boils down what Myst does right and offers up a huge bowl of it.

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Mumrik

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This just screams Myst to me.

I'm so split on this game. The gameplay looks like a Myst-ish relic from the past that I want nothing to do with. The visuals and the art is amazing. The gameworld looks gorgeous

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statiknights

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Edited By statiknights

This just screams Myst to me.

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bvilleneuve

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@sravankb said:

I'm a sucker for good music in my games. I'm looking forward to this for at least the soundtrack.

But the gameplay needs more explaining - I'm not entirely sure what exactly is going on here.

You'll be surprised how much about the gameplay you can tell from the trailer. From what I understand (based mainly on Ryan's and Patrick's impressions from a couple years ago), the flow of the gameplay is that you observe the environment and then use a variety of inputs to reflect patterns that you see during your observations. That's really abstract, but look at the trailer again with that description in mind and have a bucket close at hand to collect the jizz if you're a fan of environmental puzzle games like Myst.

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sravankb

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I'm a sucker for good music in my games. I'm looking forward to this for at least the soundtrack.

But the gameplay needs more explaining - I'm not entirely sure what exactly is going on here.

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Soulblitz

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Edited By Soulblitz

Need that music in my life.

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Giantstalker

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8 gigs of DDR5 and this is what you've got to show? Looks like exactly what I don't want to see from next gen, cel shading should've died with the PS2 era. It looked bad then, but at least it could be justified by hardware constraints of the time.

Blow also made the game sound incredibly boring, but then again, I guess something had be stuck in the middle of the show. Pity something more interesting or relevant wasn't ready.

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aceofspudz

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I want this so badly. Thank god it's not an exclusive.

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Coleslaw893

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Really looking forward to this. Having just played The Unfinished Swan, I was thinking how awesome another colorful first-person puzzle/adventure game would be.

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DriftSPace

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Music by ... Celtic Woman?

Maybe my mother in-law would be into this.

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LiquidPenguins

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pretentious garbage

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Amaru25

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This underwhelmed the shit out of me.

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GiveUpNed

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@peanut said:

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

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

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

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MeatSim

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Edited By MeatSim

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

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jacksukeru

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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.

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Edited By Gildermershina

@gunsaredrawn said:

@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.

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.

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Edited By bvilleneuve

@groverat said:

@gunsaredrawn said:

@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.

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.

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.

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

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

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@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.

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.

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ectoplasma

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@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.

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@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.

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

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@mooseymcman said:

This game looks beautiful.

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

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.

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..

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@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.

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

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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.

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@abara said:

This game made me the most excited during the conference.

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

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Edited By Dan_CiTi

@legion_ said:

@bvilleneuve said:

@mooseymcman said:

This game looks beautiful.

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

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.

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.

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.

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Allison

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

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

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Looks pretty fucking dumb. BUT THAT is just me

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Edited By Jazz_Lafayette

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.

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Edited By sirdesmond

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).

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

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abara

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This game made me the most excited during the conference.

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this music is ren-fair as fuck

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This game has a definite Myst vibe to it.

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

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Edited By Legion_

@mooseymcman said:

This game looks beautiful.

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

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.

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.

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

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@sixpin said:

@peanut said:

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

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.

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.