Comments on: The Island Today

By: Toph

Toph — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 22:31:27 +0000

I think this is one of the reasons I love college: it’s an incredibly high-density environment, in every sense (incl. a densely interconnected social graph).

By: Cody Burrow

Cody Burrow — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:12:29 +0000

I really hope the player can just explore the island and enjoy its beauty. If the world is made to seem at all alive, I would love to simply park my view next to the centre lake (in the shade of a slowly creaking windmill) and watch the wind blow in the reeds, or ripple over the water.

This is the form of simple beauty I feel needs to be put into a fully realized 3D game. If there’s anyone to agree with me, I should expect it to be yourself.

By: Pritchard

Pritchard — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:18:53 +0000

Exploring game spaces > exploring map spaces

Density was my idea, but you can have it if you like :)
(All right, I stole it from a small game my friend syn9 made called Prompt Critical. More developers need to think of their game play’s utility function.)

By: Puran

Puran — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 12:04:47 +0000

Touch panel? Like gestures?… Hate to compare it to myst again, but like in Myst V? (you had a tablet where you drew things on it and stuff happened).

By: Wyrmling

Wyrmling — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 00:36:20 +0000

Well, one thing Jon mentioned in one of his lectures is that there are touch panel puzzles in the game. He really didn’t give much more info than that, but he seemed really excited about them, so I’m pretty pumped.

By: sfury

sfury — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:51:57 +0000

I bet Jon Blow knows what it is about. But he’s not telling. :\

Anyway if I end up liking it as much as Braid, I don’t mind waiting a bit more for the big reveal.

By: asd

asd — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 15:33:15 +0000

Maybe that’s what makes everyone think of Myst – it and its followers seem to share that “density” philosophy, though probably out of necessity – they didn’t have any room left on the CDs to put anything extra in.

Anyway, does anyone actually know what The Witness is about? Old school puzzles? Playing with some interesting game play mechanic, like the time in Braid? Hms hms hms.

By: Puran

Puran — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 22:24:09 +0000

Voice recordings?

Isn’t the island supposed to be uninhabited?

Soo… You find audio/video recordings, or is there some sort of narrator?

(or maybe a-la Myst hmm was it IV? Where when you found books, you could read them with voice-overs).

I’m still very curious to see how this will differentiate itself from the Myst series (including the evolutions of the last few offerings) gameplay-wise.

By: sfury

sfury — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 08:12:50 +0000

“Most open-world games want to impress you with the hugeness of the world, and the corollary to that is that you spend a lot of time walking / riding / driving between places. The Witness takes the opposite philosophy: it wants the world to be as high-density as possible, just packed full of interesting things. As the island develops, we will be placing areas as close to each other as we can, within constraints. ”

Thank you, that’s shaping up as something I’d love to play. Also I like the idea that you have this place you can roam freely, enjoy the view, solve a puzzle or two at your own pace – without something chasing or fighting you (there won’t be something like that, right? please?) or constraining you in any other way.

By: justin

justin — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 04:52:37 +0000

i loved that in Braid. the most amount of content in the least amount of time. this “high-density philosophy” makes the game feel packed with alot of content. Braid was 3 hours lond but you could play 15 minutes and feel satisfaction. p.s. is there a way i or a person outside your team could be a tester?