The song is “Glass Window” from the group “Mediaeval Baebes” (http://www.mediaevalbaebes.com)

Lyrics from an unofficial site:

“Through the glass window shines the sun
Through the glass window shines the sun
And I so young

Through the glass window shines the sun
Through the glass window shines the sun
How should I, how should I, how should I love?
How should I, how should I, how should I love?

The silver is white, the red is the gold
The robes, they lay in fold
They lay in fold
How should I, how should I, how should I love?”

Wow. What an amazing insight.

That struck me in my heart.

Why are games so caught up in teaching players about their own rules when there’s so much about the universe which already exists that can be taught?

What kind of atmosphere will it have? Looks like the mood changes along with the theme as you move throughout the island, but do some sections affect that ‘creepy’ Myst-like mood that sets the player on edge?

I’m thinking that Jonathan Blow knows about this and made it like that for a purpose; after all, this is a game where everything has a purpose.

I watched the trailer and it looks beautiful! Amazing work!

Congratulation on being on PS4 conference too!

We are doing our best! We’ll see…

Agreed, having only really seen the overhead shots recently, seeing the world from the ground was definitely a ‘Whoa!’ moment – I always thought the island shots looked great, but I didn’t expect so much attention to detail.

Jon and team; Incredible work, visual, audio, the whole shebang – there are not many games I would describe as ‘Beautiful’ – you’ve truly outdone yourselves and I cannot wait :)

These sorts of announcements are always difficult, especially for a small team, because it’s hard to give specifics about what platforms a game will be on and when _because often times even the team doesn’t know for sure_.

I know it sounds strange, but when you’ve only got three or four programmers, and say one of them is working on iOS, maybe you suddenly have to make a decision to pull them off that to help finish the PS4 version. Or maybe you have to pull the guy doing the PS4 version to finish the PC version. It’s always a balancing act, and you have to make the call based on a number of factors, like how far along the code is for a particular platform, what the certification overhead is, where you think the largest audience is, etc., etc.

So you may _intend_ to have certain platforms ready at certain times, but you often don’t want to commit to that publicly because then when emergencies happen and you have to slip a platform, the players on that platform will get (understandably) upset. You often have to make these kind of judgment calls about what’s going to slip, and no matter what you choose, some part of the audience – who you definitely do care about – is going to be hurt, and that’s hard. Believe me, we’d all love to ship on every platform under the sun if we had infinite resources and infinite time. Who wouldn’t want to get their game out to more players? But part of the reality of being an indie is that, even if you’re well funded by comparison to indies at large, you still actually have very little to work with.

All this being the way it is, anyone in Jon’s position has to be very careful about what he says. You’ll note that he specifically said that the PS4 would be the only _console_ running the Witness _within the launch window_. So that explicitly does not talk about tablets, desktops, phones, watches, abacuses, or anything else, and it doesn’t even talk about what might happen on other consoles _outside_ the launch window.

So I really would recommend not reading too much into that statement. It’s a very mild statement as platform announcements go, and certainly no cause for concern at this stage for people who would prefer to play The Witness on a platform other than the PS4.

Cheers,
– Casey

Oh, cool with the green dots, I thought it was just corresponding to the sum of green dots equals the area of the partition (though the tetris condition works and is more interesting as an added constraint.)

My only guess for the folding bridge is that each partition has to contain an even number of each color’s dots, at least that’s the only thing I can think of immediately that would hold on those visible puzzles.

If anyone didn’t see the black/white, I believe you just need to make sure no black and white occupy the same partition.

Modern Warfare 9: Faceshooter for Game of the Year 2014!

Not much to go on for the unmarked tablets (external clues involved, I’m guessing), and the black-and-white dots were previously explained somewhere. For the green dots: they’re sort of tetris-pieces that need to cover the areas your line divides the tablets into. The dots themselves do not necessarily have to fall into the corresponding tetris-piece, however. For the folding bridge puzzles: I was thinking of some sort of symmetry rule, or having to go around dots of a certain color in certain ways, but nothing seems to fit all the solutions there. So, no clue on that. Seems to be on the more devious side.

One great thing I noticed is that even though you actually see the puzzles being solved, it doesn’t at all spoil anything. The solutions don’t at all seem to make sense to me, something that will obviously be explained when I play the game, but I mean in other games showing such solutions would ruin the fun. It also shows what you said in the interview, puzzles are all related to each other and they all relate to each other, up to the point where you get to a puzzle that would be impossible to solve had you not gone through all the puzzles before it.

In any case I’m hugely excited. I’m not going to assume that the game’s release date is anywhere too near, but I’m sure that a trailer is already a big step closer :)

Torrents of “dude-bro gamer” hate.

Frat boys incendiary with rage. “This game is gay. What’s it doing on the PS4? When is Modern Warfare 9: Faceshooter coming out?”

I can’t wait. For the game. Not the hate.

Stephen, what you said makes a lot of sense. I never thought this way. My hopes are renewed, though I still think the chances are higher to be released only on PS4 at the moment.

Well, the wording Jon used was that PS4 would be the only “console” The Witness would release on “at the time”. It depends on your definition I guess, but I consider PC and iOS to be “platforms”, not consoles. He didn’t use the word “platform”, so I’m assuming the vagueness means PC/iOS/PS4 simultaneous launch is probable, followed by other platforms later.

Just my speculation though.

mediaeval baebes: glass window

Given that, I’d be interested to know the thought process behind the way the trailer ended up being structured.

I think it will be a “release exclusitivity”, I mean, it will be a PS4 exclusive during it release, and after some months will be released for others plataforms.

I can’t express how much disappointed I am with it. I’ve been following the game development since it’s announcement and waiting anxiously for it’s release. Braid was my all time favourite game and Witness is my most antecipated upcoming game. I have no plans to buy a Ps4, so I’ll have to wait to play it on PC? Everything led us to belive that PC would be the main plataform, maybe with tablets. Of course I will still buy the game and I will still (propably) enjoy it, but I really felt mistaken.

Is there any story behind the “25 hours” quote? You don’t seem like one to say such a thing; were you asked to reveal such information?

It is a timed exclusive: “This is the first official trailer for the upcoming game The Witness, to be released on the PC, iOS, and PlayStation 4… and eventually, several other platforms.”

1. Isn’t this trailer full of spoilers?
2. Does it means the technical requirements for PC to get the same quality as in this video (assuming HD kind of resolution) would be close to the PS4 configuration? I suppose not but I’m suddenly feeling feeble with my laptop…

The game is looking beautiful, and I loved the song choice.

Do you plan on doing a blog about the clouds in the game? They’re quite unlike anything else I’ve seen.

-Paul

I am also scared about whether I’ll be able to play this game :(

But I guess we will see whether it was just a smart, acceptable business decision or selling out.

You have every right to do what’s financially right for you, but it would be dissapointment for me, after following this game with interest for years. I can afford to buy the devices I want, but I won’t be rushed into buying a PS4.

This is the last thing I want to have seen before playing the game. I’d like to approach it with innocent eyes as much as possible.

Regards

That may have been based on relatively old discussions. We didn’t know we would be on the PS4 until relatively recently. At one point that was an accurate description of our stance. But we change these things from time to time: you have to be at least kind of agile because the market situation is changing all the time.

I was wondering – was the piece of music in the trailer composed for the game or was this a song you found earlier and felt it went well with the game? I really like it.