It’s been a few months since our last post on PlayStation.Blog, so I think it’s a nice time to let people know how the game is coming along.
If you haven’t heard about The Witness, it is a game about exploration and puzzle-solving in an open world. Here’s our trailer:
The open-world aspect of the design is important; it means you have freedom in terms of where you go and what puzzles you choose to approach right now. At any time you can just stop what you’re doing, turn around and go somewhere else, and the game world has plenty of new things to show you.
It’s interesting to try and design a puzzle game this way. Puzzle games are usually linear, because the designers want to make sure you have solved a puzzle before going on to a more difficult one. But in The Witness we have a broader idea about what makes puzzles interesting, and this lets us be versatile in designing the flow of gameplay. We build systems of puzzles with flexibility to allow for player freedom, so you can follow the natural flow of your own curiosity.
More flippantly, we are trying to reverse the trend illustrated by this old chestnut:
Building an open world is a challenge for a small team like ours, though, especially in a game that is as detail-oriented as this. We care about the placement of every object, the way every location looks from every other location, and how a location frames the puzzles that live inside. We’re very busy refining these details for the game’s release.
I’ve written about The Witness previously on PlayStation.Blog.
If you want to follow general development progress, check out our blog for The Witness. It’s more than just news and updates, on it we often get into deep discussions of artistic decisions and technical work. And you can also follow @witnessgame on Twitter.
We are looking forward to delivering you the best game we can make, and we are working hard at this every day.
Can we expect the game around launch? It looks great, by the way.
looks amazing. extremely interested
Couldn’t agree more w/ #2.
You have a buyer right here.
I second #3.
Looks great Jonathan. Reminds me somewhat of Riven, but in a modern setting.
Really looking forward to playing!
I third #5
Game looks like a blast!
BORING..ALL THIS HIGH TECH GRAPHICS TO WALK THROUGH DOORS..NO THANK YOU..YOU GUYS CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS..SERIOUSLY..IF I WANTED TO GO TROUGH DOORS ID JUST PLAY PORTAL..AT LEAST THEY HAVE A GUN..:P #JustMyOpinion
Greatness awaits and I will be a witness.
Looks awesome! Can’t wait to buy.
Don’t listen to nYcFrEeWill82, hes probably the kind of guy looking forward to collarduty and wants to give his dog an xbone.
This game looks great, and when you strive for something unique it pays off. I’m glad the Witness is one of those games that pushes for its own thing. In a industry thats saturated with yearly releases of FPSs and sports titles that are stagnant and reluctant to change, the industry would never move forward.
Releases like The Witness, Journey, Tokyo Jungle, Pixeljunk, Super Meat Boy, Bastion and others are things that should be encouraged over more FPS.
And independent developers are a blessing.
Loveeeeeeeeeeeee the art direction. Ps4 launch title? Hope so.
The developer interview was very different from most I’ve watched. I liked that.
After watching the trailer, I am now sure I will get this game. Looks like a new experience, something pretty rare in games. I really like the pops of color, especially the pinks and purples. That will look so gorgeous with my PS4 playing on my giant Bravia.
Why are you so concerned with how other games are developed? I noticed your comment on the PS4 reveal too “how do you follow all those exposions” as if having explosions in your game makes your game “lesser” of a game than your high brow game. I enjoy lots of today’s games and I also enjoy very intelectually challenging games. I wish you would focus on your own game and not trounce the state of other games. If your game is as unique and amazing as you say it is, it will find its audience. And people can still like other modern games and not be stupid because of it. Your diagram of modern games is an insult to many quality modern developers.
Looks like a low definition Mist game, with all the power of the ps4 this is what you came up with?
I don’t mean to be belittling to all the hard work you have put into the game but I have to think you should have put this on the ps3 or vita.
From what I can see in the video this is like putting salt on a birds tail and thinking that will stop it from flying away.
Solve puzzle move on solve puzzle move on rinse and repeat.
Aren’t most shooter games “shoot guy, shoot guy, move on, rinse and repeat”?
I didn’t realize that solving a puzzle is somehow a less worthwhile activity than shooting a guy!