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General discussionRelease: The Witness(108 posts)(108 posts)
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Posted May 11, 2016
Walk the line



<span class="bold">The Witness</span>, an island full of mind-bending puzzles solved through keen observation and persistent exploration, is now available, DRM-free on GOG.com with a 10% launch discount.

Puzzles. The enigmatic island you've woken up in is dotted with panels full of puzzles. To solve them, all you need to do is draw a continuous line from an entry point to an exit point. Simple, isn't it? It isn't. As in every great mind-bender, there are rules to follow, visual clues to decipher, hidden paths to discover. Designed by Braid's creator Jonathan Blow, the vibrant, meticulously arranged island provides all the hints you need, while at the same time obfuscating its true nature from you. Approaching the puzzles with an open mind and exploring the environment in an open way are essential to overcoming the island's challenges, as you learn to speak its language and fall in love with its deceptive simplicity.



Walk a straight line towards an abundance of brilliant puzzles and become <span class="bold">The Witness</span>, DRM-free on GOG.com. The 10% launch discount will last until May 18, 12:59 PM UTC.


In the press:
"Exquisitely layered puzzles populate a world that will keep you guessing" - PC Gamer
"Just as arresting and enthralling as anyone could have expected" - Game Rant
Posted May 11, 2016
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Tarm: Alt tabing or using a tablet gets me out of the atmosphere.
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omega64: In that case no.
Darn it!

Ah well if it gets REALLY cheap there's a chance I'll try it.
Posted May 12, 2016
High price + genre that isn't my favorite genre = no buy for me.

The thing with high prices is that it discourages people from trying games that are a bit different from what they prefer to play.

In my case, I might pay $40 for a game if it is a gameplay-focused RPG and is considered good by those who play it, but I am not going to pay that much for a puzzle game, no matter how good it is.
Posted May 12, 2016
Perfectionism has come at a great and quantifiable cost. The money is—for now, at least—all gone. The Witness cost close to six million dollars, vastly overshooting Blow’s original budget of eight hundred thousand dollars. When Braid’s profits ran out, he borrowed funds from a friend. “Most people would have felt the need to finish the game much earlier than I did,” he said. “It’s absurd how much I spent, really. But I was willing to put it all in the poker pot and make the thing I wanted to make, without interference, without someone telling me I needed to make everything purple, or something else.” Few of indie gaming’s other success stories have been willing to put everything back into their next project, he said pointedly. “Or maybe some of those games just aren’t out yet.”
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-prickly-genius-of-jonathan-blow
Post edited May 12, 2016 by Barry_Woodward
Posted May 12, 2016
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Luned: I'm faintly surprised Blow allowed any intro discount at all. Unluckily for him, I'm saving up for one of next month's releases, from a publisher who was willing to commit to Day 1 on GOG, so this is not the moment for me to purchase. Onto the wishlist for $30 or less it goes.

The non-promo price of Braid, though, is absolutely ridiculous. In fact, the promo price for Braid is ridiculous. It needs to be a $5.99 game when it's not on sale, given the number of times it's been on sale/bundled.
Agreed totally. My wishlist price will actually be $19.99. When it hits that price I'll buy it.

(Based on pure length it's probably worth $39.99, if you compare it to $60 games and consider them worth $60. But that's only if you suppose it will keep your attention long enough for the length to be relevant. Since I just want to try the game, and will only finish it if it really grabs me, it's only a $20 game to me, personally.)

I think I paid $5 for an entire bundle of games that included Braid. I couldn't get into it; I frankly don't see why people think it's so special.
Posted May 12, 2016
So whats the story morning glory about this game? Why do people say its awesome? :D
Posted May 12, 2016
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Breja: I'm not saying it's bad, but it costs more than The Witcher 3. More than Pillars of Eternity. More than any adventure game on my wishlist, most of which large games, with huge casts, plenty of puzzles and often are sequels to very popular and well regarded games. I don't think I'm being irrational when I see that as something of an overkill.
See Barry's post a few above mine. Apparently the game cost $6 million to make.. which might explain the price, but not what the hell he used all the money for. I'm fairly sure I could have made half a dozen games and lived comfortably for the rest of my life with that kind of cash...
Blow by name, blow by nature apparently...
Posted May 12, 2016
Welcome, welcome.

good games that belong on GOG. best of luck.
Posted May 12, 2016
Adalia: it's actually quite easy to burn millions in SW development, especially if you dig deep and create also your own engine and tools and whatsoever. I think you would be very surprised, how making several games would swiftly turn into "two good ones", then "one, but excellent" into "just finish it FFS".

Anyway, that's problem of the developer, not player.

For me, I'm surprised by both the Witness and Braid price tags, at first I though the GOG team mismatched them.

I did play Braid for few hours few years back, and I have seen speed run trough Witness on youtube, and for me personally it made things simple. Braid is instabuy, Witness not interesting for me at all (yep, I'm one of those who don't get what's so great about it... the puzzles are fine, a bit repetitive and a takes about 3/4 of game before they get somewhat difficult (for me), but they are certainly challenging enough for average humans... graphics are nice, but so is Braid).

edit: even if I would have some doubt, I don't have windows, only linux. :D
Post edited May 12, 2016 by ped7g
Posted May 12, 2016
I'm glad this and Braid got released here, and I'm glad to see that they're both doing well. I picked Braid up as a show of support even though I finished it years ago, and I'm hoping that we'll see more classic indie games release on GOG in the future.

As for The Witness, $40 (well, $36 with the discount) is way too high of a price for me. There are very few games I would pay that much for. I'm not saying it's overpriced, if it's selling well then obviously the price is fine, but for me personally it's too expensive. I do have some interest in it, but I won't be buying it until it's at least 66% off.
Posted May 12, 2016

puzzles solved through keen observation
Not a game for MY library, then. XD
Posted May 12, 2016
Will get it someday. Watched a bit on YouTube. The type of puzzles the game has for the price seems excessive. $10 or $20 game makes more sense to me, not $40. But people are buying it, so I guess he knows what he's doing

Plus I am still working on DROD:TSS and DROD:RPG. Which I find more enjoyable. Even though I think some of the rooms in DROD:TSS, the creator must be in league with Satan.
Posted May 12, 2016
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Tarm: Any cheat for the puzzles so I can just walk around looking at the pretty landscape and enjoy the story? I suck at puzzles.
You don't have to solve all puzzles to walk around the island. It is open and you can leave some puzzles unsolved if you are stuck with a puzzle, continue with an other one and come back later. Ok, at the beginning you have to solve a puzzle to escape a castle ruin (the easiest puzzle) but then the world is almost open, despite some hidden paths that open when you solve a puzzle. But you have to solve puzzles (not all) if you want to uncover the secret of the island.
Post edited May 12, 2016 by Silverhawk170485
Posted May 12, 2016
As far as this game goes. It seems expensive to me, but people are buying it at this price, so its a good acquisition for GoG. At least for this game, we are getting the same discount as everyone else. It has not been sold for less anywhere I've seen.

Braid on the other hand...

But I don't think even that is sinister. Looks like they are doing the same as they did with Bethesda. Those games released at a higher than best price point, but it didn't take long to have competitive sales. I'd expect to see Braid show up at 75% or 80% off by the Fall or Winter Sale.

They are probably hoping to bring in a little extra profit off the release sale before future discounts with prices competitive with other shops.
Posted May 12, 2016
After watching that trailer I must say it does look pretty lovely. I'm not sure how much I would care for the same kind of puzzle throughout the entire length of the game though.
Posted May 12, 2016
Thank you so much GOG.com for bringing The Witness to GOG.com! I look forward to seeing more new titles that GOG.com can bring to us as DRM-free.

Keep 'em comin! Cheers!
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionRelease: The Witness(108 posts)(108 posts)
(108 posts)