Jonathan Blow, who brought gamers the puzzling adventure game Braid, is bringing a new puzzling adventure game to the stand. It’s called The Witness and it’s still in development, but it’s coming…soon.
The game’s official site has a small one-stanza poem that sums up the game in its entirety:
Thus shall you think of this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.
The site also features a blog that’s documenting Jonathan Blow and his team’s journey of bringing The Witness to gamers. The last entry was from August 5th, showcasing some screenshots of the game’s current progress.The entries go back further into 2014 and reveal snippets of what it takes and what it’s like to create a video game from scratch.
It’s interesting that Jonathan Blow and his team chose to document the highs and lows, the long days and triumphs of it all because once The Witness comes out, they can see all that they’ve overcome and see their great accomplishment completed. The documenting process is also good to show others who have a similar interest in creating video games.
The gameplay trailer showcases different parts of the world of The Witness. It resembles an isolated island with castle ruins strewn about and drastic changes in terrain on various parts of the island, like a small desert region. There’s also a small forest area with trees that look like they’re changing for the fall, suggesting that the island has an environment representing all four seasons.
The walking paths in each area have rotating platforms that change when the player solves a puzzle, unlocking a new path to explore. But there are bigger puzzles to solve that will require the player to explore the entire island to solve and observe (like a witness) what is uncovered as a result.
For more information on The Witness, visit their website.
