Game Designer Jonathan Blow talks about his upcoming puzzle game, The Witness

Summary

In this Game Life video podcast, the creator of the beloved indie game Braid and the forthcoming puzzle game, The Witness, Jonathan Blow, talks about the inspiration behind the idea for The Witness, which is a hybrid of first-person exploration with abstract puzzles. He also discusses why there will be no action in the game and how it will be challenging. The video ends with him discussing why he chose to launch the game on PS4, PC, and iOS.

The Inspiration behind The Witness
The Type of Game The Witness Is
Why The Witness Has No Action
Why Launch on PS4, PC, and iOS

The Inspiration behind The Witness

The inspiration behind The Witness comes from games like Myst, which kicked off a whole lineage of games. The idea was to take the best parts of a game like Myst – the atmosphere, mood, and setting – and bring a modern game design sensibility to it. The result is a hybrid of first-person exploration with abstract puzzles that does not involve any action.

The Type of Game The Witness Is

The Witness is not so much an adventure game as it is a first-person exploration game with abstract puzzles. The game provides a setting where players have all the time they need to figure things out. It is about making appropriate tactical decisions, and it offers a different approach to provide difficulty than the conventional action-packed arcade games.

Why The Witness Has No Action

The reason behind The Witness having no action is not because Jonathan Blow thinks action is bad, but because so many games already do it. In his opinion, there are only two ways to provide difficulty in video games: the arcade way or by making appropriate tactical decisions. Since both of these methods are well-known, it doesn’t leave much room for innovation.

Why Launch on PS4, PC, and iOS

Originally, The Witness was supposed to be launched in winter 2011, but due to the scope of the game being bigger than initially planned, it took longer. The game was supposed to be launched on PC and either PS3 or Xbox. But, by the time the game was ready for launch, a new console era had begun, so Jonathan Blow decided to launch the game on PS4, PC, and iOS. He received a dev kit from Sony after the company showed interest in working with indie developers. By getting a dev kit and nurturing relationships, it became easier to launch the game on PS4, PC, and iOS.

Conclusion

In this video podcast, Jonathan Blow talks about the inspiration and idea behind his upcoming game, The Witness. He mentions why the game does not involve any action and how it provides a different approach to providing difficulty while discussing the reason for launching the game on PS4, PC, and iOS. This four-part discussion provides a glimpse into some of the aspects of game development, which will be of interest to gamers and game developers alike.