The Witness (PC, Xbox One, PS4, iOS)
- Thread starter Responsible Allen Iverson
- Start date
This game..
Those tetris style puzzles
they seem simple at first, but then they start throwing curve balls at you. a lot of the puzzles in this game progress like that
Yo I been needing a dope puzzle game for awhile since Portal 2, is this anywhere as dope as portal 1 at least?
Anyone get nausea while playing this? I didn't have this issue the first few times (or with any game I can ever remember) but the other night 5 minutes in I was getting nauseated. Seems like others may be having this issue as well.
I don't have issues, but I guess a lot of people do. people speculate it's the FOV and/or the lack of crosshair
be back in a bit
All Star
Nope that's supposed to happen.I'm on the earlier puzzles and on one section the yellow line is fading graduallyhave I completed the previous puzzles in a wrong way?
hint
If you're doing a mirror puzzle, any move you make will affect the yellow line. Just cus the yellow line becomes invisible, doesn't mean it isn't still there.
be back in a bit
All Star
yep and I usually dont get nauseated from games.
storyteller
Superstar
Just started this and got my second beam of light hitting the mountain. It's an interesting game with a ton to discover and I like exploring, but I haven't been wrapped up in the mysteries so far. I unlocked a film room with a guy giving a speech about science though that seemed like it was describing the concept behind the game and it made me more excited to explore more.
http://the-witness.net/news/2016/02/fun-sales-fakts/
Fun Sales Fakts
Jonathan Blow February 2, 2016Announcements
The Witness has now been on sale for a week, so it seems like a good time to post a financial summary. Often, independent developers find these kinds of numbers useful in making their own plans, and the general public can find them interesting too.
There is a wrinkle, which is that I can’t be too precise about the sales results on specific platforms, because often when we sign a deal with a particular store, we agree not to reveal their sales numbers. I am actually not sure at this time which stores we are allowed to be specific about and which we aren’t, and I would have to dig up and sort through a number of contracts to be sure about it; but that is not a good use of time right now, since I am spending most of my day supporting the users who have technical problems (shipping games on PCs these days is really not fun). The situation can be thorny in subtle ways, too, because if I post information about all stores but one, then I am implicitly revealing the sales figures for that last store, which is not allowed.
Finally, I want to make clear that we did not make this game in order to make money. We were trying to build a beautiful / interesting / intricate thing, first and foremost. The money just helps us stay in business in order to build new things. It is very easy on the Internet to read a financial posting like this cynically, so I urge folks out there not to do that.
Okay, so here’s what I can say:
Across all platforms, The Witness has totalled over $5 million USD gross revenue in the first week, and it has sold substantially more than 100,000 units.
This is a good chunk more revenue in one week than Braid made in its entire first year, from August 2008-September 2009. (Braid initially launched on XBLA in August 2008, and it came to Steam in April 2009). Braid was considered a hit independent game at the time.
We can also compare sales by units instead of revenue; this is a little more of an apples-to-oranges comparison because The Witness has a higher price than Braid did (Braid launched at $14.99 [$16.50 when inflation-adjusted to 2015 dollars], and The Witness launched at $39.99). By number of units, the first week of each individual platform handily beats Braid’s first week of sales. (Witness on PC by itself beat Braid’s first week by a decent margin, and Witness on PSN by itself beat Braid’s first week by a decent margin, counting only by number of units). This is great because as price goes up, naturally the number of units sold goes down. So the fact that we beat Braid by units, more than doubly, is a really nice success.
The Witness launched on two platforms, PSN and Windows PC. Neither of these platforms dominates our sales; PC is very strong for us, and PSN is very strong for us.
There are some publicly-available guesstimates for specific platforms on sites such as SteamSpy, but the numbers that SteamSpy is reporting for The Witness are a bit too low (though this is kind of to be expected, I guess, from the way that site works).
So, the game is doing great. That doesn’t mean we have broken even on our development cost yet! Because our development budget was so high, $5 million in revenue is not enough to recover it yet (because we split that revenue with the storefronts, we have to subtract VAT in Europe, etc). However, it is looking like, as time goes on, we should break even and make a comfortable safety margin on top of that, which will allow us to make more nice games in the future — unless some kind of world economic disaster happens.
As I mentioned, right now we are dealing mostly with PC graphics driver problems, and we are also working on adding some features to the game about configurable controls and rendering options, for PC and PS4.
After this, in the near future, we will start investigating the bringing the game to other platforms. Under serious consideration are: iOS, Android, Xbox One, OS X. We will provide more-concrete information about these as it becomes available!
Fun Sales Fakts
Jonathan Blow February 2, 2016Announcements
The Witness has now been on sale for a week, so it seems like a good time to post a financial summary. Often, independent developers find these kinds of numbers useful in making their own plans, and the general public can find them interesting too.
There is a wrinkle, which is that I can’t be too precise about the sales results on specific platforms, because often when we sign a deal with a particular store, we agree not to reveal their sales numbers. I am actually not sure at this time which stores we are allowed to be specific about and which we aren’t, and I would have to dig up and sort through a number of contracts to be sure about it; but that is not a good use of time right now, since I am spending most of my day supporting the users who have technical problems (shipping games on PCs these days is really not fun). The situation can be thorny in subtle ways, too, because if I post information about all stores but one, then I am implicitly revealing the sales figures for that last store, which is not allowed.
Finally, I want to make clear that we did not make this game in order to make money. We were trying to build a beautiful / interesting / intricate thing, first and foremost. The money just helps us stay in business in order to build new things. It is very easy on the Internet to read a financial posting like this cynically, so I urge folks out there not to do that.
Okay, so here’s what I can say:
Across all platforms, The Witness has totalled over $5 million USD gross revenue in the first week, and it has sold substantially more than 100,000 units.
This is a good chunk more revenue in one week than Braid made in its entire first year, from August 2008-September 2009. (Braid initially launched on XBLA in August 2008, and it came to Steam in April 2009). Braid was considered a hit independent game at the time.
We can also compare sales by units instead of revenue; this is a little more of an apples-to-oranges comparison because The Witness has a higher price than Braid did (Braid launched at $14.99 [$16.50 when inflation-adjusted to 2015 dollars], and The Witness launched at $39.99). By number of units, the first week of each individual platform handily beats Braid’s first week of sales. (Witness on PC by itself beat Braid’s first week by a decent margin, and Witness on PSN by itself beat Braid’s first week by a decent margin, counting only by number of units). This is great because as price goes up, naturally the number of units sold goes down. So the fact that we beat Braid by units, more than doubly, is a really nice success.
The Witness launched on two platforms, PSN and Windows PC. Neither of these platforms dominates our sales; PC is very strong for us, and PSN is very strong for us.
There are some publicly-available guesstimates for specific platforms on sites such as SteamSpy, but the numbers that SteamSpy is reporting for The Witness are a bit too low (though this is kind of to be expected, I guess, from the way that site works).
So, the game is doing great. That doesn’t mean we have broken even on our development cost yet! Because our development budget was so high, $5 million in revenue is not enough to recover it yet (because we split that revenue with the storefronts, we have to subtract VAT in Europe, etc). However, it is looking like, as time goes on, we should break even and make a comfortable safety margin on top of that, which will allow us to make more nice games in the future — unless some kind of world economic disaster happens.
As I mentioned, right now we are dealing mostly with PC graphics driver problems, and we are also working on adding some features to the game about configurable controls and rendering options, for PC and PS4.
After this, in the near future, we will start investigating the bringing the game to other platforms. Under serious consideration are: iOS, Android, Xbox One, OS X. We will provide more-concrete information about these as it becomes available!
beat the game and I keep finding shyt
this has to be one of the most intricately crafted games. everything is a clue, puzzle piece, symbol, etc. puzzles wrapped in puzzles
I think it might be a step up from some of the craziness seen in the star puzzles in The Talos Principle. regardless both are great puzzle games. I also feel like this game has a little more variety, since it's not limited to physical puzzles, with lazers, boxes, portals, etc.
the line puzzles panels might seem like a very simple mechanic, but they really push it to the limits. and it's interesting how they're able to teach you the 'language' of these puzzles, without ever explaining it with words. it requires trial and error, but it does feel rewarding when you figure it out
anyway, game is dope, and I suggest you check it out if you like puzzle games. it can be pretty damn difficult. like I said a few times in this thread, I had to use pen and paper, and photoshop to figure a few puzzles out. there's also a metroidvania thing going on, where early on you'll see puzzles with symbols you don't understand. just keep moving, because eventually you'll learn what everything means (more or less. there's still some shyt I don't fully understand)
GOTY 2016 (so far
)
this has to be one of the most intricately crafted games. everything is a clue, puzzle piece, symbol, etc. puzzles wrapped in puzzles
I think it might be a step up from some of the craziness seen in the star puzzles in The Talos Principle. regardless both are great puzzle games. I also feel like this game has a little more variety, since it's not limited to physical puzzles, with lazers, boxes, portals, etc.
the line puzzles panels might seem like a very simple mechanic, but they really push it to the limits. and it's interesting how they're able to teach you the 'language' of these puzzles, without ever explaining it with words. it requires trial and error, but it does feel rewarding when you figure it out
anyway, game is dope, and I suggest you check it out if you like puzzle games. it can be pretty damn difficult. like I said a few times in this thread, I had to use pen and paper, and photoshop to figure a few puzzles out. there's also a metroidvania thing going on, where early on you'll see puzzles with symbols you don't understand. just keep moving, because eventually you'll learn what everything means (more or less. there's still some shyt I don't fully understand)
GOTY 2016 (so far
)
Grand Eeezus Maxwell
"Time is when, God....lounge!!"
362 +19
might have to go up that mountain soon
What are the +'s, are those the single, hidden panels found around the island??
just finished it
431 +24
I wonder how much I missed
You missed a LOT, homie. Check this out...
There are two more of those secrets, and no one's found them yet. The developers expect less than 1% of the players to find all three. Whoever finds(in a certain order thru multiple playthroughs) them gets the TRUE ending and an all-expense paid trip with the developers as a reward. You're also off by like 170, puzzles-wise..
There are two more of those secrets, and no one's found them yet. The developers expect less than 1% of the players to find all three. Whoever finds(in a certain order thru multiple playthroughs) them gets the TRUE ending and an all-expense paid trip with the developers as a reward. You're also off by like 170, puzzles-wise..
I'm on the earlier puzzles and on one section the yellow line is fading gradually
Nope, it's the game fukkin' with you. You'll see after you solve it
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So many damn puzzles 
I'm gonna get into this, this week now that I beat Rise of the Tomb Raider
I'm gonna get into this, this week now that I beat Rise of the Tomb Raider
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the +'s are the puzzles that are hidden in the environment