We have this depth mode in the editor, that I've never really used for anything other than taking neat screenshots for fun. It's been a while since the last post, so I thought it might be cool to share some. It's difficult to find interesting new screenshots to share lately, since we've already shown a lot of the game and don't want to ruin the exploration when it comes out!
The Witness looks beautiful any way you slice it. thank you for the update, and good luck on the final push! :)
Excited to see the game. Do you guys expect to release her in 2015?
The goal is to release the game this year. In one of her recent posts Orsi mentioned that at this point almost all the creative work is done and the focus is just on fixing bugs (and probably a thousand small things that non-game-developers don’t realize need to be done). Hopefully they’ll be able to send it for PS4 certification soon… though I have no idea how long that process takes…
First Witness DLC : Spooky World & Zombie Edition.
You certainly nailed the look; all that’s missing is a certain friendly arachnid… By the way anyone who hasn’t played Limbo needs to go do that right now…so good!
Thank you again Orsi for these little tidbits!
I know – I nearly had a heart attack.
My own personal theory is that we are currently in qualification and bug-fix mode.
Is it weird that I said “we” like I was part of the team?
The headline literally made feel for a moment like they were putting the game on hold!
Yikes.
This art style could actually work overall, haha! Kind of like that game Betrayer.
:)
I did the same, just for a tiny second. Then I saw the image and thought of the indie game. It looks quite different to Limbo tbh, but the only other B+W (modern) game I can think of is Vib Ribbon! So it’s a fair assumption I guess.
Was this inspired by the Dark Souls Limbo Settings discovered last month?
Nope, had this mode for years.
Jon let me know you were trying to contact me? You can reach me at ospanyol@gmail.com. Sorry about my website, I haven’t looked at it much since I started working here!
Following this reply I immediately went on Youtube to see what this was about. So it’s some sort of hack/mod on the PC version of the game. It adds a tremendous amount of challenge since no UI / particles are visible (make sense).
My only complaint would be the guy talking over but heh that’s what most video game videos are about these days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH-QmpBUUsk
Hi everyone. I want to play this game so badly. Could we please have weekly updates on the blog instead of monthly updates? That would be really nice
Ok, time to overanaylise…
Most of the shots seem like places we have indeed seen before (the keep, forest, hub, foundry, etc.) but that 7th shot looks like the arches on top of the mountain, where all the lasers get directed.
Interesting, statues of people working and moving boxes.
I’m intrigued.
Does anyone know how much The Witness will cost?
I would save up the going rate of $60. If it’s less, cool, but you know it won’t be more.
Thanks for the update guys! Cool pics!!
190 dollars
Giant spiders: Confirmed!
That looks brilliant. The mentioning of an editor makes me hopeful about modding possibilities, although Jon already pointed out a while ago that unlike Braid a public modding tool isn’t intended.
In any case awesome shots, definitely has a Limbo vibe!
Haha,witness in limbo!
so,you will find witness in braid…in fez…and in meetboy.
A giant spiders and a princess and Dr. Fetus will wait for you in witness.
Can we have the limbo graphics added to the game, some sort of a special bonus after completing the game? So we can complete it a second time in Limbo Mode.
Beautiful, give everyone a ten buck raise.
The sharp contrast kind of reminds me of Unfinished Swan. It would interesting to be able to play the game again with this look, maybe as a new game plus.
I am almost certain that the witness has its share of Easter eggs and secrets… I would rather have something tangible at the moment like a demo, updated trailer, or whatnot.
I miss the days when demos came out a few months before a games release… Gave you something to look forward to… Most of the ones I had came on a disc that came with a pizza or magazine (ah, the 90’s)
Yeah, demos whet the appetite, and are cool to collect.
Plus, they’re free & a great publicity tool for a game.
Inexplicable the App Store diesn’t allow this.
I guess you can get around it by offering a game for free,
but it’s not really the game, just a level or two,
then offer tne whole game as an IAP if the user likes it.
Like Limbo, this treatment reminds me of one of my favorite children’s books: Circus in the Mist
Have to say, I’m getting more and more excited. Given that they are bug testing the final product, fine tuning the visual details and the timing (a la Indie Game), I am anticipating a PAX announcement. Not getting my hopes up, but fingers crossed. So excited to experience the beauty and brilliance behind this game, guys. Keep up the solid work.
Just wondering if this is REALLY coming out for iOS. I do not have a current iPad but I have a 6 plus. Is it coming out for that? If so, count my money in!
Yes, it’s coming out on iOS, and if I recall correctly, it will also likely come to Android as well. (Situation on android for paid apps has changed a lot since 2009)
As for whether it comes to phones, that will likely be evaluated based on the playability on the device in question. Small screens are probably not great for this game, but as we are all painfully aware…phone screens are rarely very small nowadays.
It’s coming out on iOS? This year?
http://the-witness.net/news/2012/10/ipad-victory-shot/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ipad-victory-shot
And this was done on an iPad 2 ….
We’re now up to iPad 7 by the time “The Witness” comes out,
presumably Christmas ’15, so imagine the performance boost we can expect!
Yeah, that was quite a while ago now. As I’m sure anyone who frequents this blog is well aware, The Witness grew to be much bigger than we first envisioned, and we’ve been focusing on PS4 and PC to get them finished first. That said, the plan is still to bring it to tablets after those platforms have shipped, so that we’ll have time to give them the attention they deserve – there’s plenty to do on both the art and engineering sides for the mobile versions.
You’re right that the new iPads definitely help us out from a performance point of view (we hope to run on some of the the older models too) but there’s also plenty of non-performance related work like fitting it in <1GB, and making sure the touch-controls are intuitive and pleasant to use.
As ever, the release date remains "When it's done". But you all knew that :)
That you said not only is it still coming to iPad BUT it will get special
touch-optimized treatment AND the goal’s to bring it in at *less than a gig* [?!? lol] gladdens my Heart to no end! And that’s really all I wanted: just an OFFICIAL confirmation the the iPad version’s still a “go”, not pressing for a hard release date. Cannot wait, my friend!
Can we please have an update on how the progress of the game is coming along?
I help with that! Right now they’re doing polishing and testing. So far the puzzle count has not changed significantly (I think it has stayed the same of late). Cosmetic changes are probably winding down, and (I think) if they had a release date set they’d let us know, so (I think) they do not have a release date set.
Note that the polishing and testing phase can take a while. Just because they’re almost finished with the game does not necessarily mean that they’re almost finished in the temporal sense.
Probably wrong on some details, but whatever. It’s an educated guess.
Thank you Jack.
Could the developers consider updating us on the progress of the game every week or two instead of every month? I know I am probably being a little impatient for updates, but I have been waiting for the game since September of 2014.
Cute… some of us waited way longer. :-P
I think its right around the corner. I can smell. . . I think. . . please. . .
The team is QA testing and fixing bugs at this point so there really isn’t anything substantial to share with the public. Yes, the waiting is difficult, but just remember: the Thekla team has been hard at work for six years now, so *no one* is more anxious for the game’s release than they are.
Thanks Ryan.
If you take these screenshots along with the normal color mode versions of them, drop them in After Effects you can use these to determine a depth of field plan to make some really cool low Depth of Field photos (with the ability to move and adjust your focal point with this as reference material).
Any chance you could post the non Depth Map photos too?
If I ever have some extra time and remember, I’ll retake a couple of them in both modes and post them in a reply here so you can try it!
I have deleted a couple of comments that I think are stupid. If one of them was yours, sorry, but I don’t want this stuff on our blog.
Jon it would be awesome if you could drop some positive comment as well sometime, not only saying when you consider a comment crossed the line. People here appreciate and respect you so much that I think they deserve that.
I don’t think that will be happening dude. He seems more interested in finishing the game, streaming/letting people watch him play other games, and stopping by infrequently to alienate the excited fan base gathered here — than he is to leave a single nice comment.
This blog is a tool for him to gauge interest in his game, a statistic, nothing more.
I would be hard pressed to believe he actually gave a damn about the fans. More like we are just a sad by-product that assists in art creation via cash. Because really, how would we know any different?
But oh well. This comment will likely be removed anyway… cause I hear we’re being censored now.
Not totally unexpected though, from a genius-savant, intellectual, millionaire, Californian. If he had people skills I suppose he’d be in here himself, shouting praises at his own game with the rest of us.
I know you want to play the game, but you’re baiting awfully hard. On some level, if you want to stoke anticipation for a release it’d be more fun to play things close to the chest. Not that I thought the censorship was tactful, but you’re just trying to provoke a reaction because you’re frustrated.
Sincerely, honestly, I am not trying to provoke anything or anybody. I will wait patiently for the game until the end of time. I am simply wishing that the developer, if commenting anyway, could be bothered to do so using a more balanced approach.
The last thing I want to do is provoke anyone, unless that is to provoke a positive change. It would go a long way I think if people acted less like big brother and instead tried to engage.
He is a personal hero of mine. I worry that people asking for a release date has caused him to stay away for long periods of time and to be not happy in general with the blog and frankly that shows in the limited and displeased comments.
I think he is a genius and I know the little things sometimes escape people who are on another level.
No, cause one of the posts was mine and totally needed deleted (I can be an a-hole at times).
In all seriousness, I think it would be cool to see a “things that need done” counter… Even if it’s just a nondescript number of tasks left to do… It would be fun to watch it slowly tick down, then jump up by some crazy amounts as new issues are uncovered.
But then they would probably waste more time counting and tracking than it would take to just finish the game… So just never mind.
Even as just a writer/artist. I’ve been in the spot he’s been in before. Every week you think you are close, and then you find just as many major/minor things you gotta clean up and fix the next week… It’s enough to drive one bonkers.
I can totally understand games take massive amounts of time, specially one as big as this one. I think they took on a really big task for a small team. You just need to watch the movie Indie Game and then check how big The Witness is to realize that. Just see how Phil Fish felt when people was asking him how the game was taking long.
My point was just that this community seems to be giving a 95% of support and only a 5% of non constructive feedback.
Anyway, I bet the team is putting this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uUl_aTbOzQ into practice a lot. I think they are going to be way better professionals after this project.
All I can say is I hope The Witness and NMS don’t release on the same week. Both day one purchases for me. I google The Witness and NMS everyday just patiently waiting for the release date.
I’m glad to see all the attention to detail and hope for the best success!
Hi, and thank you for the update.
Does releasing the game for windows 10 represent any extra work for the team?
Hi! I know it’s the first time i post here, but I was wondering if somebody can tell us the craziest bug or unexpected behavior (with funny consecuences) that happened among this long time. Surely you’ll have anything funny to tell us ;D
By the way, the game looks incredible amazing!!!!
Hey good question. Yeah I bet these developers run into some funny oddities some times. Now I’m curious too.
I’ll do a post about bugs next, hopefully before the week is out. Got kinda discouraged by some negativity on here, but it’s nice to hear from reasonable people:)
Cool! Hey, there’s always a few sour apples in the bunch, and people wonder why Jonathan doesn’t want to comment on his own site… Don’t let them get you down. And besides everyone has a cranky day sometimes. I’m super excited about everything involving this game, and I’ve been visiting this blog for almost 4 years. I know it’s worth the wait. By the way, thank you for keeping this blog going. I’ve noticed that you’ve been doing a lot of these posts the last couple of months. You are appreciated.
Orsi, I bet a lot of us on here are just watching and waiting, being quietly supportive. Thank you and your team so much for your work, and know that we, the silent masses, are on the edge of our seats awaiting your amazing game! :-D
Probably can’t apologize on the behalf of terrible people on the internet, but I would like to offer my own encouragement. Everything we’ve seen of the game looks fantastic and set to be the best puzzle game of all time, and one of the best games, period. I don’t really have any problems being patient as so far, the wait has only shown to be better for the game. Obviously there’s a large amount of the game that still has not been shown that takes just as much time to polish to the level set by the parts that we have seen. So I continue to patiently and happily wait for what I believe will be one of my most cherished gaming experiences.
Thanks for all the hard work and commitment from all of you. Making a game is one of the hardest things to do. Especially one as huge and rich as this one.
Why’s everyone getting upset? Jonathan doesn’t owe anyone anything. He can’t always remedy your excitement or desire for more content. His job still stays the same. He’s left plenty of positive comments before, and he also has the right to be critical of things he sees as inappropriate or thoughtless since this is his blog. He’s not allowed to be critical of specific comments because of all the general support he’s getting? Or he’s not allowed to remain silent for a long length of time because of some internet followers? That doesn’t make sense. I still see a lot of people give him flak here demanding things from him that he can’t give even if he wanted to. How many times have we heard random demands for a release date (and then that person never comments on here again? It’s been that way for the last 2 or 3 years (There have also been many awesome positive exchanges).
However, he can just let this site float if he sees fit. For all we know, that might actually be the best thing to do right now. We’ve been told that most of the work on the Witness now is all programming and there’s not really much world development anymore. So there’s nothing interesting/spoiler free to say at the present. All we can do is accept it.
I’ll wait as long as is it takes. Simply referring to the fact that if he is visiting anyway… how hard would it be to post something nice and how long? 30 seconds?
And by the way, the release date has been reveal a long time ago and has not change or been delayed : “when it’s done”
Thanks again to the team for the updates and responses.
I have a feeling that this will be one of those games that when it does come out, I’ll delay to play and then play slowly. Like a fine whisky where you want to drink it down but it’s better savored! I’ll probably avoid puzzles and walk around and just check stuff out.
Outside of games and bug busting what do you Thekla guys do to keep yourselves sane?
Y’all should put a filter on the blog to block any post that says “release date”, wait, except this post, eh, never mind.
I was wonrdering about the VR implementation. When first announced, it was in relation to Valve’s headset specficially, whilst stating similar headsets would be supported.
It’s looking like the Vive and Rift will be the only viable headsets coming any time soon, although Steam VR might make supporting more later less of an issue.
I was wondering if there were any plans for supporting Room-Scale, or if it was intended to be a seated experience, even with the Vive? Also, would it be using Valve’s VR controllers, or a gamepad?
I’m after any news on the VR support really, now we have an idea of what those products will actually be.
From what I’ve heard lately. The VR mode will still be included but is not considered a priority feature since the system requirements are so high to get a good experience.
I hope it supports Morpheus since that will likely be the set with the quickest adoption at launch. Morpheus might not be the greatest implementation of vr, but at least developers will know exactly what the end result will be for the user and can design accordingly.
I was lucky enough to try out Morpheus at E3 (along with the consumer version of the oculus rift), and it’s not as bad as people try to depict it. What was terrible on the other hand was the demo they showcased to make you “experience” VR.
Similarly to Dear Esther, I’m positive that a game like The Witness would be perfect for a first VR experience (and given how accessible is the PS4, it might actually be the first one for many people!).
You walk around slowly and quietly, enjoy a beautiful virtual world and solve puzzles without having to wreck your neck and feel like throwing up 5 minutes later.
Plus, the team really spent a long time making sure that the design of the world made sense, which would improve immersion. Looking at the screenshots, the only odd thing while playing in VR-mode might be the relative size of the puzzle panels compare to the rest of the world (if the proportions are wrong and you get too close, it might just seem huge!).
@Orsi: Keep it up! Like many others here, I’ve been following this blog for several years now and each of your updates/posts makes me happy to come back for more!
I’ll just leave this here guys… (Fast forward to 1:35:30)
http://youtu.be/4h-0Sc2jK88
You just made my day sir!
Thank you for the link, without you I NEVER would have seen it :-)
@Mr. Blow:
Thank you for this information. End of the month a release date? Wow, this will be amazing. As I heard this I was immediately amazed and excited.
Mr. Blow, thank you for the good work and your creativity
Team of Mr. Blow: the same
I am so excited and I can not wait to play the game. This is a “must buy game”. I will give a damn about critics, I will buy it immediately.
hen we will have a final official release date, then there is hope, a time we can look forward too.
I am so excited
Great news! I guess you’ve done everyhing you can and want with this one… And spend almost all the money you have on this so congratulation, I’ll be glad to support all your efforts and dedication by buying the game when it’s released.