The youtube red loading bar it's indeed quite tempting and asking to be solved.

@extrahistory

8 жыл бұрын

+Rugerfred This observation tilted me.

@Rugerfred

8 жыл бұрын

:)

@Roxfox

8 жыл бұрын

+Rugerfred Oh god

@Rugerfred

8 жыл бұрын

Btw, after playing The Witness for a lot, I had that kind of mechanical transference. Thanks Extra Credits for such a good video that explained the concept. I had that mechanical transference in a lot of other puzzle games, like Slither Link, Hashiwokakero, Spacechem and Infinifactory too. Puzzle games to now are the most powerful example of this, imho.

@k1tt3hk4t6

8 жыл бұрын

+manwithshotgun MY GOD YOU'VE SOLVED IT! In all seriousness, I already knew this, but thanks for spreading the word.

I spent hours trying to complete an perspective puzzle I saw in my park after watching 13 hours of streaming of this game... It consisted of a rotten apple on a tree leading to a perfectly even branch that lead to a floating log in the lake and finally to the brown duck next to it.

@umnikos

8 жыл бұрын

XXDDDDDDD

So this puts the game in a lot of perspective for me. I was really frustrated with the game because of the lack of anything story-wise, as stated in the beginning here. Funnily enough, I did everything in this game, EXCEPT watch all the clips in the theater. My bad! This made a lot of sense tho. How odd to make a game about how much the developer obsessed over said game. Definitely unique, and I wouldn't expect less from Blow

@spiritwolf448

6 жыл бұрын

Hey! You're here :P

@-ism8153

5 жыл бұрын

Finally seeing this in the sea of Extra Credits videos, I immediately thought of your video on this game.

EC, give your artist a cookie for that book with a question mark looking like something one would accomplish in the game. That's just genius.

@77thatperson

8 жыл бұрын

+The Stitch Based on the "Did you solve them all" and the "20" marking at the end, I'd say that emblem actually appears 20 times in the video. I was only able to find 14 of them.

@thetntm2

7 жыл бұрын

Did you solve the panel puzzles? most of them were unique puzzles and some were actually pretty challenging.

Tetris. Can't believe you didn't bring this up in the video. Tetris.... you all know what I'm talking about.

@Krascth

8 жыл бұрын

+TrulyEvilBob Also portal.

@albevanhanoy

8 жыл бұрын

+Krasudreal Portal does have a clear narrative tho.

@albevanhanoy

8 жыл бұрын

***** I don't mind it that much to be honest.

@OlafLesniak

3 жыл бұрын

@@albevanhanoy He's not talking about how Witness had no story. He's talking about the phenomenon known as....

@gagidoo4757

3 жыл бұрын

the tetris pieces

Play the Witness, and you start seeing its puzzles everywhere. But why? Can that help us understand it?

@hod2ud

8 жыл бұрын

+powervidsful Chill man, its just not your kind of game, i enjoyed it a lot actually, and i know a lot of people who did. And i think its a master peace, for example the game is designed knowing that a lot of players who beat it will play it again. (With out giving any spoilers) you can beat the game and at the same time have meany puzzles unsolved, sounds normal right, but when you beat it you can no simply go back they force you start over if you want to do all the puzzles you missed. But, you see things differently at this point and to get 100% completion you have to have been changed at the start of the game, it only makes sense if you played threw it already. Also it cant be fun if you look it up.

@hod2ud

8 жыл бұрын

did you find any in the environment?

@Racnarok777

8 жыл бұрын

+Stephen A. Wilson At the first scene, clouds in far left, thats the puzzle you are missing

@hod2ud

8 жыл бұрын

or did you find any of the tapes. Idk maybe some one as simple minded as me and all the people who enjoyed the game are just easily entertained, and a genius like you, someone who likes to make broad sweeping statements based on opinion, requires ether hart clenching story or exhilarating action, and anything less is utter crap.

@sidaut8680

8 жыл бұрын

+Extra Credits Can you talk about designing a game with colorblindness in mind? I find it infuriating that there are puzzles in The Witness that I can't solve not because they're difficult, but because I can't see the whole puzzle.

This episode kind of shows the drastic difference in why the EC crew play games and why others do. I've heard a lot of play say the puzzles are unrewarding and uncompelling and just stopped playing playing because they felt they had no reason to. For a lot of people, Puzzle games are played as a challenge that is intended to have a sense of outside reward, either an idea of how this can help you outside the puzzle or a sense that you're somehow improving. That seems to be completely gone from the Witness, (I don't actually, I haven't played the game) and it feels more like an attempt at seeing everyday life through a filter of sorts, which is not necessary what others play puzzle games for.

@huttj509

8 жыл бұрын

+Carlitonsp1 I loved it, personally. I see comments about "what's the point, what does solving the puzzle get you?" My immediate reaction is "the joy of solving the puzzle." I saw so many different creative mechanics. I learned the symbology of the puzzles, what things meant in terms of rules, and that feeling of "yeah, I see what this needs" is a great rush if that's what you're in to. I had a few issues where the puzzle mechanics were more annoying than intriguing (gah, my eyes hated me after those stretches), but it was interwoven with some great "aha" moments.

@jaketheultimate

8 жыл бұрын

+Carlitonsp1 "For a lot of people, Puzzle games are played as a challenge that is intended to have a sense of outside reward, either an idea of how this can help you outside the puzzle or a sense that you're somehow improving." I suppose so, in that puzzles in games have usually been part of something overarching. But there's a type of person who sinks hours into minesweeper and sudoku for whom the allure of a puzzle is enough, regardless of reward. It just has to be solved, because dammit it's there.

@Yohoat

8 жыл бұрын

+Carlitonsp1 The Witness is the perfect test to see whether a player actually enjoys puzzle games, or if they simply enjoy the stories they tell.

@ZogDaMegnivizint

8 жыл бұрын

+Yohoat We could call it "The Witness Test". I'll see myself out.

I love how you pack in a bunch of environmental puzzles in this

03:23 his hair is shaped like a puzzle and I love that.

@javonyounger5107

8 жыл бұрын

+Elwood my god

@allergictosanity

6 жыл бұрын

EVERY SCENE HAS A HIDDEN PUZZLE.

"This reminds me of a puzzle." - Prof. Layton.

I would have preferred to see a video about the Witness focus on the fact that the entire game is a masterclass in tutorials without handholding. Every new area introduces new elements and through its puzzles slowly lets you teach yourself what everything means and how to go about it. Granted some area's are more succesful at this than others, but when when the mechanics of a particular puzzle finally snaps into place in your mind it feels extremely rewarding.

Anyone else notice his shirt has a maze on it in the start of this episode? no? just me?

@antiawarenessawarenessclub

8 жыл бұрын

Omg wow I saw that, now I'm seeing those things everywhere. How do you play the witness? I kinda want to solve them

@ComradeCheekiBreeki

8 жыл бұрын

+UberCharged101 They're all over the video.

@inconickuous547

5 жыл бұрын

Me too

“Did you solve them all?” Me: don’t do it Also me: it’s only 20, and in a 5 minute video, I’m sure I can do it. Me again: W H Y.

Jonathan Blow: "I see puzzles." Me: "Where?" Jonathan Blow: "Everywhere." And then we all see puzzles DUUUUNNNNNNN.

@ProfessorSyndicateFranklai

8 жыл бұрын

+Silvander Raven Professor Layton anyone?

@Y00bi

8 жыл бұрын

+Silvander Raven And then -you- were a puzzle.

@idnyftw

8 жыл бұрын

+Silvander Raven WOMMMMMMMMM

@portmonde3694

7 жыл бұрын

"I see dead puzzles"

This game, to me, was a reflection of autism. This might seem like a weird connection to make, so let me explain: I have high functioning autism and the puzzles were a very good reflection on how I think. Not just the way you solve the problem or make a pattern, but also the way they're seemingly pointless and confusing to people on the outside at first glance. But once you understand how they work, they make a lot of sense. Another way this reflects autism that I wasn't seeing at first was how you wander about this environment, you don't talk to anyone, but instead interact with your environment by touching things. I need to touch things to really understand them, I need to feel the textures and get the tactile stimulation. The obsessive compulsive puzzle solving you mention in the video also is a part of it. The way I feel compelled to touch things and draw patterns, my tics, my tunnel vision focus I have on things that really interest me. This obsessive behavior is shown quite well in the game. I would not be surprised at all if Blow himself had ASD. This certainly isn't the first time someone on the spectrum has made a game, after all. Satoshi Tajiri (the creator of Pokemon) is an adult with Asperger's Syndrome.

@Yohoat

8 жыл бұрын

+Jonathan Anatrella This is probably just due in part to the broad nature of the game's design. It's vague enough for the player to notice parallels in his or her life, and those connections are never outright challenged by the game.

@manuelka15

8 жыл бұрын

+Jonathan Anatrella Wow! I was telling my friends that the game to me seemed quite autistic, for some of the reasons you mention (the way of thinking, the introspection, the solitude... ), so now I'm amazed to find this comment of yours here.

@jonathananatrella2964

8 жыл бұрын

+manuelka15 Thank you. I have commented before on games an autism, a long time ago, when they talked about the flash game Loneliness. It was in Mechanics As Metaphor, if I remember correctly. I was saying how my initial thought was you had to dodge the cubes until I realized they avoided you. I then was testing to see if they scattered in certain patterns or were random, missing the socially oriented game entirely.

@zachking1740

7 жыл бұрын

That's really quite interesting, since I have high functioning autism myself and don't see things that way, despite "suffering"(all of the things aren't really suffering, since they are either really cool or just minor inconveniences). I do understand the "people don't understand me, but once they do, it all makes sense", since that happens everywhere I go(my baseball team especially, since I do have to do a whole lot of group projects since I go to online school). Besides, why do people say autistic as if it was an insult anyway?

@spare7230

6 жыл бұрын

Zach King 11 month-old reply but I guess because people connect Autism with some poor person with "severe" (lower on the spectrum) autism who have to wear adult diapers until they're 16(+?)

I appreciate how the animators put enviromental puzzles in the video itself. The narrator's tie within the first 2 mins has a puzzled and the rope the two green shirt wearers tug on has a puzzle as well.

This is the best review I've seen of The Witness. It does justice to the sheer brilliance of the game.

All the puzzles I could find in the video. I missed some, so if you fond them, tell me please. 0:06 Clouds 0:12 Question Mark 0:22 Puzzle in Corner of Room 0:25 Tunnels is a Puzzle 0:32 Puzzle in Background on Wall 0:35 Dan's Tie is Puzzle 0:35 Microphone is Puzzle (Throughout Video) 0:51 Candle Wax Melting is Puzzle 1:03 Puzzle on Podium 1:38 Rope is Puzzle 2:19 Question Mark 2:30 Background of Pool 3:26 Question Mark 3:54 Everything 4:29 Light-bulb

Pretty much any puzzle game I play for long enough does that to me. When I'm on a big Tetris kick I start mentally trying to line up things to make rows.

@Teffy

8 жыл бұрын

+Fragrahamlincon That's actually a mental condition called the Tetris Effect, but you probably already knew that.

@StarWeaverThree

6 жыл бұрын

I don't get that for looking at the world, but there have been times when I've closed my eyes and seen moving patterns from puzzle games, like my subconcious is working though possible patterns to make things easier in the future or something. Mostly happens with turning piece games like Rocket Mania or Puzzle Pirates Alchemy, but I think I've had other things too...

The Witness is one of only a few games that can be considered a masterpiece and that transcend the medium. It can stand comparison with the greats of literature, art and film. The shame is that few developers have fully utilized the flexibility of the medium to expand and experiment with narrative devices. Not only has Jonathon Blow done this he has done it superbly. I've been playing video games since the early 80's and the Witness is by far and away the best game I've ever played.

@ShredST

7 жыл бұрын

The Witness is indeed a stunning achievement for video games. What sucks is that people who don't get this game will read your comment and think you're being overwhelmingly pretentious.

@NEX_Anomaly

5 жыл бұрын

Guys, he's fucking with you.

the Witness ... could it be ... that you are a Witness into the creator's mind?

@sasuke2910

8 жыл бұрын

+Robin, GrandMaster Tactition The Witness is actually a physics term if I remember correctly.

@galileeo

4 жыл бұрын

@@sasuke2910 its a buddhism thing, not physics

@Some.username.idk.0

3 жыл бұрын

@@galileeo it's a word that has more than one meaning

I think games like this demonstrate the separation between games made for fun and games made as art.

@Obzerver

8 жыл бұрын

+Sam Tom This game is definitely made for fun over art. Personally, I view this game as a great example of an educational game that suffers from trying to have some artsy components in it (the videos and audio logs).

"You just can't resist solving this puzzle! It's an obsession, a compulsion! You will end up beating the game!" Making a lot of assumptions there James

@ZogDaMegnivizint

8 жыл бұрын

+TheMiddleMan56 It was Blow who made the assumption, and it wasn't an invalid one. He assumed if the puzzles didn't immediately grab you, you'd stop playing the game after the first hour or so, because there's nothing besides the next puzzle on offer. Players who did that wouldn't even know this clip was in the game, so if you got to the point where you see it, it had to be because you've become obsessed with solving the puzzles, and compelled to keep doing it because the game didn't give you any other reason to get this far into it. Thus making this entire video the worst spoiler in video game history. It broke down the barrier between players who became obsessed with elaborate I-phone sliders, and people like me who couldn't be asked after twenty minutes. Now I know why the game's called "The Witness" and I feel like I shouldn't.

This video is interesting, but completely not the Witness video I was expecting from you guys. I see The Witness as being a masterclass in non-hand-holdy gameplay and an experiment in largely removing extrinsic motivators. Then there's the super high signal to noise ratio in both puzzle and world design. They are the design topics that I expect a channel like this to cover. Perhaps another video somewhere down the line?

@1337pianoman

8 жыл бұрын

***** glad I'm not the only one

@1337pianoman

8 жыл бұрын

Randal Skefingtonidis I don't think this is just a promotional video though. They were pretty upfront when Microsoft was paying them to make Fable vids. I'd be surprised if they were being paid by Thekla to make this. Unless that's not what you're suggesting (in which case I don't get what you're trying to say)

There were Puzzles? Will this be on the final? I can't take this!? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *runs out of the video screaming*

0:12 0:18 0:18 0:18 0:23 0:25 0:33 0:36 0:52 1:03 1:38 1:40 2:25 2:29 3:06 3:10 3:26 3:52 4:12 4:29 I think I find them all. ( 0:09 is obstructed and hence unsolvable. 1:42 is unsolvable anyway due to the place the two star shape goes. Other stuffs might look like environmental puzzle but doesn't qualify one for various reasons.)

@IlChatNoir17

7 жыл бұрын

You missed 0:05

@quixQuery

5 жыл бұрын

0:09 - Just move the camera/player a little bit. 1:42 - start in bottom right (L U U L D D L L U R U L U R R U R R R) (Also solvable in the top left by a similar path) (The squares only need to be separated from other colored squares. They don't care about stars, tetris, etc.)

I wasn't very excited about the game, I've seen a lot of reviews that said it was disappointing, so I didn't think twice. Now you've got me searching steam. Good job Extra Credits.

This is one of those things where sharing a bit of art analysis makes it soooo much more accessible for those of us who would otherwise just not 'get it'. Thanks

That's a nice way of looking at it. Sadly though, none of that was conveyed to me while I was playing it initially. Like most people, I found myself lacking purpose or drive in the game, and eventually just walked away.

@Saztog1425

8 жыл бұрын

Basically you threw the candle in the water.

@WhatTheFnu

8 жыл бұрын

Saztog Gaming Why wouldn't I? The madman doesn't show up to tell me why I'm crossing until I'm already 3/4 of the way there.

@Saztog1425

8 жыл бұрын

***** There's nothing wrong with that. Just brought up an analogy. :P

stalker was inspired by a road side picnic.

So Jonathan Blow is the madman who asked the players to cross the pool for him, and so we do. We start with an almost non-committal promise, but over hours of play, the meaningless puzzles take on a new, personal meaning. Holy crap. This video just blew my mind.

Unfortunately, a single good idea does not make a game.

Saw, the words: "Yo, Spoilers" stopped the video for another day

@umaroxp5207

8 жыл бұрын

+Mark Hansen There isn't really much to spoil. I loved the game but even if you told me about the "ending" it wouldn't matter. Not at all.

@theinfinitydie1582

8 жыл бұрын

UmaroXP Alright, just want to figure out everything myself ;D

See, I didn't get any meaning from that flame-walking clip. I didn't understand it was supposed to be a an arbitrary task. I looked at it like a religious act, and that, to the person, it had purpose. I presumed he was looking for some form of penance. When he stopped to look around, I didn't read it as he was considering cheating, but if it was worth it to keep attempting.

@gingervampireFTW

8 жыл бұрын

+CW AtWork And that's the beauty of film analysis. As long as you use evidence from the film, you're never really wrong in your interpretation. Everyone sees that scene differently, and the way you saw it gave you a different conclusion than what EC got.

@zaviusfirerave

8 жыл бұрын

+gingervampireFTW but isn't the correct interpretation James' one?

@SummerSong1366

8 жыл бұрын

+gingervampireFTW So you can get away with showing any bullshit as long as it is obscure enough - audience will find many meanings even if you show an act of defecation with omnoious music on the background

@CW257866

8 жыл бұрын

Dmytro Lysak Yeah, I kinda lean towards this. If a film(or any piece of media) is just a Rorschach test-- if the only meaning it contains is what you project onto it-- then the film itself is irrelevant. That the story, themes, and craft doesn't matter.

@SummerSong1366

8 жыл бұрын

Not any film though - just the one that does not really have real content and thought behind its footage. I wrote a big comment with my thoughts on it above if you are interested.

The Witness really hit me when I returned to the first area, where all the puzzles had seemed ridiculously simple, and within minutes had found another three or four puzzles in the sky/path/roof/etc that I had completely missed the first time.

I want to make a line in the thing on your chest but it doesn't work on youtube. >:

@testoftetris

8 жыл бұрын

+Forecaster ...his necktie?

@forecaster71

8 жыл бұрын

Nicholas Maddalena During most of the video it's a necktie yes, but not always...

Since the guy in the pool was in a bombed out cathedral at the end (as a reveal) it seems to be indicating that the madmans fear of the catastrophic event was real :P So the act of crossing the pool (even though it seemed crazy) was more of a desperate and likely futile attempt to save the world in some manner. It was a shred of hope a character was clinging to. That is rather different than a random task that has no meaning that you don't enjoy that you are forcing yourself through.

@snowmanmanvideo

8 жыл бұрын

+Ivory Oasis Or maybe it's a totally random and meaningless task because, gasp, there IS NO WORLD TO SAVE. Why bother saving the world when it's all ended?

@titus663

8 жыл бұрын

+Ivory Oasis The cathedral was bombed out long before these events and he wanders through it earlier in the film while god and his dead wife whisper to each other, and that house in the background wasn't there, that's his house. The last shot is presumably his afterlife. Similar to the last shot of Tarkovsky's other great film Solaris.

I love the small details, like how they make the question marks in this episode look like the puzzles, or the lightbulbs.

If I see a circle with a line in a grid, I would do anything to solve it.

so glad that this game was a freebee on ps4 this month, Ive experienced everything you describe in the few days I played it now. great video though, i think the spoilers make me want to just complete it myself so i can WITNESS for myself. puzzles are meant to be shared

If video games can be art, and I legitimately think they can be, then it's perfectly alright to judge them and critique them as art. Having said that, it's perfectly okay to say you don't like an artist's particular work. Just as it's okay to say you don't like the work of Joseph Stella or Marcei Duchamp or even Picasso. Personally, I believe Davey Wreden's The Beginner's Guide explored a very similar topic that The Witness explored much more vividly than Johnathan Blow's work.

@meee110

8 жыл бұрын

I found Beginner's Guide to be more of commentary on the "death of the author" and the consequences of projecting your own meaning onto other people's work.

@QwertyuiopThePie

6 жыл бұрын

Oddly, the point of The Beginner's Guide seems to apply a bunch to a lot of the people talking about The Witness. Moreso than The Witness itself, if anything.

I like how there are the lines and circles EVERYWHERE

I wish you guys made another two or three episodes on The Witness. There is SO MUCH MORE then you grasped in this unbelievably short video....

Apparently MatPat, creator of the massively popular Game Theory (most people probably know it), was inspired by this show. Wow.

near the end, I couldn't help but make an imaginary line through Dan's tie. I solved the puzzle.

@kenblaney7031

8 жыл бұрын

+Rachel Shulsinger Watch it again. They added 20 puzzles in the video (one of which is Dan's tie).

Dang so spot on. I haven’t finished it yet, just recently picked it up and did some good progress… anyway since I discovered there are extra puzzles scattered in the environment… I’ve been looking around. The other day I was pedalling and looked at the sky hoping to see one of those paths between the clouds

Man, now I feel really sorry for Jonathon Blow.

'K, but I'm still not shelling out $40 for something with more limited, static puzzle mechanics (and worse graphics and story) than The Talos Principle.

@Sean-Ax

8 жыл бұрын

+I'm Very Angry It's Not Butter (#WTFU) yes you will

@imveryangryitsnotbutter

8 жыл бұрын

***** No, I'm not.I'm waiting for a Steam sale.

@1337pianoman

8 жыл бұрын

It totally has better graphics that Talos. Far more visual diversity and it actually has its own unique style. The art style of the witness might not appeal to everyone, but it is more impressive from a technical standpoint, as well as from a design standpoint. Witness also has way more variety in puzzle design (as impossible as that might seem considering they're all literally line puzzles). Talos has some interesting mechanics but the puzzle design isn't well executed. There are some truly excellent puzzles in the game for sure, but many of them just feel like they're asking the same thing over and over. Full disclosure, I haven't been up the tower yet. But I have finished A,B and C, including all stars in A and C. mostly though, the big difference is that Talos just has so much visual and structural noise. It asks you to pay attention to every detail, and then puts in so much irrelevant detail. and it all looks the same. why would I want to look at all these copy-pasted ruin walls to find the one little button you've hidden? If you play the Witness, you'll notice it is incredibly dense (as in full, not stupid) compared to most games. Talos is probably just about average. But playing it immediately after Witness as I did really made it seem sparse and repetitive. I think the people that made Talos did a great job. I had some fun with it, and found the terminals to be quite interesting. But it doesn't doesn't have anywhere near the level of maturity in its design. At least half of the puzzles could easily be removed without making the game feel incomplete.

@telltellyn

8 жыл бұрын

+I'm Very Angry It's Not Butter (#WTFU) "more limited, static puzzle mechanics" But you haven't played it...

@imveryangryitsnotbutter

8 жыл бұрын

nextpkfr I've seen enough footage from let's players to know that every single puzzle requires you to enter your solution on an electronic panel which isn't realistically integrated into the environment, and that any puzzle which doesn't have all the clues on the grid just involves looking at a landmark on the island from the correct angle to see the part of the solution you're missing, or realizing that the footpaths you walk are part of the solution. Which is great and all, except that means that no puzzle requires doing things in a correct order of steps, or setting up correctly-timed sequences, or being mindful of hazards that could mess up your meticulously assembled devices. Once you have the answers, the challenge disappears completely.

This game reminds me of a philosophical concept known as Absudism. The conflict that arises when someone tries to find meaning in something, but fails to do so. I would recommend looking it up, find either Albert Camus' 'The Myth of Sisyphus', or his 'The Stranger.' Absurdism and this game seem to go hand and hand.

I saw the puzzles pop up throughout the video.. but now I feel the need to go back and find all 20

That thing about the guy going back to the start of the pool even when no one is watching reminds me of whenever I am tempted to reload a save game when I make a mistake, and how far too often, I'll still do it, even if I feel guilty about it. Which is I appreciate XCOMs Ironman mode so much. It forces you to accept your mistakes and prevents that temptation.

I like how you made Dan Jones the "Madman"! Got a laugh out of me. ^_~

@GGCrono

8 жыл бұрын

+Souji Monaru You have to be a little bit mad to even *consider* attempting a Nuzlocke run. :)

@AshtonSnapp

8 жыл бұрын

+GG Crono EVERYONE is a little bit mad.

From the sound of it, this might have been awkwardly executed since so many people seem to have missed the clip. I don't know, I haven't played the game yet, so I might be missing something.

@shieldgenerator7

8 жыл бұрын

+DiscoClam you have to find the theatre and the password to play the clip

@QwertyuiopThePie

8 жыл бұрын

+DiscoClam The clip is one of the secrets. There's a lot of them.

@sinder9737

8 жыл бұрын

+DiscoClam Im not sure that would qualify it as "awkwardly executed." If the same standard of having everyone appreciate a work was held to some of literature's greatest works then they would fail that test. This is the reason a lot of art flies right over peoples heads as well. (I certainly don't understand most modern visual art but i respect that others do.) You need to have a certain mind set and base of knowledge or experience to properly experience some things. This is no exception, though i make no judgement about how great it is.

Thank you guys, for giving me that same feeling again, when I first found out there's more than meets the eye in this game.

Finding the audio clips and especially that theater gave me a whole different feeling about the game. I enjoyed figuring out the puzzles, but I can understand people being disappointed, if they never found any of those things. The clips tell you that there is a meaning to the journey you're on, even if I couldn't figure out what it was. I only found 3 of the video keys, before I gave in to temptation and finished the game, but knowing that "day in the life" video is one of the ones I missed actually makes me want to go back and do it, again.

As a person who hasn't played The Witness, I can see one large flaw in this method of storytelling that may hamper it's accessibility to some players. The game relies on you becoming obsessed with these arbitrary puzzles before the narrative about obsession can really take effect. And if a player doesn't get obsessed in the same way that Jonathan did, then this game is going to lose all meaning, and bore the player.

@elroyscout

8 жыл бұрын

As it did with me. I didn't get obsessed, I was convinced it was glitched.

@undergroundmonorail

8 жыл бұрын

+ChazzzyF my experience with the witness tells me that it takes a certain level of obsession to ever reach the end. if the narrative won't make sense to you, you'll never see it (assuming you don't look up spoilers on the internet :P)

@lunatictumor

8 жыл бұрын

+Scott McFarland Thats the problem though, as a game, this is rubbish. It cant be a game about obsession that you never find out this is what its about unless you obsess over it for many hours. From a games as art perspective, this is probably one of the better examples, but also only, if you subscribe to the notion that anything is art if someone says it is.....I dont.

@yellowtheyellow

8 жыл бұрын

+ChazzzyF I don't think it's intended to resonate with everyone, just people who are capable of obsessing over the puzzles like he does.

@RahatAhmedPrime

8 жыл бұрын

+ChazzzyF I disagree. I absolutely hate the game and haven't bothered to finish it yet. Boring af. But I can still appreciate the brilliance of the message of the game and how it achieves it, even if I have an incomplete picture. Learning about the Nostalgia clip resonated with me even more!

All I know is It looked like Myst, and I wanted something like Myst. So I am not compelled to care about a game that is a AAA developed puzzle magazine. Glad other people had fun though.

@zero132132

8 жыл бұрын

+Rodney Hamilton A huge chunk of the "puzzles" aren't actually puzzles. They're just something where you have to walk around until you get a perspective that directly shows you a solution, with no ingenuity of intelligence required. I still think calling it a puzzle game is misleading.

@christopherpepin6059

8 жыл бұрын

+zero132132 That is kind of what puzzles are. They just happened to be easy puzzles for you.

@zero132132

8 жыл бұрын

Christopher Pepin You don't get what I mean; you stand in a specific spot, and you literally see the solution.You basically just trace an outline. It would be like if a Sudoku grid had all of the numbers written already, and to "solve" it you just had to trace over them. There's no mechanic involved in those puzzles. The ones where various mechanics are combined are really satisfying, and require some ingenuity to solve. The ones where you trace a clearly visible solution are just pointless, and when the vantage point for said solution is arbitrary enough, very tedious, since you basically have to luckily stumble upon the solution randomly. If something doesn't require any ingenuity, where ingenuity/intelligence can't even help you, I can't regard it as a puzzle.

@rodneyhamilton6750

8 жыл бұрын

This game IS a collection of puzzles primarily and thus IS a "puzzle game". I wanted more of a story-esque scenario, etc. Please don't bother trying to defend something no one is arguing.

@Overhazard

8 жыл бұрын

+zero132132 Based on what's being described, wouldn't it be closer to a puzzle with the answers in the back of a book? With those cases, you CAN just copy what the back of the book shows, or you can try solving without looking.

I love the large amount of puzzles there was in this video

In the 90's I used to see Lemmings puzzles everywhere. On noticeboards, in the clouds, in the skyline. I played Lemmings a lot!

Who paused the video each time a puzzle appeared in the video?

@nik4456

8 жыл бұрын

+ajdeem90 I paused the video.

I was not super interested in the witness until now. Maybe Ill give it a shot

@hod2ud

8 жыл бұрын

+The End, Again its good, and don't look up the puzzles, also don't look up too much about it.

@clashmanthethird

8 жыл бұрын

Just pirate it.

@MrMrtvozornik

8 жыл бұрын

+Clashman The Third I see a smart man here.

@robbe3252

8 жыл бұрын

+The End, Again No man buy it, at first it seems like an ordinary puzzle game, but if you play it enough, you will be able to see the beauty behind it. The absurdly clever design, and indeed the compulsory need to solve everything, all put in an amazing enviroment. Because this game is so unique in so many ways, there are a lot of haters, but those who love it, will get obsessed with it. If you are interested in a different puzzle game (that is insanly hard at some points btw), check it out! or dont, its your choice mate

@clashmanthethird

8 жыл бұрын

Darth Maul​ It seems like a good game, but it's price of $40 is ridiculous, and it seems to be a very YMMV type of game.

I think you guys were pretty off the mark with this video tbh, The thing that I really loved about The Witness was how it was 'about' the way that we learn things shown purely through game mechanics and not because they were tied to any kind of outside context. Those mechanics that you played WERE the 'meaning' . I loved that ending video because of how silly and unpretentious it made the whole experience feel. Unlike braid where people were so caught up in unraveling the surface level narrative instead of analyzing the actual play of the game.

you explained exactly why I have no interest in the witness. I don't want to obsessively do nothing for no reason. But power to you for finding the meaning I didn't know was there!

@CW257866

8 жыл бұрын

+RebelWinterwolf Solving puzzles is its own reward.

Gotta solve 'em all gotta solve 'em all.

The Talos Principle did pretty much the same thing, in my opinion.

@Nenadior

8 жыл бұрын

Yes, only better. Hotline Miami (the first part), also comes to mind.

thank you for the fantasy life music at the end! that game needs so muxh more love

Dunno how I didn't come across this earlier, but i'm incredibly pleased that I wasn't the only one that saw this game as a doorway (hah!) into its own development process. I think my top 3 moments - in no particular order: -Discovering 'The Challenge' -Seeing (and solving) my first environmental puzzle -When I made the connection for the secret ending puzzle while listening to the Voyage audio clip speaking of (paraphrasing) "New countries to reveal, where old tracks are lost" This game is absolutely brilliant.

2 views 346 likes 10 dislikes figure out the puzzel

@Suppenfischeintopf

8 жыл бұрын

+The Vigorating Tenno Volt 52 failed the puzzle until now

@popgirl8studios

8 жыл бұрын

+The Vigorating Tenno Volt You're Drunk?

The witness does actually have a story, but it'd probably be difficult to understand if you're not a programmer, software engineer, or mathematician, (or doing something similar). In terms of meaning it blows similar games like The Talos Principle out of the water, but that depth might not be accessible to everyone.

@eudaemonical

8 жыл бұрын

I generally agree with this, but could you elaborate? Spoilerfully, of course.

@sense8853

8 жыл бұрын

I'm doing a let's play of the witness right now, I stopped recording but I'll start up again and explain it as I go. It's really subtle, but fundamentally the story of the witness is about the inner life of someone as they try to solve problems. New problems, problems that they've never seen before and haven't been taught exactly how to solve. As the player, or an individual, you start building up an internal theory of how to solve these puzzles. And that theory is torn down and rebuilt in response to every new puzzle/problem, since they're all related. This is mirrored by the world, the machines and buildings that are halfway between being built, being torn down, and falling into decay, disrepair, or overgrowth. This internal life of the player/individual is also mirrored by the statues continually reaching for something right outside their grasp, but also subject to the weight of time and decay, with all that is left was them reaching. Don't get me wrong, Blow sneaked in some incredibly pretentious academic bullshit into the game, upon solving a puzzle I was shown a recording of James Burke, and his bullshit "Unlike politics and social sciences, hard science is special and more accurate and better." No it's not, hard science is easier, in some ways (really it's just different) because we know more about the basic pieces. There's also the whole issue if I'm just projecting this onto the game or if it really was the intention. It helps that I went to the same university and have the same degree as Blow, so I'd like to think I understand where he's coming from. This was long, sorry, I aim to talk about it in depth during my let's play and other videos soon. Hope it made some sense.

@eudaemonical

8 жыл бұрын

+CrusherOfThings Good analysis, thanks for answering. I'll watch your videos right now and keep an eye out for more episodes. One thing I disagree with though: while there is the James Burke thing, which may sound pretentious initially, there's also the Feynman clips, which you'd usually find later in the game, that actually contradict the "one side is better" argument. Considering that Blow evidently takes games seriously as a medium for artistic expression -- albeit an unexplored one -- and has chosen this specific career path instead of hard sciences, it's hardly thorough to suggest that he agrees completely with Burke. It may be more accurate to say that what the game proposes is a conjunction of art and science, in the sense that art exposes reality under a specific light and science explores that same reality more objectively: although the meaning of The Witness may be interpreted very subjectively, every time you solve a puzzle you are objectively closer to some sort of truth.

@daniel_brqlo

8 жыл бұрын

Blow Talos Principle out of the water? Seriously? The Talos Principle has a brilliant story behind a genius puzzle game... the story is fantastic, well told, revealed to the player in little bits as you progress and it has a rewarding ending. The Witness has just the genius puzzle part... the story is completly lacking. In fact, we both searched for this video to try to actually understand some story and the guy here basically says it's just solving puzzles for the sake of solving puzzles.

Pretty cool, never really thought of designing a game like that, but it sounds like it definitely had a lot of thought and heart put into it :)

I loved the Witness for compelling me to think about the word 'Perspective'. That moment when something clicks and you permanently see the world differently. The game was full of these moments and gave you tons of time to meditate and think about complex ideas that are difficult to put to words.

@Ciph3rzer0

8 жыл бұрын

In one of my philosophy classes we talked about how different people see the world. The more you know, the more you can know. For example, if I know nothing of cars I might describe a car like 'red 4-door' but someone else will 'see' more than me (make/model, maybe custom parts), even though we're looking at the same thing. I wish I could remember more about that, but it's basically what the island in The Witness is designed to be. It's all about looking at the same things over and over and seeing them in new ways.

Does this mean The Witness is about OCD, the same way Dark Souls is about depression, and Mass Effect is about how choice is an illusion and free will means nothing?

If I asked you to stick a pin into your finger every step as you walk across a field 500 steps long, one pin after the other in a slightly different way would you do it? No, but what if there was the promise that you would take something away from it, something that becomes intimate with you as you put pin after pine in? And after you've finished putting all those pins in you'll stop and see another pin in a tree. Would you go over to that tree and put the extra pin in? Would you walk across the field in the first place? No cause that's stupid, this game is only interesting cause we're trying so hard for it to be meaningful. Stop sticking this pin in your finger and for the love of god don't put them in your eye.

@tinynewtman

8 жыл бұрын

+JonesyMcDanes If someone gave you five bucks for taking a short stroll around a field (for 5 minutes), would you do it? You probably would; that's $60/hr if you're looking at it right. But, what if instead of a time limit, he instead gave you the money based on the path you took, rather than simply following the trail? What if he gave you a bonus for following some strange rules he told you about (only turn right at the forks in the road, keep the massive rocks on your left side, etc.)? And then, how about if you started walking these ways because of reasons apart from the money, such as ingrained habits? You might find no meaning in the game of paths because it simply gives you money/diversion, but you are not everybody. Stop thinking that money is all that exists in this game, and for the love of god stop telling people to stick pins in their fingers.

@JonesyMcDanes

8 жыл бұрын

im not reading the rest. I wouldn't walk around for 5 bucks would you? Like really you wouldn't say that if you wouldn't do that yourself so why?

@tinynewtman

8 жыл бұрын

+JonesyMcDanes And I wouldn't stick a pin in my finger 500 times. You find the game's puzzles annoying, whereas I enjoyed solving the puzzles in themselves.

@JonesyMcDanes

8 жыл бұрын

Newt I do hope youre not talking about the standard puzzles cause I'm pretty sure those were meant to be annoying.

Very nice touch with all the puzzles ^^

Seeing the man go back to light the candle fills you with DETERMINATION.

You wanna know what must infuriate him now? "!" "?" and "."

STALKER demands its own video :P ! *As do Ukrainian games in general to be fair! ** As do other nations too ! I loved that series! :( !

Yeah, there's more of those videos too, amazing.

Haven't played this game, and not intending to buy it either; However, this concept is pretty neat. I love this channel because it gives me a different perspective on video games, one I would never get to have otherwise. Cheers :)

I realize you have to tailor your videos to your audience but it sort of bugged me that you mentioned Tarkovsky and that he directed Stalker but failed to point out that he also directed (and is probably best known for) Solaris, considered by some to be the best science fiction film ever made.

I totally get what you're going for with this, but I have a problem with this that I have with a lot of art that has a hidden meaning that makes it all make sense. If only a couple people can find out what this secret meaning is, because it is hidden in some way behind either an artistic barrier that requires a lot of thought, or is literally hidden somewhere, then does the art actually have that meaning? I mean, for everyone who doesn't experience this (which is most people) this game is pretty much just a boring book of puzzles.

@toadie2k

8 жыл бұрын

+Theo Hamilton (linky00) Well, that's the thing, art can't be viewed through a lense of objectivity, everyone comes at art with their own objective lense. Some of those lenses might match a creator's intended criteria for direct understanding, others won't, and will either "not get" it or find some other way that a piece might be interpreted. There's nothing wrong with that, either, that's part of the contract creators have with their creations. What I'm getting at here is that just because a piece doesn't have a direct meaning to you, it doesn't necessarily make it hidden, nor are you incorrect for feeling that.

@Ditocoaf

8 жыл бұрын

+Theo Hamilton (linky00) I like books of puzzles. So maybe this game is more for me and less for you? That's fine, not everything's for everyone.

@wrosgar

8 жыл бұрын

+Theo Hamilton (linky00) Watching the clip alone I knew exactly what it was saying. I had no idea the film existed and all the background info behind it. The feeling of being able to cheat but instead restarting proper is something most players will go through if they ever get stuck in a section in any video game.

I firmly enjoy that you can see the main game mechanic "hidden' throughout this video xD

I’m trying to fall asleep and you just blew my mind with the “did you solve them all?” Dammit

When are you going to talk about Lionshead closing over Fables Legends. You did 2 episodes on the gamble Lionshead took with AAA free to play, what's that mean for the industry?

@1337pianoman

8 жыл бұрын

those were sponsored episodes. don't think lionsgate would pay them to talk about a game that no longer exists :-P

@Derekivery

8 жыл бұрын

That makes it considerably worst. Extra Credits: "We'll do any topic, as long as we're getting paid. But it's only worth talking about if there is a check involved." I choose to believe EC is not like that. I choose to believe they didn't JUST do the two episodes because of the money. I choose to believe they did the episodes because they felt what was going on at lionsgate with Fable Legends was worthy of a topic (money or no). And since those episodes ended with "Lionshead is taking a big gamble let's see what happens." I feel money or no it's worthy to explore what happened.

@1337pianoman

8 жыл бұрын

Mr. Divery Yeah that's fair. I guess I just didn't really consider the game to be that big a risk in the first place, so I'm not that invested. It would be funny if someone at MS saw the EC videos and was like "wait ... this game is a risk? We're cancelling that shit" :P

Still not interested in playing The Witness, but I've learned about two new films to watch.

I also saw a bit of The Allegory of the Cave in it. Now that I've played the game. I can't help but to see puzzles in my life.

I'm really happy with this video! I always feel a lot smarter after watching Extra Credits. Did you know many Game Development teachers use your videos for teaching some classes? Put plainly y'all are very smart. 👍

While I did like the witness, it just felt like a pretty version of a crossword book you can buy at the dollar store.

@f45411

8 жыл бұрын

+Hamman that isn't worth $40, $5 maybe if its like you said, i could always use good time killer, though risk of rain has really been fitting the bill on that one

I played through the witness. I got no satisfaction. The puzzles became a chore the longer I played, and the ultimate revelation was a cop-out preceeded by too much pretension.

@Ciph3rzer0

8 жыл бұрын

"pretension" Yeah, you're full of shit

@SKyrim190

7 жыл бұрын

Josh White It is pretensious! There are quotes from philosophers about free will and there is no context for them! The game has no story to explore those concepts but hey, leaving this audio from St. Augustine here makes it complex, doesn't it?

@justsomeguy2865

7 жыл бұрын

Luiz Sarchis the fact that you completed the game with no context is the point. you could have stopped at any point, but you didn't.

@SKyrim190

7 жыл бұрын

neo rawlings I dropped after exploring different bits of the island. I think I completed three lasers. I almost want to go back...in fact I LIKE puzzles! But that doesn't exclude the fact that the game is pretentious!

@thefactspherefromportal2740

6 жыл бұрын

Sorry, but I laughed at this. Either: 1, you didn't play the game, only watched it 2, did play but only for an hour or so 3, didn't find any story, meaning, audio logs, environmental puzzles Or 4, Ashley Johnson being racist between sandwiches and coffee.

Hey, I like that you got rid of the cold open. I always felt it disrupted the train of thought.

I absolutely loved the witness (beated the Whole game) and I really liked how you included small hits of the game in the video. ;D

Woah, it was so cool how you integrated puzzles into the artwork! Wait, or did you??? Am I just seeing puzzles now? Man, the human mind is amazing! The witness and it's meaning are so inspiring!

@mreeper25

2 жыл бұрын

We all are

Haven't scrolled down and started reading, but I am going to have faith that Extra Credits' commenters are going to be, as they somehow always are, more enlightened and nuanced in their opinions of Blow's work. I was the last person that was supposed to like The Witness, and when I saw so many people disregarding it instead of accepting that it wasn't for them, it was really disheartening. There's so much quality design in this game, but even so there's lots of criticisms you could make. "Just a bunch of puzzles" is the least accurate and most off-base criticism, and it's all I see in comments about the game.

That small cravat detail was so neat.

It's great because all of art and language exists to transfer/communicate a concept or mental state.

Just because a game is self-aware about the fact that it's meaningless and obtuse doesn't mean it suddenly isn't meaningless and obtuse.

@Janeator

8 жыл бұрын

+Holo the Wise Wolf Indeed. It's interesting to think on that and analize it, but in the end, even after that, is there really any other point to it?

@KorboQ

8 жыл бұрын

Firaro It comments on the obsession associated with it... if people get obsessed. That's not a valid commentary. It's not like Spec Ops: The Line where the game knows that you're playing a shooter game and the game knows that you've killed people. I'm sure there were plenty of people who only played through The Witness because it was their job or because they just wanted to see how it ended and didn't actually care about the puzzles or even just because they wanted to feel like they got their money's worth. People can get obsessed with literally any game. People get obsessed with Solitaire and Minesweeper and Mario and Final Fantasy and every other game. If anything, all that means is the game didn't even expect the players to take it seriously; "oh, you're actually enjoying yourself," it says to the players. "Well, you must be pretty obsessed to still be playing this. This game is boring and obtuse and you're wasting your time."

@KorboQ

8 жыл бұрын

Yo Momma Exactly. The Stanley Parable does this and is a very similar game in that it's about solving lateral puzzles which are generally fairly similar and not that interesting, except The Stanley Parable actually has something to the game other than dull, obtuse puzzles.

@meee110

8 жыл бұрын

It's meaningless in the sense that all games are meaningless.

@KorboQ

8 жыл бұрын

***** In that sense everything in the universe is meaningless and we should all just line up to jump off a bridge.

I loved and appreciated so much of this episode, but you did NOT give appropriate spoiler warnings AT ALL. I felt comfortable going into this video after having completed the "first" ending while still aspiring to find all the secrets. But at 3:33 you give but half a second of warning before showing something that I've been trying to get to myself without having it ruined. Sure, it's a video and not the solution to a puzzle (which you also gave at least one away), but in a game that in the video you exclaim impresses upon you the meaning of doing all this yourself for your personal journey, you thwart that. I totally want to talk about this game with people and again truly value the elevated discussion this channel brings to video gaming. But you did not establish the appropriate level of spoilers you were going to reveal through this video. Maybe I'm alone in trying to have as "pure" of an experience with The Witness as possible. Maybe I'm uptight. But I did have a strong reaction to what I consider to be mistakes in the editing of this video.

Going to be honest, I used the all solutions guide just to get through the "story" of the game, and I am sorta sad I did. But thankfully what I got from it was concepts and not answers, so I will probably spend a weekend doing it on my own and solving the puzzles without external help. Just as you described in the video, its an obsession that needs to be complete.

That guy is so obsessed with puzzle his hair is actually shaped like a jigsaw puzzle piece.

I loved the game but hated the endings. I was solving these puzzles in the hope of saving the stone ppl or at least discovering what happened to them. I can't stand that at the end you don't achieve or discover anything, it is all unanswered questions.

@elroyscout

8 жыл бұрын

Yeah... I figured that was the point as well... But I ended up grabbing a strategy guide when it went nowhere

@half_pixel

8 жыл бұрын

Some of the late-game audio logs provide context for what the island is.

@QwertyuiopThePie

8 жыл бұрын

+Half Pixel Only the secret ones that most people won't find.

@JaLikon65

8 жыл бұрын

+smegskull I haven't played the game, so any knowledge I have I've gleaned from the video. Nevertheless: Maybe that's the point? To show that these puzzles (or, taking a large leap if you'll give me the liberty, life in general) are exactly what you said: "that at the end you don't achieve or discover anything, it is all unanswered questions" ? And yet, for some reason, here we all are doing the puzzles (work, study, etc). I don't know, just a thought. That's a pretty cynical way to look at life and I really don't have any disdain for the life I have. But that's just what I thought of when I read you comment.

@smegskull

8 жыл бұрын

QwertyuiopThePie Oh I found them (at least some of them) but they don't answer the questions they just change them slightly.