#TheWitness choosing to end as brain-warpingly painfully as possible is certainly a choice.
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Derek Caelin 🌱replied to Derek Caelin 🌱 last edited by
I was "puzzled" (ha!) by the game world.
In previous puzzle-driven games I have played, the game world provided a narrative and a context for the puzzle. Myst Island, #OuterWilds. Even Braid! Solving the puzzle allows the player to interact with the that world, and the narrative within it.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is a #Sudoku puzzle book. Puzzles don't exist in a narrative context. Solving the puzzle simply means you've solved the puzzle and can progress to the next.
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Derek Caelin 🌱replied to Derek Caelin 🌱 last edited by
#TheWitness has many of the trappings of a narrative world, but the environmental detail isn't meant to convey a narrative. Or at least, the narrative seems to be a much simpler, smaller one.
The Island has no inhabitants. There is no clear story of events. The artifacts, trees, buildings, drawings, are there to provide a context to the puzzles, and perhaps to evoke a certain emotion, or to play with a theme, like "Perspective changes how you interpret something"
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Derek Caelin 🌱replied to Derek Caelin 🌱 last edited by
A couch looks out over the sea. An inhabitant could look out at this peaceful, lonely spot.
How does the player feel when they see the couch? That is the only "point" to it. The couch plays no narrative role. No NPC will claim the couch ("oh yeah, we dropped it here last week during the move"). It just exists as a way to prompt an emotion from the player.
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Derek Caelin 🌱replied to Derek Caelin 🌱 last edited by
The game plays with perspective. A statue in a city holds up their hands seemingly in despair. Their face is contored with sadness.
Step back. Look on the shadow. From this angle, the statue appears to be in a joyous act of juggling.
The game delights in playing with perspective. It's both a visual and a mechanical theme - puzzles will change depending on how you look at them: from what angle, in what context, through what obstacle.
It's clever.
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Derek Caelin 🌱replied to Derek Caelin 🌱 last edited by
I suspect there is a deeper narrative at play - one that I can't access. There are many statues that appear to be in some sort of creative process: a film maker, a painter, a sculptor.
The final chapters seem to be saying something about the creation of the island? We are exposed to artifacts of a creative process? But what the game is trying to say, if anything, is not clear, at least to me.
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Derek Caelin 🌱replied to Derek Caelin 🌱 last edited by
Although I knew better, I hoped the game would reveal something special to me in the end.
The ending was emotional. There was a sense that things were reseting, that my work for the past 40 hours was reversing, that I was was returning to the beginning. But it was clear that the emotion payoff was all I would get - there would be no big reveal, at least not for me.
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Derek Caelin 🌱replied to Derek Caelin 🌱 last edited by
Ultimately, I enjoyed #TheWitness and the brain-stretching feeling I experienced while playing. It helped me to understand what I expect from games. I'd recommend it to people who love puzzles - as long as you aren't expecting a narrative to accompany them.
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Katanova, the Forest Nomadreplied to Derek Caelin 🌱 last edited by
@derek There's another ending to the game.
The world resetting is telling you that you *didn't* get it.
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@katanova ooooh. Interesting!
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Katanova, the Forest Nomadreplied to Derek Caelin 🌱 last edited by
@derek I won't spoil it for you, but I have this recommendation:
Play it again, and look around more.
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@katanova that seems like a pretty major spoiler
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Katanova, the Forest Nomadreplied to thejonymyster last edited by
@TheJonyMyster I will take this under advisement.