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"Have faith" in The Witness, says Blow

TheWitness_1

Braid creator Jonathan Blow has asked gamers to "have faith" in his next game The Witness, following a very early showing at PAX last month.

Footage of the start of the game being demoed emerged online from the show, where puzzles were shown out of context.

"Some people seem to have jumped to the conclusion that the game is going to be about solving simple maze puzzles, and thus not be particularly exciting," said Blow on his blog.

"If that thought crosses your mind, all I can ask is to have faith. I wouldn't make a game about solving a series of rote puzzles."

The indie dev then cited a similar situation when he was creating his last title Braid.

"The time stuff is the method by which that is implemented, but the rules of time manipulation do not contain the magic. Watching a video, it's nearly impossible to see the magic. You have to play the game to see the magic," said Blow.

"The Witness is like that too. The blue mazes are a major aspect of the game, but they are not the point. The point is the magic that happens in the player's mind when he understands the subtle things that the mazes are saying - because the mazes aren't just puzzles, they are lines of communication that aggregate, become more complex and eventually say surprising things.

"This can't be seen in a video; you have to play it to have the experience. The magic is in the player's head, not on the screen."

The Witness releases late next year for PS3, 360 and PC.

Via EG.

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About the Author

Johnny Cullen

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Johnny has experience at a wide range of games media outlets, having written for Eurogamer, Play Magazine, PC Gamer, GameDaily, and more. He worked at VG247 pumping out news at an astonishing rate for several years. More recently, he founded the games website PlayDiaries.

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