The island this week.

18 Comments:

  1. That’s pretty handsome!

  2. yeah, but REAL islands aren’t squares. Everyone know they’re circles. And have a palm tree in the middle.

  3. Looking great Jonathan!

    You said you already had around 5 hours of gameplay prototyped and working? Any idea how large the game will be when you’re finished?

    Best of luck
    –Phil

  4. You mean in terms of length of gameplay? No idea. Also, it sort of depends on what the player wants to do, and what you consider gameplay.

  5. Sweet, keep these coming!

  6. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could measure gameplay quantity in something other than time? “The game is now 0.4 counterstrikes deep.”

  7. How about some technical insights to spice it up a bit? :)

    – What’s going on with the stratified depth at the bottom of the image? (and the edges)
    – Any immediate plans to screenspace blur the shadows? Half-res?
    – Anything interesting going on with the leafs on the tress? Some inferred lighting-like lit translucency maybe?

    Thanks :)

  8. I don’t know what you are referring to by stratified depth?

    There are no immediate plans to do screenspace operations on the shadows. That may change. Shadows are good enough for gameplay design right now and that is all that really matters.

    We don’t do anything complicated yet for leaves. In fact leaves are currently kind-of broken; you’ll note you can pretty much see through the leaves.

  9. Is there any teaser information on what the gameplay will be like yet? I just got Braid (and am still plowing through) and am now very curious as to what kind of game The Witness will be.

  10. We haven’t put out any of that kind of information, and it’ll be a while before we do (largely because the gameplay is in a constant state of flux).

    It is not much like Braid, though.

  11. I just wanna say this is really exciting. It’s like watch sim city or something. Watching the island come together really tickles my model train nerve. I hope you keep em’ comin’!!!!

  12. The stratified depth turned out to be reflection in the hard-to-see water :) Thanks for the response!

  13. the darker colors from the island a few weeks back looked more… right? i guess it makes it look more realistic? without that sand :s

  14. I’ve heard a theory that The Witness will be to Myst what Braid is to Mario. Braid obviously imitates the Mario series in some ways, while at the same time adding twists to it, outright subverting it, and overall saying some very interesting things about the Mario formula – its gameplay, story and underlying concepts. As a whole, all that is, of course, only one of the things Braid has to say. Will The Witness do the same to Myst? Or anything else?

  15. This is fun :)

    A request: try using the same camera angle if you keep doing this (at least, as much as this is possible …) It’ll make it more fun to go back and flip through all the images later, I think.

  16. This is looking pretty awesome. I’m wonderfully perplexed as to what’s happening on the island – I can see what looks like an old fort, a rocket ready for launch, and a WW2 style pillbox. Not to mention the other blog posts featuring fairly nondescript (but very intriguing) empty rooms.

    Good stuff.

  17. Uh oh, strange numbers appearing on a mysterious island?

    But really, it’s looking good, keep it up. I’m looking forward to The Witness.

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