The Witness
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What's in a Name: Thekla, Inc.
Thekla, Inc.'s Jonathan Blow, creative lead of Braid and upcoming game The Witness, revealed the following Italo Calvino quote, from the book "Invisible Cities," as the origin behind his new dev studio's name. "Those who arrive at Thekla can see little of the city, beyond the plank fences, the sackcloth screens, the scaffoldings, the metal armatures, the wooden catwalks hanging from ropes or supported by sawhorses, the ladders, the trestles. If you ask 'Why is Thekla's construction taking such a long time?' the inhabitants continue hoisting sacks, lowering leaded strings, moving long brushes up and down, as they answer 'So that it's destruction cannot begin.' And if asked whether they fear that, once the scaffoldings are removed, the city may begin to crumble and fall to pieces, they add hastily, in a whisper, 'Not only the city.' If, dissatisfied with the answers, someone puts his eye to a crack in a fence, he sees cranes pulling up other cranes, scaffoldings that embrace other scaffoldings, beams that prop up other beams. 'What meaning does your construction have?' he asks. 'What is the aim of a city under construction unless it is a city? Where is the plan you are following, the blueprint?' 'We will show it to you as soon as the working day is over; we cannot interrupt our work now,' they answer. Work stops at sunset. Darkness falls over the building site. The sky is filled with stars. 'There is the blueprint,' they say." - Italo Calvino, "Invisible Cities"
The Witness preview: Peering through the Myst
"Hey man, come in," a weary looking Jonathan Blow said. He was welcoming me into his temporary New York City abode, a swanky hotel in midtown where he'd been put up for a few days to show off a preview build of his next game, The Witness. His bare feet indicated to me that I'd either just woken him up, or that he was very comfortable with strangers. It turned out to be a combination of both, as Blow's PR-less presentation style (and sleepy demeanor) soon revealed. "We started the game about two years ago, for real. I actually started it as a prototype earlier than that, before I finished Braid. I wasn't convinced I really wanted to do it, because I was still in the mindset of 'I'm the lone indie developer who types everything in himself and this is gonna be a much more ambitious project.' So I didn't wanna do it for a while, then I played with some other game ideas. Kinda liked those, but decided I really wanted to do this," Blow cursorily explained before I jumped in. While the dev process has seen contract workers, Blow's new studio (the ... uniquely named Thekla, Inc.) still only employs three full-time devs, himself included. "We're gonna be going into more of a production-type phase this next year," he added. The work of just one 3D artist has made the game's mysterious, puzzle-filled island alive with bright, colorful, abstract flora. In fact, outside of a handful of expected bugs I encountered, The Witness is shaping up to be another standout work from a developer already well-respected in his field. Blow left me with one final note before I jumped in: "What you play here is basically the game, it's just gonna be a better version of this that we show."%Gallery-130165%
Go see Hecker, Neuse and Blow speak at UC Santa Cruz next week
Between Jonathan Blow, Chris Hecker and Alex Neuse, the University of California Santa Cruz panel being held next week should be chock full of interesting, honest discussion from the trio of all-star indie developers. The group is being gathered to speak for UCSC's "Foundations of Interactive Game Design" class on May 26, though the panel is open to the public. The discussion is being moderated by associate professor Noah Wardrip-Fruin. As for what's being discussed, your guess is as good as ours. Hecker describes it as "an open panel discussion" and notes that his game SpyParty unfortunately won't be on-hand for attendees. Blow separately confirmed to us that he doesn't plan on having his studio's next game, The Witness, at the event either. Bit.Trip series co-developer Alex Neuse didn't get back to us before this post was run, but it stands to reason that his next game, Laserlife, won't make an appearance either. That isn't to say you should miss the talk, which will assuredly be thought provoking. And hey, if you're that worried about getting a chance to play SpyParty, why not sign up for the beta? That worked out pretty well with you and Minecraft, right?
The Witness makes low-key debut at PAX
The first public appearance of The Witness, a new game from Braid designer Jonathan Blow (and a small team of independent designers), almost went unnoticed. Its presence at last weekend's Penny Arcade Expo wasn't announced by an enthusiastic press release or trumpeted by a flashy trailer. It didn't even have a sign. "PAX is a huge show, with tons of stuff to see everywhere; if the game could hold peoples' attention under those conditions, purely on its own merits rather than by hype or pedigree, then I would know that it was really working," Jonathan Blow wrote on The Witness blog. "Happily, the game worked very well - despite the fact that the visuals are still in an early prototype stage. People tended to play for a long time, and they liked what they played." Kotaku's Stephen Totilo compared the first-person exploration and puzzle-solving to Myst. The game's beautifully lit and serene world hides abstract enigmas, such as boards that require you to trace the correct route. What's most interesting, however, is that there don't seem to be any prompts or instructions for the player -- making this understated PAX reveal seem very appropriate indeed.
Official site for Jon Blow's 'The Witness' launches, reveals concept art
The official site for Jonathan Blow's "philosophical, and quiet" next project, The Witness, recently underwent a massive update. While the archaic poetry certainly got our conjecture wheels a-spinning, the renovated site promises more concrete info through continuous updates while the game is developed. The blog's first post reveals a cadre of concept art for the game, as crafted by designer Eric Urquhart. It looks appropriately pretty and mysterious -- what's behind the door? What's with that force field? Who is the sculptor? Is it all just one big allegory for the atomic bomb? (Whoa, sorry -- we got our J. Blow games mixed up.)
Jonathan Blow hiring 'full-body motion tracking' programmer
It's been a while since we've heard anything regarding Braid developer Jonathan Blow's next project, The Witness -- however, if a recent post on Blow's blog is any indication, the "philosophical, and quiet" game might be moving in an unexpected direction. According to the post, Blow is "hiring another programmer into the new company, to do very interesting work with full-body motion tracking." We contacted Blow to see if this new hire would be working on The Witness, and whether the motion tracking technology mentioned is Project Natal. He responded by saying he "can't talk about this right now," and added, "it may not even actually happen (depending on whether I can find someone qualified to do it!)." So, there you have it. If you've got experience with body movin' (body, body movin'), it sounds like Blow could use a hand. And an arm! And a torso. And a ... yeah, you got it.
Blow points finger at next game's name: The Witness
Jonathan Blow has revealed The Witness will be the name of his next game, and there's even a teaser site to go with the announcement. "Teaser site" is a bit generous of a term, it's a website with some prose that reads like a lost page from Braid's between-level books. Clicking on the text will reveal another page, stating that the "exploration-puzzle game on an uninhabited island" will release in late 2011 on multiple platforms.Blow had previously mentioned some details about his next title, calling it a "philosophical, and quiet" puzzle-exploration title. As long as The Witness comes with an actual ending that wasn't designed to give academics something to write books about (that nobody will ever read), and leave everyone else scratching their heads, we'll be fine.Update: Added information about clicking on text.[Thanks, Fahd]
