The Witness - Spoiler Thread (plot related/large secrets/no-puzzle solutions)

From the AMA, about the windmill. This plus his comments about the 1% puzzle and 100% the game makes me lean a lot harder into the notion that odd stuff should probably be attributed to pulled ideas rather than hints to something more. It would be nice if he would just come out and say if 523+135+6 is the final count, but I suppose that is asking too much. Based on this I think I'll move forward under the assumption that everything is found and the only mystery left is story, characters, nature of the island, and so on. I suppose it is time I tracked down all the voice recorders anyway.

It is probably just an old sound that we didn't correctly tune.

The windmill used to work very differently. It used to be more of a power generator for other stuff on the island, and there was a visual battery gauge that would fill up as it turned, and then there was a timing puzzle where you would turn it off and the battery started draining and you had a certain amount of time to go do something non-obvious before the battery ran out.

But that was too much like stuff in other games, and was not really related to the core ideas of The Witness. i.e. it sucked so I cut it.

The reason the windmill locks into certain positions is that the [REDACTED] puzzles involved with it used to be very different in shape and required the blades to be in certain positions. You would solve it by rotating the windmill into various positions and then locking it in those positions. But this was a little tedious and not too interesting, i.e. it sucked so I cut it. But I left the windmill locking in because hey you might as well; I think real windmills lock in place usually when shut down.
 
Ha, didn't even notice that.

Those tutorial area puzzles, they are there the whole game? Right? Or am I crazy for missing them so many times.

Solvable from the start (I immediately noticed the pillar, and had no idea what to do with it). Apparently the floor panel is even faintly visible if you know what you're looking for.

I found that every shape makes a (slightly) different sound when you're standing next to it ...

Coincidence or does it actually mean something?

I wish the ambient noises were more than just ambiguously suggestive. I think someone said that some sounds in the game get randomly pitch-adjusted to keep them sounding natural.
 
I have a few left. I'm still trying to find this "whoa" moment that people seem to have encountered, but after the initial completion I can say the game doesn't like to offer very much feedback. I know it's the philosophy of the design, but it can also be alienating to 90% of players.

Yeah I just finished it and was hoping to get some reveal that explains the island, some twist that would make some of those weird audio tapes and videos make sense, some reward for going through tons of scribbles of Tetris blocks and puzzles all over my floor

Instead I got one of the most unsatisfying endings in gaming history, considering how much time I spent unlocking all the lasers and figuring this whole game out

Still a fantastic game. But it's like following Indiana jones solving tons of cave puzzles to get to the end that reveals .... The end of the cave. No effort to reveal anything. No conclusion that wraps it all up.

I see there are still some secrets I guess reading the spoiler thread, but not sure I'm really motivated to continue. Showing me the start new game screen at the end was not something I was interested in seeing that's for sure
 
Yeah I just finished it and was hoping to get some reveal that explains the island, some twist that would make some of those weird audio tapes and videos make sense, some reward for going through tons of scribbles of Tetris blocks and puzzles all over my floor

Well, there is a reveal. And it does explain the island and audio tapes.

That's what you will find if you keep going.
 
Yeah I just finished it and was hoping to get some reveal that explains the island, some twist that would make some of those weird audio tapes and videos make sense, some reward for going through tons of scribbles of Tetris blocks and puzzles all over my floor

Instead I got one of the most unsatisfying endings in gaming history, considering how much time I spent unlocking all the lasers and figuring this whole game out

Still a fantastic game. But it's like following Indiana jones solving tons of cave puzzles to get to the end that reveals .... The end of the cave. No effort to reveal anything. No conclusion that wraps it all up.

I see there are still some secrets I guess reading the spoiler thread, but not sure I'm really motivated to continue. Showing me the start new game screen at the end was not something I was interested in seeing that's for sure

It is hilarious, it feels like you are talking about life, death and reincarnation.

Life. 5/10. Would live again.
 
It is hilarious, it feels like you are talking about life, death and reincarnation.

Life. 5/10. Would live again.

Well, having watched the credits ending, listened to about 4 audio tapes in world (maybe more, lost track) and watched two of those theater videos, I have no idea what you are saying, why this game is called the witness, or why there is an island and statues of people hanging around.

I guess I was excited mid way through when I found all of these items and wondered how it all came together. Hell, maybe it did come together somehow and I just wasn't smart enough to see it. All I know is the game "ended" with a refresh of the game world and nothing else that I could see. Are you even supposed to do anything here? Seems like everyone is supposed to start that new game, then immediately load your previous game so you can keep solving new puzzles

Edit: I did of course move forward to load the credits thing. I'll admit I looked that up though after being shocked that the game reset
 
My theory that white flowers each correspond to one triangle panel is kind of scuttled by the fact that there are two white flowers at the glassworks, but only one triangle panel.

Except... The second white flower was deliberately hidden. You needed to guess the second one was there due to the symmetrical theme. And since the whole building is symmetrical... Should there be something else hidden to balance out the triangle panel, too? In the room with all the pots?

Or maybe the +1 puzzle from the roof with the pot is the symmetrical counterpart to the triangle panel on the other roof.

Edit: Actually, I'm pretty sure now this is how the white flowers match up to triangle panels:

Left glassworks flower - Triangle panel behind keep
Right glassworks flower - Triangle panel on glassworks roof
Desert flower - Triangle panel on desert beach
Logging area flower - Triangle panel on quarry roof
Town obelisk flower - Triangle panel inside town container
Town fireplace flower - Triangle panel on top of same fireplace
Two treehouse flowers - Two triangle panels in treehouses
Marsh cage flower - Triangle panel at shipwreck (I just know it's there from the lake, haven't found this one yet)
Mountain statue flower - Triangle panel at mountain waterfall
Mountaintop flower - Triangle panel inside mountain beside elevator

That leaves the triangle panel on a log in the jungle. Is there a flower that corresponds to this one?
 
Almost a 1GB update with no notes today, any ideas? They completely unpinned the patch notes thread in the forum for some reason, too.
 
Sounds like tweaks to make the mountaintop puzzle clearer/easier too. Reddit has some people saying their sacs were wiped from the patch, manually back it up if on Steam!
 
I went to do the mountain top puzzle today again and it confused the shit out of me. They have made it so that each start point only has one exit. I can see how that may be easier for first time players but one of my old solutions no longer works, lol. Kinda weird they changed it!
 
I went to do the mountain top puzzle today again and it confused the shit out of me. They have made it so that each start point only has one exit. I can see how that may be easier for first time players but one of my old solutions no longer works, lol. Kinda weird they changed it!

So one of the start points used to have more than one solution? Or it had only one solution and it was changed?

I am bad at seeing multiple solutions so I would not be surprised either way.
 
Screenshot of the top puzzle change? I am curious and on PS4.

So one of the start points used to have more than one solution? Or it had only one solution and it was changed?

I am bad at seeing multiple solutions so I would not be surprised either way.

I think before you had the option to exit in any direction you wanted. Now, when you click a start point for the line puzzle only one exit will pop up as the solution. Here is a gif of the exit popping up as I select a start point. Look on the right side as I start the puzzle.

lBWb7vG.gif


I was playing it and I thought this was different. It was really confusing at first. Pretty sure this is the change.
 
I think before you had the option to exit in any direction you wanted. Now, when you click a start point for the line puzzle only one exit will pop up as the solution. Here is a gif of the exit popping up as I select a start point. Look on the right side as I start the puzzle.

lBWb7vG.gif


I was playing it and I thought this was different. It was really confusing at first. Pretty sure this is the change.

Yep, it is obviously a change. There was no popping of the exit points.



Patch & revert?! Once... Twice... Please stop this, Jon...
 
I probably spent more time on those 3 mountaintop puzzles than any other puzzle, for some reason. I don't think it's intended to be so hard, so I can see why it was made easier.
 
Finding the other mountaintop puzzle was tougher to me than solving those.

And yeah...1GB download yesterday, 1GB download today, it's pretty rough for those of us without awesome internet connections. :|
 
I probably spent more time on those 3 mountaintop puzzles than any other puzzle, for some reason. I don't think it's intended to be so hard, so I can see why it was made easier.

It's counter to the design of pretty much every other non +1 puzzle in that it's finicky to actually execute a solution. Even the stuff in the monastery where you need to line up branches to block paths wasn't as loose the mountain puzzle where it's easy to feel like you know the solution but just can get the right perspective to squeeze past a foot or cable.
 
I spent half an hour on the mountaintop just trying to see the solutions, but after finding each one, lining up the correct perspective felt inevitable.

It's not a bad perspective puzzle like in Shadowmatic (which I have been recently playing in search of more puzzle games), where you really are going by blind luck more than half the time.
 
What did the other panel (the single line) on the mountaintop do? I remember looking for a change but I never saw anything different. Did it change the river?
 
What did the other panel (the single line) on the mountaintop do? I remember looking for a change but I never saw anything different. Did it change the river?

It doesn't do anything by itself. It's just a hint about what you should do with the river.
 
It doesn't do anything by itself. It's just a hint about what you should do with the river.

Yeah, it looks like it's meant to obviously point out the fact that you can find line puzzles in the environment.

Then again, I had found out about + puzzles before I ever went to the mountain so I didn't have to make that connection, but saw what it was trying to do.
 
I sadly kinda burnt out on The Witness once I got into the mountain.

I loved the different areas of the island and liked the progression quite a bit, but I started to get fatigued by most if the puzzles by the Town area when I felt like all I was doing was the same stuff I'd figured out already, but just harder (more tetris pieces, more black/white color separating, more color grouping, etc.).

Once I hit that point, solving puzzles stopped being satisfying like it had been and I was just wishing the game would wrap up. Instead of getting epiphanies on how to solve a puzzle, it just became relief that I finally stumbled on the right solution.

I wanted to do some of the areas I missed earlier in the game (the door behind the theater, and the one in the desert area by the water), but as soon as I saw them I knew they were just hard versions of stuff I've already done.

I thought that taking a break for a week or so would help me get back into it, but it did the opposite. Now it feels like all the practice I'd done the first 20 hours of the game (played it over a few days a LOT) slipped out of my brain, so when I see a hard puzzle it's even more exhausting.

Overall I definitely enjoyed the game even though the ending sections kinda soured me on it a bit. It definitely had a few moments that reminded me of the best moments from the old Myst games, and I definitely appreciated knowing what exactly the puzzles WERE (something that could be a struggle in Myst games).
 
I finished the game this weekend (500 puzzles, +40, ALMOST the challenge (curse those pillar puzzles)).

I found it a very refreshing experience. I understand the desire for narrative revelations, secrets laid bare, the ol' Shyamalan shuffle. Perhaps there is something like that buried in the game (having broken down and watched the final windmill theater clip even though I haven't beat the Challenge, I'm left wondering about a time-limited in-game eclipse that would allow temporary completion of a black environmental puzzle starting at the moon's shadow).

However, I don't think that's what the game is about, and certainly not what the game is trying to DO.

And I think this is important because, more than any other game I've played, this game seems to exist to do something to the player, not to tell them something, show them something, or lead them somewhere.

I think this works on two levels:

1. surely it has not escaped notice how similar the puzzle panels are to tablet computers/smart phones. Much of the early game is spent huddled obsessively over these screens swiping away at them w/ your digital finger, just as so much of our modern lives are spent huddled over our own glowing screens swiping away. But, very quickly, the game makes it manifestly clear that the solution won't always be in/on the screen. It will be in the environment, in what's present and sometimes conspicuously absent. There are a number of very creative and well executed mechanisms for linking in-screen line drawing w/ out-screen game world. In fact, every major puzzle type does this in different ways.

That's cool as a gimmick, I suppose, and one could take it as a fairly quotidian bromide: "Hey, stop looking at your screens so much, there's a whole world out there!" But that's much less meaningful than what happens over the course of the game, which is that you are literally trained to make a habit of looking up from the screen, looking at the environment, looking at the screen from different perspectives, making connections. I found myself over the last few days habitually looking up when doodling on my ipad to scan the environment. Some times, I see something valuable I would otherwise have missed, like a funny thing my kids are doing, or an interesting scene outside the window. That is very cool I think. Telling people things doesn't change them (don't look at your screen so much!). Changing HABITS changes people.

2. Probably more conceptually interesting, the game provides models for and trains you in flexible and creative problem solving. The digital space is full of scams like lumosity, which, as a neuroscientist, I can tell you does only two things: 1. take your money and 2. train you to be very specifically better at one type of fiddly problem. But you can't make yourself much better at processing, particularly once you're an adult. What you can do is embrace effective mental habits that do generalize across cognitive boundaries.

By way of illustration, I had an academic job interview last week, which I was prepping for right in the middle of the Witness. These are grueling affairs, requiring 2 days straight of interviews, presentations, and student and faculty interaction in a variety of more and less formal contexts. The core of it is that the faculty is assessing your scholarship, and they're doing so as people w/ less specific expertise in your area than you have (you're hired to fill a need after all). They want to see that your diverse interests cohere and have a meaningful connection to the world. My research is particularly varied, and I'm always in danger of coming off as dilettantish. As I prepared my job talk, my mind kept returning to line drawing -- finding simple connections between complex things, tying diverse ideas together in the most direct way. It was in this state of mind that I put together my best academic presentation to date. I just got offered the job a couple of days ago. I won't credit the Witness for this, but I think it played a small part, drawing out my best habits of mind at just the right time.

What ties both of these ideas together is a simple but very useful way of looking at the world. We interact w/ the world through small windows, at varying scales, often involving finicky and constrained rule sets. But as we do this, we are also tracing bigger and more meaningful connections, between ourselves and other people, the environment, knowledge, etc. To work well and diligently in these windows, but to do so w/out losing sight of the broader perspective might be an excellent recipe for a useful and fulfilling life.
 
Does anyone know if the light switch in the secret hotel area at the end of the path counts towards all 523 puzzles? Or is it possible to get 523 before you get there? I'm on 522 right now and I wondered if that counted as 523 but it won't show because the loading point is before you enter the secret area.
 
Does anyone know if the light switch in the secret hotel area at the end of the path counts towards all 523 puzzles? Or is it possible to get 523 before you get there? I'm on 522 right now and I wondered if that counted as 523 but it won't show because the loading point is before you enter the secret area.

We're all taking 523 from the counts on our saves, so nobody could be counting something that doesn't show up on saves. I just hit 523 myself.

And I'm pretty sure closing the gate counts towards the 523 and the sun puzzle counts towards the +135. But both are saved without locking you into the secret area.
 
We're all taking 523 from the counts on our saves, so nobody could be counting something that doesn't show up on saves. I just hit 523 myself.

And I'm pretty sure closing the gate counts towards the 523 and the sun puzzle counts towards the +135. But both are saved without locking you into the secret area.

Yeah, I'm an idiot. I've got to 523 before and I'm playing through again. The missing panel for me was the first fucking triangle puzzle in the game behind the opening area walls. Can't believe I missed that and it was my last panel. That's why I was so confused as to why I was at 522, hahaha.
 
Yeah, I'm an idiot. I've got to 523 before and I'm playing through again. The missing panel for me was the first fucking triangle puzzle in the game behind the opening area walls. Can't believe I missed that and it was my last panel. That's why I was so confused as to why I was at 522, hahaha.

I would like to know if there is a logical way of exploring the island, given away by an increasing complexity of the hidden triangle panels. So, regarding triangle panels, is there a way to rank them in a logical manner so that there is a logic behind the teaching of the puzzle rule? I remember I have started seeing triangle panels with 2 triangles, and only ended up seeing the most simple puzzles with 1 triangle when I was approaching the end of the game.
 
I would like to know if there is a logical way of exploring the island, given away by an increasing complexity of the hidden triangle panels. So, regarding triangle panels, is there a way to rank them in a logical manner so that there is a logic behind the teaching of the puzzle rule? I remember I have started seeing triangle panels with 2 triangles, and only ended up seeing the most simple puzzles with 1 triangle when I was approaching the end of the game.

Considering that the absolute simplest one of all can't be found until the end... (The single-square double-triangle one by the elevator in the mountain)

They don't really progress in complexity as much as provide redundancy, with several panels teaching the exact same thing. I know I had missed half when I had to test my understanding of the rules.
 
Considering that the absolute simplest one of all can't be found until the end... (The single-square double-triangle one by the elevator in the mountain)

They don't really progress in complexity as much as provide redundancy, with several panels teaching the exact same thing. I know I had missed half when I had to test my understanding of the rules.

Weren't there a singe-square single-triangle one?
 
Thanks to this thread I got to see the "ending" video.

I was playing through this weekend, for hours and hours and hours, and got to the end, and after being whisked back to the beginning, I was done playing. My mind was toast. I did the first 2 puzzles, then promptly reloaded my last save just to make sure I could start at the water elevator to finish up the tunnels. I probably wouldn't have gone back to the beginning had I not read the words "a door there the whole time."

So, this morning I reloaded that save and sure enough... there WAS a door there the whole time. Very cool. I have to go back and finish "The Challenge" to earn my Platinum (and it's a doozy), but this game was OH. SO. GOOD. I've been processing the "story" for a few hours now. And there's so much that I missed even though I was being thorough. There are a few "holy crap... that's what that's for" moments that really, REALLY make this game something special. I know why this game took so long to develop.

But my mind needs a break now... back to mindless Battlefront for a bit, before returning to mental gymnastics in The Witness.
 
I have a lot of thoughts about this game, which I will start sharing here if it's a safe place (I really don't want to ruin anyone else's awesome, one-in-a-lifetime experience).

I will say that The Witness is a brilliant, ingenious, mysterious and profound game. An extraordinary experience I have not had in some time (if ever). I've competed Endgame, Challenge, and a majority of everything else, and I still play it daily, discovering more things. And when I'm not playing it, I'm thinking about it, like right now. I hope this feeling never ends :-)

Something that's coming to mind at the moment, especially in light of the lecture:

What if Jonathan Blow hid an object in the real world and we're supposed to find it?
 
Just a couple of quick comments or notes from me.

Does anyone know the significance of the one dark cloud?

Before the video ending you walk past a view of the room where you can see the person in the video (you?) Lying on the couch, but it's actually a different scene from that in the video. The photos on the wall are different, and many of the small details, notably the pee bottle, are missing. Any guess on the significance of that?
 
Just a couple of quick comments or notes from me.

Does anyone know the significance of the one dark cloud?

Before the video ending you walk past a view of the room where you can see the person in the video (you?) Lying on the couch, but it's actually a different scene from that in the video. The photos on the wall are different, and many of the small details, notably the pee bottle, are missing. Any guess on the significance of that?

It's part of an environmental puzzle. In order to finish it, you have to
aim the desert laser at it using the mirror in the city.
 
Giantbomb did a relaxed talk with Blow about the game. There are some interesting bits like the surprising genesis of the game and how it evolved, accessibility informing puzzle design, or watching him attempt the Challenge. It's definitely meant for people who have "finished" the game but it's pretty general and not too specific or revelatory. He seems to want the game to speak for itself rather than outright explain things that the community has not found themselves.

There were definitely questions I wished they had asked, not just specific questions that they couldn't know to ask since they didn't finish the challenge at the time to see the last bunker video, but stuff like the dichotomy between the panel puzzles and environment puzzles in terms of design. Still definitely worth a watch or at least listen to in a tab.

Just a couple of quick comments or notes from me.

Does anyone know the significance of the one dark cloud?

Before the video ending you walk past a view of the room where you can see the person in the video (you?) Lying on the couch, but it's actually a different scene from that in the video. The photos on the wall are different, and many of the small details, notably the pee bottle, are missing. Any guess on the significance of that?

That first person credits area video was apparently filmed the Monday (with the props gathered that weekend) before release while the trippy diorama area was created a while before that. There could be more to it, especially with how intentionally bizarre and cryptic the video seems, but I'd say it's just a matter of production realities rather than a clue.
 
That first person credits area video was apparently filmed the Monday (with the props gathered that weekend) before release while the trippy diorama area was created a while before that. There could be more to it, especially with how intentionally bizarre and cryptic the video seems, but I'd say it's just a matter of production realities rather than a clue.

Although one moment in the EXCELLENT and SPOILER HEAVY Giant Bomb interview where Jon catches himself and does (but doesn't quite) reveal something, is that the person in the first view of the room
is not him.
 
Although one moment in the EXCELLENT and SPOILER HEAVY Giant Bomb interview where Jon catches himself and does (but doesn't quite) reveal something, is that the person in the first view of the room
is not him.

I caught that as well. I suspect he mentioned it as a quick anecdote and the reason for it was just a dumb/fun thing but the conversation flow cut it short so, oh well, no reason to go back to it. Maybe he would be willing to finish his thought on twitter if asked.
 
Although one moment in the EXCELLENT and SPOILER HEAVY Giant Bomb interview where Jon catches himself and does (but doesn't quite) reveal something, is that the person in the first view of the room
is not him.
He stumbled into saying he was switching off takes with someone - his experience holding his breath over and over certainly sounded personal. Perhaps there's a
pink light switch version with someone else to be found!
 
Whelp at 512 panels and +57 I think I'm ready to tap out. I see a few environment puzzles that I could solve that have me a bit stumped and I see some that are a easier that I'd just need to ride around on the boat to get. By the way the entire Ship environment puzzle was awesome.

Had to get help on the ship puzzle room, one of the few puzzles I couldn't do on my own.

Never did find the credits room everyone was talking about though.

Just not a whole lot of incentive to really dig into every angle and find the remaining environment puzzles. I had fun going for some of the more obvious ones, even if they were a bit devious, if I saw a shape I was determined to figure it out up until now. But I'm guessing there's an extreme number of well hidden ones that I just really can't be bothered to check out.
 
Never did find the credits room everyone was talking about though.

Just not a whole lot of incentive to really dig into every angle and find the remaining environment puzzles. I had fun going for some of the more obvious ones, even if they were a bit devious, if I saw a shape I was determined to figure it out up until now. But I'm guessing there's an extreme number of well hidden ones that I just really can't be bothered to check out.

The credits room doesn't actually take that long. Did you find the seventh vault in the tunnels after the challenge?

I have reached +88 just by randomly wandering around and noticing them all over the place, but, yeah, the further you go the harder it'll be to track down the rest.

And I finally got a bit of closure - managed to see what happens to the boat when it's somewhere else when you summon it. Yeah, it gets me thinking about how the mechanism works.
 
He stumbled into saying he was switching off takes with someone - his experience holding his breath over and over certainly sounded personal. Perhaps there's a
pink light switch version with someone else to be found!

My best guess is he was going to say the first view is actually a different
character
, but he abstracted his answer. For me this potential clue is a pebble that is now causing ripples through other ideas I had about the game...
 
The credits room doesn't actually take that long. Did you find the seventh vault in the tunnels after the challenge?

I have reached +88 just by randomly wandering around and noticing them all over the place, but, yeah, the further you go the harder it'll be to track down the rest.

And I finally got a bit of closure - managed to see what happens to the boat when it's somewhere else when you summon it. Yeah, it gets me thinking about how the mechanism works.

Blizzard just encouraged me to go find it since I had already completed the challenge. I assumed it was the video code you got when completing the challenge but I guess I was wrong. I did find the more grid like code past the recorder, also found this hidden guy on the way:


Just got out of the caves solving a few more panels, now to figure out where the credits code goes.

Hah trippy when you get in there the path goes over the record player but you can see it from both sides...slash you end up all over the island, neat.
 
The credits room doesn't actually take that long. Did you find the seventh vault in the tunnels after the challenge?

I have reached +88 just by randomly wandering around and noticing them all over the place, but, yeah, the further you go the harder it'll be to track down the rest.

And I finally got a bit of closure - managed to see what happens to the boat when it's somewhere else when you summon it. Yeah, it gets me thinking about how the mechanism works.
What happens to the boat? Did you noclip or something to see it?
 
What happens to the boat? Did you noclip or something to see it?

The treehouse and marsh docks are within line-of-sight of each other. All you see is that a boat sinks at the other dock and then a boat rises at your dock.

So it's definitely (at least in-world) multiple boats. Plus the water in between doesn't get disturbed at all.
 
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