• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Witness |OT|

R

Remembrance

Member
Fractology said:
Somewhat related to that mystery is another one that I'm sure many probably noticed as well:
In the dojo, or ornate room with the big tree in the center, you can line up the holes in the back wall perfectly with figures in shadow (or was it light?) on the stone slab behind it (where the laser emits from)

There's also a tiny little
dog statue
that is by itself among some pillows off a beaten path with nothing around. There's also of course all the pillows, with a very particular pattern on them. The lounge location
on top of the ceiling of a room in the starting fort has a prism-like gem resting gently on one of it's pillows which makes me think of some sort of shrine business or something
Click to expand...

You know, I didn't even open the back wall of the monastery.
Thanks for reminding me.

As for the pillows...
Have you seen where they're from? That's the easy part.

But... That reminds me.
All the pillows, couches, and chairs are facing a particular direction. Why does the game want you to look in those directions? I don't think they correspond to +1s.
 
WilyRook

WilyRook

Member
puzzle help, relatively early
in the town, there's a panel on a roof that looks like 3 stacked hexagons, activated by inputting three different lines on a single panel in the room below it. my brain apparently broke because I can't make heads or tails of it. I thought maybe each hexagon had to match how they are shaped on the bottom panel. pointers?
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
I'm still fairly early on and doing some backtracking and I am stuck on a puzzle and not sure why. It's a black and white puzzle that is blocking a door pretty early in the game (just when you leave the first area). IT's a hexagon and black/white dot puzzle, and my understanding is that you just have to pass through all of the hexagons and separate the black/white dots but that doesn't seem to be working here.
 
H

hydrophilic attack

Member
WilyRook said:
puzzle help, relatively early
in the town, there's a panel on a roof that looks like 3 stacked hexagons, activated by inputting three different lines on a single panel in the room below it. my brain apparently broke because I can't make heads or tails of it. I thought maybe each hexagon had to match how they are shaped on the bottom panel. pointers?
Click to expand...

If you are relatively early in the game you might want to
come back to the town much later
.

Ninja Scooter said:
I'm still fairly early on and doing some backtracking and I am stuck on a puzzle and not sure why. It's a black and white puzzle that is blocking a door pretty early in the game (just when you leave the first area). IT's a hexagon and black/white dot puzzle, and my understanding is that you just have to pass through all of the hexagons and separate the black/white dots but that doesn't seem to be working here.
Click to expand...

I think i know which one you're talking about. That one should be pretty easy if you know the rules, which you seem to do.
There are several starting points, but due to having to pass through all the hexagons you should be able to rule out all but one. Anfrom there it's pretty straightforward as well.
 
M

Malick[AI]

Member
Bowlie said:
yes, I just reached the southeast area (don't know how to call it yet), encountered the first two color puzzles and already could not solve them.
Click to expand...

Same. I just youtubed them and moved on. Not going to let a few puzzles ruin my enjoyment of the game. Still sucks there is no colorblind option.
 
C

collige

Banned
ThePliskin said:
Beautiful OT OP!! But is it true that people with colorblind will face difficulties with the game?

EDIT: Looks like what I heard was right :(

http://kotaku.com/colorblind-and-hearing-impaired-players-wont-be-able-to-1755459642
Click to expand...
I was thinking about this earlier today and it's quite unfortunate how accessibility-unfriendly the game is. There's an entire area of the game dedicated to color and another dedicated to sound. I'm sure Blow could have come up with other puzzle formats that weren't so alienating.
 
Mista

Mista

Banned
Bowlie said:
yes, I just reached the southeast area (don't know how to call it yet), encountered the first two color puzzles and already could not solve them.
Click to expand...

This sucks big time. I have a colorblind problem but not a big one! I can tell each color when I see it alone. But if you put like green next to brown or blue next to purple, I get confused and might say green is brown or the opposite. I just have a problem seeing similar colors next to each other and say the color correctly. Colorblind sucks breh :(

collige said:
I was thinking about this earlier today and it's quite unfortunate how accessibility-unfriendly the game is. There's an entire area of the game dedicated to color and another dedicated to sound. I'm sure Blow could have come up with other puzzle formats that weren't so alienating.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Its like you're making it more hard to people with color blind and hearing problems

InaudibleWhispa said:
I'm colour blind and had no problem with the colour puzzles (until the last bunch during the end-game stuff). Obviously people have different degrees of severity though.
Click to expand...

Good to know that. Yeah it has different degrees! Like my cousin he always see the black & yellow sidewalks black and white! I dont
 
H

hydrophilic attack

Member
WilyRook said:
I'm backtracking after the endgame actually. it's the last laser for me (if there are only 11). am I just dumb? lol
Click to expand...

I don't think so. I haven't solved that one either. It looks
similar to the panels at the desert ruins though
so I think that's the method you should be using.
Try to find different vantage points perhaps?
I haven't really gotten far enough in that area to do so myself
 
WilyRook

WilyRook

Member
hydrophilic attack said:
I don't think so. I haven't solved that one either. It looks
similar to the panels at the desert ruins though
so I think that's the method you should be using.
Try to find different vantage points perhaps?
I haven't really gotten far enough in that area to do so myself
Click to expand...

Yeah I'll go back to it later
 
Barry Burton

Barry Burton

Member
mclem said:
Also of note with that:

The shadow of it - which is very prominent - appears to show him brandishing the goblet - in a sense the opposite of the tableau as viewed normally.
Click to expand...
Exactly. It's there to be noticed.

It reminds me of a quote from Jonathan I read a while back, something about how part of the art design philosophy for The Witness revolved around not making things stand out visually if they weren't intrinsic to the puzzle-solving.

Just about everything in the game that stands out visually that you think MIGHT be important, generally has some importance, even if it's just a tape player being nearby, or something that will help with a
+ puzzle
.

But the statues (and other visual representations of people/animals)? They stand out, and yet they don't seem to have a role in the puzzle-solving. That would seem to deliberately contradict the statement about the art design. That is, unless, there is something more to them than meets the eye...
 
RoadHazard

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Game finished with
378+7
panels solved.

Regarding the ending (SPOILERS, obviously):
Was that it? What was the big THING reviews and other people were teasing? I was really expecting some OMG ending, and then it was... nothing? The island was reset (as were you), and there was some philosophical talk. A phantom, a dream, I don't know. Guess I just don't get it. I didn't finish with 100% completion though, if that makes any difference.
 
M

Mistle

Member
BeeDog said:
Thought there would be some subtle cue that one could pick up on, e.g. the order in which the screens light up or something. But still, that's good advice, thanks! May I also ask you if you have any suggestions for the labyrinth part? That's by far the worst time-sink.
Click to expand...
The maze path and panel locations match up with
the panel on the podium in the second room of the challenge.
 
Wok

Wok

Member
TheBigG753 said:
I'm especially curious about the statues, and if something special can be derived with how you frame them in your field of view.

For example, from the right perspective you can line up a statue of a man in the marsh area to look like it's reaching his hand out for the huge female statue on the side of the mountain. When I lined them up, I expected to see a "+ puzzle" pattern in the background somewhere that I could draw, but I didn't notice anything.

Then there's a whole area of the island seemingly dedicated to only a statue of a man kneeling before a gold goblet.

I've got to believe that stuff is there for a reason, but what that reason is, I have no idea.
Click to expand...

mclem said:
Also of note with that:

The shadow of it - which is very prominent - appears to show him brandishing the goblet - in a sense the opposite of the tableau as viewed normally.
Click to expand...

The guy is
a symbol for Icarus of some sort
.

See my post about it in the SPOILER thread.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=193938113&postcount=151

See also my pictures
with perspectives and shadows
:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=193943552&postcount=157

TheBigG753 said:
Exactly. It's there to be noticed.

It reminds me of a quote from Jonathan I read a while back, something about how part of the art design philosophy for The Witness revolved around not making things stand out visually if they weren't intrinsic to the puzzle-solving.

Just about everything in the game that stands out visually that you think MIGHT be important, generally has some importance, even if it's just a tape player being nearby, or something that will help with a
+ puzzle
.

But the statues (and other visual representations of people/animals)? They stand out, and yet they don't seem to have a role in the puzzle-solving. That would seem to deliberately contradict the statement about the art design. That is, unless, there is something more to them than meets the eye...
Click to expand...
 
R

Remembrance

Member
RoadHazard said:
Regarding the ending (SPOILERS, obviously):
Was that it? What was the big THING reviews and other people were teasing? I was really expecting some OMG ending, and then it was... nothing? The island was reset (as were you), and there was some philosophical talk. A phantom, a dream, I don't know. Guess I just don't get it. I didn't finish with 100% completion though, if that makes any difference.
Click to expand...

There's more, if you have all the lasers.

There's something you didn't activate in the mountain.

Hot Coldman said:
Yeah, this seems about the sort of thing Jon Blow would be into. I like this stuff but I'll be damned if it doesn't go over my head.
Click to expand...

I can't even identify
the source of video #5. Probably somebody famous in the field, but I'm not really about to go research the topic to figure it out!
 
S

SoRuffShoNuff

Member
collige said:
I was thinking about this earlier today and it's quite unfortunate how accessibility-unfriendly the game is. There's an entire area of the game dedicated to color and another dedicated to sound. I'm sure Blow could have come up with other puzzle formats that weren't so alienating.
Click to expand...

I see what you are saying but at the same time should developers simply abandon any cool ideas they have that require sound to work? That's not something I would want the industry to pursue.
 
Wok

Wok

Member
SoRuffShoNuff said:
I see what you are saying but at the same time should developers simply abandon any cool ideas they have that require sound to work? That's not something I would want the industry to pursue.
Click to expand...

Make it skippable.

Oh wait, this is what Blow did.
 
RoadHazard

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Remembrance said:
There's more, if you have all the lasers.

There's something you didn't activate in the mountain.
Click to expand...

Hmm, guess I should do the remaining lasers then. Is the thing in the mountain also dependent on that? I thought I did everything in the mountain. Well, not in that separate side entrance. Had no idea how to even get in there.
 
R

Remembrance

Member
RoadHazard said:
Hmm, guess I should do the remaining lasers then. Is the thing in the mountain also dependent on that? I thought I did everything in the mountain. Well, not in that separate side entrance. Had no idea how to even get in there.
Click to expand...

Pay attention as you go back up. Your next goal becomes obvious when you see it.
 
D

danthefan

Member
I've hit a tetris puzzle that just has me stumped. It's one of the ones that you need to
subtract squares
from but the three tetris pieces won't
naturally fit on the puzzle board without subtracting. So (I think) I have to fit two of them in then in my head subtract the bit that needs subtracting then add in the remaining tetris piece. Blargh. Need to sleep on it I think.
 
J

JerkShep

Member
The
labyrinth
part of the Challenge is so unfair. It's totally doable but
so many perfect runs wasted because I can't find the panels
. Dammit.
 
T

TimeEffect

Member
Haha, I hope we can see more puzzles for the sake of puzzles as DLC.

Damn, just make an app game otherwise. I enjoy these puzzles. Blow created these himself right? I mean, as far as classic puzzle games go, I'd love to see this in a newspaper or something
 
R

Remembrance

Member
JerkShep said:
The
labyrinth
part of the Challenge is so unfair. It's totally doable but
so many perfect runs wasted because I can't find the panels
. Dammit.
Click to expand...

There's a trick.

danthefan said:
I've hit a tetris puzzle that just has me stumped. It's one of the ones that you need to
subtract squares
from but the three tetris pieces won't
naturally fit on the puzzle board without subtracting. So (I think) I have to fit two of them in then in my head subtract the bit that needs subtracting then add in the remaining tetris piece. Blargh. Need to sleep on it I think.
Click to expand...

You can also try the opposite:
place the subtraction piece first, then place other pieces until the subtraction piece is cancelled out.
 
T

thefil

Member
Had an epiphany today about the beach puzzle, and solved it in less than a minute when I went back during my lunch. I did have to realize something new about the tetromino mechanics.

Also figured out what the hexagon maps are for, finally. I had been to the location before, but completely forgot about it. I have four maps, and I'm assuming there's one more behind the ship door, and no idea on the last one.

Keep hearing rumours about more stuff on top of the mountain, but went back up there with 11
lasers
and found nothing new, including when I went through endgame again.
 
R

Remembrance

Member
thefil said:
Keep hearing rumours about more stuff on top of the mountain, but went back up there with 11
lasers
and found nothing new, including when I went through endgame again.
Click to expand...

Hint 1:
There's something there that's not activated yet.

Hint 2:
One cable leading out of the box is still off.
 
B

BeeDog

Member
I'm officially a broken man, the challenge has destroyed me :'( Worse than any Souls game, ever.

Might give it a crack tomorrow/next week, might abandon the game altogether.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

LTTP: Lorelai and the Laser Eyes - a mysterious narrative driven puzzle game, quite possibly a masterpiece?
7
762
touchfuzzy replied
GmanLives: The Killing Antidote Is The Resident Evil Clone We Deserve
Analysis Trailer
29
2K
Rickyiez replied
Beyond Shadowgate |OT| It's A Wonderful Thing That Your Adventures Have Continued Here
|OT|
22
1K
jshackles replied
Devolver Digital Announced Children of the Sun
News Trailer
8
1K
VeganElduderino replied
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown coming to Steam on August 8
News 2
84
3K
Chuck Berry replied
Top Bottom