Console port of The Witness "not worth it"
Plus, Braid developer critiques Portal 2.
Porting forthcoming indie puzzler The Witness from PC to consoles isn't worth the effort at present, according to Braid creator Jonathan Blow.
Speaking in an interview with Edge, Blow explained that his new game is pacing ahead of current console tech.
"We like 360 and PS3, but their specifications are over five years old now, and that's a lot in computer years," he said.
"The kind of tricks we'd have to perform to get this game working on those platforms are such a lot of work that to port it over at this point is just not worth it for us."
He didn't specify whether he was referring to the viability of a potential full disc release or a PSN/Xbox Live Arcade download.
Blow added that he believes the game can make back its budget through Steam and iOS alone.
"The budget of this game we would hope to make back through Steam and iOS, plus I would like to make a profit. But breaking even is most important as it allows me to keep making games, and I can do that without consoles. Maybe this time next year I'll be singing a different tune because I found out I was wrong, but I don't think so.
"By the time this game comes out in a year or more, we might be on an iPad 4. We do have to compress the game for that platform, but we don't have to do the certification stuff we would have to on consoles, so we can live with doing just one of those giant tasks. And I like this as an iPad game. It's a natural thing. But we'll see how that plays out."
Elsewhere in the lengthy Q&A, Blow also took the time to offer his opinion on Valve's recent take on the arty puzzler sub-genre, Portal 2.
"Part of the way Portal 2 ended up seemed to be due to what happens when you have a group of game designers that make games like Half-Life 2, which are quite heavily linear, and then put them on this other game. They're naturally thinking of things in terms of this linearity.
"However, to me, a game about portals should be inherently non-linear. If you don't make a non-portal surface at all, it means I can go from any place in the world to any other place. What would it mean to design a game around that? It might be a much harder design problem, but to me that's the excitement.
"I couldn't help feeling, playing the game, that they're fighting the portals all the time. At least a third of the game had mostly non-portal stuff in, and I'm thinking why do I have portals now? How is this different from having a zipline?"
He went on to distinguish his new game from Valve's, insisting The Witness is "more of an art game" whereas Portal is an "entertainment product".
"Valve very deliberately focus tests its games, and see how people react to situations, and refine the game to that. When you start to do that to a puzzle game you start to get rid of the puzzles," he suggested.
"Because Portal has a linear structure, you need to end up with things that people are expected to solve. That's different to an anything-can-happen environment.
"I'm trying to provide opportunities for experience, whereas Valve is looking for the optimal experience for you to have. And that's fine - very valid and legitimate. But if every game becomes that, then we're missing something. When you give people freedom, you're giving them the freedom to have a bad experience as well as a good one. But it's the kind of experience that's not possible without freedom."
The Witness is still without a firm release date. Blow recently said it had a 50/50 chance of being out before the end of 2012.
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Comments (65) Latest comment 8 months ago
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Braid was an overrated POS and Portal 2 pisses all over it.
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And your game is out soon for Steam and... iOS?
O...kay.
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How is this a lynch mob? Perhaps you are projecting a tad?
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I think people more have a problem with his pompous, full of himself attitude than voicing an opinion.
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I don't think people have a problem with what he said so much as the way he said it.
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And I think many people often confuse non-conformist or reasonably complex (as opposed to "shit/great"
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But he does come out with some corkers I mean he's still making a game for which solutions are finite rather than a simulation game like Civ or Sim City.
Besides Portal isn't really what he says, portal is more a balance between a more traditional method of storytelling and gameplay, some of the most renowned literary products and novels follow a 3 act structure for instance.
Portal could easily conform to Blow's ideas if it simply had optional rooms with greater challenge that weren't necessary inline with the game. The witness is merely a puzzle game with optional harder puzzles built in rather than downloadable challenge maps.
I guess my real problem is that 'entertainment' often trancends art not the other way around, The Wire is probably far more meaningful than any bullshit beat poetry or rap that's been produced on it's subject matter. Or, art is fundamentally constrained by over reliance on connotation.
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Wow. Well yeah you are right, we all know what a bunch of dumb fucks the EG readership is. Me was not smart enuf to no what man say.
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The thing that works so well about the co-op mode is that you get feedback from your partner. A game will never be able to give you the feedback a human is able to. The biggest problem with puzzle games is that they get incredibly frustrating if you don't know if don't know if you a) have the wrong solution or b) are just too crappy to pull it off. Portal gives you a lot of freedom when it comes to movement which also means that it is more difficult to control than other games, where you always move at the same speed, always jump the same height etc. You need to set (strict) limits, clear rules, otherwise the game will turn out to be too confusing.
Of course I would really enjoy it if I could use the portal gun wherever I could. It reminds me a bit of the good old days playing old FPS games with no-clip on, just to see where you come out if you run through that wall etc. or are finally able to climb onto the top of a room which is usually not possible.
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Also, an iPad 2 has a shedload of computing power and a low-ish res screen to cope with, and he's developing for the Ipad 4 anyway... the development environment is apparently stable enough for him to do that.
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On paper, it might look like he's being a bit big-headed, but it's hard to judge someone from just text. I can see his point, but don't totally agree with it; that's my choice.
"I'm trying to provide opportunities for experience, whereas Valve is looking for the optimal experience for you to have. And that's fine - very valid and legitimate. But if every game becomes that, then we're missing something. When you give people freedom, you're giving them the freedom to have a bad experience as well as a good one. But it's the kind of experience that's not possible without freedom."
I see what he means here, but I never felt that Portal was meant to be about freedom. You're a guinea pig in a test facility, after all, and that's exactly what I felt like. I would have hated it if I could suddenly place portals anywhere in Portal 2. I probably would have finished the game in 30 minutes, but I still see his point.
Interesting article. It's good when people aren't afraid to criticize the big names, I think.
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I don't really like what blow opines because he never overtly problematises his own statements.
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He has a valid point regarding focus tests in games also, Valve make great games and focus test to ensure all will enjoy them but what if you are not making something for people to have fun but rather making something for the experience ? This is a sign that the media of gaming itself is moving on, we need our blockbusters, niche, arty, etc in order to grow and develop.
Would movies be creative with only 1 genre such as the early comedy films of course not, they grow. For example would a 'game' such as The Path even exist if it was focus tested to ensure enjoyment and mass market profit. This is where the PC shines so it also makes sense for him to ignore consoles for the time being.
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It's not just the iOS comment but the fact that the game doesn't look technically better than anything that hasn't already been released on 360/PS3.
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Wow. Well yeah you are right, we all know what a bunch of dumb fucks the EG readership is. Me was not smart enuf to no what man say.
That wasn't my point, but nevermind. Anyway, I can only recommend reading the original interview, including the questions he was asked, rather than just the EG summary. It makes it all sound quite a bit different.
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I think most people- me certainly- are taking issue with the way he's saying things. I just hope that whoever's reviewing the game for Eurogamer remembers this quote- "Now, say somebody writes a novel that's not a thriller, like say The Grapes of Wrath... the story of The Witness is like that book, but in a game."
I haven't played the game, but I've read the book, and I strongly doubt that a game about solving abstract puzzles in a world that seems to have been sponsored by Ikea is going to be anything like that book.
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So a bigger version of this idea isn't intrinsically bad.
Portal still asks of the player (stick someone who's never played a game in front of portal), but still wants to be experienced there's nothing wrong with egalitarian game design.
Play testing arguably focuses on making a better game for more people whereas focus testing exists to sell more games or keep people playing them.
Most people are capable of reading/ playing/ understanding what is regarded as complex it is merely an elitist air surrounding many cultural productions that put people off.
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That said, I did get a bit of a "games should be an artform" air of superiority vibe there. There's room for arty games and ones which are just plain old fun people! His last statement is brilliant, saying Valve's games are valid and legitimate. I'm sure Gabe Newell feels better for hearing that... Yes they are mate, that's why they have some of the best selling and best scoring games of all time!
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Sorry I just took what you said as "People are incapable of comprehending written English properly"
If I misunderstood I do apologise. Although I have to say I know exactly what the guy is saying, and I still think he comes across as Pompous. Obviously different people have different "bars" for what they consider pompous.
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I hope this game falls flat on it's ass,even if it gets rave reviews like Braid did I won't get fooled again by this Dev
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But the gameplay fucking sucked.
I don't think he has any right to imply he could do it better.
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2 years tops I say! And they will dispose of XBOX and PS3 over night.
I bet MS and Sony are shitting it.
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Or is this all deflection from console-only gamers feeling left out? I have to say a big 'U MAD BRO?' to the entire comments section, I think.
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The puzzle rooms were great, don't get me wrong. But after the plot twist you're thrown into the deep... literally and figuratively speaking. All you do is walk walk until you hit a wall, you look around, shoot 2 portals and then it's walk walk again. Pretty boring, it's why I still haven't beat the game.
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The whole industry would be stagnant without independent minds like his.
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I'm dead tired of this "5-year-old tech" argument. Consoles don't follow the same evolution path as desktop computers, period. Only a bad programmer can fail to understand this.
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*heart breaks*
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The current generation of consoles is very, very old, and there's a new, better iPad every year. And this game isn't coming out for another year. Now imagine what hardware the iPad 3 is going to be running on.
It might be uncomfortable for some people to face, but very soon Apple's gadgets are going to become more powerful than either 'next-gen' console. It's only logical that Blow wants to take advantage of that. (And if you truly believe that it doesn't matter how powerful the hardware is, that 'he should just program better', then you are sadly deluded.)
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I think people more have a problem with his pompous, full of himself attitude than voicing an opinion.
Or it could be that the man gave his opinion on something and because people disagree, they also have to call the person pompous etc. This is the problem with forums, no one can just disagree without feeling the need to label someone or belittle them. People on forums want developers to care about what they think but get in a huff if their point of view differs.
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Blow is full of crap and are you are comparing a ARM based CPU with Xenon?
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Braid is a game full of allegory, and anytime anyone uses allegory - in any medium, film music poetry, you name it - it requires a familiarity both with the language of that symbolism and the feelings it points to. People are quick to dismiss something they don't understand when they assume it's implied that they're dumber for not doing so. The token response is to lash out, discredit it and discredit anyone who's taken to it. That's the case for anything with more personal and specific aspirations in any medium. Portal 2 begins and ends telling you things straight. It doesn't require you to bring any special understanding of the themes with you into the game. It is, as someone put it, an entertainment product.
EG of course is there to fuel the fire with its troll-o-riffic highlighting and headline click mongering, but what John is saying is absolutely sound and perfectly valid. It's saddening that the knee-jerk response is to take sides when both games, even when viewed strictly from a video gamey perspective, are so very, very good.
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It saddens me to read posts here quite often.
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They're a small, self-funded team and Blow says his most important priority is breaking even so he can continue making games. Can you blame him?
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It doesn't look particularly high spec- its a big, empty island.
It seems a bit much to invest in a high spec PC just for this, I guess it will come to the consoles eventually.
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What a twat. A small indie game does not a developer make.
...gosh don't know what happened their, I went all Yoda for a sec.....oh well...
" A fuck I do not give, a twat this man is...yeeesssss"
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Yeah he probably has a big ego, but that's probably what you need one to do what he's doing. We need more, not fewer people like this making games.
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lol
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Braid was a platform game with some hippy emo text and some piano mood music FACT
It was more or less A level art student Mario FACT
I still love indie developers though, there keeping the dream alive...
Just MO of course!!
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Or maybe it's just narcisism
My one and only subject
Goes from something like anything but
Me ism
Wouldn't it be easier for Beardsley
He could drop the paintings
And photograph his penis
Or take pics of the chicks
Yeah, you know what I mean
Wouldn't it be easier for Escher
He could drop the marh
And make it happen on his matress
2 girls and a cam
3 girls and a cam
Put a dog there and you got polaroid scam
Lick lick lick my art-tit
Lick lick lick my art-tit
Suck suck suck my art-hole
Suck suck suck my art-hole
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I can sort of understand people who don't care for art games and just want to shoot terrorists in the head, and don't like that Blow has an opinion different than theirs - but how can people see three screenshots and think that they know better than the guy who made it what kind of hardware the game should need? He wrote the damn engine, don't you think he knows what he's talking about?
(BTW The Witness is using a baked hi-res dynamic GI solution, that's Lightmass(GoW3)-class graphics. But since there are no lasers, blood or explosions I can see why you might think it doesn't look as good.)
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