Week 4 - witness

Witness is a first-person game situated in an island where you solve puzzles but as the game progresses the puzzles become more harder to solve, more and more rules are being implemented into the puzzle design.
In the game, you can explore the island
Though the game doesn't directly tell you how to solve the puzzle after completing multiple puzzles the player is supposed to get the grips of it.
The game witness was made by Jonathan blow, Blow was also the game developer who made braid.
As the game progresses the puzzles require the player to solve it by looking at the environment around the puzzle e.g. the environment, the player has to change perspective in order to solve the puzzle.

In my recent lecture we discussed the different game lenses that developers used to design games, to understand the elements and themes of witness I'll put the game into different lenses to try and make sense of everything:

Lens of projection:

Out of all the lenses, lenses of projection relates to witness the least, though the game is in first person (you feel like your in the island due to the first person point of view), it's not a game that is considered a character-driven because the character is faceless ( the character doesn't have a name, doesn't have any goals or aspirations)

Are there places my players would like to visit in my game?

In the game you on one big island, but within that island, there are a lot of environments that the plater can explore

The lens of beauty:

How can I make each element more beautiful?

Throughout the game you have to use the environment in order to solve the puzzles, with this the player will in the same moment be exploring the environment whilst trying to actively solve a puzzle.

What elements of my game must be combines if they are to be beautiful?

Probably mechanic and environmental design together that creates the beauty of witness.

What is beauty in the context of my game?

Mechanics + Environment

The lens of inherent interest:

What aspect of game will catch the player's attention immediately?

I think the two aspects of the game that will the player's attention is the environment and the puzzles. As your first introduced the environment and then puzzles

Does the game let the player do something they will never done before?

Yes, as you progress throughout the game you have to use the environment (e.g. objects, shadows, audio/music) in order to solve the puzzles

What are my games' base instincts?

The games instincts are environmental play and puzzle-solving

What are my games' higher instincts?

Environmental play progresses (e.g. objects, shadows, audio/music)
This is all connected within the puzzle-solving

Does dramatic change happen?

As the game progress the puzzles it becomes more challenging which would mean that the player will to use the environment more.

What does this show?

What this shows that the two aspects that really makes Witness unique are its usage of the environment and how diverse the environment is in order to solve the puzzle. Using the environment to solve a puzzle is not a new concept in games, it has used many times before in indie and AAA games but if the player is stuck then there would tab at the side of the screen that helps them, but in Witness, you don't have that, the game never directly tells you how to solve a puzzle but because the puzzle layout is designed in such a way it doesn't have to tell you what to do via text. e.g.

Here is what I have done with the research

Alignment mechanic is when the player aligns with whatever is in the picture to the background of the game. In the game witness you, observing the environment, whilst observing you'll see patterns that might potentially lead to clues so that the player can solve the puzzle similarly the alignment mechanic uses the environment, and you see the environment to solve problems but what they're trying to solve is a bit different, in witness solving a series of puzzles that revolve around shapes, whereas the alignment mechanic produces a more narrative satisfaction.

Alignment mechanic example.

wikipedia authors. (2021). The Witness (2016 video game). Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witness_(2016_video_game). Last accessed 17th jan 2021.