Jonathan Blow, the sole developer of Braid, recently released his second full-scale game, The Witness, an atmospheric puzzler set on a colorful island. The game has proved exceedingly popular, sitting near the top of the Steam sales chart for a few days and many thousands a day trying to beat its hardest puzzles.
But that didn't stop Mr Blow getting a scare early on its its release. He spotted one Twitch streamer running a pirate copy with more than three million viewers, and lamented that:
"It seems The Witness is the #1 game on a certain popular torrent site. Unfortunately this will not help us afford to make another game! :("
However he didn't stay in that mood for long. Within a few short hours he changed his tune, stating via Twitter that:
"I am glad so many people are enjoying the game and I think we will be able to make something of comparable intricacy next!"
As another day passed him by, Blow clearly got a look at the sales numbers and seemed to relax even more, pointing out that The Witness sold more copies in its first week than Braid did in its first year, and that was a heavily promoted indie game, so that's quite a success.
However The Witness has had plenty of mainstream coverage in the lead up to, and following its release, so that's perhaps not too surprising. The game has reviewed very well too, even if some have experienced a little motion sickness with its movement.
Blow's final tweet on the matter suggested that in-fact they'd made enough money to make the next-game even bigger. Hurray!
