The Witness is an exploration-puzzle game, to be released on multiple platforms — whatever makes sense in late 2011, when the game will hopefully be finished.

The game is being developed by a small, independent team, a mix of full-timers and contractors. Here’s a list:

Jonathan Blow
Jonathan is a designer-programmer whose goal is to make games that are mind-expanding in ways special to this medium. He is best known for the well-received game Braid. He is also a partner in the Indie Fund, an initiative to help creative new developers grow stronger while remaining independent. He speaks frequently at conferences and universities on the advancement of game design as an art form.

Ignacio Castaño
Ignacio started programming at an early age and became obsessed with graphics. That led him to work at several game companies including Crytek, Relic and Oddworld. More recently he worked at NVIDIA, where he contributed to the design of modern graphics hardware, APIs, and programming models. Today he’s the father of a 3 year old boy and embraces all aspects of human experience.

Shannon Galvin
Shannon Galvin has worked on games for over 16 years, having started on a game called ‘SimTown’ and then adding pretty pictures to many others…including SimCity 2000, Sims 2 and Spore. When not doing art, he often wanders around games looking at environments and using cheat codes when monsters try to interrupt his art appreciation. Oh, and he’s got a ceramic kiln in his living room. Those things can vaporize metal! (Caution: Kilns should not be used to vaporize metal).

Andrew Hynek
Andrew Hynek has been a game programmer since the early PS2 days. Having worked at small and large studios on a variety of genres, he is trying out the indie / freelancing life at his new company, Atrophy Studios.

Andrew Lackey
Andrew loves sound, nails on chalk board and all. As a gamer and indie music/film/game fan, he’s thrilled to connect with the team on the Witness. Music and sound have been a part of his life since day one, but he got his professional start in Los Angeles on feature films. Go!, The Matrix Trilogy, 8 Mile, and Treasure Planet were among the 30+ films he worked on as a sound editor and foley supervisor. In 2004, he defected to San Francisco and shortly thereafter… the game industry. After a brief stint at Skywalker Sound, he went to work for Electronic Arts as a senior sound designer. He worked on several titles including the creature voices and sound design for Spore and Dead Space…although in decidedly different veins. In late 2008, he went indie and started Wabi Sabi Sound. It’s been a great ride. He’s contributed to BioShock 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Dante’s Inferno, and currently The Witness. The nonconforming push of the envelope is a space he’s always thrived in. The Witness challenges him to rethink the fundamentals of a craft he’s been doing for over 10 years…. he loves that!

Nicholas “Indy” Ray
Nicholas has been programming professionally for 8 years. He first worked as a game developer at the U.S. Army-funded “America’s Army” video game project. He has wide programming experience, ranging from compiler design to animation, and spends much of his time time trying to come up with unique solutions to problems, while stubbornly holding onto the conviction that byte-level data transformation is what programming is all about.

When not programming, he enjoys rock climbing in the summer, various snow sports in the winter, getting lost, and most anything that involves making a fool of himself.

Eric Urquhart
At the age of 7 when Eric won his local community dental art contest by designing a fluffy rabbit with a big shiny tooth. It was then when he knew he could be on to something. So he started practicing painting on his bedroom walls. That wasn’t a big hit with the parents but did serve as good experience for his future as a mural artist. Eric quickly became sought after for his mural work, being flown around the nation to add his personal touch to structures all around the country. Six years ago he set down his analog brush and paints for a Wacom tablet and Photoshop. Since then he has been unleashing his artistic talent in feature film, television and the gaming industries. Past companies and clients Eric has worked for and with include Sony Pictures Imageworks, Warner Bros., Fuel and Brand New School.