[regawdless]

Dark Fantasy — With Guns
Witchfire is a first-person shooter from the creative leads behind Painkiller and Bulletstorm. A roguelite for people who hate roguelites, the game offers a challenging but satisfying gameplay experience, and with multiple roads to victory.

At War With Witches
Desperate for a chance to triumph in the deadly war against witches, the Church calls on forbidden pagan magic to turn willing sinners into immortal witch hunters called preyers.
Armed with powerful spells and fearsome firearms conjured by the best Vatican sorcerers, your mission is to find the infamous witch of the Black Sea, destroy the phantom army that protects her, and retrieve a mysterious artifact that can finally turn the tide of war.

Immersive Graphics in a Grimdark World
Like The Astronauts' previous title (The Vanishing of Ethan Carter), Witchfire uses photogrammetry technology to achieve stunning visuals and a grim, immersive dark fantasy world. The game uses Unreal Engine 4.​

 

[regawdless]

I was close to death, and this time for good. The witchfire in my blood had cooled, with most of it having already evaporated. Were the last drop to have gone, so would I be too, awakening in Hell.

The rescue, unlikely as it was, came thanks to human greed and stupidity. The old nag, one that I had commandeered in a nearby village, had escaped no more than two prayers ago, frightened and terrified. A clear sign that I was in the realm of the witch. I knew it, but the band of robbers concealed in the roadside bushes apparently did not. Were it otherwise, even desperate men like those would have long ago retreated to less nasty locales.

In my weakened state, I could not sense each and every bandit, but the group did not seem large. I moved forward, pretending I knew nothing of their presence.

Shrieking, they leapt out onto the road, excited by the prospect of easy prey. Sick and famished, crippled and filthy. Wretches ready for anything, just seeking to survive another day in a world that hated them.

The mask on my face seemed to confuse them, but only for a brief moment. Their chief was the first to regain his resolve. Must be why he was their chief.

"I do not know what kind of freak you are, sire, but you do not look poor. So, you will share with those in need… And get that thing off your face. We'll melt it down and sell it – should be enough for some bread."​

It crossed my mind that removing my mask would serve my purpose whilst being a less engaging solution. Then, the usual story would unfold. Panic and flight. The terrified bandits would scatter, with some of them going deeper into the witch's realm, where the ghouls and wraiths would take care of them.

But no. No. I needed to be in complete control of where the bodies would be.

"I wouldn't recommend it. The sight of my face cannot be forgotten. Or endured. Crawl back into bushes, we will pretend you have not seen me, and all will be well" – I lied, just to ease my conscience slightly when they inevitably refused.

The leader shook his head in disbelief. He looked around, confirming that I was alone, and his companions numbered half a dozen.

"Well, mate, you were meant to die quickly, I usually slit throats nice and quiet like, with no fuss. But in this case, we'll make an exception and cut off a few other things first. Get him!"

The fight did not last long. Whether half a dozen or two it makes no matter – they are a meagre challenge for even a half-dead preyer. Before death, each of the thugs had a chance to see wonders they had never before experienced. My revolver, spitting out hot metal. The sight of my form teleporting from one slit gut to another. My freezing and burning spells, for it is common knowledge that only women can wield magic.​

It ended quickly, but the price was considerable. I felt dizzy and somewhat out of breath. However much cursed magic I still had in me, it certainly would not be enough for another encounter.

I found an axe belonging to one of the thugs and chopped off the heads of all their corpses, all except for the leader. In a sack, I found an old rope. I tied his corpse, threw the rope over a branch, and hauled it up so the body rested against the trunk.​

I sat nearby and waited for nightfall. As always in the lands taken by witches, it was silent, without any animal sounds. The birds had flown off long since, and the wolves had skulked away.

When the witching hour struck, the air thickened and sparked with magic. The leader slowly opened his magic-infused eyes and looked at me. Somewhere in his depths, a remnant of humanity still simmered, but the flame was too weak. The ghoul growled and started to toss wildly, seeking to free himself from his bonds.​

I waited until he had regained all of his strength. I aimed my revolver at the centre of his forehead and fired. His head erupted into thousands of particles of witchfire, which hung in the air like a cloud of orange-red fireflies. I warmed myself in its glow, recovering some of my powers with each passing moment.

There was nothing I could do for the bandit leader now. As long as the witch was alive, he would continue to reanimate. From witchfire he had come, to witchfire he would return.

She must have already known that the preyer had come. A normal man should have already been dead and become another of her minions. And yet this one still roamed free, with his insolently unperishable soul.​

Oh yes, she knew. The forest was no longer silent. From both near and far, and from every direction, I could hear the growls and howls of the undead. They were thirsty for my blood. But I was thirsty for theirs.

I caressed the cylinder of my revolver, crossed my heart, and charged towards the eyes that glimmered in the darkness.​

From the Official Homepage​

 

[regawdless]

Media

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[regawdless]

Gameplay



Interview

"I genuinely don't think anyone outside the studio understands what Witchfire really is. That's expected, we're not really showing a lot, are we? But that will change soon and I think people might be surprised with what they'll see."

Adrian Chmielarz, creative director at and co-founder of The Astronauts, hopes that the new trailer for Witchfire that hit tonight during the Summer Game Fest will be part of that journey of discovery.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, it's still a dark fantasy first-person shooter with guns and magic. But I think the way we went about it is relatively unique. Hopefully, we chose wisely, and players will like it. We'll see soon enough, September 20 is not that far away."

Where the last few trailers for Witchfire were very combat focused, the Summer Game Fest trailer shown tonight starts off a bit slower in a bid to underscore some of the more explorative moments of the game.

"I think (the last few trailers) gave the wrong impression that Witchfire is a non-stop action fest," Chmielarz said. "It is not. Sure, some fights will be incredibly intense, but there are also periods of quiet exploration, planning, thinking. It is much closer to Souls in that regard rather than, say, Doom."

In the trailer's opening seconds, we see more of the landscape and settings for the game then enemies or battle. But that changes halfway in, with the trailer showing off a mix of enemies and frenetic combat as "the witch hunt begins." The trailer wraps up with news that the game launches in Early Access on Sept. 20.

It's been a nearly seven-year journey for the team of ten developers at The Astronauts. Witchfire started life as a sci-fi survival title before evolving into the title it is today: a dark fantasy roguelite first-person shooter. In it, players take on the role of a Preyer, an immortal witch hunter crafted by the Church using pagan magic to hunt and kill an infamous witch with the help of a gun and spell.

That journey from sci-fi survival to grimdark shooter brought with it changes just as significant as its shift in setting, tone, and genre.

Most recently, the team decided to shift the title from arena-style to open-world combat. While Witchfire is not a fully open world game, it does now feature what the studio calls open world levels. That means it will be up to the player to decide how and in what order to explore a given area. The change to this new approach from one that was more akin to something like Killing Floor led to significant work and the decision to push the date for Early Access to this year.

"It was the right choice for the game, but it is a pain, oops, I mean, a challenge to design around," Chmielarz said. "Not just a technological challenge like how to handle the extra number of enemies, but also purely a gameplay challenge like pacing or the highly increased number of opportunities to cheese encounters."

But Chmielarz said that the decision didn't just make the game better, it "made it a different, much better game."

"I strongly agree with (psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan's) self-determination theory that puts emphasis on intrinsic motivation driven by the need of autonomy, competence and relatedness," he said. "As you can imagine, opening up the world heavily improved the feeling of autonomy, and now also offers more avenues towards competence. I could not be happier with our decision, even if it did delay the game by, like, a year or so."

Some of the motivations that the work Chmielarz and the team at The Astronauts are doing on Witchfire tap into a surprisingly eclectic mix of inspirations and design concepts.

For instance, Chmielarz told Unreal Engine last year that the game was being designed as a roguelite for people who hate roguelites.

In our more recent interview, he noted that to him, roguelikes and roguelites are about the emotions heightened due to the fear of losing what you worked hard for.

"That is definitely present in Witchfire," he said. "Many other typical elements are present, too, like randomized encounters. But on the other hand, we did come up with a couple of pretty fresh things in our designs. We're not ready to reveal them yet but to give you an idea, we attempted to solve the unsolvable: a game with RNG for variety but also one that allows the players to master encounters."

He added that Soulsborne games are easily the most inspirational creations for the team and Witchfire.

"The games of FromSoftware are one of the best things that happened to gaming in the last few decades, and obviously, we are not entirely free of their charm," he said. "Everything else inspires us on a smaller scale. We studied the gunplay of Destiny because Bungie has that one thing nailed. We read Berserk to understand how fearless a story can be. We returned to Painkiller to see if there's still something to its Black Tarot. And so on and so forth, there's always something we discuss and learn from, be it what to take and evolve or what to avoid."

The game's story – a topic of much interest for fans of the team that also created the narrative-driven game The Vanishing of Ethan Carter – is another point of fascinating discussion.

The Astronauts was originally formed so that Chmielarz and the rest of the team could focus on creating narrative-driven games, like The Vanishing. But it was that 2014 horror adventure game – winner of a BAFTA and still highly regarded among fans – that also opened Chmielarz eyes to the fact that the studio's efforts may need to be a bit more broad.

"I was happy with how The Vanishing of Ethan Carter turned out but I realized that despite our best efforts, this was not a template," he said. "You couldn't just take this game's structure and tell a different story. I knew what the next step could be and how to evolve the narrative genre but it was and still is a super costly and super risky vision. So we started to look in a different direction.

"Or maybe it was just the beginning of a new cycle for us. Because previously, after I designed an adventure game, the next project was always an action one. After Teenagent it was Katharsis, after The Prince and the Coward it was Painkiller, after Come Midnight it was Bulletstorm … So maybe it was always inevitable that after the story-driven experience like Ethan, the next project would be another first-person shooter."

Ultimately, he said, the directive of the studio is also tied to the inspiration for its name: The Astronauts.

"Any world we want to visit, we can. Actually, that's why we named ourselves The Astronauts. To emphasize the journey into the unknown, the adventure of discovering new worlds."

So the work of story-telling in Witchfire seems to be taking a page or two from authors like J.R.R. Tolkein and Ernest Hemingway. It will also expand during Early Access, which is initially more focused on gameplay and general atmosphere rather than lore and story.

"I can't quite say it yet that I like the way we're selling this world to the players," said Chmielarz. "I can tell you, though, the two pillars of our approach to the world design. The first one is taken from Hemingway, particularly his Iceberg theory. Basically, the idea is that while we don't reveal it all to the player, we have to know everything there is to know about this world. No shortcuts, no questions unanswered. So, for example, while the players might not learn why is it that only witches can use magic, we, the creators, need to know this and have the entire backstory ready.

"The second pillar is Tolkien's 'distant mountains' approach. Let me quote him directly. In one of his letters, he said, 'Part of the attraction of The L.R. is, I think, due to the glimpses of a large history in the background: an attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited island, or seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist. To go there is to destroy the magic, unless new unattainable vistas are again revealed.'

"As you can see, there's a bit of that Hemingway's Iceberg in his approach, with the conviction that some mystery needs to remain as such. But it's also clear he believed having a 'history in the background' makes the world that much more believable and interesting."

While we don't yet know what that history in the background will be, we have gotten a few tantalizing tastes of it in the form of a short story written by Chmielarz and some excellent art prints created by different Polish artists. Both can be found on the game's website.

"The thing that excites me the most in video games is the idea of experiencing different worlds," Chmielarz said. "To be a space pirate, a detective with supernatural powers, or a Church's witch hunter. It doesn't matter to me if the game is focused on the story or on the mechanics – I need its world to feel like a real place.

"So even though Witchfire is obviously a shooter first, we invest a lot in its world and lore. I believe this enhances the experience even for the people who claim they don't care about the stories in games at all."

With just a few months to go before the Witchfire hits Epic Games Store in Early Access, Chmielarz and the team are focusing their efforts – in part – on something he has often said is incredibly important to a game: The beginning.

I asked him if the opening for Witchfire lives up to his own expectations and if it touches on some of or all of the four key elements of a well-designed game: autonomy, mastery, competence, and relatedness. A perfect opening, he's written, is like what can be found in Return to Monkey Island.

"Good question, but I just started the work on the onboarding, so I cannot answer that yet," he said. "One thing is for sure, it is absolutely crucial for us that we nail the opening. It's funny because I believe that tutorials are overrated and can be distracting and irritating, but I also believe in proper onboarding.

"One of the authors I respect a lot is Celia Hodent. Let me quote from her book, The Gamer's Brain. 'And even if some hardcore players complain about tutorials and tell you that they don't need them, UX tests usually reveal that they misunderstand or completely omit important elements of a game when it lacks proper tutorials, and they can view a game negatively because of this.'

"Witchfire is a gamer's game, so our onboarding is going to assume you have already played some shooters before. But we will still curate those opening minutes a bit, to make sure the cognitive buffer is not overloaded when you learn more about the world and the game's mechanics."

Link to the interview​

 

[regawdless]

FAQ

Release platforms?
It all begins September 20th 2023 with the Early Access version that is exclusive to Epic Game Store. After a year or so, we will bring the game to other PC platforms. We also hope to release the final game on consoles, of course.

Price?
$39.99 is the base US price that other local prices will be based on, most likely according Epic Games Store default recommendations. For example, currently that translates to 35,99€. Please note these local pricings might change. Since this is an Early Access game, there are no pre-orders and you will see the price for your region only when the game launches.

How is the roguelite aspect of the game?
It's a game for people who love roguelites but, interestingly enough, it's also a roguelite for people who hate roguelites. How is that possible?

A part of the answer is in the name: people often confuse the two, but roguelites are not roguelikes. Long story short, not everything is lost when you die. Each run can have a purpose other than learning the game. There are rewards that don't disappear when you die. You can grow even after a failed run.

But that's just the beginning. We've done …things. Our hope is to release a video explaining the gameplay loop closer to the release.

How much content is in the Early Access version?
It is a tricky question to answer. Let's take number of weapons for example. If we say there's seven weapons, is it a lot or is it not enough? For a game in the Borderlands series, it would be shockingly low. But for a game like Doom Eternal, the full version of which features fourteen weapons, that would be a lot. Half of the game, basically.

So let us just say the goal is to deliver enough content so you are satisfied and feel the game was worth the money even in the Early Access form.

Question to the development team: how are you related to Painkiller series? It would be interesting to know more about your origins.
The three owners of The Astronauts are the same three guys who founded People Can Fly in 2002. We stayed at PCF for ten years, until 2012. Our first game was, indeed, Painkiller.

Adrian (Chmielarz) was the Creative Director on Painkiller, basically designed the game. Michał (Kosieradzki) was the particle guru, soloing the entire special effects content, but he also made tons of 3D enemy models and animated them. Andrzej (Poznański) was a Lead Level Designer but he also optimized the graphics, so you can consider him our Technical Art Lead as well.

The first ever Witchfire trailer had a horror vibe atmosphere in it, has that completely been scrapped akin to the new and recent trailers or are there parts of the game that keep the horror atmosphere the first ever teaser Witchfire trailer had?
The 2017 Witchfire teaser from Game Awards was 90% walking, 10% shooting. More recent trailers are 10% walking, 90% shooting. Neither of these represented the game well.

But rest assured that nothing has changed. Witchfire is still a dark fantasy shooter, with the emphasis on dark. There will be fear. Here will be horror. There will be story. And there is a point to all this shooting, and the game is much more than this anyway.

Will there be a new game plus?
A perfect thing to figure out during the Early Access. Today, we are leaning towards yes.

If it's no longer a linear experience, how big is the map?
A single map is more or less the size of the entire world of our previous game, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. We will have two maps for the Early Access launch.

Will there be an RPG side to it? (Inventory, Lore, NPCs, Towns?)
There is an RPG side to the game, yes. Inventory, lore, unlocking powers, builds, etc. And we do have a story to tell. But I would not expect many NPCs. The witch fully controls her land, and our preyer is the only person who can survive there.

I enjoy aiming down sights occasionally, but I prefer the oldschool feel of just moving and hipfiring when possible. In general, how necessary is it to ADS if you aren't going for a headshot on something?
ADS extends the range of your insta-hit weapons. It does not affect the projectile-based ones like the crossbow. But there is no accuracy penalty for shooting from the hip. We figured that if you can headshot the enemy from the hip, good for you. That is hard enough and a proper challenge in itself, so no need for any extra penalties.

Actually, some weapons — not the ones for the Early Access launch, though — benefit from hip-firing.

Will an Early Access roadmap be made available following the initial EA launch, and if so, in what form?
Yes, working on that. In the form of a post on this website, but we will try to put it into the store page as well.

Will there be proper controller support at launch?
Yes, 100%.

How long is the game planned to be in Early Access?
About a year, maybe a couple of extra months more – but that's it. We don't plan on dragging it forever.

Out of run character progression? Like ability to make guns better and upgradable skills and such.
Oh yes. Yes.

What are the long term plans for supporting the game?
This is our baby. Seven years of our lives already. We'll be doing everything we can to make it the best game possible. The post-release updates will stop only when we are all fully satisfied with the results.

Is going pistol/revolver only an option?
Absolutely not. You do start with the revolver, at least in the Early Access Launch version, but then you are able to obtain other types of guns.

EDIT: Oops, seems like we have misunderstood the question. Yes, going e.g. revolvers-only is a legit option. Your loadout is your choice.

Anything on how elemental damage will work? Like, will guns be able to do elemental damage, are there special interactions between elements, and so on?
Burning enemies receive more damage.

Shocked enemies produce a damaging bolt when we hurt them, spreading the Shock around.

Frozen enemies are, well, frozen.

Decaying enemies lose health over time.

Elements interact. Apply Decay spell onto the enemy. They start to "bleed", losing health. Shoot them with the Shock weapon and hide. While you chill behind a wall, with each tick of damage, the enemy automatically sends out a bolt, hurting all his nearby allies and spreading Shock around.

This kind of thing.

What kind of accessibility options do you think you'll be shipping with the EA/full game?
We think the current push for a wide range of accessibility options is fantastic. Some of these options – like Enemy Visibility Boost or the option to remap keys and buttons – are available at launch, but we will deal with more during the Early Access.

Will your game have an FOV slider?
Yes.

Can I pause/quit during a run and come back later?
Yes. Actually, just when you enter the menus, the action pauses.

Quit mid-run then resume it, though? No.

Will there be any kind of co-op multiplayer, whether on launch or planned as a future update, or is this a single player experience only?
For now and possibly forever this is a single player game. There is a very slight chance we will attempt to do co-op, but please do not count on it. Witchfire works very well as a Single Player experience and we're not sure if we want to risk destroying that feeling. Apart from all the potential technical challenges of co-op, of course.

Very curious to hear about music in support to on screen action… Wishing you the best.
We will make a separate post on the music. It's a fascinating subject. We had serious trouble making the music work with our constantly-changing action and without making a dynamic music system. Then one day a certain big game came along and featured a unique solution we have basically copied. And it works wonders.

Give option to remove those dmg numbers!
It's there.

Centered crosshair please.
Up to you, you can change it in the options.

We do believe that lowered crosshair is better, tough, especially for a PVE game. Debatable for PVP, but Witchfire is PVE. Seriously, give it a try before you switch to Centered. If Lowered is the default, that is. We're still weighing pros and cons.

Full article with an explanation of their intentions and their EA approach.​

 

[regawdless]

Reviews will obviously follow after the Early Access phase, I'll add them later.

Will post impressions and updates in this thread.​

 

[Eneru]

Aww man saw the OT and was fuck yeah it's out already. Then I looked for the release date and saw early access. What a letdown. I'm out until the full game is released. Not a fan of early access at all.

Hyped for the game since I saw the first trailer years ago.


@regawdless are you going to jump into early access or anyone else?

 

[HE1NZ]

This looks pretty good. Sorta like what Immortals of Aveum is supposed to be but with sensible art direction?

 

[regawdless]

Aww man saw the OT and was fuck yeah it's out already. Then I looked for the release date and saw early access. What a letdown. I'm out until the full game is released. Not a fan of early access at all.

Hyped for the game since I saw the first trailer years ago.


@regawdless are you going to jump into early access or anyone else?

I'm not sure tbh. Not a fan of EA as well and the Epic Store exclusivity isn't great, I prefer Steam. But it's an understandable move and the devs are great, transparent and gave good reasons for it.

From a recent Q&A:

For Witchfire, you've opted to release the game only on the Epic Games Store for a year. Why did you make this choice? Did you get a lot of backlash from the community?

Our first game was a story-driven weird fiction game. Yes, it sold well. Very well. But I hope nobody expects a game like that to carry a studio, even a small one, for a decade.

The deal with Epic allowed us to keep our independence. We could have sold some of the studio to investors, but thanks to Epic, we didn't have to. Also, Epic helps us promote the game. A store's front page is worth more than all of your trailers and social media posts combined.

This looks pretty good. Sorta like what Immortals of Aveum is supposed to be but with sensible art direction?

Not really. It's a weapons oriented shooter with a strong magic component. Your weapons have different abilities that can be leveled up, with interesting mechanics. In addition, there are spells that also have different mechanics and effects. For example, you can summon a magic bell that hangs in the air, shooting it will stagger enemies nearby.

It's also a "rogue lite", for people who don't like rogue lites. You have a hideout, from which you start expeditions into the open world. These can be as long as you want them to be. Dying respawns you at the hideout. During those expeditions, you find items and unlock new stuff that you can keep.

 

[regawdless]

I'm so torn. Love the devs, followed the development, they're Polish based people and there's no woke shit in there, great ideas and a cool setting.
Rogue lite gameplay with expeditions is also cool, with permanent progression.

But I don't like EA much, also prefer Steam. Those things don't prevent me from buying it though. What does, is that you can't quit and resume an expedition. The game only saves at the hideout. Which limits the time of an expedition to the real life time you can devote to the game.

Why not do it like Souls games, you quit and restart exactly where you left, only have to start at the last bonfire if you die. It's the same shit that made me dislike Jedi Fallen Order.
No reason for that.

But who am I kidding tbh. I'm a sucker.

 

[regawdless]

Very low system requirements. Hope the game won't have the stupid UE4 stutters.... The latest UE4 game, Lies of P, has traversal hitches sigh.

 

[Zefah]

Nice! Kind of reminds me of that old Painkiller game. Too bad it's exclusive to EGS. I'll check it out once it sees a more general release.

 

[Dreamlord]

Nice! Kind of reminds me of that old Painkiller game. Too bad it's exclusive to EGS. I'll check it out once it sees a more general release.

That's the one it reminds me of, as well! Loved the first Painkiller.

 

[regawdless]

Nice! Kind of reminds me of that old Painkiller game. Too bad it's exclusive to EGS. I'll check it out once it sees a more general release.

That's the one it reminds me of, as well! Loved the first Painkiller.

Yeah I love the vibes of the game. The devs did one and a half year of soul searching, analyzing their past games like Painkiller and Bulletstorm, taking what worked in these game, envisioning the next evolution. Can't wait to check it out, will unlock here in four hours, but I won't be able to play it because I'll be on another business trip till Friday.

 

[regawdless]

Bought, downloaded and ran around for two minutes.

Hello my friend UE4 stutter. I HATE that shit.

Let's hope the dev team of twelve will be able to fix it during the EA phase.

 

[regawdless]

Nice trailer

 

[regawdless]

This game plays very much.... not as I expected.

You move slowly and have very limited stamina, you die very quickly and combat is pretty deliberate, you need to plan ahead and be careful, take cover, be very smart.

The starting gun absolutely sucked because the range was so limited - which got already fixed by the devs.

It's a punishing experience where nothing comes for free. You level up, the witch ups her game. Therefore it makes sense to level up your weapons first (you need kills and ability activations for that), before actually leveling up your character.

Not feeling all that great at the start.... but once you grind through the first bunch of runs, upgrade your weapons, get some magic, become more mobile - then it gets pretty damn satisfying. Cool ideas for the abilities and upgrades, also how the world evolves. So far digging it a lot.

 

[regawdless]

Five days, three patches, the devs are putting in the work and are also active in the Discord.

 

[CloudNull]

Love the OT and the game is so much fun.

What the fuck is with the random ghost footsteps that lead to corrupted amulets?

Game runs extremely well for early access.

 

[CAB_Life]

I've been watching this on Twitch as background noise with growing interest. Seems like it still has some balance issues (what doesn't in early access?). But it should be a solid product on launch. They've nailed the aesthetic for sure.

 

[regawdless]

Love the OT and the game is so much fun.

What the fuck is with the random ghost footsteps that lead to corrupted amulets?

Game runs extremely well for early access.

Leave the map with the amulets and without dying, and you'll be able to spend the earned currency to speed up your research in your hub church. Like new weapons, new spells, incantations etc.

Game looks and runs well generally, at least on the first map. Some shader compilation stutter and assets streaming stutter, but good for the early state. Second map sees some big performance drops on my rig though.

I've been watching this on Twitch as background noise with growing interest. Seems like it still has some balance issues (what doesn't in early access?). But it should be a solid product on launch. They've nailed the aesthetic for sure.

Yeah there's a lot of stuff that needs to be improved and fixed. But it's already good fun. Content wise, only two maps available right now and I already unlocked all weapons, spells etc. A lot of good feedback from the community, the devs now have a huge amount of work in front of them to implement and improve a ton of things. They say they want to leave EA in a year and some months, that's ambitious.

 

[regawdless]

And another patch incoming:

PATCH 0.1.4.47671

Our short term focus will be improving the new player experience (without killing the spirit of the game) and balancing. Expect some nerfs and buffs in the Friday's patch! Also, as always, we'll be taking care of various bugfixes (e.g. 2nd and 3rd Mysterium of various spells and items) and QoL updates. We're working on the game's roadmap as well. Eta? Next week or the week after. We are having tons of discussions based on your feedback and need to make some decisions first!

Highlights:

• Swapped Shockwave with Fireballs in the Research order
  community feedback
  • After a lot of player feedback, we realized that Shockwave was way less new player friendly than we thought - and as such it didn't work well as the very first spell you research, and probably your first research ever. Fireballs should fill that role much more better. If you already researched Shockwave, it will remain safely in your inventory.

Gameplay

• Fixed weapon upgrade objectives, now correctly marks them as complete
• 'No Ammo' warning shows up when using Demonic Weapon
• Blunderbusser and Dimacher now show properly on the minimap (instead of as tiny white dots)
  community request
• Preyer now becomes invincible after stepping into a portal
  community feedback
• Another pack of fixes helping ghosts find their way
• Ghost wont startle you now when you are too close
• Removed flickering from Wisps and trapped enemy souls during the Soultrap event
• Removed mine spawnpoints around one of Irongate Castle's starting portal
• Tweaked duration of the killcam after death
  • This should help understanding what killed you
  • Killcam will be improved / longer in the next patch
• Boss on the Scarlet Coast should always spawn now
• Fixed locations for two bugged Gatekeeper's "batteries" - they spawned inside geometry, which made them unreachable
• Added new sounds for the Ring of Excreta. Might be a good time to try it, if you haven't already
• Tweaked the way the Gatekeeper's Power Sources' idle sound propagates in space. This change should make them much easier to locate
• Changed chest spawning algorythm so they are spread a little more evenly throughout the level
• Fixed a bug that prevented flying Effigies from displaying their particle effects: beams, explosions on death and teleportation effects
• Fixed a bug that prevented most Effigies from correctly displaying their healthbars and names when you targeted them
• New treasure and event icons
• Fixed a bug that caused Survival Ritual to Succeed even if you moved too far from it.

Tech

• Added ability to remap Map button (default M)
• Improvements to the off-navigable area teleport logic
• Fixed elite enemies effects remaining post death
• Significantly less textures streaming in the Castle
  • The Castle remains less smooth that we know it can be. Consider ...not Ultra. Top men are working to discover the source of the curse!
• Miscellaneous collision fixes and visual polish
  community reports
• Fixed bug with the last row of Arcana being not entirely clickable
• Fixed bug with icons on the map being not clickable at times
• Fixed bug with black screen appearing after pressing Esc immediately after death
• Fixed a bug that was causing the a part of the drops' sounds to play twice
• Fixed a bug which caused Shielbearer to play his Shield calling animation twice in a quick succession

Known issue/next patch

• 21:9 and other ultra widescreen ratios don't work for everyone.
  • We have a fix but it's an engine-level change. We didn't want to risk it with this patch, needs extensive testing first

 

[regawdless]

And ANOTHER hot fix.

**HOTFIX 0.1.4.47685**

We're getting reports that the Castle has some performance issues on some setups. We have found one culprit, and even though this does not fully solve the problem -- which is a puzzle in itself, as during the development the level ran very well -- we've decided to publish it right now before the next bigger patch. We will continue investigating but you should feel a difference nonetheless.

Just to make life more fun, we're also releasing experimental redesign of Balewort. Hopefully we didn't make it op. With much larger pool of player data, it was obvious that Balewort was under-performing by a huge margin, compared to other Fetishes. Those changes should make it a viable choice.

**__Highlights__**
- Major optimization to navigation requests performed close to multi-layered navigation planes
- Translated to human language, enemies will calculate their paths to you much faster than before
- Balewort's rebalance:
- Healing Essence now drops when you are below 75% health, instead of 50%
- Increased Healing Essence drop chance from 10/12/14% to 30/35/40%

**__Gameplay__**
- Fixed a bug that allowed multiple chests to spawn in the same location and prevented a more even spread througout the level

**__Tech__**
- Fixed a bug that forced Horizontal FOV scaling even if that option was overridden in the Engine.ini file `SuperUltraWide fans rejoice`

 

[regawdless]

Second map looking good. Runs way better than before, where the game usually ran at 144fps for me but here crumbled into the 70s. Now it's a lot better, but still far from "good" because there's severe stutter, shader compilation and traversal hitches, freezing the action for a moment. Some really big stutters, not feeling good at all. The devs are investigating, said the map ran fine in an older build during testing, don't know where the issue is and why it appeared.

I love the brick textures and wall models, so nice

 

[Amorous Biscuit]

I was on board with this until I saw it was almost £32 even as an early access title. Was also a bit bummed at Epic Store exclusivity.

I will no doubt fold and buy it within the next two weeks. I am not a strong man.

 

[regawdless]

Upgraded a bunch of weapons and abilities, nearly unocked everything that's available here in Early Access so far. Still didn't beat the boss in the second level, he's fucking hard but it's not like I seriously tried yet. Just went at him a couple times without much preparation.

Game is fun and each weapon forces you to play differently, depending on their upgrades. This weapon for example requires you to dodge after a kill to refill the magazine and gives you a damage boost.

 

[regawdless]

Devs have a lot to work on, hired two more world/ level designers to push the new maps to new heights.

Here's the roadmap

Witchfire Development Roadmap - October 2023

Here it is, our (almost) spoiler-free, condensed vision for Witchfire. The things we will be working on until we reach 1.0. This vision is an amalgam of two different thoughts. One is ours, th...

www.theastronauts.com

 

[regawdless]

Game is 33% off but the devs still get as much as from a non discounted sale. Great!

 

[regawdless]

Another really good blog post by the devs. Those are well worth reading.

The Astronauts

How did the video affect our daily numbers? – asked one of The Astronauts. I didn’t know. I didn’t check because I assumed it didn’t. The video I’m talking about is the one from I...

www.theastronauts.com

 

[Amorous Biscuit]

Is Witchfire coming to other launchers at a later date? I want to dive in, but I want it in my Steam Library rather than Epic Games. It is currently 10% off whilst on sale, so might be a good time to get involved whilst it's early in development and potentially a cheaper price than at full launch?

 

[regawdless]

Is Witchfire coming to other launchers at a later date? I want to dive in, but I want it in my Steam Library rather than Epic Games. It is currently 10% off whilst on sale, so might be a good time to get involved whilst it's early in development and potentially a cheaper price than at full launch?

Epic exclusive for the duration of the Early Access phase. Full release will be on Steam, but it'll take a year or so from now. But the team is amazing, and they say it's done when it's complete. Don't know about pricing, I'd say it'll remain at $39,99.

There's a big update coming, likely this month. I'll definitely jump back in.

 

[Amorous Biscuit]

Epic exclusive for the duration of the Early Access phase. Full release will be on Steam, but it'll take a year or so from now. But the team is amazing, and they say it's done when it's complete. Don't know about pricing, I'd say it'll remain at $39,99.

There's a big update coming, likely this month. I'll definitely jump back in.

Maybe I'll grab it on Epic then, £28 seems a decent biting point given the gushing praise you've heaped on it thus far. Excited to check it out!

 

[regawdless]

Maybe I'll grab it on Epic then, £28 seems a decent biting point given the gushing praise you've heaped on it thus far. Excited to check it out!

Gameplay, world and design are already really good. Tough at first because you need to understand what the hell is going on, level up, learn how to manage stamina and how to avoid damage etc. but I found it to be very motivating. But be aware, there are only two (big) maps available so far. Took me long enough to beat the bosses and level up the weapons though, but just a heads up for you.

 

[Amorous Biscuit]

Gameplay, world and design are already really good. Tough at first because you need to understand what the hell is going on, level up, learn how to manage stamina and how to avoid damage etc. but I found it to be very motivating. But be aware, there are only two (big) maps available so far. Took me long enough to beat the bosses and level up the weapons though, but just a heads up for you.

Got it for £16.35 with the current Epic Rewards sale pricing specials. Pretty nuts!

 

[regawdless]

Got it for £16.35 with the current Epic Rewards sale pricing specials. Pretty nuts!

Congrats! Curious how you'll like it.

Some beginner tips against the frustration:
- Starting weapon has short range, you have to get into pretty close combat
- Plan your route and exit right away, do smaller runs at first, use the map
- Level up the pistol, the last upgrade is great
- Invest in the Witchfire multiplier when leveling up
- Play smart, be mindful with your stamina and avoid enemy status effects hitting you. The game penalizes you if you run out of stamina
- Killing groups of enemies and collecting that red cristal increases your stamina a lot for the duration of a run
- Headshots. Do headshots.

There's so much more, if you have any questions, here's the place

 

[CAB_Life]

I watched some streams of this today and it looked great—hadn't even heard of it till then so seeing this (pretty amazing) thread is rather fortuitous. Will check it out when it comes to console.

 

[Amorous Biscuit]

Congrats! Curious how you'll like it.

Some beginner tips against the frustration:
- Starting weapon has short range, you have to get into pretty close combat
- Plan your route and exit right away, do smaller runs at first, use the map
- Level up the pistol, the last upgrade is great
- Invest in the Witchfire multiplier when leveling up
- Play smart, be mindful with your stamina and avoid enemy status effects hitting you. The game penalizes you if you run out of stamina
- Killing groups of enemies and collecting that red cristal increases your stamina a lot for the duration of a run
- Headshots. Do headshots.

There's so much more, if you have any questions, here's the place

Excuse me. This shit is fucking incredible.

I have never felt so much arse-clenching tension from minute one in an FPS like this, ever. I've done about 4 or 5 "expeditions" just getting used to mechanics and managed to extract with like 15K Witchfire on my last run. I really like the mechanic for gaining extra stamina, makes those clutch dashes and double jumps so satisfying to escape from a tight situation.

Just got the first Mysterium upgrade for the pistol and I love that it changes the look of the weapon too.

A quick question, for research, say mid or long range guns how do I get that to trigger? Is it time spent on an expedition or do I need to find items whilst traversing? I started both a shotgun and a long range weapon and it said they only take around 35s or whatever but that doesn't seem to happen. More game time is needed...

 

[regawdless]

Excuse me. This shit is fucking incredible.

I have never felt so much arse-clenching tension from minute one in an FPS like this, ever. I've done about 4 or 5 "expeditions" just getting used to mechanics and managed to extract with like 15K Witchfire on my last run. I really like the mechanic for gaining extra stamina, makes those clutch dashes and double jumps so satisfying to escape from a tight situation.

Just got the first Mysterium upgrade for the pistol and I love that it changes the look of the weapon too.

A quick question, for research, say mid or long range guns how do I get that to trigger? Is it time spent on an expedition or do I need to find items whilst traversing? I started both a shotgun and a long range weapon and it said they only take around 35s or whatever but that doesn't seem to happen. More game time is needed...

Glad you like it! Research progresses with events triggered during an expedition. Basically, just actively play the game, standing in a corner and waiting won't unlock anything. And in the world, you can find treasures that you can use to speed up the research in your hub area.

Can't remember if it's all available from the start or if you need to level up for certain research options to unlock.

 

[regawdless]

Can't wait for the update, they now started teasing it.

 

[CloudNull]

I need to jump back in. I think I'll do that. Update looks great