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Unforetold: Witchstone News

Promising Steam RPG from iconic DnD writer suddenly halts development

I was eager to see more of Unforetold: Witchstone after its early access launch on Steam just over a month ago, but sadly it appears those plans are no more. Developer Spearhead Games, who worked alongside Ed Greenwood - the legendary creator of the Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms setting seen in games such as Baldur's Gate 3 - on the project, has announced that it must "stop further production on Unforetold: Witchstone indefinitely" and has laid off the majority of its team due to "financial circumstances."


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Baldur's Gate 3 style RPG from legendary DnD writer out now on Steam

An Important Message From Spearhead Games



It is with great sadness that we address you today regarding difficult decisions that we had to make concerning Unforetold: Witchstone. The past few weeks have been challenging, as the combined impact of financial prospects that did not materialize have put us in a difficult position.

Hence after careful consideration, we have come to the regrettable conclusion that we must
stop further production on Unforetold:Witchstone indefinitely as of March 8th 2024,
after the release of Hotfix #7.

It further saddens us that due to these financial circumstances, we have had to make the tough decision to lay off the majority of our team. These developers created worlds unseen from nothing but with sheer will and collective imagination – a testament to the heart and soul poured into this studio.
We want to express our heartfelt thanks to them for their passion and hard work.

We also want to assure you that we are doing everything in our power to support everyone affected. We have hired companies to help with personalized career coaching, emotional support, networking, and job placement assistance.

We call on the games industry in Montreal and around: if you have space, give our incredibly talented people a chance and you will be amazed.

As we move forward, we ask for your understanding and patience as we navigate through this transition period and find ways to rebuild again. We will do our best to keep you updated on any developments. As such, our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts will remain as is. However, the Discord server will be shutting down as of March 8th 2024.

And finally, to our phenomenal team, our passionate players, and every single person who found a home in the universes we created in the last 12 years — a heartfelt thank you.
So long, until we meet again.


- Atul Mehra and Malik Boukhira, co-founders

Patch Note #6 - February 27th, 2024

We're back with more improvements. This time, we wanted to better explain companions' reasoning for equipping or not an item that is given to them.

Updates
  • (Much requested) Showing icons in companion inventories to display their gear preferences. Players can hover on these icons to see what each icon represents.
  • (Much requested) Displaying messages to explain why a companion won’t or can’t equip an item given to them from the player’s Personal Stash.
  • Players can now inquire about non-faction opportunities to learn about the characters and gain more context before deciding to participate.
  • Characters involved in an opportunity react to the outcome when spoken to.
  • Players can use the Tell Me About influence command to discover Leads that direct them to secrets for leaders and a few key characters.
  • Adding custom banter lines when certain NPCs are talking to each other.
  • Providing multiple ways to complete Andrath’s want or opportunity.
  • Adding a few Epic and Legendary items to dungeons and high-ranking characters.
  • Adding unique abilities to key NPCs.
  • Adding a weight limit to inventories. Note: The weight limit can be exceeded if a player receives an item through shopping, influence, or dialogue.


Fixes
  • Fixed text in notification popups when discovering a character’s like/dislike, relationship, or secret.
  • Fixed an issue where longer character names deform the inventory UI.
  • Fixed an issue where adding additional items to a full inventory would cause them not to appear until other items were removed.
  • Fixed an issue where characters would not react to fights happening near them.
  • Fixed an issue in Shops where clicking on an item in the Personal Stash did not send it to the Trading window.
  • Fixed Sheriff Seb still having an opportunity against Bayard after a successful diffusing of the conflict.
  • Fixed faction chests not being able to be opened.
  • Fixed elves’ Witchfire Weakness triggering on non-witchstone hits.
  • Fixed text tokens not being replaced by the proper text in the Journal.
  • Fixed issue where Mage Armor would last forever.
  • Fixed many AI navigation issues.
  • Fixed many mistakes in dialogue and narrator lines and item descriptions.


Known issues
  • Civilian NPC ends combat after one turn when attacking them after a failed pickpocket attempt [Will be fixed in the next hotfix #7]

Patch Notes #5.5 - February 16th, 2024



Hello adventurers!

Before we all head into the weekend, we really wanted to fix a few issues. In this update, we've tackled combat bugs, dialogue issues, and more for a smoother adventure!

See below for more info:

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
  • Combat is stuck on NPC's turn after the player attack a pickpocket victim
  • Placing a secret item around a crime scene counts as planting evidence
  • Caustic weapons deals 0 damage to Golems and Skeletons
  • Ranged Dialogue is displayed as a Travel Event dialogue and does not proceed to gameplay after dice roll outcome
  • After having a Travel Event, our Character doesn't start from the same place as before the Travel Event.
  • Leaders of factions and civilians have been granted additional powerful gear they can use in combat



[h2]Known issues [/h2]
  • Civilian NPC ends combat after one turn when attacking them after a failed pickpocket attempt [Will be fixed in the next hotfix #6]

Community Update #2 - Hotfix details, VOD and more!



Hello Adventurers!

It’s still hard to believe that after working so many years on Unforetold: Witchstone, the game is finally out on Early Access. It’s been a crazy and difficult but fulfilling journey building this sandbox version of a cRPG from scratch. But our work isn’t done yet and we’ve barely scratched the surface of this playground called Kalsundia. As one of the ways to show our gratitude to all the players supporting Unforetold: Witchstone at the very beginning of its Early Access, we’ve been tirelessly working on hotfix updates for the past few weeks.

We’d like to use this opportunity to once again thank everyone who has either bought the game, sent us feedback, reported a bug, talked to us about their experience, made content about the game, wishlisted it, or simply sent words of encouragement. This support means the world to us and helps us get through the more difficult times.

The Big Update

Since the launch of the Unforetold: Witchstone, our team has been scanning our Discord server, the Steam forums, live streams, YouTube videos, and reviews looking for critical areas of improvement. Your comments help us prioritize what features and bug fixes need to be tackled next. As such, we’re very happy to release the fifth and biggest update to date for Unforetold: Witchstone, which Malik and Phil previewed on a Twitch live stream last Friday.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Travel Events
The untamed frontier world of Kalsundia is dangerous. Now you’ll encounter people, friendly or hostile, or beasts on your travels between townships and dungeons. These encounters are sometimes the consequence of actions you committed earlier and progress your story forward.

Inventory Sorting Options
Hoarders and non-hoarders, rejoice! Players can now sort their inventories in 3 ways:
  • By sund: from highest value to lowest
  • By weight: from heaviest to lightest
  • By type: in alphabetical order, in the following categories
    - Weapons
    - Helmets
    - Chest pieces
    - Gloves
    - Boots
    - Capes
    - Accessories
    - Consumables
    - All other items


Companion Orders Presentation
We noticed on streams and were told by players that they would be ordering a companion without noticing. To address this, we gave ordering a companion a similar presentation outside of combat to when ordering companions in combat. So when clicking on a companion portrait, you’ll notice:
  • The player hotbar cannot be interacted with
  • Slow-motion starts
  • The order range circle is now more noticeable


Appreciation from Fulfilling Wants, Not Completing Opportunities
To reinforce the sandbox experience of the game, appreciation gains of an NPC now trigger from fulfilling their wants. This means that a player is no longer obligated to learn about opportunities and complete them in order for someone to become friendly or allied to them. For example, if someone wanted monsters eliminated from a place and a player did the deed without speaking to them first, the player will still be better appreciated and even rewarded for their actions.

Optimized Save Files
We’re very happy to say that the time it takes to save a game has been greatly reduced (down to 1 second or less in most setups). The file size of each saved game is also no longer 400 mb, but a way more reasonable less than 50mb.

And More!
To learn more about everything in this update, including bug fixes, please check out the patch notes # 5.

Previous Updates

As was mentioned earlier, this is the fifth update since January 25th. In previous updates, we’ve addressed many very good points brought up by the community, including:
  • Adding Armor and stat bonuses to certain odd wearable items
  • Adding subtitles to the opening video
  • Making item rarity easier to tell by adjusting the vibrancy of the colored icon outlines
  • Adding area names to opportunities dialogues and descriptions to make finding characters and items easier
  • Providing extra dialogue options during the event on the way to Howling Valley so players are not forced to make a decision this early on what they intend to do with Kalsundia


Also, we quickly jumped on issues reported on launch day:
  • Fixed key binding changes not saving after pressing Apply
  • Fixed the Goals page in the Journal displaying overlapping text when opened from notifications and dialogue
  • Moving a guard position at Howling Valley Warehouse so the player doesn’t need to trespass to talk to them


In case you missed it, here are the links to the patch notes of the previous hotfix.

Hotfix 1 2 3 4


More To Come

In the upcoming weeks, we will continue to listen to your feedback and periodically release updates for Unforetold: Witchstone. We’ve got some really cool stuff in the works!

Thank you once again for your unwavering support and patience. Stay tuned for more patches, keep sending us your feedback, and let’s make this a great game together!

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