Witchfire News

The gears of the machine are turning and we’re here for the third consecutive week with more information about the Webgrave update - we’re beginning by handing the mic to Adrian, who has something new to present…



Starting with the Webgrave update, your stats will matter more. Way more.

Here’s the problem we had to solve: Some people complained they didn’t feel any tangible change from leveling up stats. No real difference between, say, Witchery 14 and Witchery 15.

I was puzzled. In Soulsborne games, I was ecstatic about every level-up. The gains were minuscule, but they mattered. Ultimately, they made a difference. I remember grinding extra levels for Cainhurst Castle in Bloodborne just to finally be able to one-shot certain annoying virgins.

Meanwhile, in Witchfire, a game some consider difficult, our stats gave even greater benefits. With some upgraded to the max, you’re basically playing with cheats. Almost immortal. Yet, for some players, this wasn’t enough.

The whole thing got me thinking. But before I could pinpoint the real issue, a fan – whose name I’ve lost, so if this is you, ping me on Discord! – sent me a few pages of thoughts on stats and their role. Among all his insights, one fragment stood out clearly:



Originally, we wanted to have thresholds for stats. For example, something cool would unlock when reaching Witchery 25, 50, 75, and 100. But I felt this wasn’t enough and resembled a skill tree too closely, and I’m not a big fan of skill trees for several reasons.

Some of you, especially FromSoftware fans, already know where this is going. In their games, the world rewards specialization. Want that big-ass hammer? Great, but you’ll need Strength 27. Once achieved, the weapon’s damage scales with the stat, so it pays to keep investing. This effectively locks you out of using something like a sorcerer’s wand – but hey, you can swing a big-ass hammer!

Such an approach creates hard choices and forces you to live with their consequences. Yes, you can respec, but resources for that and weapon upgrades are scarce, requiring careful decisions.

This is exactly what players love about Soulsborne games. “A game is a series of interesting choices,” said Sid Meier, and choosing your path is among the most interesting ones there is.

The issue for me was, I didn’t want to bind our gear to specific stats. Witchfire is about failing and trying again with a new setup – not repeatedly hitting a wall with the one you’re stuck with. You can master one setup and beat the game, but if we do our job right, that’ll be for the most kinetically gifted players only.

The solution?

The Rosary.



For Bloodborne fans: beads are a bit like Caryll Runes, but tied to stats.

For everyone else: you’ll find magical beads that grant unique powers. Your Rosary has limited slots, so your first choice involves selecting beads that complement your build and playstyle from all the beads you discover or earn. Your second choice confirms whether the stats required by these beads align with your intended investment. Slotting a bead is free, but you must meet the bead’s stat requirement.

In short, we’re giving you awesome tools to do things otherwise impossible – at the cost of committing to a playstyle. You could grind every stat to max, but with Webgrave, that’ll be brutally tough, if not impossible, in a single playthrough. More on Stats 2.0 in next week’s post.



Wait, wait, wait… Didn’t I just say we want players juggling gear and builds to overcome challenges, but now I’m suggesting committing to certain stats for extra options?

Yes. The difference here is beads are designed to support your chosen playstyle, not individual pieces of gear. You’re committing to your role-played vision of the preyer rather than both playstyle and gear simultaneously. Plus, there’s still wiggle room to explore other directions, and of course, a respec option.

With Webgrave, we’re starting slow. Most beads you’ll initially find aren’t too wild, like extra health or an extended Dash. However, there are a few notable exceptions, such as immunity to all elemental ailments (yes, you can literally walk through fire unharmed) or an additional charge for your Light Spells (even for spells originally limited to a single charge). We’ll closely monitor your feedback and likely introduce more beads that push into unexpected territory – or perhaps not, because simplicity sometimes wins. Again, we’ll see!

Back to you, Spajk.



There’s one more thing that usually comes with Witchfire updates, something I have, in fact, written about not that long ago: guns. We’re not slowing down - this update will also include new weapons, and today we’d like to show you one of them:



How about a gun that can see and shoot enemies through walls?

How about this being just the first Mysterium, with more craziness added on top of that in the remaining ones?

How do you balance a gun like that?

Coming with the Webgrave update soon.

The name of the weapon is the Oracle. We teased it a while ago, in the discord announcement posted by Adrian back in May. We tried to conceal the weapon’s unique trait a bit, but you managed to see through it (pardon the pun) in no time.



It’s the weapon mentioned by Andrzej in one of the latest posts when we were discussing weapons (namely: railguns), so we have been teasing it here and there for a while now. Congrats to everyone who guessed (TaedetOmnia takes the proverbial cake) what the big secret is and… Rest assured that we have learned our lesson, and future guessing games are going to be harder.

Or so we think - someone will likely come along and guess it again in five minutes anyway, but such is the way of life.

And now for something (not) completely different…



A response to a response.

Last week’s post seems to have generated a mixed bag of reactions. Some of you pointed out that the seemingly random nature of research in its current form was somewhat exciting, and you expressed doubts about Workshop 2.0 being an improvement.





Well, the thing is… it was never random - the order of research is pre-determined, and you only perceived it as incidental because we hadn’t yet revealed our cards or the inner workings of the system. Additionally, very few people conducted the entire research cycle enough times to spot the pattern buried in the data, but it has always been there.

Hot Reddit topic is hot

Click here to visit the topic on Reddit

Every now and then, a topic surfaces that generates considerable attention. A recent addition is this one, asking why Witchfire hasn’t yet become part of the mainstream. To be frank, it’s flattering that people think we deserve a bigger audience and wider recognition, but - as many pointed out in the thread - we’re still in Early Access, and there’s a lot of work ahead of us before release. We’re doing our best to make Witchfire a game that could stand proudly among the greats. The upcoming update is going to be an important part of this journey, and right now we’re deep in the trenches, creating, tuning, and tinkering. We’re happy you’re along for the ride - thanks!

Your feedback matters

Click here to visit the topic on Reddit

The topic of War Priests being absolute menaces was raised a while ago when you discovered there is an optimal order for killing enemies: specifically, getting rid of War Priests before dealing with any other foes, since there’s virtually no limit to whom they can resurrect. That's going to change, because in the upcoming update, we’re going to make some adjustments to their behaviour. We want our game to provide a challenge, but this mechanic - in its current shape - is genuinely more of an annoyance, so we’ll address it. I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll say it again: we live and breathe Witchfire, and sometimes we lack the perspective that only you can provide. Keep that feedback coming!

What the distant future holds…

Click here to visit the topic on Reddit

Questions about post-launch support have already been raised in the past, so we thought it’d be a good idea to address them for the very first time. And the honest truth is… it remains to be seen. Right now, our focus is on making the fattest Witchfire possible. Releasing version 1.0 doesn’t necessarily mean we’re done - more content may follow. We might also decide “this is it, this is the game,” similar to what Supergiant did with Hades, and begin work on our next project. It all depends on about a million different factors, so we’ll have to wait and see. For now, our priority remains firmly set on version 1.0, with each update serving as a milestone into which we’re pouring our hearts and souls.

That’s it for this week - expect a fresh post in about seven days, we’re steaming ahead towards the release and there is more to share.

Cheers!

Hello, preyers! Adrian here. Before I hand the mic back to Spajk and his Hermitorium Archives, let me introduce you to the Webgrave update’s new region and the revamped Workshop 2.0.

[h2]The Blighted Town[/h2]

In my last post, I teased this cursed place with these words:

"When the witch’s curse first fell upon the place, no one saw it for what it was. They mistook it for yet another plague, cruel but familiar. The twisted shapes of the afflicted were dismissed as grotesque symptoms. They burned bodies. Quarantined entire districts. Nothing helped. Only when the changes grew undeniable — when bone split skin, when limbs took unnatural forms while hearts still beat — did they grasp the truth. But by then, it was far too late."

Now, it’s time for some visuals:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Please note this is still work-in-progress, so things can change, and most likely will.

We don’t want to spoil everything, so until the release, we’ll only share carefully selected glimpses of this region. I hope these shots give you a sense of what might be lurking in those streets. If you’re craving more, check out last week’s enemy teaser for a taste.



“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” perfectly captures the change coming to Witchfire’s Workshop — the hub where you research weapons, spells, and magical items. On the surface, it’s a subtle tweak, but dig deeper, and it transforms the entire Workshop vibe.

To understand this change, let’s step back. What inspired the Workshop? Syndicate, Bullfrog’s 1993 masterpiece.

When Syndicate dropped, I was hooked. I went full nerd, locked myself away, and played for seventeen hours straight until the credits rolled. To this day, it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played.

Syndicate had many brilliant mechanics, with its Research system being one of them. You could commission research on weapons or gear, which took a fair bit of time to complete. You could speed it up with cash, but that money was also needed for other critical things. Ahh, the thrill of waiting for those higher tier cybernetic legs to finish...



Anyway, sounds familiar? That’s the core of Witchfire’s Workshop too, right? Through a magic mirror, you commune with the Vatican’s secret workshop, choosing a gear category to research and produce. You can play the game to pass the time until it’s done or spend resources to accelerate the process.

Personally, I love how it works. It often hooks me for “just one more run” while I wait for a new toy to drop. No surprise there — it’s merely our dark fantasy spin on a system that nailed it thirty-two years ago.

But for a long time, one key piece was missing.

Right now, in Witchfire, you pick a category (like Short Range Weapons), and the Workshop churns through projects in that category one by one. You don’t know what you’ll get, just that it’s from your chosen category. In Syndicate, though, you first unlock a category (say, Automatic Weapons) through research, then choose which specific project to tackle next. In other words, Syndicate gave you more control over your research.

Syndicate’s system is a bit more intricate — for example, you could find a weapon from a locked category during a mission and research it separately, bypassing the usual process. But that, along with the need to unlock categories first, doesn’t quite fit Witchfire’s world. We’re not here to clone Syndicate; we’re crafting our own system, inspired by it.

Still, it’s high time the Workshop gave our favorite witch hunter more choice. With the Webgrave update, you’ll be able to pick exactly which project to research within a category. Here’s a sneak peek:





[h5]Why the Change?[/h5]

I might sound like a broken record, but to me, great game design rests on four pillars: Autonomy (giving players options to tackle challenges), Mastery (excelling at the core gameplay loop), Competence (knowing the game inside out), and Relatedness (human connection through multiplayer or a gripping story and characters).

Back then, I didn’t have the words for it, but Syndicate nailed all four. You had multiple ways to complete missions, could shine through skill or strategy, and its cyberpunk vibe made you question your morals. With Witchfire, we’re chasing the same magic, and giving you more control over research strengthens the Autonomy pillar.

Some of you might wonder: what’s stopping me from beelining to my dream gear right away? I’d love to say “nothing” — we trust you to play your way, even if that means beating Witchfire with one gun and one spell. But no, you won’t have access to every project from the start. Some unlock only when your Gnosis level is high enough or through other… events.

This isn’t about dangling carrots to keep you grinding. It’s about immersion. It makes sense that the Workshop keeps researching new tools to aid your mission, and it ties into the theme of gnosis — knowledge — that unveils the hidden truths of dark magic.

Here’s a look at the Workshop when some projects are locked due to missing requirements (like level or resources) or still in the experimental phase, with designs not yet fully clear:







[h5]Does This Change the Core Gameplay Loop?[/h5]

Absolutely. The old Workshop was a bit like a slot machine — every project was a surprise, which had its charm. But it often led to researching just for the sake of it. We believe deliberate, purposeful research can be just as thrilling. If we do our job right, with varied challenges, you’ll want to research everything anyway — but you’ll carve your own path to get there.

Though its impact is strong, Workshop 2.0 is the lightest of the gameplay updates. If you’re hungry for meatier stuff, stay tuned. In the coming weeks, I’ll dive into the overhauled Stats, the Rosary, and new Gnosis levels.

And now, back to Spajk for the…



Let’s take a look at what’s been going on in the community over the past few days...

[h4]A Really Good Tip (and Discussion)[/h4]

We know Witchfire can be a demanding experience, so it’s always great to see players sharing tips, tricks, or digging into tricky mechanics together.

TobyDaHuman recently reminded fellow preyers on Reddit about the importance of hitting the Soul Sigils hovering above enemies' heads, stunning them and letting you deal significantly more damage. While this is covered in the current tutorial, it’s a great opportunity to highlight that a new tutorial is in the works – and threads like this show exactly why it’s needed. Stay tuned for more info!

[h4]Reload hax[/h4]

There are several schools of thought when it comes to reloading weapons in video games. We all know players who empty their mags before even thinking about reloading - my Mechromancer PTSD got slightly triggered just writing that. We also all know someone who reloads after every single bullet. Or players who don’t care about reloading at all (ah, the fond memories of Mass Effect – Frictionless Materials X forever in my heart). And, finally, the elite few who mastered active reloads in Gears of War nearly 20 years ago and whose muscle memory still kicks in today.

But did you know you can sprint reload in Witchfire? If not, there’s a handy video demonstrating the technique:



For more details, check out the original Reddit thread where RYO-kai explains what’s what and how to do it.

[h4]Not a lap record...[/h4]

…but it definitely deserves recognition for how clean it was. Sure, Hypnosis Goblin still tops the imaginary leaderboard for deconstructing Dimacher in three seconds flat – and it’s unlikely anyone will beat that any time soon – but what has been achieved here is elegant, precise, and very time-efficient. If you wish to see it for yourself, please follow the link to the reddit thread.



Bravo, well done.

[h4]Do madmen dream of yoga classes?[/h4]

Some enemies have reach. Others have flexibility. Striga seems capable of inspiring everyone around to bend over backwards – quite literally in some cases.



[h4]Townswoman blushes in the distance*[/h4]

I’m genuinely worried about some of you. Maybe we should redesign the Witch before it’s too late…



* - She doesn’t, actually, for she’s long since lost the ability to blush. But if she could, she would.

[h4]*Plays John Preyer Theme*[/h4]

I’m glad you see the potential for an epic saga. But let’s finish the current game first, shall we?



Still, who’s to say we won’t pull the classic trick of hiding another mask under the mask?

That's it for this week - we'll be back with more development updates soon. Very soon.

Have a good one!

This one’s big and juicy – here’s what’s inside.

First, we chat with one of our designers about how weapons are crafted in Witchfire.

Then, we begin to pull back the curtain on the next major update called Webgrave.

And finally, a fresh installment of the Hermitorium Archives, where we highlight the coolest things the community’s been up to, along with a few bonus insights from the team.



Witchfire is – to quote our storefront – a first-person dark fantasy RPG shooter. It’s a lot of words, sure, but even a brief look at the game makes one thing obvious: weapons matter. They’re with you when you run, when you pause, when you pick a loadout, when you research. We’re big on our guns – some might even say we’re all-in.

But have you ever wondered how these death-dealing instruments come to be? What’s the story behind their design? I managed to pry Andrzej Sugier — @Sugar on our Discord — our very own Gunsmith-in-Chief, away from his work to talk about shaping the past, present and future armory of the Vatican’s finest killer.



Q: So, Sugar... A Witchfire weapon. Where do you begin?

A: There are two answers. The first is kind of mundane – we’ve had a pool of 3D weapon models prepared years ago. For each archetype – shotguns, ARs, machine pistols – there were three base models. We still haven’t used them all, honestly. So most of the time, a new weapon starts with one of those assets.

But every now and then, we step outside that structure. Sometimes it’s because we want to do something different, sometimes it’s because the community wants something weird. That’s how Striga came to be – a nod to Painkiller and an homage to our dev team’s pedigree. A love letter. There are two other weapons following that “off the books” path, but we can’t talk about them yet. Rest assured, they’re coming, and they’re not the last.

Q: Striga is one of the fan favorites, and it’s a love that I personally share, too. But it's not just fun to use, it's genuinely useful. How do you balance the two? Fun versus function, I mean.

A: There’s actually the perfect way to think about the issue: “toy vs tool.” And while of course we care about both, we start with the "tool". The first step is always to look at the sandbox. What’s missing? Where's a gap in functionality? Which type of players we are not servicing yet?

So yeah, function matters. A weapon should allow you to change your playstyle, because if everything behaves the same, it’s boring. So we figure out what’s missing – something for long range, something aggressive, something that makes you play differently – and once we have that function in mind, we design around it.

Q: But when you find a free slot, that weapon might be perfectly functional, but not fun. For example if it's something powerful but slow, heavy, and clunky -- how do you make it fun?

A: Exactly, right? That was the challenge, for example, with Judgment. We wanted a proper boomstick – an atomic slap to the face. But it needed to have a downside, too, like maybe a slow reload, abysmal rate of fire, heavy recoil -- things like that. And still somehow be satisfying to use.



We’re gamers ourselves, we pay attention to what’s fun, what feels good. I like to imagine I have this “fun bucket” – full of mechanics and ideas I’ve collected. When designing, I dip into that bucket and see what fits. For Judgment, it was about building a weapon around a charge mechanic, making you time your shots and feel that power surge when it lands. So this is what we focused on, tweaking the knobs and even redesigning some Mysteria until it felt good to use while maintaining its own identity.

Q: Speaking of Mysteria. How do you approach those? I mean, do you design the base version then more stuff add to it, or do you design the end version and subtract?

A: The former. Sure, first, they need to be functional. They guide or reinforce a certain playstyle – or counter abuse. But usually we start with M1, then think of how we can make a cool gun cooler. Higher Mysteria need to multiply the fun.

Take Hypnosis. You can charge the shot (M1) for extra damage, which is already a fun action -- but if you release right when the gem lights up (M2), it gets an additional boost. That makes the player pay attention. They’re not just spamming – they’re engaged, present in the moment. That’s the goal.

Q: Are all weapons designed like that – by identifying needs and building from there?

A: Not always. Sometimes an idea is just fun. Like Rotweaver – I wanted to make a weapon that feels like spraying enemies with a garden hose full of acid. Weird, gross fun — pure power fantasy.

On the flip side, you have Hailstorm – very utilitarian. A tool with functional mysteria which gets the job done. It’s kind of a relic from early Witchfire, and there’s a chance it’ll get a revamp. But it still has its own niche – not everything has to be flashy. As long as it feels good and unique, we're happy.



Q: "Feels good". Players often talk about the “weapon feel”, be it Witchfire or any other shooter. What does it mean to you as a designer?

A: Hot take – it’s all about interaction. Sound, animation, model, responsiveness, hook, core idea — all important. But if the world doesn’t react, none of that matters.

If you unload five shotgun shells into an enemy and they just walk forward like nothing happened, the gun feels weak, even if the HP bar goes down. But if a shot makes them stumble, react realistically – now that’s satisfying. Humans love seeing the world react, we’re wired for it – as kids, we dig in sand because there’s a hole left when we’re done. We toss rocks in water, watch the ripples – same thing.

Q: Is that hard to balance, especially with bigger enemies that cannot be slapped around that easily?

A: Definitely. We want enemies to be responsive, but not ridiculous – Dimacher shouldn’t fly across the throne room just because you shot him in the chest.

Tech-wise, I’d love to go deeper – tear clothes, rip tissue, that kind of thing. Right now, it’s a pipe dream, but we're constantly looking into new ways of making the world react to your actions.

Q: What about weapon stats? Do they matter for the "weapon feel"?

A: It starts with core characteristics; if Judgment is slow and heavy, it damn well better hit like a truck. All secondary stats – reload, recoil, spread – must orbit the primary concept; otherwise, it feels “off.”

Even then, it’s not foolproof. Some guns look great on paper, but suck in practice. If testing shows that firing it is a chore, we scrap that config. Adjust it, tweak it, try again. Game development is all about iterating.



Q: So once you have the design, the gun with animations and effects, the Mysteria implemented – what’s left?

A: Literally just playing with it – a day or two of testing, fine-tuning, checking and double-checking if it feels right. That’s the final step, the somewhat spiritual human touch. You can’t overstate how important that is. It’s what gives Witchfire its handcrafted feel — it’s not “this’ll do” — it’s passion.

Q: Has this passion ever gone too far? I mean, what's the longest you've spent on a weapon?

A: Well – Striga had three iterations, and the current record holder, Duelist, had eight. To be clear, that doesn’t mean they’re “better,” it just means we had to fight harder to get them to feel right.

But "too far"?.. We try to be sane ...most of the time. Leonardo Da Vinci said that art’s never finished, just abandoned, and at some point you do have to say “stop.” Sure, you could always improve something 1% more – but it might take 100 hours to do it, and that’s just counterproductive.

Having said that, Striga took over two weeks to get working properly, and I am just talking the prototype. The ragdoll simulation was complex – no other weapon uses it, but it had to be right.



Q: If it's this hard and time-consuming, have there been any cool ideas that just didn’t work out?

A: Railguns. We tried, but the combat rarely lines up enemies the way you need for that payoff. Frostbite M3 is kind of a twist on it, but… it doesn’t hit right. Still, one upcoming weapon is flirting with that design. It probably just needs a bit more time.

Q: So, nothing’s been scrapped forever?

A: Not just yet, at least. We’re still in Early Access, still working, so nothing’s off the table. And once the core of the game is done, who knows — we might go absolutely bonkers.

If the code lets us, of course, as it sometimes works in mysterious ways. We’ve had bugs where Striga’s projectiles became as big as tree trunks. Reloads were performed by a hand of god. Vulture’s bolts demanded input from the player before connecting with the enemies. New weapons mean new bugs — that’s just how it is.

We’re observing, thinking, working. But we’re also trying not to make Witchfire forever – it has to be released one day.

Q: Good one! Thanks, Sugar, and on that note...



Ladies and gentlemen, it is time.

There’s still much work ahead, but we now feel confident enough in the upcoming Webgrave update to begin revealing it. Starting next week, we’ll kick off a weekly series of posts showcasing new content and walking you through the redesigned systems and features. There's a lot to cover, and these updates will continue until release. In just a few weeks, we’ll share the exact launch date.

Today, a small taste of what’s to come. One of the inhabitants of that accursed town…

When the witch’s curse first fell upon the place, no one saw it for what it was. They mistook it for yet another plague, cruel but familiar. The twisted shapes of the afflicted were dismissed as grotesque symptoms. They burned bodies. Quarantined entire districts. Nothing helped. Only when the changes grew undeniable -- when bone split skin, when limbs took unnatural forms while hearts still beat -- did they grasp the truth. But by then, it was far too late

This is Townswoman. Forever caught between forms. Forever not one of us. Not one of them.



This is just the first teaser of what’s coming – we’re excited to share more in the coming weeks, and we’re super happy that you, the community, the gamers, are interested in what we’re cooking. Stay tuned for news from the world of Witchfire starting next week – we hope you’ll like it.

As it’s been a while since the previous post, it’s also time to look at what you’ve been doing – it’s yet another instalment of…



[h2]What Do Your Dev Eyes See?[/h2]

One of the key advantages of having a game in Early Access is the ability to gather feedback from players before the final release. We’re reading a lot of what you share, and honestly, it often makes us scratch our heads – in a good way. Some feedback makes us rethink decisions we’ve made; some points us in directions we might not have otherwise considered.



One such topic resurfaced on Steam just last week, and after reading through it, we decided to address a few of the issues raised. You can read the full thread here.

[h2]Feelings Inc.[/h2]

Then there are moments when you remind us of things we already know – just not consciously, in the moment. A recent Reddit thread was a great example of that. Some of you shared how Witchfire makes your heart race, how extraction brings a genuine sense of relief. A reminder that mood matters.



Emotions are invaluable, and often underappreciated. We’re thrilled to read that the game gets your pulse going, because that means something’s clicking. And, to be honest, we’re a bit desensitised ourselves – we live and breathe Witchfire every day. That adrenaline rush you feel when you’re sprinting to the portal, praying the Warden doesn’t show up? We miss that. So, thanks for reminding us.

[h2]This Used to Mean Something…[/h2]

The arrival of level 541 players – the current max – was inevitable. But we didn’t expect so many of you to get there so quickly. And apparently, we have a new record-holder in town. It's unverified, but - if true - seriously impressive: Garlick popped onto our Discord to announce they hit level cap in under 108 hours. Witchfire’s own Lightning McQueen?



Maybe.

That said, we’re already working under the hood to restructure stat system in a big way – so don’t get too attached to the current cap or how points are distributed. And no worries: all the time and effort you’ve invested won’t be wasted; you’ll be able to redistribute your stats within the new system. We respect your time far too much to just hit reset and walk away.

[h2]Follow the Galley Slave[/h2]

Seriously – if I got a penny every time someone admitted they were too afraid to jump into the green mist, I could probably afford to buy a prime property on the Scarlet Coast.



It’s not a bug, you just have to follow him into the opening. Remember: you’ve been sent by the Pope on a mission to expire a witch. There are chemicals dancing through your veins. You wield weapons capable of levelling armies.

Fear no crevice.

(Yes, we know. But still.)

[h2]No Roomies?[/h2]

This one made me seriously question things.



Maybe we should have a few of them around… or at least a plushie chilling in a secluded corner of the Hermitorium?

Food for thought.

That’s it for this post. Take care, and stay tuned for more Webgrave news – they are coming.

…

Maybe even crawling.

Before we get to the fat community update, here's a guest post from Adrian, our Creative Director, on the secrets of games that punch above their weight...

Most of Witchfire was done by a team of twelve people. When we revealed that, people noticed:



But this started earlier, with The Vanishing of Ethan Carter:



It sounds insane today, but one of the stronger marketing beats we've done was to give the press three very short GIFs from the game. Old-school, real, bloated GIFs -- not MP4 videos pretending to be GIFs. Not many games looked like this in 2014, and we got great coverage. The fact that such visual quality was achieved with a tiny team obviously helped.

Of course, we are not alone in making a fun, good-looking game with a suspiciously small team. Hades, Ori, Disco Elysium, or Manor Lords were all made by teams or even single developers that punch above their weight, creating games that feel like they were made with three, five, or ten times more people.

Lately, we got another contender, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I have finished the game…

Click here to read the post

…and even with my 30+ years of experience in making games that look bigger than they should -- Painkiller was made with 16 people on average -- I'm still not quite sure how they pulled it off. I get 90% of it, but how to make seven hours of high-quality cut scenes, half of which feature extensive visual effects… I just cannot comprehend.

Nonetheless, even with that missing 10%, I'm pretty sure the recipe behind it all is universal and comes down to two things: smart choices and the team.

The first is simple. Well, simple to explain but hard to execute. With "smart choices," you avoid time sinks -- either dropping them altogether or replacing them with something quicker but at least just as good. Another approach is reusing assets, but in a way that's invisible or nearly invisible to the player. This, of course, requires a lot of thought and experience but is very doable for any game.

Let me give you one example from Expedition 33 and Witchfire. With the former, note how almost all enemies are not human and have no faces.


Faces are among the hardest things to get right in video games, demanding significant time and effort because humans are biologically hardwired to focus on them. Removing faces not only saves an insane amount of time but also provides an opportunity to create unique and exciting enemy designs, making fights more engaging. Covering some humanoids with creepy masks further enhances the atmosphere. This solution helped the team avoid a major time sink while making the game more compelling.

For Witchfire, well, see this enemy?


It's the first enemy we created, and Marcin Klicki from CDPR made it multi-layered, meaning the armor and clothes can be stripped off the character. Thanks to this, throughout development we created at least seven other enemies from this one model. Remove the armor and clothes, change the skin material to dead white, lengthen the arms, and make the model semi-transparent -- voila, now we have a ghost. Replace the helmet with a distinct new model and attach a small shield to the ghoul's wrist, and boom, now we have a Buckler Swordsman. You get the idea…


But here's the thing: this reuse doesn't look cheap because it makes sense. Our enemies are remnants of an old army annihilated by the witch, turning the dead into her minions. With a military background, it's natural that soldiers would have similar armor pieces or combat poses. A private and a captain have the same firing stance, right? By clever reuse, we've created more enemies than if we had built each from scratch, enriching gameplay variety. Moreover, since some originate from the same base model, the world feels more coherent.

These are just two examples, but there's more, like using external assets. Expedition 33 utilized Paragon's enemies (right) for its prototypes (left)…


…helping the team quickly grasp what made their game tick. Similarly, we purchased many assets from the Unreal Marketplace, like photoscanned ruins, allowing us to diversify our worlds.

Of course, you can't make an entire game this way. Hard work on time-intensive tasks and original content is essential. That's why Expedition 33 took six years, and why Witchfire is in its eighth year. Still, things would have been twice as tough without "smart choices."

The second key to success is equally easy to explain but more controversial: Every person on your team needs to be talented, passionate, and hard-working.

Why controversial? Because you must be extremely selective about hiring and ruthless if a mistake occurs and someone doesn't deliver 100%. Here's a quote attributed to Heraclitus:

Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one -- one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.

You want your team composed of those real fighters, maybe even multiple instances of that one warrior. Maurice de Saxe, a renowned 18th-century French military commander, said it best: "It is not big armies that win battles; it is the good ones."

And here's Steve Jobs on the topic -- it's a long quote, but crucial to understanding how the best developers operate:

Most things in life have a dynamic range in which the ratio of “average” to “best” is at most 2:1. For example, if you go to New York City and get an average taxi cab driver, versus the best taxi cab driver, you’ll probably get to your destination with the best taxi driver 30% faster. And an automobile; what’s the difference between the average car and the best? Maybe 20%? The best CD player versus the average CD player? Maybe 20%?

So 2:1 is a big dynamic range for most things in life. Now, in software, and it used to be the case in hardware, the difference between the average software developer and the best is 50:1; maybe even 100:1. Very few things in life are like this, but [...] software is like this.

So I’ve built a lot of my success on finding these truly gifted people, and not settling for “B” and “C” players, but really going for the “A” players.

And I found something… I found that when you get enough “A” players together, when you go through the incredible work to find these “A” players, they really like working with each other. Because most have never had the chance to do that before. And they don’t work with “B” and “C” players, so it’s self-policing. They only want to hire “A” players. So you build these pockets of “A” players and it just propagates.

Talent matters, but why is passion essential? First, gamers intuitively sense if your game was crafted with love or from spreadsheets. Additionally, here's Jobs again:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
His point is especially relevant in a post-Covid world, where many developers work remotely. Only the best individuals self-organize effectively, making remote work viable regardless of how competent your producers are.

Honestly, this could be its own blog post, but let me quickly add two things:

First, I've led teams ranging from a single person to a hundred, plus hundreds of outsourcers. After over a dozen games, when we founded The Astronauts, we committed to working only with the best -- even if that meant smaller-scale projects compared to Bulletstorm or Gears of War: Judgment. Hence, our studio stayed at twelve people for so long. But with the success of Ethan and Witchfire Early Access, we're attracting more talent and have grown to twenty-six -- and I'd die for every single one of them. The policy remains unchanged, though.

Second, notice I didn't mention "experience". Talent, passion, work ethic -- yes. Experience? With these three traits, experience accumulates quickly. You need a portfolio of your amateur work -- ArtStation for artists, YouTube for programmers and sound engineers, etc. -- but experience remains the least important factor.

So there you have it. Those two pillars -- smart choices and a great team -- are key to games that look and play as if made by much larger teams.

But I still have no idea how Sandfall pulled off all those cut scenes in Expedition 33… It's beyond human comprehension.

Till next time,
Adrian




It’s been a while, and while we’ve been hard at work, you (the community) haven’t been resting on your laurels either. Which feels superb - it’s a reminder that Witchfire is landing in all kinds of ways - sometimes as a way to relax, other times as a source of creative fuel. So, before we get into the shenanigans, we have to see what sparks of ingenuity have jumped out of the Witchfire-powered furnace…


[h3]A surprise to be sure…[/h3]
I didn’t expect to see someone turn our game into a fully-fledged DnD campaign, yet here we are – Lex decided not to wait for someone else to imagine Witchfire as a tabletop RPG and did it himself. He created a playbook (damn nice work, by the way), which you can download and use to embark on your own adventure. If you’re a seasoned player and have comments or suggestions, don’t hesitate to hit Lex up on Twitter and share your thoughts on our Discord. We’d love to hear about your adventures!

[h3]…but a welcome one[/h3]
Another thing I personally didn’t have on my bingo card for this month – or even this year (clap four times) – was a fan-made audio drama set in the world of Witchfire. And yet, thanks to the efforts of Walber, we’ve got one: nearly fifty minutes long and available on YouTube. We recommend grabbing a comfy pair of headphones and letting the sound carry you to the world of Witchfire.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]Builds, builds, builds[/h3]
One of the more recent additions to our ever-evolving Discord server is a channel dedicated to builds, allowing players to share and discuss their loadouts. Turns out Bananenklaus found a way to elevate the experience even further – enter the Witchfire randomizer. Now you can hit “random” to generate loadouts that might challenge you in new ways, even when you’re not playing! Want to offer suggestions or feedback? Visit the original Reddit thread.

[h3]Peak storytelling[/h3]
There are a lot of images and videos you post that make us laugh, but one post from April was spot on:





[h3]Sir, you cannot skate here. SIR.[/h3]
No matter what we do, some games and series are impossible to get out of our collective systems – you found a way to pay homage to the likes of Skate, SSX, and THPS while commuting in Witchfire. This clip from our Discord proves that even in places of research and worship, some of you simply cannot be contained. At this point, I’m honestly expecting someone to mod in a third-person camera, blast Pearl Jam's “Even Flow” in the background, and perform a Judas Air* on the steps of the Irongate Castle.

Click here to see the full video

* - The trick Christ Air has been renamed for accuracy within Witchfire universe.

[h3]A review that’s realer than real[/h3]
Our team is mostly made up of Poles, and as such, we confirm – that was the inspiration behind the game. You got us.


Source: Steam review.

[h3]*Considers dusting off the GH controller*[/h3]
The quest to find more optimized and/or exotic ways of controlling the game is eternal and inevitable. While we’re yet to see someone play Witchfire on a DDR mat, we have seen someone give it a go using… a flight stick and a gyro. The jury’s still out on whether this actually makes sense (though SiccFricc seems adamant that it does). We’ll update you if more people decide to give it a try.

Click here to see the full video

[h3]Speedrunning the labyrinth. Emphasis on speed and running.[/h3]
When the labyrinth under Witch Mountain was being built, we knew someone would eventually try to beat it against the clock – just like you made a hobby of harassing the Familiars until they weeped into their pillows. And you delivered – or rather, xdmuufo did, completing the maze before the clock hit two minutes.

Click here to see the full video

Fun fact: our team took that personally. There was a moment when we almost needed leaderboards, because the time differences were microscopic.

Wondering what the in-house Lab record™ was? Let’s just say there’s a lot of room for improvement for you – to the tune of tens (not tenths) of seconds.

Low-key hoping this reignites the rivalry and that you’ll show us what you can do – but I’m not holding my breath.

[h3]HR speaking, how may we help you, Mr. Dimacher?[/h3]
You know how it goes – we release an update with a boss that’s supposed to be a challenge, a real moment of reckoning… and then a player comes along and melts the boss in mere seconds.

But not quite like this. Hypnosis Goblin managed to obliterate Dimacher in three seconds.

Three.

Seconds.

Click here to see the full video

Granted, it took a whole lot of experience and knowledge of how to use mechanics and buffs effectively – but still. Three seconds. One twentieth of a minute. Unreal (Engine 4, pardon the pun). If you’ve already watched the video and are wondering how the hell that happened, Goblin also posted a peek behind the curtain on how to shoot so damn fast - head over to Reddit to learn about punchgunning.

[h3]Are you not entertained?[/h3]
We’re not going to tell you how you should feel while playing Witchfire. We only know what we have in mind while creating the game – but it turns out there’s a whole range of emotions you experience while running around eliminating the witch’s minions.

Some of you have been scared while exploring Witch Mountain. Some of you feel tense throughout. Others? Well, some are casually committing crimes against monstrosities (see: previous paragraph).

If you belong to the former two categories, we may have a solution of sorts: as part of our social media presence on X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky, every Friday we post media designed to provide comfort and tranquility. Peaceful postcards from places you know from your crusades against the forces of evil.
A post shared by The Astronauts (@theastrocrew)

Feel free to join us – and, as a bonus, experience violence toggled to ON on Mondays, when we show you how havoc can be wreaked in Witchfire.

Hope to see you there, take care!

Piotrek

Here we are – The Witch Mountain has been delivered, most (if not all) of you have already played it, and you've given us a ton of feedback. While we’re still digging through all of it (and it’s going to take a while), you've already started asking questions about the future, and it’s only fair to answer them.

But before we do that, let’s take a look back. It’s been a long road, and we haven’t exactly been sitting on the sidelines, staring off into the distance and slacking off.

• 2023.09 - Early Access launch on the Epic Games Store. The reception was phenomenal, and the whole launch was an experience like no other - you can read more about how we felt back then in this post by Adrian
  
• 2024.04 - The Ghost Galeon Update – first major update, introduced Gnosis, refreshed Calamities, The Collector, Mirages and Witch Vaults
  
• 2024.08 – The Wailing Tower Update – second major update, introduced a new region, Prophecies, Corrupted Arcana and Fallen Preyers
  
• 2024.09 – Steam Early Access Launch + The High Stakes Update – making the game available on a new platform, Mysteria forge, new stamina system, Island of the Damned’s Witch Vault
  
• 2024.12 – The Brewing Update – release of Preview 1 and 2 allowing you to play in super-early access at your own risk, before the update was actually available; introduction of Alchemy, boss reshuffle
  
• 2025.03 – The Witch Mountain Update – introduction of a new region, Fallen Preyers 2.0, Shadow Orbs.
  

In total, that's 5 major updates, 27 patches and 6 hotfixes. As its the rule, each major update always included a new gear pack: new weapons, spells, fetishes, relics or rings.

[h2]Roadmap Update[/h2]

And now, let’s take a look at the updated roadmap:



As you can see, nearly everything has shifted by about three months. This delay stems from the Witch Mountain update, which took longer than expected. Rather than creating a standard boss rush challenge, we opted to develop the Labyrinth and all the wild elements it brings. We believe the extra time was worth it - quality and surprises are core to Witchfire’s DNA - but it did come at the cost of a delay.

Let me talk about each upcoming update in more detail.

[h3]There's a preyer in the cursed town[/h3]

Originally scheduled for this spring, the first major stop on the map is the Webgrave update, which we’re planning to release sometime in mid-2025.

The work on this update has already began. A few days ago, we had a planning meeting where we established a realistic timeline for deliverables, and we’re working on bringing the vision to life.

The groundwork has already been laid some time ago, and the level is… well, I wanted to say "playable," but that’s a bit too generous. "Mostly traversable" seems more fitting, though small parts are already populated with enemies who will give you a bit of a pause. Having explored it a few times, I can confidently say it’s the same goodness you’ve already experienced - except there’s more of it, dialed up to 11, and sprinkled with fresh surprises. I wish I could tell you more, but it’s too soon to spill the beans. Let’s just say the fire has been lit (a Vestal Flame, if you will), and we’ll be drip-feeding information for a while.

[h3]Like clockwork...[/h3]

The second update will bring a significant upgrade to some core mechanics, planned for release in the fall. I’m sure you can put two and two together (or rather, 2.0 and 2.0) and guess what’s coming based on the rest of the roadmap. These mechanical overhauls have been in discussion for a while, shaped by internal debates, our own experiences, and - last but not least - your feedback. We’ll share more details as we get closer to launch.

[h3]Seems like you're gonna need another map[/h3]

The third update is a big one - another region, one of the two mystery locations you’ve probably been eyeing on the destination screen, wondering what’s hidden in the distance. To quote a contemporary classic, "the patterns are there, buried in the data." You can see the direction we’re heading with our maps, and we’re not here just to meet expectations - we’re here to exceed them.

[h3]Your package is (not) out for delivery (yet)[/h3]

That said, exceeding expectations doesn’t happen overnight. As I mentioned it before, building the foundation of Witch Mountain took longer than expected, which means the overall timeline has shifted. As a result, the full launch of the game has been moved from late 2025 to early 2026. We’ve learned our lesson about calendar management - delivering the game this year is impossible, so we’re letting you know as early as we can while setting a realistic alternative.

There’s a meme floating around the Polish corner of the internet, "pora na CSa" ("time for CS"), used when someone slacks off, does the bare minimum, and then disappears to play Counter-Strike instead of doing their job properly. Some of you might think that’s what we’re doing (though if you frequent our Discord, you know how often we’re burning the midnight oil), but that couldn’t be further from the truth. While we’re adding content and refining what’s already in the game, there’s also a lot of behind-the-scenes work happening, even if it’s not immediately visible.

Two out of the three of the most frequently asked about features fall into this category, so let’s take a moment to address them…

Localization

It’s hard to count how many times we’ve seen requests for "language X" or "version Y" over the past months and years, and we’re not ignoring them. Localization is a far more complex subject than it appears at first glance, and we fully understand how important it is.

But that’s why we want to work with the best people. After a long selection process, we’ve chosen a lead for localization and partnered with a studio that will help bring Witchfire into multiple languages.

We’re not announcing who they are just yet, but they’re absolute stars - responsible for translating some of the biggest and best games of the past two decades. We understand that this needs to be done right, and we’re sparing no expense to ensure top-tier localization, so all people can enjoy the game and understand the world they’re experiencing.

Consoles

Another hot topic that some think we’re ignoring - even though it’s one of our top priorities (I believe I even mentioned it in the previous Hermitorium Archives). Porting the game to other platforms isn’t as simple as pressing a button labeled "PORT" and watching the builds magically appear in a folder. There are considerations like engine versions, system resources, hardware architecture differences, platform-specific requirements, and compliance rules.

We take this process very seriously, and we’re currently halfway through recruiting an expert who will help us bring our vision to consoles. Ports are a matter of "when", not "if," but doing them right takes time. We’re not willing to compromise the Witchfire experience just to ship sooner. We pride ourselves on delivering quality.

Co-Op

The third most often requested feature... And, folks, for the hundredth time - we absolutely understand the appeal of co-op. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t have racked up tens of thousands of hours across the team in a certain franchise that starts with “D” and ends with “-estiny.”

But - from day one, Witchfire has been designed as a single-player experience. Restructuring it into a co-op game at this stage would be an immense undertaking that simply wouldn’t make sense. Asking us to change course this late in development? Pointless.

If you want a co-op shooter, there's already quite a few on the market, and more are coming! Meanwhile, as for Witchfire, let us make the best possible Single Player experience we can. It will be worth it, we hope.



[h3]The state of the world...[/h3]

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been hard at work on the Witch Mountain Update, keeping a close eye on your feedback. Amid the sea of comments, one in particular stood out - not just for what it said about Witchfire, but for what it revealed about the state of the industry as a whole:

Click to visit the thread.

I am just going to leave you with your own thoughts on this - we surely have our own feelings, but it's a matter so profound and personal, I'd rather not point you into any direction.

[h3]There is virtually no limit to what can be resurrected - be mindful when pissing off a necromancer[/h3]

Here’s a little PSA for those of you struggling with Dinmacher in regular duels: tackle him after dealing with other enemies, and definitely make sure to take out all the War Priests. Why? Well, mainly because the War Priest operates like a Marxist utopia - completely blind to class distinctions - which means he might just resurrect the very boss that gave you the hardest time. Reddit user plzinsertbeer found that out the hard way…

Click to visit the source

[h3]I’ll Give You Damage…[/h3]

A few distinct playstyles are emerging from the videos making the rounds online. On one end of the spectrum, you have the “preppers” - methodically unlocking as many arcana as possible, sometimes even managing a full set. On the other end, some players don’t care about arcana at all and are just going in guns blazing. And then there are those who science the crap out of multipliers, dealing (un)godly amounts of damage:

Click to visit the source

[h3]Hang on a Minute - There’s a Robot Missing from This Picture…[/h3]

I like to think I play at a respectable pace, but that illusion shatters when I see gameplay like this:

Click to visit the source

[h3]Yes, Hello, PEGI? This is ESRB - Do You Have a Minute to Chat?[/h3]

Let’s just say there’s a reason why the disclaimer “Online Interactions Not Rated” exists. Witchfire is a single-player game, yet some of the player-driven world interactions could probably still raise a few eyebrows among the rating boards…


Source:Witchfire Discord.

[h3]The Duelist Appreciation Corner[/h3]

We knew that the new gun is going to be fan-favourite, especially since testing it during the development was a blast, but we underestimated how much you will fall in love with it. It's an absolute joy to read messages such as these ones:

























That's all for this week, folks. Take care!