News Witchfire (by Austronauts) - Year after reveal

prudis

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During the 300 years of European witch hunts that started in the 15th century, tens of thousands of women, men and children lost their lives due to superstition, politics and profit.

But that’s our history and our world.

In the world of Witchfire, witches are real.

And you are the punishing hand of the Church.

That’s the core idea behind the game, even if things are not as black-and-white as one might think.

(If you have issues with the video clips or just want the source, here)

There will be some sightseeing…


Witchfire is a first person shooter focused on challenge and mastery. We’re trying to make sure it’s accessible and there are many roads to the ultimate victory but you’ll still need to prove your witch-hunting skills if you’re after all of its secrets.

To get one thing out of the way: Witchfire is not a story-based game. There’s lore to discover and decipher, but no cut-scenes to follow. A project like that – e.g. like Bulletstorm, a game that some of us directed – would be bordering on impossible for a tiny team like ours. More importantly, though, the heart of the game is somewhere else. We will talk about it more as soon as we’re ready.

…you will meet interesting strangers…


Speaking of which, where are we with Witchfire? Why were we silent for a year?

Nothing dramatic is happening. We’re working on the game every day. It’s just that eight people, even with the help of some amazing outsourcers and a fantastic engine (UE4) can’t really move much faster with a project like this. We’re looking for just one more programmer but we still want to remain a tight team for the time being. This might change in the future, when we have all features of the game fully proven.

A lot of asset work has been done. We have dozens of guns ready, they’re being animated at this very moment. We have enough modelled and animated enemy models to make a significant portion of the game, and one of us is currently finishing the work on the core AI that will govern them all. For two years now, the graphic artists have been working on the map assets mostly using the photogrammetry tech. The actual levels are being meshed. The main features have all been designed and just wait until their implementation time comes.

…and you’ll knock on doors to meet friendly neighbours.


Still, we wouldn’t expect the game to come out in 2019. However, 2020 sounds reasonable.

So what happens now?

We’re starting Witchfire Development Updates. Witchfire Diaries. Witchfire Wednesdays. Whatever you want to call it, every Wednesday we will reveal something new about the game, show behind the scenes stuff showing how games are made (so expect a lot of crude assets, basic animations and other dirty things), or explain the design ideas. For example, we will talk why it took us a day to have a functional gun, but three months to have a great feeling one, and we will show at how we arrived at the final form of a creepy monster after the first sketch that just made us laugh.

Every time an entry is published, we will announce it both on our Twitter and Facebook. Feel free to ask us questions, we will try to answer them in one of the next posts.

And remember,

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
– Exodus 22:18​

Witchfire, a Year After Reveal
 

Kuroyume

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Oct 21, 2018
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Speaking of which, where are we with Witchfire? Why were we silent for a year?

Nothing dramatic is happening. We’re working on the game every day. It’s just that eight people, even with the help of some amazing outsourcers and a fantastic engine (UE4) can’t really move much faster with a project like this.
I wonder how many people they're outsourcing to, because for 8 people that looks amazing.
 
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gabbo

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Not sure I like the short story description given how that comes off in 2019, but it looks good graphically, especially for an 8-person team
 

lashman

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Sep 5, 2018
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should that come to be true.
at this point i'd be extremely surprised if it didn't ... it's running on UE4 and Chmielarz has been talking VERY positively about egs on his twitter a while ago (along with comments like "it's just another launcher" etc.)

so ... yeah ...
 

gabbo

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Dec 22, 2018
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at this point i'd be extremely surprised if it didn't ... it's running on UE4 and Chmielarz has been talking VERY positively about egs on his twitter a while ago (along with comments like "it's just another launcher" etc.)

so ... yeah ...
I dont follow a lot of devs on social media, perhaps to my detriment, so this is news to me. Sad, sad news.
 

lashman

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I dont follow a lot of devs on social media, perhaps to my detriment, so this is news to me. Sad, sad news.
i don't follow him either ... but i did see those tweets

so yeah, don't get your hopes up
 
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prudis

prudis

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good articles about the soulsborne comparisions

 

xinek

日本語が苦手
Apr 17, 2019
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I dont follow a lot of devs on social media, perhaps to my detriment, so this is news to me. Sad, sad news.
So gross. On a more positive note, it's another game that will cease to exist for me, so I'll save a buck and have more time for something nice from the backlog.
 

Kuro

"Oh yeah? Aren't you gonna punish me?"
Dec 22, 2018
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Definitely getting on my watchlist, looks dope as hell.
 

Aelphaeis Mangarae

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Apr 21, 2019
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I think they might face some backlash over the difference in tone between the reveal trailer and the actual game. Over the past year or so, there's been a huge negative sentiment towards anything with damage numbers or health bars, and this goes hand in hand with distaste for Ubisoft inserting damage numbers and health bars into previously "gritty" franchises. The footage in the second Internal Demo looks pretty good, but I've been seeing some negativity over what people perceive as a shift towards "Borderlands" which is basically shorthand for "has damage numbers and health bars". The reveal trailer kinda sold itself on being moody and atmospheric.
 

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
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Damage numbers are fine so long as the gameplay is still more gun souls than gunlands 3 (presentation still reminds more of the former than the latter).

Though of course a good shlooter is good to have too. Looks plenty atmospheric still to me, great details on the enemy types in past updates too.
 
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