The Astronauts have announced that they have delayed their upcoming game Witchfire as the developers are looking to expand the game’s combat system from arena style to more open-world combat. To work on the new feature, the game has understandably been delayed until the next year 2023.
The game was initially planned to launch to Early Access on the Epic Games Store in Q4 of 2022 but now will come at an unannounced date next year.
In a Witchfire Wednesday blog post, Creative Director and Co-Founder, Adrian Chmielarz shared details of the new feature saying that it is “95% implemented.”
The feature is now 95% implemented. It makes the game better. It is kind of hard for me to imagine the player did not have that freedom before. Sure, you can still be trapped by the witch in this or that spot, and some doors will be closed until you find a key, and it might be too dangerous to enter areas closer to the boss before you are ready– but the world is wide open for you to explore in almost any order, and you can both push forward and retreat as you please.
This information will come as a relief for fans who might have been thinking of a big delay following the news. We can’t blame them, as a feature such as open-world combat does sound like it can take a good amount of time before implementation. In addition, Chmielarz is also confident with the 2023 release target, adding that the high-quality gameplay was more important to the team than a 2022 launch date. He also went on to tease more news of the game that fans can expect this month.
Last but not least, expect something nice in a week or two. Let’s call it Witchfire Halloween Week. It won’t be any gameplay footage or stream or such, but if you are interested in the story and the world and great 2D art, it’s going to be a treat.
In Witchfire, you enter a world where a deadly war rages between powerful witches and the Church. The witches are real and very dangerous, but so are the witch hunters in this alternate reality. You will be armed by the Vatican sorcerers with an ungodly array of guns and forbidden magic, as you combat dark terrors.
The game is also the second project from The Astronauts, following their very popular, award-winning title, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. It is built in Unreal Engine 4, boasting AAA graphics made by an indie team of only nine people. Players explore gorgeous, semi-open-world levels, featuring advanced photogrammetry and post-processing that create an immersive and realistic dark fantasy world.
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