At the Summer Game Fest 2023, Polish indie developer The Astronauts (The Vanishing of Ethan Carter) announced the early access release date for Witchfire. The dark fantasy first-person shooter game will debut on September 20th for PC as an Epic Games Store exclusive.
In an interview posted on the Epic Games blog, The Astronauts Co-Founder and Creative Director Adrian Chmielarz said that the early access debut is focused on gameplay rather than story. However, the developers worked extensively on the game's lore, and Chmielarz shared the two pillars of Witchfire world design, each inspired by an extremely famous author.
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 of Witchfire 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.
Elsewhere in the interview, Chmielarz admitted that the switch to open world levels set the game back by around a year, but he maintains Witchfire is now much better after the shift.
Interestingly, the Creative Director also clarified that the game isn't wholly focused on action. Players can also look forward to moments of 'quiet exploration', just like in most Soulslike games made by From Software.
The pricing information for Witchfire hasn't been shared yet. As a reminder, the game will support NVIDIA DLSS 3 (Frame Generation), which Chmielarz previously described as a 'no-brainer' since it allows no compromises between frame rate and visuals.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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