PC Witchfire

Entwickler:

Have you been wondering what we’ve been up to lately? Well, the new game we’re working on is called Witchfire. It’s a dark fantasy first person shooter… and that’s all we can say at the moment. The game is still a long way from release and we are not announcing any other platforms than PC/Steam. The reason we’re launching the teaser so early is simply to let everyone know that we’re alive and kicking, and how radically different this new project of ours is compared to our previous game, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

That change in direction isn’t anything new for the core team, though. The three co-owners of The Astronauts were also the co-owners of People Can Fly, as well as the creative leads behind shooters like Painkiller and Bulletstorm. While Witchfire is also a shooter, we’re aiming to make a game unlike anything we have done in the past, both in tone and in game mechanics.

As you can see in the teaser, Witchfire uses the photogrammetry tech we previously used in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. This tech allows us to 3D scan real-life objects – even entire buildings! – and use them as digital assets in our games for unparalleled visual quality, and natural, organic look and feel. We believe we can push the tech even further, with new tools, hardware, and all the experience we gathered during the development of our first game and can’t wait to bring you along on the ride with us!

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Zerfikka schrieb:

Das sieht ja selbst als 720p Vid abartig gut aus, heute abend mal in 4k schauen.

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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.

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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. 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.

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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.

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Just a short preview of what we're currently working on. By definition, work in progress.

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