Witchfire Early Access Launch Date and Other Info

As promised, Polish studio The Astronauts revealed a ton of new details about the FPS game Witchfire, including the release date. The title will go on sale in Early Access in the last quarter of this year. The Early Access phase will run exclusively on PC. No decision has been made yet regarding the release date of the full game and possible versions for other hardware platforms.

Early access should work very well for this project, as it will not be a traditional FPS. The devs describe Witchfire as a "roguelite game". It's a different category than the popular roguelike, although the boundaries between the two have become blurred these days. People from The Astronauts define roguelite as more forgiving than classic roguelikes. This is achieved by making sure that after each death the user keeps a part of the achievements and progress, and does not have to start from scratch. The developers give the following games as examples of titles with a similar approach: Hades, Returnal and Dead Cells.

This element of the mechanics, however, is to be more developed - to the point that Witchfire can even be described as a shooter RPG. Unfortunately, the developers didn't provide any details yet. However, it is worth noting the fact that on the new materials there are no more numbers appearing around enemies and indicating inflicted damage.

We also learned a little about the game's structure. In Witchfire we will have a hideout, which is the only safe place in the game world. The player will be able to store an infinite number of items in it, but the equipment which he or she will take on an expedition will be limited. The game will also include the mechanics of customizing weapons. The devs abandoned the idea of weapons with random perks. Each gun will be designed manually and will offer unique improvements, which will require a lot of effort to unlock.

Magic system in Witchfire is based on the four elements. One of them is water and among the spells associated with this element we will see freezing effect. On the other hand, spells connected with earth will lead, among other things, to the decomposition of the bodies of enemies. Magic can be combined with environmental elements and weapons. For example, it will be possible to electrocute enemies standing in water, and frozen monsters hit with heavy weapons will break into pieces. The system will also include mechanics for improving spells.

The game will not feature difficulty levels. Witchfire is designed as a title that will require a lot from the players. The creators are even considering adding an option which will further increase the challenge. It is supposed to be designed for the most hardcore veterans.

The game already offers support for ultra-panoramic resolutions (for screens with 21:9 aspect ratio), and in the near future there will be an option to center the gun sights. The devs are also studying the issue of implementing support for ray tracing and DLSS - for now, they are not ready to make any declarations on this topic. Moreover, the studio has no plans to port Witchfire to Unreal Engine 5.

The developers have also answered some questions from players. They reassured fans that NFT and the Metaverse concept don't interest them at all. They also confirmed that for the time being they have no plans for a co-op mode. The developers focus on the single player mode and promise that it will not require an Internet connection.

The team also addressed the issue of rare updates on the official website. Initially, they planned to inform players about all progress, but quickly realized that such openness does not work for their project. The developers want many elements of the game to be a surprise, and on top of that the team consists of only nine people. In comparison, a team more than twice as large worked on Painkiller. Therefore, The Astronauts does not want to promise regular updates, but only assures that the work is proceeding at a good pace and when the release in Early Access will be close, the pace of releasing new information and materials will be increased.

1. The Astronauts - official website