We are a small independent game developer located in Warsaw, Poland. Before The Astronauts, some of us worked on games like Painkiller and Bulletstorm.
Our latest project is Witchfire, a dark fantasy first person shooter set in an alternative world in which witches are real and very dangerous – but so are you, witchhunter.
Our first game was a weird fiction mystery titled The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. The game has won many awards, including BAFTA, and we sold over one million copies. It’s available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Click here for more details.
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Road to Revelations - Assistants, Plants, Strong Currents
Last week we begun the dev diary cycle leading up to the release of the Revelations Update and we’re really excited to see how many of you gave it a read. We also wanted to thank you for all the discussions and reactions to the post; it’s great to see your support and hear your thoughts.
Let’s now move on to revealing the next pieces of the upcoming update, starting with…
Fallen Preyers (3.0)
This is what we teased last week – the overlooked part of the game getting a serious overhaul.
We know the Fallen Preyers have been the quietest part of Witchfire. They work, and you use them, but they’ve never quite belonged to the world the way the rest of the game does. Revelations fixes that.
Mask shard collection stays the same – twenty one shards for a full roster – but that’s the entry point now, not the whole point.
A refresher in case you skipped the lore: every Fallen Preyer once served the Pope on a mission that ended badly on the slopes of the Witch Mountain, and the Witch’s magic locked them out of resurrection. They’re bound instead to the Vestal Flame in the Hermitorium, and that’s where you’ll deal with them.
After Revelations, they stop being interchangeable. Through field encounters, micro-quests, and a correspondence with the Vatican, you’ll uncover who each of them was, what they did, and how they died. When one of them appears on an expedition, ignoring them means missing pieces of the puzzle – they won’t just be a green dot on your radar anymore.
Furthermore, upon seeing the full picture you will be asked to render judgement over them – a choice that will have real gameplay consequences.
As of this moment it may not seem like a big deal, but we have been working on making them a lot more useful and their absence – if you decide to banish any one of them – should be a lot more perceptible.
(A note from Adrian, the Creative Director: Fallen Preyers used to be a gameplay mechanic with a thin lore wrapper. After Revelations, they’re a central part of the story. The protagonist of Witchfire — whose name we’ll reveal with the update — isn’t only a killer. He’s a detective and an exorcist too, and you’ll use both skills to decide whether each Preyer deserves absolution or condemnation, after uncovering their past and reading their current state of mind.)
Another puzzle piece regarding interactions will be unveiled next week – stay tuned.
Before we move on to the Hermitorium Archives, there are two more things to reveal – and both of them have been in some capacity guessed by members of our Discord community. Well, one of them has been guessed-guessed, the other one was a lucky shot two days ago, but I am getting ahead of myself.
Garden
This was guessed with 100% accuracy – not only that it’s coming, but also where it’s going to be, so either we have a leak, Alexij has a backdoor into our systems, or he has some sort of an AstroMindset and thinks the way we do. Or it was just that obvious.
Doesn’t really matter – Hermitorium is getting yet another expansion (after the shooting range and the Profane Study full of Torments), this time giving you a place where you can just…relax. The work of a preyer is a life of violence, but there is a little bit of the piechart, a hair-like one, which says “chill”. Or at least it will be there once Revelations drop.
Right now, if you follow down the stairs next to entrance to the Profane Study, you can spot a locked gate with a stylised EA symbol (which got us a message from the members of a Freemasons organisation, no joke) and that’s about it.
Starting with 0.9 you will be able to proceed beyond the said gate, to the part of the Hermitorium which has been thus far visited only by members of the devteam and a couple of unruly members of the community, who don’t care much about the silly bounds we’re setting up while developing the game.
You will be able to not only visit the garden and relax while sitting on the bench, but also use it to grow resources required for incenses. Some of you are able to gather them in the heat of the battle or after you’re done sending the enemies back to hell, but some players just don’t have the instinct to pick up every plant and bit of low-value loot that lies on the ground.
From 0.9 onward, you will be required to gather one basic item per resource, and you will be able to have them at your disposal in your base. You will need to take care of the garden, but if you do – it’s going to bear more fruit and reward you with more resources. Plus, you will be able to enjoy the view, but that’s just a bonus.
Proton it’s not, but close enough.
Now, about that guess I mentioned… There was a brief discussion about weapons that happened on our Discord and one of the users posted this.
As it turns out, we have had something very similar in the works – it’s a new Demonic Weapon, we’re calling it the “Raygun” – as that’s what people in the world of Witchfire would call it. It’s still a work in progress, so some things (effects, recoil, etc) may still be fine-tuned and altered, but we’re pretty certain that it will be included in the Revelations Update Gearpack, so let me show you a little something:
It is not the only weapon that’s coming to the game in the few weeks time. We’re bringing some other new toys, too, and we are going to reveal what joins the arsenal next week. Stay tuned.
A (second) call to test
Oh, and more more thing – the language QA form is still open, so if you want to throw your name into the hat, do not hesitate to do so. We’re extremely happy that quite a lot of you responded, but more entries are always welcome, so if you’d like to help us out, please hit these different-colour letters and send us a form. Thank you!
HERMITORIUM ARCHIVES
Can I copy your homework?
‘Yeah, just change it up a bit, so it doesn’t look obvious you copied’
Over the past few weeks we have been observing quite a lot of crashes that seem to disappear after rolling back drivers to one of the previous versions. We’re taking these very seriously and while there have been a lot of reports, we didn’t really get any data – neither from our crash reporter tool (it doesn’t reach that deep into your systems), nor from you, the players. Granted, crashes are extremely annoying and we get that asking you to send us additional data is yet another chore on top of the injury and inconvenience, but we really need your files to know what’s going on and be able to eradicate it. Maybe reaching out to you over DM or responses is not enough, so it’s a public appeal: if you suffer (or suffered) crash caused by driver issues, please let us know. We created a dedicated google form to which you can upload your crash reports – please use it, we will be grateful and it may just give us what we need to get to the bottom of this.
The full story of Witchfire will be revealed in 1.0 – there are tidbits that we will be pre-seeding and integrating into the game in the upcoming update, but the lion’s share is yet to come. A while ago we announced who is the lead writer, but while we are working on the game, some of you are unleashing their own creativity and enriching the world of Witchfire on your own. Here is one of more awesome creations we have seen in the recent months, we strongly recommend you give it a read.
I believe that this has already been mentioned in one of the previous Hermitorium Archives, but it’s a good idea to say once more that it’s on our to-do list. Mind you, the list is probably long enough to wrap around the world when printed, but we will get there. Truth be told, I also hate the lack of layering of the radar/map and I remember how much confusion it sparked when I was beginning my Witchfire journey. Have I spent far too much time thinking that Dimacher’s chambers have secret stash and untold treasures high above the ground, somewhere on the beams under the roof? The answer is not “no”.
At this point I have a special folder named “Box quotes” which contains creme de la creme of one-liners from your posts and reviews, or even entire reviews. This one made the list.
