Preyers!
It’s been a short while since Revelations was released and the dust is slowly settling, but we’re not quite done yet as there is at least one more patch coming. Before we talk about what the future holds, let’s take a moment to talk about the update itself - it generated quite a lot of movement, we have seen the highest player count since the Early Access launch with over 4000 of you playing simultaneously, and we already know that the Revelations launch week was one of the strongest we have ever had, sales-wise. We’re not going to reveal numbers, but you can take our word for it - it was a success, and each and every one of the new players is to be thanked for that, so… thank you.
We also have to thank you for a torrent of feedback - luckily, it wasn’t as harsh as the feedback we received during the Reckoning days (although, again, the criticism back then was valid), but it was abundant nevertheless. We received over 1100 new reviews in the past 30 days - 86% of them positive, which is very heartwarming, but it also tells us that there is quite a lot of room for improvement, so we got to work.
There are core elements of the game which are being criticised quite widely in the aforementioned 14%, and these are not going to change, because, well, they are core to the game: we will not include multiplayer or co-op, we will not remove stamina, and we will not turn it into a game that plays itself. Being challenging is kind of what this game is all about - and we’re creating a game, not a toy.
That said, we’re reading you and we’re having another look at some of the most heavily criticised aspects of Witchfire, while simultaneously testing them with some of the most experienced players we know. It’s still too early to say whether the changes we’re testing as I type these words will make it into 0.9.4 - due to be released next week - but if they do, they may prove to be quite a game-changer for the Witchfire's balance. If you're curious, stay tuned and watch our usual space for patch notes - we will surely mention it there.
We're also very aware of your comments about the performance - all the threads reporting performance issues are being read.
And I mean all of them.
As you may know, Witchfire is Steam Deck Verified, so the game already runs very well on a wide range of hardware and has been tested by literally hundreds of thousands of players. That’s not to say there isn’t still work to do - there absolutely is - but optimisation is something we’ve been treating seriously for a long time and we’ll continue to improve it with every patch.
When someone experiences severe performance issues, it often turns out to be something specific to that particular PC - outdated drivers, unstable overclocks, background software eating up resources, hardware instability, and so on. That doesn’t mean we assume every report falls into that category, but it’s always worth checking the basics first.
We know what the hardware distribution on Steam looks like (thanks, Steam Hardware Survey), and we also know that the percentage of people rocking GPUs capable of simulating weather patterns over Europe is… rather small. We want everyone with reasonable hardware to be able to enjoy the game.
In fact, one of us is on a personal quest to make it playable on a laptop that’s a decade old, and his findings may have an impact on Witchfire. That’s not to say we’re going to lower the system requirements, but it’s just one of the many fronts on which we’re trying to make the game better.
Marshland is quite demanding - it has a tonne of foliage, which in itself requires a lot of resources to look as good as it does, and we’re deep in the optimisation process, so the current performance profile is not final by any means. We’re really trying our best here because there is a lot on the table - the more we’re able to squeeze out now, the better your experience will be and the less optimisation work we’ll need to do for the console versions.
Yes, the console versions - they’re among the most frequently requested things across all the channels where we’re present. Last year, in one of the previous dev diaries, we mentioned that we made a new hire with consoles in mind, and his expertise has proven to be invaluable on more than one occasion. We may have also taken delivery of some devkits, but I won’t spoil anything else or talk about dates and/or target platforms - just be aware that things are very much in motion.
Things are, and have been, in motion as well when it comes to 1.0. It’s not like we’re working on patches and putting the finishing touches on 0.9, only to begin work on 1.0 once we’re done - there are a lot of things happening simultaneously. We’re not ready to talk about the launch date just yet, so, for now, “2026” remains the official statement. We know it’s vague, but we’ll give you a more precise time window once we’re ready - giving a date just for the sake of giving one wouldn’t really make sense.
In one of the earlier blog posts I wrote that 0.9 is extremely important to us - well, 1.0 trumps it in every possible way and makes it look like peanuts in comparison. It will be the culmination of almost a decade of work - making the game “shippable” is one thing, but we want to release release something that’s as close to perfect as we can. And there is the whole thing of also making sure it lives up to our own expectations is another, so, you know, no internal pressure.
We also had a bit of a rethink regarding a demo, but after discussing it we arrived at the same conclusion - it just wouldn’t make sense. We’re too small of a team to maintain one more product, so our stance remains unchanged.
One more important thing that comes up every now and then is the question of pricing - some among you were curious whether the current $40 price point (actually $32 at the moment, as we’re part of the Steam Summer Sale) will change, and the honest answer is that it remains to be seen. We may change it, we may keep it as it is and prepare some sort of special edition alongside the base game - there are some bits and bobs of extra content which neither you nor the dataminers (we’re much more cautious after the Marshland map leak) have seen yet, and it deserves to be seen, so… We will see (pun intended) how we decide to share it with you.
There’s also some controversy surrounding the fact that we may need to wipe your saves for 1.0, so let’s make things clear. We will recommend starting anew for the best experience, but we will not force anyone to do it unless there is a technical reason for it. Some of you asked what “the best experience” means, and… Witchfire is a game which is not meant to be easy (at least not from the get-go) - you’re playing as a reformed sinner who is fuelled with aether and on a mission to kill a Witch who decimated armies before you. Waltzing onto the Island of the Damned with a level 541 character and blowing everyone to smithereens hardly spells challenge.
We managed to shield you from the need to wipe saves thus far and - hopefully - we will be able to do so again with 1.0, but there’s no guarantee of that. Development is an iterative and dynamic process - we may need (or feel the need) to redesign something so deep in the back end that your saves stop working. Such is the charm of Early Access titles: things may change. Admittedly, we’re in the Late Early Access, but it can still happen. You know what I mean.
We will share more about the future of Witchfire when the time comes. We also remain active on our social media, Steam forums, Reddit and - of course - our Discord. Feel free to pop in and chat with us and our growing community.
And since the community has been mentioned…
Hermitorium Archives
Quite a lot has been happening in the past two weeks - you have been very active and generated about this much (I am stretching my hands as wide as I can) content, so there is no hope in hell we can have a look at it all, but let’s have a look at a small selection of stuff.
Makes a designer smile.
The Outskirts Vault was supposed to be included in the Reckoning Update, but we decided to delay it to make it extra polished and give it a bit of TLC on a whole new level. That’s not to say that we didn’t care about the previous ones, but we wanted this one to feel even more special (specialer?). Seems that it paid off, and that placing a puzzle (even if it is a bit crude) at the entrance was a bullseye. It was fantastic to read about your investigations and the challenge the vault itself posed. I won’t say “expect more”, but we can certainly draw conclusions from our previous experiences…
I cast Iron Cross.
There are certain spells in the game which get used far more than others. While Winter Nail has become one of my personal favourites, Iron Cross is firmly planted in the S-tier, and this post perfectly illustrates why.
Warning system - the early days.
Since the game is still in Early Access, there is a chance that we’ll get the warning system onto the workbench and tweak it sometime between now and 1.0 (or maybe even beyond that point), but I wanted to use this post as a pretext to show you something from the very early days of development. Here’s how it looked before all the fancy arrows and cues became a thing.
Isn’t it marvellous? Very old-school arcade racer, all that is (or rather was) missing is the enemy range indicator a'la the one from Most Wanted Anno Domini 2005. So, people who are still demanding Witchfire Karting - watch out, we may have already had some assets prepared before you were even aware of our game existence.
Look how they massacr… Oh, hang on, it’s a work in progress.
The post is quite harsh, but the first comment is absolutely right and we’re working on bringing more life to the creature. The animations are being crafted and while they may not make it into the upcoming patch (all will be revealed here once the update drops), we recognise their absence as an immersion breaker and it won’t stay that way forever. Also, please be kind to her - she is very lost and is trying to help.
World Corruption is also a work in progress.
While we don’t exactly agree with the “buggy mess” part, we know that it requires work - maybe not “again” so much as continuously. We have already outlined the plan in the patch notes for 0.9.3, so stay tuned - it’s still evolving.
Probably the shortest Hermitorium Archives segment ever.
[F]
The New Key Art
Some of you already expressed your appreciation for the new key art and we have posted it to Twitter and Reddit a while ago, but we know that not everyone frequents these parts of the internet, so we’re also uploading it here for your convenience and viewing pleasure, since Dave Rapoza has done a fantastic job. We’re also adding the artwork that graced the cover of PC Gamer, because why not. Enjoy!
That’s it for now - we will surely be back with more behind the scenes and news from the Witchfire world soon.
Cheers!