Witchfire Early Access won’t be available until next year at the earliest

Reason for the delay regarding a radical change in game systems, especially combat systems and exploration of the game world.. Both abandon the idea of ​​an arena shooter in favor of it. an attempt to offer players a partially open world. Until now, during Witchfire, players had to move through the regions in a special rogue-lite way, so that after clearing the arena, there was a choice between a reward that sent you in one direction, and another reward that allowed you to go to another place. . AS WELL AS magical barriers were supposed to prevent them from escaping from the arena until the battle was successfully completed.

According to creative director Adrian Chmelartz in the new blog post, the barriers only appeared when you got close to the edge of the arena, so they didn’t obstruct your view and also made sense from a story standpoint. And what else, the plan was to link already cleared areas with the possibility of, for example, stumbling into a location full of enemies and then retreatingto lure opponents where you already know.

But then he got Chmielarz the feeling that the barriers are too outdated, look bad, limit the potential of the game and make the environment only a background during combat. So, after a series of protests and debates within the creative team, the decision was made to redesign and rewrite the combat and movement systems to make the game work in a semi-open world. This but the change couldn’t just happen. In addition to the initial complications, which were so great that they almost caused a return to the original plans, they led to a number of issues related to the design and behavior of the Witchfire. And this subsequently became the reason for the delay in the start of early access.

But according to Chmielartz, Witchfire is better because of this change, and he says that already he can’t imagine players didn’t have that kind of freedom of movement before. While you may still be trapped by the witch or unable to open the door until you find the key, the game world is now open to you and you can explore it in almost any order. In addition, there are no problems with promotion or withdrawal of funds as you wish. However, this is not a full open world. “Witchfire has NOT become an open world game. The levels are big and now you can freely explore them, unlike the old design, but it’s off-putting.” indicated Creators on Twitter.

However, the conversion must be 95% complete and in the coming weeks we should see something new from the game again. By all accounts, we shouldn’t expect gameplay footage or live streams, but fans of the story, game world, and 2D graphics will be in for a treat. In addition, the developers confirmed that Epic Games Store exclusivity applies to early access only. So, Witchfire will also be released on Steam and possibly consoles, we just have to wait for the game to finish.