One year in, Witchfire continues to evolve into an amazing grimdark RPG shooter

A year after hitting Early Access and six years after its spooky (and enticing) unveiling, Witchfire remains—in some ways—an enigma. Adrian Chmielarz, co-founder of developer The Astronauts, says Witchfire is both the game they’ve always wanted to make and one that evolved significantly in the making, a game that has settled in with a deeply passionate (and seemingly happy) player base and one that continues to change.

As a player of Witchfire, I can say its evolutions have been surprising and meaningful at times, even though the heart of the game remains a polished first-person shooter steeped in the darkness and dread of games like Painkiller and Doom.

In Witchfire, players take on the role of a Preyer, an immortal witch-hunter crafted by the Church. Using guns and spells, you must hunt and kill an infamous witch. Each time you dip into the witch’s domain, you take on an assortment of creeping, flying, springing horrors and risk the direct wrath of the witch and her more powerful minions. You’ll also earn Witchfire (which can be used to research weapons and a slew of other things) as well as gold and such.

Die, and you lose it all—but finding an exit back to your safe haven is never easy, and the danger typically ramps up as you draw close.

While still in Early Access, Witchfire has received regular updates—small and large—that delivered everything from new regions and enemies to new spells and weapons.

We recently sat down with Chmielarz to discuss Witchfire’s fascinating journey through genres as eclectic as roguelite, extraction shooter, and role-playing game, and to hear what’s next in store for both the game and the studio, which first made a name for itself with the narratively driven (and distinctly not-a-shooter) The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

It's coming up on the first anniversary of Witchfire’s Early Access launch on the Epic Games Store. Looking back at the experience, what are your big-picture takeaways on how the team's vision for the game has evolved?

Adrian Chmielarz: I call it "quantum Witchfire" because on the one hand it's still the same game we always wanted to make, but on the other hand, it has evolved significantly. While I cannot say the game has found its voice (because it always had it), I can say we have shifted a bit from being a roguelite shooter towards becoming an RPG shooter. We now have a clear vision of how it all ends and how the final version of Witchfire will look.

Last September, you described the game as an action-shooter roguelike, but it's changed dramatically since then. How would you describe Witchfire today, and why?

Chmielarz: See, that's the first issue. We never called it a roguelike. We called it a roguelite. But I don't blame anyone who confuses the two—I confuse them myself sometimes as well. The thing is, the difference between them is gargantuan. Roguelikes are merciless. Roguelites, on the other hand, allow players to always gain something, even from a bad run.

We knew our take on roguelites was even more forgiving than usual. There was a time when we called Witchfire a roguelite for people who hate roguelites. We had something really cool there, a game crafted by people who liked the idea of roguelites but disliked the execution, as well as roguelite fanatics who speedrun Dead Cells with their monitors turned off.

But then we started introducing other elements, like non-randomized, hand-crafted dungeons called Vaults. Long story short, we realized we were making an RPG shooter, not a roguelite.

In your mind, what is the sweet spot for a play session? Is it engaging with the extraction shooter elements, the roguelite elements, the RPG elements…?

Chmielarz: Any moment can be the sweet spot, as it all works together. These elements are fused together for eternity.

But if I had to choose something, the sweet spot would be the shooter part. Not looting, not leveling up, not upgrading gear—just having a duel with the servants of the witch. We tried to make it engaging, visceral, and immersive. For me, this is the thing that still makes me play Witchfire despite having several thousand hours in it.

And that's not an exaggeration, to be clear. Almost every time I have to test a feature or a new enemy, I find myself losing track of time and just playing.

What do you think about where Witchfire is at nowadays? Do you have favorite elements? Is there a particular way you play it?

Chmielarz: My favorite part is that the game can still surprise me. I guess this is a byproduct of Witchfire being almost a sandbox kind of game with open levels. You have your goal, but how you go about it is up to you. And enemies have their tactics and plans. This produces a lot of cool and unpredictable situations, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic—like when I die because I get greedy, and messing with a single enemy turns into a giant battle with ghost ships bombarding you from the sky.

What has it been like working so openly with players on a game that is in Early Access?

Chmielarz: None of us have ever done this before. It's something new for us. But after this year, I now understand why Supergiant chose to go the Early Access route again with Hades II. It's just too beneficial for certain games.

The reason, unsurprisingly, is player feedback. There's a saying among game developers that when players feel something is wrong with the game, they're always right. But when they propose a solution, they're always wrong. I don't necessarily think that's true anymore because many gamers today are really savvy, with a lot of experience and deep knowledge of game systems. But even if this Early Access relationship was limited to player feedback, it would still be invaluable.

Personally, my favorite part is that our players serve as our doubt amplifier and neutralizer. Imagine you have a quiet doubt about an element of your game—you're just not convinced it's 100% there. Well, your players will tell you. Trust me, they will. Sometimes, it's a revelation: Your instincts were right, it's not really a small problem, and you need to do better. But every now and then, you see people having fun and enjoying the feature a lot, and you analyze where your instinct went wrong and learn from it.

Some of what happens during play is very mysterious. Do you plan on keeping it that way, or are you planning to do more handholding regarding things like Curses and random events?

Chmielarz: It's the subject of endless debates in the studio. Some of us want the mystery. Some of us argue that you cannot enjoy the mystery if you don't know what you're doing and why. So, the goal is to merge water with fire and have both. We certainly want the player to be autonomous in their decisions and not handheld, but we also need to find non-intrusive, non-cheesy ways to introduce our mechanics.
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We've already done something about this with the introduction of the Island of the Damned, and we're working on more.

Witchfire currently has a robust amount of content. You've talked about plans to add more, but recently, you've said that even those early plans should be expanded. You want even more enemy types, weapons, magic items, spells, and bosses than initially planned. What made you decide that was necessary?

Chmielarz: Halo is still a fantastic game, and it has eight enemy types. Gears of War has just a little bit more, but it's just as fun. So, we thought our initial number of 46 different enemies was more than enough. We were wrong. We need more—for fun, for variety, and because of the lore.

Also, we have the resources for it. I mean, we are a small studio with fewer than twenty people, but we have established decent procedures for adding content—so why not use them and make the game better?

I'm a big fan of narrative, and while you have some flavor in Witchfire, the one thing it feels like it's currently missing is a big, deep story. How do you plan to approach this, and what do you hope to deliver? Will it be a singleplayer storyline, or will it be more about finding traces of your backstory?

Chmielarz: We know what we want from the story, but we wanted to make sure we nailed the gameplay first. As for how the story is told, we want to put our own spin on it. We already have some well-established solutions in place, like the Souls-esque "connect the dots" item descriptions, but we want to offer something brand new as well. It won't be a complete revolution, but I think it will be interesting. We will be introducing elements of this soon.

Can you talk at all about your plans for Prophecies and Fallen Preyers?

Chmielarz: I really shouldn't. But let's say we imagine the player being able to craft the Prophecies to their liking—with certain restrictions in place, of course. And we would definitely love for the Fallen Preyers to become an important part of the story.

What are your plans for adding depth to Witchfire's current stat system?

Chmielarz: Ah, yes, our next big goal. Stats currently govern important characteristics of the hero, like health or stamina. But the players made us realize—this was one of the biggest revelations lately—that they need the stats to matter more. When you have small incremental changes with each level-up, it's hard to work toward an exciting goal. But what if something really cool happened when your Witchery stat reached level 15 or your Vitality stat reached level 22?

We have a pretty good idea of what to do about it.

Also, we want more deliberation when leveling up, so we will be introducing secondary stats, like the speed at which you evolve your gear.

Is Witchfire a forever game for the studio, or do you envision a time when you will feel it's complete and move on to your next game?

Chmielarz: I think we've gained enough momentum to deliver the final game in Q3 or Q4 of next year. Then, we will have two options. One, this is it—this is the game. Two, we'll think of a way to add more stuff to it despite the release. For now, I am personally leaning toward the first option, as I love the idea of having a complete game. But we will see.

Anything else you'd like to share?

Chmielarz: My favorite thing in gaming is immersive sims. Games are my holodeck. It took me a while to realize that, but in retrospect, when I look at adventure games being the first I've made, it's always been the case. So, the ratio of any genre or subgenre in Witchfire is not important to me. I only care about whether a feature supports the experience of being a Witchfire-fueled undead witch hunter who works for the Church to gain salvation and if headshots have satisfying sounds and blood decals.

If this sounds interesting to you, give Witchfire a try. It's unlike anything else out there, I think.

This interview was edited for length and clarity. Make sure you grab Witchfire from the Epic Games Store to dive into the game right now.