'Witchfire' Devs Share Insights On Game's First Playtest

The Astronauts, the developers of the upcoming FPS “Witchfire,” have finally shared more insights and information regarding their project after completing their very first playtest session. Years have passed since the game was first announced, and this latest entry to their devblog served as a significant snippet into “Witchfire’s” development process.

The Astronauts recently posted the results of their first playtest session for “Witchfire” after almost an entire year since their last blog update. Developer Adrian Chmielarz wrote that the game is still very far from release, but they wanted to test “Witchfire’s” core elements first such as difficulty and visual readability.

“Witchfire” will be an FPS in the same vein as “Bulletstorm” and the classic “Painkiller” series. It’s a fast-paced shooter with a gothic dark fantasy theme, mixing magic with bullet-based weaponry.

Not much else is known about the game, but its original teaser trailer and subsequent snippets provided by the devs showed plenty of promise.

“Witchfire is supposed to be a challenging game but we’re making it for so long now that we cannot be objective about its difficulty,” Chmielarz wrote.

Based on the media available, “Witchfire” does appear to be a fast and frantic shooter with numerous enemies of various types fighting the player at once. The developers shared some new GIFs showcasing some of “Witchfire’s” gameplay from their recent test build, featuring highly mobile movement with sprinting, sliding and dashing mechanics.

These clips give the game a vibe similar to that of “Doom Eternal” but with the gunplay of “Destiny 2.” The weapons featured in the GIFs appear to have an early-1900s-inspired design and the ability to call lightning down on enemies that they hit on the head. It’s worth noting that everything the devs posted is still a work-in-progress.

Chmielarz said that they were happy with the results of the playtest. They were able to identify gaps in the game’s difficulty curve, and they want to make the game more punishing without becoming too overwhelming. He mentioned that as of now, the game has no health recovery options outside of potions that players start off with, making attrition one of the primary causes of death in each playthrough.

“Witchfire” still has a long way to go before it reaches a presentable state, but it appears that the game’s development is going smoothly, all things considered.

Another developer blog is scheduled for later this summer.