In a long article from The Astronauts blog, game director Adrian Chmielarz discusses the reasons for this postponement. “How a core feature change changed the release date to early 2023. Who would have thought? (All sane people)”
This major change is the modification of the way game zones are managed. By wanting to make an FPS inspired by the progression of a roguelite, the developers had gone on the trail of a world divided into arenas, where invisible barriers appear to prevent the player from leaving the area where he is, except to return to already known ground. By allowing to return only to previous areas, it allows the player to bait enemies on familiar ground, which he already controls, but not to explore during combat. The game director wanted to change that: and why not give the player the possibility of fleeing forward, like in a real open world? Problem: the development was so advanced that changing this fundamental aspect of the game would require revising many of the elements at the heart of the title, such as the way enemies interact with the scenery, follow the player or appear according to progression.
By announcing it to the teams, he aroused a logical outcry:
“Almost everyone protested. The barriers are working. We’re too close to the early access release. It’s too much for the player to handle. Karol, who designed most of the game and implemented most of the gameplay, was the most vehement. He claimed that recreating all the systems connected to combat and movement was going to take months, and that it was stepping into the unknown. However, I’m not just a seasoned designer, I I was also the main developer of my games for a few years early in my career. Studying the systems, I thought everyone had overdone it, and it was a relatively simple and quick change to make.”
“Of course I was wrong and Karol was right.”
After two months of fruitless work, Adrian Chmielarz was ready to ask the teams to go back and put the barrier system back in place. But the team wanted to continue in this direction, seeing the potential of this new concept.
“This change is now 95% implemented, and it makes the game better. It’s hard for me to imagine the player not having access to this degree of freedom. Of course, you can still be captured by the witch, some doors stay locked until you find a key, and some areas near the boss can be very dangerous before you’re ready, but the world is fully open and explorable in any order you want. can go forwards and backwards as we see fit.”
Result: a few months of development lost compared to the initial schedule, but two new people hired within the studio to ensure a launch in the new window to come. witchfire will be released in exclusive early access on the Epic Games Store before being available in final version on all other platforms. Appointment is made for early 2023.