Announced at The Game Awards 2017, The Astronauts’ long-in-development first person Witchfire has release window. It arrives in Q4 2022 for PC and will launch into early access. The final release date and platforms have yet to be decided though.
In a new update post, the developer also confirmed that Witchfire would be a roguelite. It defined the term as, “When you die, we do punish you for it, but we also let you keep some stuff so you can unlock and upgrade cool shit that might help you in the future.” It’s such that the developer considers Witchfire to be more like a dark fantasy RPG shooter instead of a roguelite. “But, at least for now, we’re totally fine with the latter. Roguelite it is.”
Early access also makes sense in that regard and The Astronauts are looking at other notable titles like Hades, Dead Cells and Risk of Rain 2 for the process. Despite not being a full release, the developer still considers it to be a “big challenge” since, “Players no longer tolerate bugs, and they expect many, many joyous hours of play. We need to make sure we deliver on both fronts.”
As for why a more concrete release month wasn’t provided, the delays of numerous titles was cited. “We don’t think it makes a lick of sense to name a day unless you’re 100 percent certain it’s achievable.” And currently, the development team isn’t sure. That being said, it won’t keep the release date “a secret forever” so expect more details in the coming months.