We are a small independent game developer located in Warsaw, Poland. Before The Astronauts, some of us worked on games like Painkiller and Bulletstorm.
Our latest project is Witchfire, a dark fantasy first person shooter set in an alternative world in which witches are real and very dangerous – but so are you, witchhunter.
Our first game was a weird fiction mystery titled The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. The game has won many awards, including BAFTA, and we sold over one million copies. It’s available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Click here for more details.
Back in September, we wrote this FAQ. Since our game has evolved quite a bit in the recent months, it was time to update it to reflect the current state of things.
What is Witchfire?
Witchfire is a dark fantasy RPG first-person shooter.
It’s dark fantasy because of its world and visuals – a universe where witch hunts make sense because witches are real, evil, and powerful. It tells the story of a preyer – an undead witch hunter – on a mission to find an artifact that could change the course of the war between the Church and the witches.
It’s an RPG due to the multiple gameplay layers that let players customize their builds and express themselves through their character. The world is fantastic but grounded, and its history and characters play a vital role in the story.
It’s a first-person shooter because, while you have access to spells and magical items, firearms are your main source of damage, all viewed through a first-person perspective.
Is the game hard? Are there difficulty modes?
There are no difficulty modes; it’s the same challenge for everyone.
However, the heart of Witchfire is that there are many paths to victory. This is where the RPG elements shine. Whether you’re a close-combat expert, a no-scope sniping god, or a spellcasting sorcerer, the game lets you play your way. You can win with raw skill, but you can also win with strategy. Witchfire offers freedom in how you approach your mission.
I’ve heard Witchfire is a roguelite, a soulslike, or an extraction game. Is that no longer true?
While we’ve mentioned that Witchfire incorporates elements from roguelites, soulslikes, and extraction games, this doesn’t communicate what the game is about. It’s confusing at best, misleading at worst. For example, if someone described Bloodborne as “an action RPG with elements of roguelites and extraction games,” it might be accurate but unhelpful.
With how Witchfire has evolved since it entered early access, we’ve dropped those labels. Witchfire is its own game now.
Why Early Access?
Witchfire felt like a perfect fit for Early Access, and it’s proven to be just that. Player feedback has significantly shaped the game since its launch in September 2023 and continues to do so. It’s really as simple as that.
When will Early Access end, and when will the final game be released?
We plan to release the final game in early 2026 – the original plan was to release it in late 2025, but a slight delay of the Witch Mountain update meant that it got pushed back.
How much content is in the game right now?
There are four regions in the game out of a planned six. Three of them are open-level areas, similar to a district in an open-world game. To give you an idea of scale, two of the regions are each larger than the entire area of our first game, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. The one other region is The Witch Mountain – a more linear, raid-esque level which presents a different set of challenges and allows players to have a taste of something else.
The game also offers a variety of weapons, spells, and items, providing dozens of hours of gameplay. It’s not uncommon to see players clocking in a few hundred hours. For more details on the current and future content, check out the post detailing the future of Witchfire development.
How stable is the game? How customizable is it?
A French gaming magazine, NoFrag, describedWitchfire as:
[…] the best Early Access game of 2023, with polish and optimization that surpasses the vast majority of titles in their final version. And that’s without counting the incredible gunfeel, the precise and fluid movement, or the feeling of power when chaining headshots.
We do take pride in keeping the game as bug-free as possible and offering extensive customization options. Whether it’s widescreen support, controller sensitivity adjustments, customizable controls, crosshair placement, FoV slider, or graphics presets for all types of PCs (including Steam Deck), it’s already in the game.
Should I play during Early Access or wait for the final release?
We see four main reasons to jump in during Early Access:
You enjoy watching a game evolve with each update.
You’re interested in game design or want to help shape Witchfire‘s development.
You want to support indie developers. We are a small team (we started as a team of twelve and have grown to twenty four) and this helps.
Why not? We don’t plan to change the price for the final release, so you can enjoy the game now, then either restart or continue when the final version launches.
We’re aware of the demand for a console release and we’re starting to work on it – as of early April 2025, we’re halfway through recruiting an expert who will help us bring our vision to consoles. We’re not willing to compromise the Witchfire experience, we pride ourselves on delivering quality and we want you to have equally thrilling and complex adventure, no matter which platform you call home. We can’t provide any details yet, as we don’t want to make promises we can’t keep – stay tuned!
Are Epic Games Store save games compatible with the Steam version?
Yes. Both versions use the same save folder on your PC: \Users\your_username\AppData\Local\Witchfire\Saved\SaveGames
Just be cautious not to overwrite new saves with old cloud saves when switching between versions.
What languages does Witchfire support?
For now, the game is in English only. Since the game is in Early Access and constantly changing, it’s nearly impossible for our small team to maintain multiple languages.
However, as we are approaching the final release, we have already taken some steps towards localizing the game – we’ve chosen a lead for localization and partnered with a studio that will help bring Witchfire into multiple languages. We understand that this needs to be done right, and we’re sparing no expense to ensure top-tier localization, so all people can enjoy the game and understand the world they’re experiencing. We’ll share the full list of all supported languages once it’s ready.
Will there be co-op?
From day one, Witchfire has been designed as a single-player experience. Restructuring it into a co-op game at this stage would be an immense undertaking that simply wouldn’t make sense. Asking us to change course this late in development? Pointless.
If you want a co-op shooter, there’s already quite a few on the market, and more are coming! Meanwhile, as for Witchfire, let us make the best possible Single Player experience we can. It will be worth it, we hope.
What if I have more questions or requests?
Here are some useful links:
The best place to ask questions, post suggestions, and chat with the devs and other players is our Discord;
