Indie studio The Astronauts announced itself to the world in 2014 with The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, a horror adventure title that has, in the years since its launch, gone down as one of the most widely acclaimed titles in the so-called “walking sim” genre. With its sophomore project, however, the studio has pivoted in a different direction. Dark fantasy roguelite FPS Witchfire launched in early access earlier this year, and though it’s certainly got off to a great start and is showing a lot of promise, many have wondered what prompted the decision for The Astronauts to switch gears in such radical fashion.
In a recent interview with GamingBolt, when asked that very question, The Astronauts’ co-founder and creative director Adrian Chmielarz said that heading in a completely different direction with Witchfire was a conscious effort on the studio’s part, because it felt that “the times of walking sims were over”. Chmielarz said that though the genre is capable of delivering “wonderful” experiences, their “limited” shelf life encouraged the studio to “look in new directions.”
“We knew the times of walking sims were over,” Chmielarz said. “These games are one trick ponies and yes, you can do wonderful things with them – like the last well known walking sim, What Remains of Edith Finch – but their shelf life is limited. So we started to look in new directions.”
In addition to that, Chmielarz added that, given the fact that the development team’s core members had previously worked on the likes of Bulletstorm and Painkiller, wanting to return to the first-person shooter genre was just as much of a factor in the change in direction.
“We’ve done Painkiller and Bulletstorm, literally the core minds behind those games are now in The Astronauts. So it didn’t take long for us to hear the call of a gun,” he said.
In our review of Witchfire’s early access release, we awarded it a score of 8/10, saying, “Witchfire is a game rife with potential that will hopefully be realized throughout its stint in early access. It has an addictive gameplay loop that makes you attempt at least ‘one more run’ thanks to its fast-paced melding of first-person gunplay and magic. The only real downside right now is the relative lack of content.” Read the full review through here.
Witchfire is currently available on PC, exclusively via the Epic Games Store. It will remain in early access for “about year”, during which The Astronauts plans to release several updates.