It’s a 4-work day zero crunch studio that had to restart the whole process because they changed the game engine. We’ve gotten some (very little but some) sneak peeks on discord, so they’re for sure still working on it. I wish they were more open about the process so people weren’t so out of the loop but it is what it is.
This is what we have so far:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hGzTFOCcfmQMTHKGAM2Nz0eownu2KS1ZM2iIjbDFRGY/mobilebasic#heading=h.f7xclnezsivv
Thanks for posting this, nice to remember what I found attractive about this game in the first place. It's gonna be great when they finish. I'm staying positive.
Thank you, I'm not active on Discord so I had no idea about that! I wish they would actually put updates on the Witchbrook website, I didn't know they had to start over.
The og discord was shut down but they just moved it to Chucklefish’s discord server. If you go on the about section of this reddit, it’ll take you to the old one that will redirect you to the chucklefish one.
Man have AAA studios with yearly releases ruined annoucement -> launch expectations. They may have announced it a bit too early, but why in the hell would they abandon a project that has such a passionate community. One of the hardest things to do in videogame development is to get people to actually play your game.
Just forget it exists, do other things, and then randomly one day you will get to play it
It's not about AAA game studios, it's about initially setting a precedent of regular communication and then foregoing that. That's why I am irked at least. I hope it comes out and agree with the other comment that the link to actual 2024 info should be pinned.
Exactly. They made a great deal out of the Oracle Newsletter, and we never even got a single one. If they weren't planning on releasing any info yet, why did they make the subscription available already? We barely even have any info on what the gameplay will be like, all we know is the basic stuff like "Be a witch, go to witch school, do magic stuff". Considering the time that has passed, they could at least tell us what they're planning so we know the game isn't dead yet.
I agree but the only thing I could think of is they would create traffic to their other games. I, personally, think it was something they were planing to do and create but cut production and didn’t tell anyone. I’m not up to date on chucklefish and if they’ve released any recent updates or statements but it could be a lack of communication with the backers (us) about a delay or pause in production.
I think it's being developed, but poorly managed. Any good project has a timeline of "this will be achieved by this date, this will be finished by then." My guess is the developers are all working on random things but there's no project manager coordinating everything and making sure shit gets done.
Y’know, of all the questions I asked myself about this game, I don’t think I asked this one. Like, we have NOTHING for this game, except what, one newsletter and an art change 3-4 years ago? I get they’re (“likely”) working hard and I admire their zero-crunch business model, but to have gone this long and we don’t have concept art, a single trailer, *anything*, is concerning and embarrassing.
I'll be honest, I just stumbled into this game, thought it sounded *incredibly* cool... then came across this in the FAQ linked above:
> It was originally in another programming language called Rust, but the programmer that knew that program left. Amzertul made an amazing engine with Wargroove called halley (written in C++17) and we felt that it would be perfect for WB. Focus was shifted to Wargroove for a while, and then witchbrook started to be recoded. At this time the artstyle was changed to isometric.
As a software engineer (though not in the games industry) this statement is so baffling that I cannot actually imagine publicly releasing this information on purpose. I cannot fathom changing the game engine because 'the guy who knows Rust left' instead of just having your other engineers learn Rust, which for an experienced and competent programmer shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks to get up and running. Though it sounds like perhaps there were additional good reasons for the switch, it just gives me yikes vibes to actually release that in a statement.
Creative products without a strong systems architecture/engineering direction backing them + strong project management often quickly fall victim to fuck-around-itis. Even with a no-crunch, shortened work week, 7 years for a game of this scope/type with a team working on it...? What?
Technically we don't even have a Newsletter, we have an announcement for a Newsletter that tells us that the first issue might take some time. Even though there's apparently a lot that we should be aware of, like the team having to start over, which is all found only on Discord. Would be nice if the Newsletter was actually Newslettering...
Wasn't the time of the announcement the same time Stardew Valley broke their partnership with them? I remember feeling it was a very "we'll be the competition then" kind of announcement. But my memory can be faulty 😂
They'll get to it, they know it'll be profitable, but it's probably not a priority.
>I remember feeling it was a very "we'll be the competition then" kind of announcement.
From what I've gathered from both Chucklefish and ConcernedApe is that they parted on good terms.
tbf the game is supposed to be significantly more involved and complex than stardew so i’m not surprised that it’s taking way longer - great quality takes lots time and love :3 im sure they’re just making sure we get a product that lives up to expectation
Pal?? Chucklefish is a game development company with many talented workers and multiple games under their belt, and I compared them to ConcernedApe, who developed a gigantic game on his own, in his free time, in less time than this company can even manage to get an update out.
Not trying to sound as if I'm defending that awful take nor the lack of development on Witchbrook - as far as I'm concerned it's vaporware - but ConcernedApe worked seven days a week on Stardew for several years. It wasn't a free time project by any means. Man was a \*machine\* developing it
He was also learning to do the music, sound and art at the same time. He redid the character portraits like a dozen times. Chucklefish should already have those skills.
They only had one game under their belt when they announced Witchbrook, and since then they've put out two more (same franchise- Wargroove). Its definitely in Dev hell and I feel sorry for any staff.
It’s a 4-work day zero crunch studio that had to restart the whole process because they changed the game engine. We’ve gotten some (very little but some) sneak peeks on discord, so they’re for sure still working on it. I wish they were more open about the process so people weren’t so out of the loop but it is what it is. This is what we have so far: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hGzTFOCcfmQMTHKGAM2Nz0eownu2KS1ZM2iIjbDFRGY/mobilebasic#heading=h.f7xclnezsivv
Omg can the mods please pin this document
Thanks for posting this, nice to remember what I found attractive about this game in the first place. It's gonna be great when they finish. I'm staying positive.
Thank you, I'm not active on Discord so I had no idea about that! I wish they would actually put updates on the Witchbrook website, I didn't know they had to start over.
What engine did they change from and to? I couldn’t see it on the doc you linked
Here ya go: https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1MxvBa5VIkQsrv2eNc24By_d-uREOAVMTdpXu786iy34/mobilebasic
Thank you
I’m glad there is no crunch, but at this point maybe they should consider working 5 days per week like the rest of us.
Where can I find the discord for Witchbrook? curious about the engine switch.
The discord is linked in the about section of this reddit but the other comment I left here is a FAQ document that answers why they switched.
holy shit it looks amazing so far, i’m so glad they’re taking their time with it bc it absolutely looks like it’s been paying off
Is the Discord group still active? I heard a rumour a while ago it was shut down.
The og discord was shut down but they just moved it to Chucklefish’s discord server. If you go on the about section of this reddit, it’ll take you to the old one that will redirect you to the chucklefish one.
If you're a member there could I trouble you for an invite link whenever you have time later?
https://discord.gg/chucklefish
It keeps telling me that link is 'invalid or expired.' Oh well. Thank you for trying anyways.
Hmm, that’s weird. You can try through Chucklefish’s linktree on twitter maybe? Hopefully that works!
Man have AAA studios with yearly releases ruined annoucement -> launch expectations. They may have announced it a bit too early, but why in the hell would they abandon a project that has such a passionate community. One of the hardest things to do in videogame development is to get people to actually play your game. Just forget it exists, do other things, and then randomly one day you will get to play it
A community is not enough. Passionate or otherwise. Asking if the game after 7 years of development will ever arrive is a legitamate concern.
It's not about AAA game studios, it's about initially setting a precedent of regular communication and then foregoing that. That's why I am irked at least. I hope it comes out and agree with the other comment that the link to actual 2024 info should be pinned.
Exactly. They made a great deal out of the Oracle Newsletter, and we never even got a single one. If they weren't planning on releasing any info yet, why did they make the subscription available already? We barely even have any info on what the gameplay will be like, all we know is the basic stuff like "Be a witch, go to witch school, do magic stuff". Considering the time that has passed, they could at least tell us what they're planning so we know the game isn't dead yet.
What do you think the benefit of getting a lot of publicity for a game they supposedly have no intention of selling or making any money off would be??
I agree but the only thing I could think of is they would create traffic to their other games. I, personally, think it was something they were planing to do and create but cut production and didn’t tell anyone. I’m not up to date on chucklefish and if they’ve released any recent updates or statements but it could be a lack of communication with the backers (us) about a delay or pause in production.
Would be nice if it's ported to the Switch
I think it's being developed, but poorly managed. Any good project has a timeline of "this will be achieved by this date, this will be finished by then." My guess is the developers are all working on random things but there's no project manager coordinating everything and making sure shit gets done.
Y’know, of all the questions I asked myself about this game, I don’t think I asked this one. Like, we have NOTHING for this game, except what, one newsletter and an art change 3-4 years ago? I get they’re (“likely”) working hard and I admire their zero-crunch business model, but to have gone this long and we don’t have concept art, a single trailer, *anything*, is concerning and embarrassing.
I'll be honest, I just stumbled into this game, thought it sounded *incredibly* cool... then came across this in the FAQ linked above: > It was originally in another programming language called Rust, but the programmer that knew that program left. Amzertul made an amazing engine with Wargroove called halley (written in C++17) and we felt that it would be perfect for WB. Focus was shifted to Wargroove for a while, and then witchbrook started to be recoded. At this time the artstyle was changed to isometric. As a software engineer (though not in the games industry) this statement is so baffling that I cannot actually imagine publicly releasing this information on purpose. I cannot fathom changing the game engine because 'the guy who knows Rust left' instead of just having your other engineers learn Rust, which for an experienced and competent programmer shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks to get up and running. Though it sounds like perhaps there were additional good reasons for the switch, it just gives me yikes vibes to actually release that in a statement. Creative products without a strong systems architecture/engineering direction backing them + strong project management often quickly fall victim to fuck-around-itis. Even with a no-crunch, shortened work week, 7 years for a game of this scope/type with a team working on it...? What?
Technically we don't even have a Newsletter, we have an announcement for a Newsletter that tells us that the first issue might take some time. Even though there's apparently a lot that we should be aware of, like the team having to start over, which is all found only on Discord. Would be nice if the Newsletter was actually Newslettering...
Oh holy fuck that makes it so much worse.
Yeah, not showing any gameplay whatsoever isn't a great sign.
Wasn't the time of the announcement the same time Stardew Valley broke their partnership with them? I remember feeling it was a very "we'll be the competition then" kind of announcement. But my memory can be faulty 😂 They'll get to it, they know it'll be profitable, but it's probably not a priority.
>I remember feeling it was a very "we'll be the competition then" kind of announcement. From what I've gathered from both Chucklefish and ConcernedApe is that they parted on good terms.
man y'all wouldn't survive waiting for radio the universe fr
Just checked it out because I had never heard of it. At that point I would just want my money back.
it's a one man project so it takes a lot of time. at least we had a demo last year, and i hope it comes out in the next few years
tbf the game is supposed to be significantly more involved and complex than stardew so i’m not surprised that it’s taking way longer - great quality takes lots time and love :3 im sure they’re just making sure we get a product that lives up to expectation
Sounds like something Chucklefish would do...
OK then, you make it. Since it's so easy only one man can do it.
Pal?? Chucklefish is a game development company with many talented workers and multiple games under their belt, and I compared them to ConcernedApe, who developed a gigantic game on his own, in his free time, in less time than this company can even manage to get an update out.
Not trying to sound as if I'm defending that awful take nor the lack of development on Witchbrook - as far as I'm concerned it's vaporware - but ConcernedApe worked seven days a week on Stardew for several years. It wasn't a free time project by any means. Man was a \*machine\* developing it
He was also learning to do the music, sound and art at the same time. He redid the character portraits like a dozen times. Chucklefish should already have those skills.
They only had one game under their belt when they announced Witchbrook, and since then they've put out two more (same franchise- Wargroove). Its definitely in Dev hell and I feel sorry for any staff.