Chucklefish and co-developer Robotality have revealed their first proper look at their magical life-sim Witchbrook, confirming that the game will be coming to PC, Nintendo Switch and Xbox this winter. It will be day one in Xbox Game Pass.
The game will let you enrol in Witchbrook College near the seaside city of Mossport, sinking into a world where you can simply pull out your magic wand and clean up messes and broken plumbing, or hop onto your broomstick and fly over the rooftops. The trailer also showing little snippets of home decoration and fishing. Truth be told, it doesn’t really show too much about what the game will actually play like, though it’s sure to lean on established genre tropes in some areas.
The game is playable with up to four players exploring the sandbox in co-op multipayer, and honestly, the pixelart visual style is stunning. Every scene in the trailer is packed with people and detail from an isometric view.
Technical Director Rodrigo Braz Monteiro said of his the game, “Witchbrook is the most exciting project I’ve ever worked on, and it’s been a long time coming, but I’m very eager to get the game in the hands of the players soon. I don’t think that the level of simulation and fidelity we’ve aimed for in this game is expected of any games short of AAA, and to see it realised in a pixel art indie game has been very satisfying to us. For now, we’re only sharing a small glimpse into a vast game, and I can’t wait for the community to see what’s coming over the next few months.”
Elsewhere, producer Rosie Ball explained that the team has embraced a 4-day work week and no-crunch approach to getting the game made, which is always great to hear.
This is the first meaningful look at Witchbrook, but you might remember the game from its original announcements. First teased as Project Spellbound in 2017, with Chucklefish looking to ride the wave of Stardew Valley interest (for which they provided porting support for the console versions), it was then named as Witchbrook a year later in 2018. At that time, the concept artwork and screenshots showed the game with that face-on view familiar to many pixel art life sims. In the intervening time, the game has clearly jumped 45º to give an isometric viewpoint, which feels much more distinct.
Source: press release
