Witchfire is as pretty as The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and as violent as Painkiller
As pretty as it is spooky
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a beautiful, quiet game -- a thoughtful and sedate walking simulator. Bulletstorm and Painkiller are not. They’re both balls-to-the-wall action and dripping with over-the-top machismo and violence. On the surface, the only similarity is the people who made them. Witchfire, The Astronaut’s latest project, looks a lot like the former at first. But there's more to it than meets the eye. Devour the teaser below.
That is how you do a snappy, surprising trailer.
Unfortunately, the developers are still keeping things close to their chest, but a brief post accompanies the trailer, explaining the dramatic shift in direction. Essentially they really wanted to make another shooter. A blisteringly fast one, by the looks of things. But one that’s also elevated by some of the tricks used in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, particularly the photogrammetry technique that gave the walking sim its incredible forests and ruins.
“Also, as you can see in the teaser, Witchfire uses the photogrammetry tech we previously used in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter,” creative director Adrian Chmielarz explains. “This tech allows us to 3D scan real-life objects – even entire buildings! – and use them as digital assets in our games for unparalleled visual quality, and natural, organic look and feel. We believe we can push the tech even further, with new tools, hardware, and all the experience we gathered during the development of our first game.”
It’s a fascinating process, and you can read a bit more about it here.
Witchfire has been confirmed as coming to PC, but is still in the early stages of development and The Astronauts aren’t ready to slap a release date on it yet.