Chucklefish's 'magical school sim' Witchbrook has a fresh new look, it has been revealed.
The game – which is being developed at Chucklefish's London-based HQ – has been in development for a while now, and previously sported a top-down 2D look. That's now been replaced in favour of an isometric viewpoint which looks pretty great in the screenshots shown below.
Here's the official description for the game:
Experience the thrills and pitfalls of school-life in Witchbrook! Discover a spellbinding isometric pixel art world full of charm and intrigue in this richly detailed magical school and town life simulator.
Forge your own identity as a witch-in-training on the road to graduation. Build relationships with fellow students and townsfolk, develop your magical abilities by attending classes and completing assignments. Participate in extracurricular activities such as fishing, growing magical crops and foraging strange mushrooms. Master secret spells, make friends for life and unravel the mysteries of the school...
Who will be your best friend? Your rival? And your date for prom?
Chucklefish – which published Stardew Valley at one point and released the superb Wargroove a short time ago – hasn't announced which platforms Witchbrook is coming to, but we'd imagine Switch is in with a decent shot.
The company has endured a pretty tumultuous few months, with its association with Stardew Valley – arguably the game that gave Chucklefish its initial fame – was reduced to the Android and iOS iterations last year when the original developer Eric Barone opted to self-publish all other versions of the game amid allegations that the studio had exploited contributing workers during the development of its space RPG Starbound. Barone had already begun self-publishing the PC, Xbox, PS4, and PS Vita editions at the end of 2018.
Chucklefish then found itself embroiled in more drama after it used white actors to voice non-white characters in the free DLC expansion for Wargroove, Double Trouble – something the company promptly apologised for.
The official Witchbrook site is also live.
Comments 38
Pretty interested in this one. It's looking really nice and I'm fairly confident it'll end up being pretty fun too.
It definitely has beautiful graphics! I'll be keeping an eye on this one.
looks like an IOS game
@hakjie11 In what way?
My goodness, that looks superb. Hopefully it'll be out for the Switch.
@hakjie11 ok we got you bro
Looks pretty good. Definitely going to keep an eye on this one.
Can’t.... friggin.... wait.... bring to switch neow!
Just a pet peeve, but can we please stop comparing everything to Harry Potter? Wizard lore existed before those HP. Please?
@JokerCK Only the Joker understands ofcoz
@hakjie11 'looks like an IOS game'
Sure - if that particular iOS game looked like it could have been developed for literally any other modern platform out there – then yes, you are absolutely right...
...and yes I'm aware your probably joking.
It looks lovely – and frankly I found Stardew Valley became a bit of a chore after a while – so I don't think this has to feel 'under it's shadow'.
Kinda looks like Club Penguin but with humans
About time we got some more info on this game...I forgot about it. >.>
@MaoMao Things are usually compered to other things that are famous - it's pretty common practice. And while you're right, the whole "wizard school" thing existed before HP (Worst Witch was pretty big here in the UK), HP is comfortably the most famous example of "wizard education".
@Damo Wizard education is probably the best way to sum up the whole genre ^o^
Gorgeous, looks a lot like Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced' worldspace but higher pixel count (maybe 32 instead of 16?).
Ok I really REALLY want a game like that! Can't wait!
@MaoMao this is an article about television but it explains really well why "Harry Potter" or "Hogwarts" are go-to words to explain the concept (basically, because it's in everyday lexicon already and you can immediately grasp the concept): https://www.polygon.com/2020/3/26/21185607/movies-tv-about-witches-motherland-harry-potter-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-sabrina-legacies
Oof, isometric pixelart and Chucklefish. I am interested.
Wait what? They got in trouble for having white people voicing people of other races? Thought we we're done with that sort of stupidity after the RE5 or Witcher criticism.
I. Need this. NAAAAAAAOWWWW.
YES! Got my eye on this
Style wise it reminds of The Lure of the Temptress... oops my age is showing 🙃. I like the look of it so far, so will be keen to keep an eye on it.
Absolutely magnificent artwork. Hopefully the game will be just as good as it looks/
My...my heart ! I think I'm in love !
If there is love interests, and it seems to be the case, I hope the portrait will be good. In stardew valley, they were not bad, but I didn't really like this particular style and I couldn't really sympathize with any of the characters
I actually really like this art style, looking forward to how this turns out.
What did it look like before?
These screenshots are even more beautiful than the ones that came before. Happy to hear some news for the first time in a long time.
No boys allowed?
There's so much detail in those screens. First thing I noticed. Looks awesome.
Most "pixel art" is just bad art disguised with a very low resolution, and a far cry from the beautiful work done back in the day. This though is different. It's one of a very rare breed of indie games which use low resolution art as skilfully as the likes of Capcom did. Good job.
@Dunan yes and I bet you also would love to see yourself living in there because it's so pretty. Well that's how I feel when I see images like this .
"Chucklefish then found itself embroiled in more drama after it used white actors to voice non-white characters in the free DLC expansion for Wargroove, Double Trouble – something the company promptly apologised for"
Bizarre that this is a thing. Actors act. That's their job. The colour of their skin is the definition of irrelevant.
Judging from the their press release this game isnt going to come out for a long time but it certainly looks interesting always wanted a Harry Potter world life sim.
@TAndvig I vaguely recall reading something about that. Apparently, they listened to voices without ever seeing whose voice it was and ended up picking white people for black characters.
@NotoriousWhiz Don't know how it happen, and that is interesting but in the end I personally just don't care. A white person can voice a black character as much as they want and vice versa. Also this "progressive" movement in the games industry and all the identity politics are so damn hypocritical it makes me sick. If this mentality existed during the big periods for art, I don't dare to think what nonsense we would have to look back at. Let artists do whatever they want.
@NotoriousWhiz Also black people aren't the minority of this world. I rarely hear them talk about indian representation or latin american for that matter.
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