UPDATE #53
Overdue Update: Development Summary, Why We're Not Scaling Down, Where Things Stand
InglenookCreator
August 31, 2020
Hey everyone,
Lou here; you might know me as Witchmarsh's story guy. I'm also one half of the core development team along with Joe. I thought I'd check in to let you in on how things are going, and why it's taking so long.
It's been a good while since the last update, but if you've been following along on Discord, you'll know we're still working hard, trying to finish this mammoth of a game.
In this post, I'll try to highlight some of the issues which have caused Witchmarsh to be stuck in development, but I hope it also explains why we're determined not to give up. I also thought it might be a good idea to jump back to the project’s beginnings, and give everyone a brief overview of how we got started creating Witchmarsh.
Getting Started (2013-2014)
Back in 2013 myself and Joe decided to make a videogame together. We’d graduated from University a few years before and even though we had no experience handling a videogame project of this size, we were sure we could handle it. We’d worked on some rather large projects in the areas of design and 3D animation, but in the end, games like Wizardry, Baldur’s Gate, Dark Souls, and other RPGs in development like Pillars of Eternity were what inspired us.
We both decided to quit our day jobs, stop taking on freelance work, and give game development a try. We were both avid readers of H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, and it occurred to us that very few games at the time were set in the 1920s.
Witchmarsh, much like these investigators, has come a long way.
We set about, first in 3D, then later, 2D, creating a prototype for Witchmarsh, a spooky, supernatural mystery game set in the late 1920s. It seemed to be coming together exceptionally fast. By early 2014 we had a playable prototype, a small fan following, a publisher waiting in the wings, and a finished trailer; all that remained was to launch the game on Kickstarter and use the funds to build the rest of the content.
What could be easier?
Early Development (2014-2015):
Soon after the Kickstarter closed, we started to run into problems. In an attempt to keep things transparent, we posted about these at the time in some detail. The biggest issues, if you remember, were with the ranged combat and AI - both of which had to be completely remade.
Specifically, the game's firearms and throwing weapons didn't allow for shooting through targets. This made the ranged combat feel exceptionally limited in that you could only shoot at the closest visible target. On top of this, the simple enemy AI couldn't handle much more than running towards the nearest player and attacking/shooting. If we wanted to create complex levels with height, it would have to learn to move over those obstacles, all while factoring in which player to attack and how to reach them.
The UI, too, had to completely remade if it was to scale to 4k, retina and beyond.
These are all things we *should* have thought about before launching the Kickstarter, but we genuinely believed that the gameplay we had at the time could be expanded on and improved without any major setbacks. This was a huge error on our part.
"Had we chosen to scale everything down, I have no doubt that Witchmarsh would be finished and released by now; but it wouldn't be the game that we set out to make."
Early on, we also decided to remake each and every one of the game's 12 playable characters. You might have noticed that the sprites are now far more expressive, not to mention quite a bit larger.
Watch 'em grow!
This decision alone cost us several more months of development time. Each of the characters not only has a huge range of animations, but they also require heaps of code to pick which animations play and when - and that's not even touching on anything required for actual gameplay. In our prototype, the characters were not only smaller but had a very limited range of actions.
As we started to add more actions and weapon types, the work ballooned. Would we have made Witchmarsh with less characters had we planned for this? It's hard to say. For my money, game's large roster of characters is one of the things that sets this project apart from others - with good reason, no doubt. It turns out there's a reason most games tend to have between 2 and 4 unique playable characters!
The larger characters, added later in development, have made combat easier to read.
On the bright side, the combat has become far more readable since we imported the new characters, and the game feels far more polished as a result.
Thoughts on scaling down (2015):
Around the time that we were rebuilding the ranged combat and AI (and going out of our minds with stress as a result), we realised that we'd taken on more than we'd bargained for. We also started to notice, a little too late, that games of Witchmarsh's scope are usually made by teams of at least 10-15 experienced, full-time developers.
Fixing the above-mentioned issues had already put us months behind schedule, and to speed things up we started looking at scaling down the project in order to get it finished in a reasonable time. We looked at dropping things like the branching dialogue system (which had yet to be created), a few of the playable characters, attribute tests, stats, abilities and spells - possibly rolling them into a much lighter system of 'talent trees' and character upgrades. This would have resulted in a game which felt more like an Action-RPG or Metroidvania in spirit.
Had we chosen to scale everything down, I have no doubt that Witchmarsh would be finished and released by now; but it wouldn't be the game that we set out to make.
The game features 12 playable characters - a daunting prospect. Or, it would have been, had we anticipated the work involved.
After all, we didn't start out to make another Action RPG, as wonderful as those games are. From day one, titles like Wizardry VI-VIII, Baldur's Gate, and then later in development, Pillars of Eternity, and the Shadowrun: Returns series, have been our creative lifeblood.
Ultimately, we made the decision to go all in; we wouldn't scale down or rework the major systems, even if it would result in a far more realistic prospect for our undersized team.
"All-in-all, what we’re creating feels like a solid base, not rushed or covered in development bandaids. Something on which we could possibly create future Witchmarsh titles and adventures."
Looking back, I'm still not 100% sure that we made the right decision by refusing to scale down. But we’re making the game we wanted to make, and that has to count for something.
(On a final note, I completely understand when people are frustrated at the game being delayed all these years. I also think it's important to remember that we have literally nothing to gain by dragging it out unnecessarily. Speaking for myself alone, the delays have resulted in stress, burnout, lost sleep, problems with mental health and plenty more besides! We genuinely want the game to be finished as much as you do.)
Where things stand (2018-2020):
In 2018 I decided that I wasn't contributing enough in my role as writer. We were having some problems getting content into the game, as all of Joe's time was taken up coding. Although my work on the key parts of the story was nearing completion, Joe helped me to learn Game Maker so that I could play a bigger role in the game’s development.
Since then I’ve been creating the game’s events, cutscenes, environments, story structure and other content. With help from Rob and Matt, we’ve managed to flesh the game out immensely in recent months.
You can see a small demo of the new cutscene system above - all made with no code! It means that I can make the cutscenes and content myself, rather than simply writing them and handing them to a programmer.
In terms of getting the story implemented, the biggest breakthrough came last year, with our revamped cutscene system (see above) - which can take strings of commands and turn them into fully functioning cutscenes - with little-to-no code required.
This, along with Rob's dialogue system, has allowed me to implement large chunks of the story - even if parts are in a rough, blocked out form; the core of the game is starting to coalesce. It feels like things are starting to come together in many respects.
Despite the stress which comes with delays, I'm still having fun writing the various characters you'll encounter in Witchmarsh. Even this weirdo.
All-in-all, what we’re creating feels like a solid base, not rushed or covered in development bandaids. Something on which we could possibly create future Witchmarsh titles and adventures.
Of course, it’s still deeply frustrating that it’s taken so long to get to this stage.
We could have chosen to compromise on the scope, but we didn’t. Now all that remains is to get it done. And although we've yet to set a new release date, I can feel it drawing closer with the implementation of each new cutscene, chapter of the story, or combat encounter.
Until then, we still have a lot of work to do, and I’d like to once again thank you for your patience. It’s a monumental task and we genuinely couldn’t have gotten this far without this Kickstarter campaign, or the support of our community.
Also, please feel free to join the Witchmarsh
Discord server! We always appreciate any support, questions or comments, so pop along!
Sincerely,
Luciano/Lou.