Witch Hunter (indie game) - like Fantasy XCOM

[adamzeira]

Hey all, long time reader, rare poster

We're making an indie game that I think people here will like. The game's most easily described as "fantasy XCOM with an open world" or "XCOM + battlebrothers". It's in an early development stages and we'd love for people here to try it out and hear what they think so we can improve it in the right direction*

Some images






The story pitch
You play a former witch hunter in a land torn apart by witches, navigating a dangerous world alongside your daughter and company of mercenaries, while hiding that your daughter is herself a witch




If it sounds interesting, here are keys. But please only take one if you're going to play and share your thoughts :) The prototype is short at about 1-2 hours of gameplay, and bare in mind it's early in development so there could be bugs
Also write which key you took so I'll strike it out and others won't waste their time

R5XQ2-XTL6X-4DRKG
KJ2QB-F3RNG-BRWQZ
YVAJI-Z974N-QZ0DJ
6C76I-EPVX0-696YQ
GVGHM-9249F-I7T5K
I79IZ-Q3WP7-EZHN2


We're looking to hear what you liked/didn't like, what you'd like to see more of, if the pitch got you excited, etc. We have very thick skin and want to hear the good and the bad :)
And most importantly, above the specific details, was it overall an enjoyable 1-2 hours and a game you can see a future for, despite clearly being a prototype with systems that can be polished further


Thanks for reading :) Looking forward to hearing your thoughts


* Hope it's ok to post this here, will remove if not. It's not advertising/promotion (there isn't even a steam page yet to advertise ), genuinely looking to share a game I think people here will enjoy and hear their thoughts




edit copy paste from a post on page 2:
New build is up! And the name has been updated. It's only been a week so most changes aren't ground breaking, but a lot of small fixes that address many points brought up here

Among the bigger changes

• Game name change
• Towns changed to use a completely different UI
• Loot from monster battles
• More, smarter and better escorted traveling merchants
• Wytches are out, witches are in

And lots of small adjustments and balance changes

R8LKL-VTXH4-9YQ7V
PDC8E-34GJ6-MFIWN
R8JI2-PC6P7-BB8K9
LN2X3-XFYF9-TLM3P
5ITKT-7Z3QT-C5FCK

If you're up for playing and giving feedback here are some keys. As before please only take a key if you're going to help with feedback

And wanted to thank everyone again for putting in the time and sharing their thoughts. When you develop by yourself for a long enough time you lose track of what's working/what isn't, and finally getting outside input is a huge amount of pressure off

[Rynjin]

I'll take a look at it and give it my thoughts when I get off work; I took the top key there.

Initial thought: why "wytch"? It always bothers me when fantasy stuff does the I ---> Y switch just to make things sound cooler. It rarely works.

[adamzeira]

Ah, tough questions immediately :) but good ones

It's a contested topic. We were worried witches would come off as cute, because nowdays they're often associated with harmless witches like harry potter, Sabrina, etc who are more "relatable person with magic, black robes and a broom". And we wanted our witches to feel evil/scary and taken seriously, so trying to tip the scales a bit by using the wytches spelling

As an interesting side note I wonder if d&d felt the same way and is distancing itself from the cute terminology too. seeing a lot of avoidance of it and more usage of "hag"

The spelling is still subject to change, especially if we see negative responses to it when we first put the game out there
Which happens to be right now :) so if anyone else has thoughts/feelings on this topic please voice them

[Thomas Cardew]

You guys are the team that did Fort Triumph right?

I grabbed YVAJI-Z974N-QZ0DJ. I'll post feedback but it will be a week or so, it's finals weeks which means it's grading crunch week.

[Rynjin]

Blargh. I had some detailed feedback typed up but my power flickered as I was hitting Submit. I'll try and recreate my stream of consciousness as well as I can.

The Good:
Combat visuals are pretty good overall for an indie game.

Environment based combat is a fun idea, and felt very satisfying. I'm assuming this is going to be expanded more besides just shoving rocks.

Everything in combat is clear of function and works exactly as you'd expect if you've ever played an X-com-alike.

The Bad:
Dialogue is often clunky, mostly in terms of formatting. Lot of minor grammatical errors to be fixed, but I'd also do a pass to tighten up certain redundant or awkward phrasing, especially in the "stage direction". "Scoffs in offended shock" is such a clunky statement, and "...But... she continued slowly" is a very redundant phrase, as the ellipses already denote slowed speech.

Framerate seems to drop considerably when moving or panning the camera.

Game needs the ability to turn the camera using the middle mouse.

Overland map and town maps frankly look terrible; reminds me of Flash games I played in the 2000s. Could be a WIP issue though.

On transitioning to the first moral choice, screen turns an eye-searing red and splotches of it linger on the screen. I'm assuming this is a visual glitch for something that's meant to be a blood splatter?

The Nitpicky:
"Bloody dark" is a very awkward swear phrase, as it's something that could be said in casual conversation. "It's bloody dark in here!". "Blood and darkness" might sound more...swear-like, if you don't mind the similarities to Wheel of Time's "Blood and ashes" swear begging comparisons from some.

I'm assuming "Rangey and Slashy" and placeholder names? =p

Enemies are consistently called Darkfiends in game, but Nightfiends in dialogue; should be made consistent.

Targeting feels a bit unclear sometimes. Notching out the portraits is good, but consider allowing to target USING the portraits.

Items with attribute requirements shouldn't give you a bright red "warning" unless the requirements aren't met.

I think that's everything. Game shows promise, but is definitely far from finished.

[Brother Oni]

The Nitpicky:
"Bloody dark" is a very awkward swear phrase, as it's something that could be said in casual conversation. "It's bloody dark in here!". "Blood and darkness" might sound more...swear-like, if you don't mind the similarities to Wheel of Time's "Blood and ashes" swear begging comparisons from some.

I don't know the context in which it's used, but since you're mentioned that the enemies are called 'Darkfiends', "Bloody Dark" could be used in the same way as a racial slur.

That said, it is a more modern British colloquialism, so if the OP was aiming for something a little more old-timey, I'd agree with you on the "Blood and darkness" swear.

[Rynjin]

No, it wasn't used that way. Just "Bloody dark, there's more of them!" or something along those lines.

[Herbstfarben]

I took KJ2QB-F3RNG-BRWQZ. I'll post some feedback once I tried the game.

[adamzeira]

You guys are the team that did Fort Triumph right?

I grabbed YVAJI-Z974N-QZ0DJ. I'll post feedback but it will be a week or so, it's finals weeks which means it's grading crunch week.

Yup :)

Game needs the ability to turn the camera using the middle mouse.

On transitioning to the first moral choice, screen turns an eye-searing red and splotches of it linger on the screen. I'm assuming this is a visual glitch for something that's meant to be a blood splatter?

Items with attribute requirements shouldn't give you a bright red "warning" unless the requirements aren't met.

Targeting feels a bit unclear sometimes. Notching out the portraits is good, but consider allowing to target USING the portraits.

On it. Great suggestions

"Bloody dark" is a very awkward swear phrase, as it's something that could be said in casual conversation. "It's bloody dark in here!". "Blood and darkness" might sound more...swear-like, if you don't mind the similarities to Wheel of Time's "Blood and ashes" swear begging comparisons from some.

comparisons, compliments...
It feels like every game/story idea draws comparisons, as everything's been touched on somewhere. and WoT isn't as well known (or sufficiently appreciated)
Changed, thanks for the suggestion

Enemies are consistently called Darkfiends in game, but Nightfiends in dialogue; should be made consistent.

I'd actually forgotten about that. Originally Darkfiends was going to be the thing
But the word dark is over-used in the game and we're trying to tone it down
Which sounds better, Darkfiends or Nightfiends? Or maybe Blightfiends as an option as well

[adamzeira]

"...But... she continued slowly" is a very redundant phrase, as the ellipses already denote slowed speech.

This one touches on another topic of great debate - How does the initial dialogue feel?

The goal of it is to establish some context for Dorian/Violet, and make them likable. That's why there are long pauses and several sections. Does that work?

Because a big sacrifice made there is it has a lot of clicks (14 or so), which is not great for a game's opening. It's only worth it if it pulls off starting to become fond of the characters

[Morgaln]

I took 6C76I-EPVX0-696YQ and will give you feedback once I have time to try it out.

[Rynjin]

This one touches on another topic of great debate - How does the initial dialogue feel?

The goal of it is to establish some context for Dorian/Violet, and make them likable. That's why there are long pauses and several sections. Does that work?

Because a big sacrifice made there is it has a lot of clicks (14 or so), which is not great for a game's opening. It's only worth it if it pulls off starting to become fond of the characters

Their characters seem pretty clear. Violet is a precocious teen(?) who wants to seem very grown up in her father's eyes, and Dorian is the responsible ex-soldier dad who's seen some **** and wants his daughter to...not do that.

As for likable? Ehhh, we don't really spend enough time with them at the start to really figure out whether we like them or not. But neither are like...instantly annoying or anything, so it's the kind of thing that can organically grow throughout the game.

The presentation is, however, lacking. It makes your game come off initially as something like a visual novel, since as you say there are 14 clicks with no interactivity at all.

It might be better to frontload some of the choice (like the choice of profession, which overall I liked having the option of) into that initial conversation and add a few extra things, like maybe being able to choose Dorian's character class and fighting style during it. So basically treat the opening conversation as your "character creation" menu.

Re: Darkfiends or Nightfiends: definitely the latter. To continue the Wheel of Time comparisons, I initially read them as "Darkfriends" initially and had to blink and look a second time. Blightfiends might work as well, depending on the final form they take. It's mentioned they're created by some Blight that witches unleashed, so the name would fit in that, but they also look like they're created from living shadow or some such, so allusions to darkness are fitting as well.

The latter does significantly limit how creative you can get with monster designs, however, so Blightfiends might give you a bit more leeway in people going "But wait, THIS one isn't pure black shadow like the others, is it a different kind of monster?".

[Brother Oni]

It feels like every game/story idea draws comparisons, as everything's been touched on somewhere. and WoT isn't as well known (or sufficiently appreciated)

Depends on how well the Amazon Prime adaptation of WoT goes. Current reviews are mixed or average, although the fans seem to like it.

[Herbstfarben]

The description "XCOM + Battlebrothers" is fitting. I enjoyed travelling around fighting and questing, I think that part can work both as a sandbox game or a story-heavy campaign.
I felt invested into the main character because he is a main part of my mercenary company and I could customize him. At the same time I forgot that there was daughter as she is not part of the battlefield
or inventory. The spellbook is disconnected to an actual witch caster.
The graphics for the battles are way better than those for the overland map, which right now is the ugliest part of the game.
I'd rather have witches, trolls and fiends. That way I know it's fantasy, dark fantasy or even horror. In my opinion blightwytches using their blüdmagicke to conjure darkfyre dhaemons (in an age of stryfe!) ought to be reserved for 90's superheroes and lessen my immersion into the game.

[adamzeira]

As for likable? Ehhh, we don't really spend enough time with them at the start to really figure out whether we like them or not. But neither are like...instantly annoying or anything, so it's the kind of thing that can organically grow throughout the game.

Maybe "like" is a big thing to ask, and "heading towards like" is a better term. What we're trying to do is have a scene in the beginning that shows two characters with good vibes interact in a way that make you chuckle, and that goes a long way towards getting players into a game

The big question is if that scene achieves that. not sure it does

The presentation is, however, lacking. It makes your game come off initially as something like a visual novel, since as you say there are 14 clicks with no interactivity at all.

It might be better to frontload some of the choice (like the choice of profession, which overall I liked having the option of) into that initial conversation and add a few extra things, like maybe being able to choose Dorian's character class and fighting style during it. So basically treat the opening conversation as your "character creation" menu.

That feels like a great idea, and another team member agrees

It'll need some time and thought though because the dialogue has to be rewritten. It'll need to talk about things in a more technical ("I used to be a warrior/mage/ranger", "served under the king/was a bandit/sellsword", etc), while (if possible) trying to be quick so you can get to the gameplay and introduce the characters/start making you fond of them


Suggestions are welcome (from anyone). I only say this because these forums tend to have good writers and those aren't easy to find. If someone writes something that fits well we'll buy it off you/work something out

Blightfiends might work as well

After some thought Blightfiends sounds good. It feels that most of the options are reasonable, but out of dark/night/blight blight feels the least often used

[adamzeira]

The description "XCOM + Battlebrothers" is fitting. I enjoyed travelling around fighting and questing, I think that part can work both as a sandbox game or a story-heavy campaign.
I felt invested into the main character because he is a main part of my mercenary company and I could customize him. At the same time I forgot that there was daughter as she is not part of the battlefield or inventory. The spellbook is disconnected to an actual witch caster.

The daughter and company skill trees are being added now, hoping that'll help that a bit. and later more things - more events, locations, quests, towns

personally I want there to be more static characters around the world with whom you get an actual story and choices that greatly affects the daughter, and that'll help noticing her

I'd rather have witches, trolls and fiends. That way I know it's fantasy, dark fantasy or even horror. In my opinion blightwytches using their blüdmagicke to conjure darkfyre dhaemons (in an age of stryfe!) ought to be reserved for 90's superheroes and lessen my immersion into the game.

Haha. The feedback on that is piling up, we'll probably change it both in-game and the title of "Witch Hunter". Luckily it's still early enough in development to do that
Just need to clarify it's not cute witches somehow. Buckets of blood, needless gore and metal music in the opening 3 seconds of the trailer it is. ;)

(not serious on that, I think the overly-dark theme is done to death and is more fun for artists/developers to create than it is for players to play most of the time. but do need to clarify it's not a cute-witches thing somehow)

[Rynjin]

That feels like a great idea, and another team member agrees

It'll need some time and thought though because the dialogue has to be rewritten. It'll need to talk about things in a more technical ("I used to be a warrior/mage/ranger", "served under the king/was a bandit/sellsword", etc), while (if possible) trying to be quick so you can get to the gameplay and introduce the characters/start making you fond of them


Suggestions are welcome (from anyone). I only say this because these forums tend to have good writers and those aren't easy to find. If someone writes something that fits well we'll buy it off you/work something out

I might hash something out, where would you like it sent if so? I have a background in game design, and I currently work as a freelance writer, but funnily enough have never done game writing before. I'd like the experience.

Just need to clarify it's not cute witches somehow. Buckets of blood, needless gore and metal music in the opening 3 seconds of the trailer it is. ;)

(not serious on that, I think the overly-dark theme is done to death and is more fun for artists/developers to create than it is for players to play most of the time. but do need to clarify it's not a cute-witches thing somehow)

I think you might be a liiittle too worried about the cultural impact of Little Witch Academia. =p

You probably just need a little ominous Latin chanting, cauldron bubbling, and demon summoning to get the point across. Showing the initial calamity in snippets in the trailer would probably work fine.

[Brother Oni]

I've got time to have a look at this now (yay for compulsory holiday), so I've taken key GVGHM-9249F-I7T5K.

I'll report back once I've had a look.

You probably just need a little ominous Latin chanting, cauldron bubbling, and demon summoning to get the point across. Showing the initial calamity in snippets in the trailer would probably work fine.

Flashes of women (not necessarily witches) getting lynched by noose or burning stakes would also get the point across as well (the Gwent Once Upon a Pyre trailer for example).


Edit: Ouch, I've forgotten how bad I am at these games.

Most of my comments have already been addressed, but some others:

The initial dialogue feels a bit stilted, especially for a pair as informal as father and daughter living off their wits and skills. By the time they open up the obelisk, it feels to flow and feel a bit more natural though; I can't say further as Dorian died at that point and I ended up in a death spiral, so will have to give the game another go.

More interactivity with Violet once you get out into the world map would be nice, for example another tutorial on her spell casting, by having her blast an enemy that gets too close to Dorian. It might be a bit cliche but integrating this with building a further bit of their relationship and lore building might help:

Spoiler: Spell casting tutorial

Show

*Dorian gets jumped and hit by a Slowey*

"Father, look out!" *Tutorial section, ending with Violet casting fireball on the Slowey, killing it*

"Blood and darkness, Violet! I told you not to use your magic if we're travelling with others! You know how witches are hated!"

"But, Father, you're bleeding!"

"It's just a scratch, pay it no heed. But please, no more magic if we're with others we don't trust."

"Yes, Father..."

"Good girl. Oh and Violet?"

"Yes, Father?"

"Thank you."

Other than that, some minor nitpicks (understandable since the game is so early in its development) and QA sort of stuff:

• The popup box for the water fountain has the same title of "Who will drink from the fountain?" even if you're tossing a coin in.
• Some explanation of the resting mechanics would be nice, especially how they interact with the timer (I rested in town and was stuck for 5 minutes until I realised time was paused).
• Missing explanation of the hotkeys (or even having them listed in the Settings) - I was looking for the 'End Turn' button, pressed 'Enter' and Dorian raced across the battlefield with his last AP, leading to the aforementioned death spiral.
• What do the two 'End Turn' buttons do, for that matter?
• You might need a premature end game failure state if Dorian dies, or at least some way to raise him.

[Amechra]

And I'll take I79IZ-Q3WP7-EZHN2. Might take me a week or so before I can actually sit down and give it a play, though.

[adamzeira]

I might hash something out, where would you like it sent if so? I have a background in game design, and I currently work as a freelance writer, but funnily enough have never done game writing before. I'd like the experience.

I might hash something out, where would you like it sent if so? I have a background in game design, and I currently work as a freelance writer, but funnily enough have never done game writing before. I'd like the experience.

That's awesome :)

Can post a dialogue example here, if there's one piece of writing that should be polished to perfection through feedback it's that, and I think people in this community specifically could have good ideas
But writing is sometimes emotionally difficult to do in this way and that's understandable, so can also send to [email protected]

Most of my comments have already been addressed

it'd be helpful to hear about these things even if they were mentioned, with a small amount of people giving feedback every one counts

For example the wytches, dialogue issues and world map visuals were mentioned by 2/2 people as problematic. 2 could be a coincidence, more makes it clearer that there's a pattern

Flashes of women (not necessarily witches) getting lynched by noose or burning stakes would also get the point across as well (the Gwent Once Upon a Pyre trailer for example).

Wow, perfect. Lots of ideas there for visuals, theme, voice actress, etc. Bookmarked, thanks :)

The initial dialogue feels a bit stilted, especially for a pair as informal as father and daughter living off their wits and skills. By the time they open up the obelisk, it feels to flow and feel a bit more natural though; I can't say further as Dorian died at that point and I ended up in a death spiral, so will have to give the game another go.

More interactivity with Violet once you get out into the world map would be nice, for example another tutorial on her spell casting, by having her blast an enemy that gets too close to Dorian.

Fixing the dialogue now

With Violet's powers we wanted to start the game without spellcasting, and then have a mission where you're ambushed and everything goes against you but Violet saves the day using her powers in a climactic reveal

But placing another mission right after the tutorial instead of letting players go into the world felt wrong, so we just gave players access to the witch powers. Think we'll change it back later

Speaking of which did it feel alright to get the powers immediately? Before the build I was worried the jump from <tutorial with talk of witches being terrible> to <time skip now your daughter is a witch with powers, no explanation> would be odd

[Aragehaor]

No codes left, so i can only provide some limited feedback based on the information available in the thread - but the games concept seems like an great choice to me, It has a lot of potential, while being similar enough to Fort Triumph that you'll be able to really make use of your previous experience.

The Artstyle: Examples of it here are limited, but what i see works pretty well, i greatly prefer the style used for the travel map then what was used in Fort Triumph (which wasnt bad, mind, just not to my preference, artwise.) although that said the precise quality of the art brings to mind a significantly more retro game then a brand new product - excusable, since its both early in development and an indie game, but could probably use some improvement.

The second image keeps to the maps theme pretty well, Theres some minor nitpicks i can make that could very well be outdated, but i'll make them anyways

First off, the UI elements - while clear and easy to understand, do not match the general theme of the art style, and seems a bit immediately jarring (most apparent being the bag/presumably inventory icon, though that specific one may be a placeholder, as it is easily the lowest quality part of the UI i can see.) I'm reasonably certain someone will get used to the UI once playing, but for screenshots it looks a bit 'eh'

Secondly (and really, lastly as far as nitpicks go - only so much one can think of with a couple images. afterall) the only visible character model looks just a touch too cartoony for the style of game, though the colors of his equipment is dark enough that i dont think its nessacarily a problem (and i didnt see anyone who actually played the game mention it, so it probably looks fine in gameplay.)


The only other thing i can provide feedback on is, naturally, the title - i'll add my support for 'Witch' over 'Wytch' The latter feels silly at best.

Something else you could consider doing that would help establish that your witches aren't cute would be to add a scene or event (either in gameplay or cutscene) in which the daughter uses her powers to a sufficiently destructive end (either accidentally or for a purpose, as depending on how dark you want to go it could be anything from 'burned a tree to cinders' to 'saved father by burning* his opponent alive') - this would have the added bonus of giving the daughter more screen time as a character (which from the comments above, seems like something she may currently be lacking)






*To clarify, it doesn't have to specifically be fire, obviously, it just needs to be something that would impress on the player that Witches have access to at the very least, very concerning power. Such a scene would also help clarify that no, witches are not just misunderstood - they may or may not be inherently evil/corruptive, but their power is very real, and very scary to an average person.



Anyways, thats all - i wish you good luck with developing the game, i really do think the concept has a lot of promise.

[Brother Oni]

it'd be helpful to hear about these things even if they were mentioned, with a small amount of people giving feedback every one counts

For example the wytches, dialogue issues and world map visuals were mentioned by 2/2 people as problematic. 2 could be a coincidence, more makes it clearer that there's a pattern

Sure. :)

Spoiler: Already mentioned comments

Show

• I'm not a fan of the wytches spelling, it seems like you're trying a bit too hard to be edgy and stand out as unique.
• I don't have an issue with the overworld map graphics, but I would agree that they're not as good as the battlemap and that discrepancy might be jarring.
• The town maps are a drop even further, which is emphasised by the quality of the other art.
• I do like the character portraits - they're are very pretty.
• The battle map was very laggy and while I don't have a state of the art machine, it's not a slouch (Ryzen 5 3600, 32gb RAM, Radeon 6600 XT).
• Enemy name consistency (night/blight/dark)
• Placeholder names (Rangey, slashy and slowy)

With Violet's powers we wanted to start the game without spellcasting, and then have a mission where you're ambushed and everything goes against you but Violet saves the day using her powers in a climactic reveal

But placing another mission right after the tutorial instead of letting players go into the world felt wrong, so we just gave players access to the witch powers. Think we'll change it back later

Speaking of which did it feel alright to get the powers immediately? Before the build I was worried the jump from <tutorial with talk of witches being terrible> to <time skip now your daughter is a witch with powers, no explanation> would be odd

While I definitely agree there should be a tutorial somewhere, having it later on in the game is fine - give the player a chance to learn the battle mechanics and once they have a firm-ish grip on that, throw spell casting into the mix.

As it's not obviously clear what all the HUD options are (I get the feeling that prior knowledge of the mechanics from Fort Triumph are required), it's easy to miss what all the buttons on the interface do, so missing out on the spellcasting button can be easy.

That said, the overall tone of having magic available from the get-go is a bit jarring - as you've said, there's all this talk of witches being hated in the tutorial, the three witches causing the current semi apocalyptic world state, then Violet having powers seemingly with no repercussions, aside from a one liner when opening the obelisk. Having Violet save the day in a cinematic is fine, as long as there's breadcrumbs that point towards something hinky going on - Dorian going from a respected witch hunter in the King's service to a freelance mercenary, why both of them are constantly on the move and keeping a low profile, etc.

You've got some of that (the incident with the Lord's horse for example, with Dorian admonishing Violet on keeping a low profile), but you might need a couple more incidents/events to emphasise it a bit more , to avoid Violet's powers looking like a massive arse-pull during the cinematic.

[Herbstfarben]

If your still set against using the name witch you can also use translations: Striga, Bruja, Sorciere, Hexe, Wicker...

[Lionheart]

Hey man! Not sure if you remember that I did a bit of writing for Fort Triumph and would be more than happy to have another go if you need someone.

[adamzeira]

No codes left, so i can only provide some limited feedback based on the information available in the thread - but the games concept seems like an great choice to me, It has a lot of potential, while being similar enough to Fort Triumph that you'll be able to really make use of your previous experience.

How about this - we're going to put out a build soon with small and not so small fixes based on this feedback (dialogues, wytches, town screen change, a lot of minor bugs) and I'll post a few more keys if you'd like to give it a go

Something else you could consider doing that would help establish that your witches aren't cute would be to add a scene or event (either in gameplay or cutscene) in which the daughter uses her powers to a sufficiently destructive end (either accidentally or for a purpose, as depending on how dark you want to go it could be anything from 'burned a tree to cinders' to 'saved father by burning* his opponent alive') - this would have the added bonus of giving the daughter more screen time as a character (which from the comments above, seems like something she may currently be lacking)

*To clarify, it doesn't have to specifically be fire, obviously, it just needs to be something that would impress on the player that Witches have access to at the very least, very concerning power. Such a scene would also help clarify that no, witches are not just misunderstood - they may or may not be inherently evil/corruptive, but their power is very real, and very scary to an average person.

Really like this. Extra horrifying points if we make the player fond of the daughter first, then have her do something destructive like this

Anyways, thats all - i wish you good luck with developing the game, i really do think the concept has a lot of promise.

Which part made you feel like the concept has promise/got you excited about it?

Not for ego stroking (at least not solely ;)) but because it's extremely important to understand exactly what gets people excited. Eventually it's what you place in the front of the store page and trailer

[adamzeira]

By the way officially "Witch Hunter" now on Steam :) Wondering if it'll update in your steam libraries

Speaking of which how do you see the game on steam? Wytch Hunter or Wardmaster? (much older name)

That said, the overall tone of having magic available from the get-go is a bit jarring - as you've said, there's all this talk of witches being hated in the tutorial, the three witches causing the current semi apocalyptic world state, then Violet having powers seemingly with no repercussions

There was a discussion about making a witch suspicion bar, and using witch powers increases it. Especially if it's closer to cities


I also want to make it so there's a story danger element in using witch powers excessively. As in there's a reason witches are known as evil, the usage of these powers corrupts them over time, and it can do it to Violet as well. But not sure how to make it so it doesn't penalize the player
Maybe there'll be a secret ending if you don't overdo it and make the right choices in the story

Having Violet save the day in a cinematic is fine, as long as there's breadcrumbs that point towards something hinky going on - Dorian going from a respected witch hunter in the King's service to a freelance mercenary, why both of them are constantly on the move and keeping a low profile, etc.

You've got some of that (the incident with the Lord's horse for example, with Dorian admonishing Violet on keeping a low profile), but you might need a couple more incidents/events to emphasise it a bit more , to avoid Violet's powers looking like a massive arse-pull during the cinematic.

Good notes :) For sure need some build up
Though there's the question of how much. The game is pitched as "hide that your daughter is a witch" and that'll ruin any element of surprise for players. So it's an odd situation where you want some buildup (a moment like that definitely deserves it), but you know there won't be a surprise so if it's dragged on for too long I think it'll get tedious. Not sure how the "drama math" works there
Or maybe the solution is for there to be a second surprise. Hmm

[adamzeira]

Hey man! Not sure if you remember that I did a bit of writing for Fort Triumph and would be more than happy to have another go if you need someone.

Hey, yeah I remember the icon :)

There are a lot of things in the air at the moment while we look for a publisher, so can't tell anything for sure. But email me, [email protected]

[Aragehaor]

How about this - we're going to put out a build soon with small and not so small fixes based on this feedback (dialogues, wytches, town screen change, a lot of minor bugs) and I'll post a few more keys if you'd like to give it a go

Well, i'd certainly be down for it.

Really like this. Extra horrifying points if we make the player fond of the daughter first, then have her do something destructive like this

Well i'm glad you like the suggestion, and yeah, it absolutely would have a heavier impact if the player was already fond of the daughter.

Which part made you feel like the concept has promise/got you excited about it?

Not for ego stroking (at least not solely ;)) but because it's extremely important to understand exactly what gets people excited. Eventually it's what you place in the front of the store page and trailer

Its a bit of a combination of factors for me, most prominently i suppose is the description of 'XCOM + battlebrothers' followed by the concept of the games world and main character.

That description implies a nice amount of open ended freedom in a gameplay style i enjoy - whereas the characters and world give me some hope that there is at least an optional story. One of the reasons i failed to get into battle brothers despite enjoying the concept is that game (at least when i played it) never really did much to actually draw me into their world, so while the gameplay concept was interesting enough, i ended up dropping it out of boredom pretty quickly simply because the world itself (and to a lessor extent the art design) didn't interest me.

another relevant factor in my interest (though considerably more minor) is the general feel of the art style - while there is some room for improvement in some areas, the portraits, map style, and battle maps all flow together in way i find fairly appealing. Dark, without being bland or colorless.



EDIT: I do agree with Brother Oni's thoughts on a possible corruption mechanic being interesting, i personally really like the idea of alternate dialogue or altered portraits as it gets worse as well. (Though the former could be difficult to implement, as Brother Oni mentions.)

[Brother Oni]

Really like this. Extra horrifying points if we make the player fond of the daughter first, then have her do something destructive like this

To be fair, you've got a witch torturing a scout in the tutorial plus the witches being directly responsible for the current semi apocalyptic world state. That's more than enough to establish witches can be immensely powerful beings capable of great evil.

That said, I feel that you need something to emphasise the current world state; maybe something in the opening exposition/trailer/cinematic contrasting the world before and after the ritual, before going to Dorian and Violet at the campfire.

By the way officially "Witch Hunter" now on Steam :) Wondering if it'll update in your steam libraries

Speaking of which how do you see the game on steam? Wytch Hunter or Wardmaster? (much older name)

It's still showing as Wardmaster in my Steam account, I've verified files, uninstalled it and reinstalled it, with no luck.

Looking at other threads on the subject, it seems it'll get updated whenever Steam does a catalog update.

There was a discussion about making a witch suspicion bar, and using witch powers increases it. Especially if it's closer to cities

I also want to make it so there's a story danger element in using witch powers excessively. As in there's a reason witches are known as evil, the usage of these powers corrupts them over time, and it can do it to Violet as well. But not sure how to make it so it doesn't penalize the player
Maybe there'll be a secret ending if you don't overdo it and make the right choices in the story

This type of mechanic is one that's always irked me - if there are no observers (or survivors) to you using powers, then how does the suspicion meter go up? It would be different if you had random mercenaries in your party with no loyalty towards Dorian or Violet beyond that of the contract, but that seems overly punishing - the more people you have in your party, the faster your suspicion meter goes up.

That said, if you changed it to a general suspicion meter rather than exclusively a 'witch suspicion' meter, it would emphasise the 'keeping a low profile' element of the game. Hmmm, will need some thought on this...
Edit: That gives me an fun idea, although I'm not sure whether it's possible - an achievement for completing the game with only Dorian and Violet called 'The Last of Us'.

I do like the corruption meter idea, but I dislike it having it openly displayed as it reduces it to a mechanic to game rather than something which is a real threat to Violet's well being. If it were hidden, you should hint at its existence, with certain decisions or story events decreasing/increasing Violet's corruption level in addition to using spells excessively in combat increasing corruption. It would also be nice if her portrait changed depending on her corruption level as a rough visual indicator of how far she's gone.

Spoiler: Thoughts

Show

You could have a corruption meter of 0-100 with 100 being fully corrupted.
Certain moral actions will increase/decrease the corruption meter, while spell casting only increases it by a small amount, depending on the amount of mana spent.
Performing other actions (eg. praying at shrines) or just letting time pass will reduce the corruption meter.

There are number of stages or gates on the corruption meter which represent points of no moral return. Once you hit one of these thresholds, the meter cannot drop back below it, for example if the player has Violet spams spells and her corruption meter hits the first threshold, the player then cannot game the system and have her pray her corruption meter back down to 0. Each stage on the corruption meter is also accompanied by a change in Violet's portrait, to represent her growing corruption.

You could also have the corruption stage also apply a hidden multiplier to the suspicion meter as Violet's changed appearance only makes things worse. You'll have to do it carefully though as this type of system is prone to snowballing hard, although it's perfectly in keeping with the nature of corruption - once you start on that slippery slope, it can rapidly spiral downwards out of control.

If you were feeling particularly ambitious, Violet could have different dialogue depending on her corruption level, but that is a lot of writing and I don't know how easy it would be to integrate that into the game.

Good notes :) For sure need some build up
Though there's the question of how much. The game is pitched as "hide that your daughter is a witch" and that'll ruin any element of surprise for players. So it's an odd situation where you want some buildup (a moment like that definitely deserves it), but you know there won't be a surprise so if it's dragged on for too long I think it'll get tedious. Not sure how the "drama math" works there
Or maybe the solution is for there to be a second surprise. Hmm

If the game is being sold with the tagline 'hide your daughter is a witch', then there's no point in hiding the dramatic reveal that she's a witch. What you could use as a dramatic reveal is the unexpected level of her power and Dorian's surprise at it. To use D&D 3.5 terminology, Dorian's expecting a 1st lvl Burning Hands or maybe a 3rd level Fireball at most, instead she pulls out a 5th level Cloudkill.

You could also tie the power reveal into the question of who Violet's mother was, with Dorian remarking that Violet's taking after her more than he expected.

[Thomas Cardew]

Finally got a chance to update and play for a quick minute.

1) It still shows as wardmaster in steam for me.

2) I had a bug during the tutorial. I was unable to move Dorian after he announced we could still turn this around. I could move the screen, open the inventory etc, but the movement command just did not work. I had to restart the tutorial to progress. Couldn't reproduce it but didn't try very hard.

3) If you going to include a moral choice in the tutorial it'll presumably have some consequences later on. Be sure to add a dialogue snippet that allows the player to make the choice if they chose to skip the tutorial.

4) It seems inconsistent that skill points are spent instantly and irreversibly while stat points can be adjusted until 'apply' is clicked.

I agree with what everyone before said: the opening dialogue is stilted, I don't care for the wytch spelling, etc.