Witchbrook gameplay details & everything we know so far

Witchbrook is an upcoming magical school simulation game from developer Chucklefish. Announced a few years ago, fans want to know more about Witchbrook, including what its gameplay will be like.

While we don’t know a lot, here’s everything we know about Witchbrook so far.

Do we know when Witchbrook will launch?

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We currently don't know when Witchbrook will launch. The Steam Store page only lists the game as 'Coming Soon'.

After sharing an announcement for its new game Wildfrost on Twitter, someone asked Chucklefish if it would come out before or after Witchbrook. Chucklefish responded saying, “Before! We are aiming to release Wildfrost this Winter 2022 (all being well), whereas Witchbrook is still in an earlier development phase, so quite a while off from release.”

Witchbrook was officially announced on March 15, 2018 when Chucklefish took to Twitter to share that Project Spellbound had been given its official name, Witchbrook. When announced, developers shared that it was in early development and they couldn’t give any type of Witchbrook launch date yet.

Fast forward a few years, and there still hasn’t been an official launch announcement. However, Chucklefish has hired a few new developers to help out with the game and created a Discord and Reddit where fans can follow along for updates on the games development.

What platforms will Witchbrook launch on?

Witchbrook is currently only set to launch on PC.

In an interview with Red Bull, Chucklefish founder Finn Brice shared that their main goal was to release Witchbrook on PC, but that the team wasn’t ruling out a console or Nintendo Switch version since it’s still in early development. Brice went on to say, “We're all massive fans of the Switch at Chucklefish, and would ideally see all of our major projects hitting the platform in the future.”

Since the game is currently still in an early development process, we likely won’t know the Witchbrook platforms for a while. We will update this article when we learn more.

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Are there any Witchbrook trailers?

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There are currently no Witchbrook trailers at the time of writing. The game is currently still in early development and Chucklefish has only shared a handful of screenshots from the game.

What will the Witchbrook gameplay involve?

Witchbrook is an isometric pixel art town life simulator, similar to that of Stardew Valley. In the game, you will play as a witch-in-training that is trying to learn how to be a witch, while also trying to survive the woes of high school. 

During your time at Witchbrook, you’ll be able to build relationships with fellow students and townspeople, all while learning about spells and your magic abilities. Of course, you won’t be able to learn these things without completing a variety of assignments from your teachers along the way. 

While there hasn’t been any gameplay revealed, Chucklefish did outline a few of the mechanics on the official Withcbrook website. According to the FAQ section, there will be “fishing, growing magical crops, and foraging strange mushrooms,” all while learning about spells and how to cast them.

In the interview with Red Bull mentioned earlier, Brice elaborated on what kind of gameplay players can expect from Witchbrook. “Players should expect to build up their magical proficiency by undertaking school projects. This might have them growing magical crops and creatures in herbology or taking on the denizens of the forest in elemental magic. School life is just as important as magic however; a lot of time will be spent meeting and befriending the varied cast of characters, taking on quests, awkward attempts at dating and a host of side activities.”

Originally dubbed Project Spellbound, Witchbrook’s story was inspired by Harry Potter. “We're fans of Harry Potter,” Brice told Red Bull. “After reading the series we were left longing to experience our own path through magical school life, where we could make our own best friends and develop our own identity in a magical world.”

He went on to talk about how Stardew Valley, the hit farming sim published by Chucklefish also played a role in Witchbrook’s gameplay design. In the same interview, Brice hinted that relationships would play a huge role in Witchbrook, even more than in Stardew Valley.

“We're expecting players to be a little shocked the first time they get dumped…We're attempting to portray a gameworld in which the characters have their own motivations and desires. We want the player to feel as if they're part of an autonomous world rather than a world that revolves around their desires."

While there’s still a lot to learn about the Witchbrook gameplay mechanics, it sounds like there’s plenty of magical fun to look forward to.

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What else do we know about Witchbrook?

Unlike some of the other games that Chucklefish has published, Witchbrook was pitched internally by the development team. After the release of Starbound, the internal team at Chucklefish went through a pitching process before deciding on its next game. The result of the pitching meeting turned out to be Witchbrook, a magical school simulation game. According to the official website, after the meeting, the “whole development team” was on board and soon afterwards started developing the game.

While there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding Witchbrook, it has the potential to be one of Chucklefish’s biggest games yet. With the success of sim games like Stardew Valley and magical themes like Harry Potter, combining the two seems like it just might be a recipe for success.

We will update this article as we learn more about Witchbrook. For more guides, check out the GGRecon homepage.