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We've been waiting a decade now for the release of Witchbrook, formerly Spellbrook, the cutesy magical life sim from Chucklefish. The good news is that the game's still coming; the team behind it is just trying to resist playing too strongly into obvious comparisons.
Chucklefish COO Donna Orlowski discussed the perpetual delays with Knowledge. "The most important thing in developing this game was to ensure that what we do build is going to meet not only our expectations but expectations of an audience that has been given so much already," she states.
"How can we ensure that it’s not just another similar experience?" she adds. "There are a lot of life sims out there now, and the biggies, such as Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon and My Time at Sandrock, are extremely well established in terms of their offerings and distinct ideas."
On paper, Witchbrook could very easily slip into basically being one of the above, but with witches, evoking another particularly well-known property, which Orlowski acknowledges. "When we went full-on on the project in 2019, we decided to slightly shift the focus from people [who] kept saying, 'It's Harry Potter meets Stardew Valley,' to making something more unique," she points out.
"That was the cause of the delay," she says. Which was probably a smart move, because while there could be some novelty in that magical concept, it's also competing against – or certainly will be compared against – both Stardew Valley and Hogwart's Legacy. Whereas if Witchbrook has a more distinct vibe, perhaps in its magic system or simply the overall feel, it may stand out more. It's also worth pointing out the existence of witchy cozy games like Wylde Flowers, which released in 2022 to positive reviews.
"We're very happy where we are with the development right now," she concludes. "Our focus is on the simulation, so we hope that people, the moment they go into the world, will never want to leave."
Witchbrook is due to arrive this year, and hopefully it casts a powerful spell indeed. We got our first proper look at gameplay last year, and our resident sim enthusiast Heather reckoned it looked worth the wait. Prior to that limited preview, we hadn't gotten a major update on the game for about five years, and it's pretty rare to see a wait like that for a game in the indie space where Chucklefish operates, let alone a wait for any news.
