Hey everyone!
Following our first dev blog looking at how the town of Mossport comes to life around you (even when you’re not looking), we’d next like to fling open the Witchbrook College’s grand doors and invite you inside to see where the magic happens!
As a fledgling witch, enrolling at Witchbrook College will be your first point of call to equipping yourself with the knowledge, spells, and skills you’ll need for making the most of day-to-day life in Mossport.
But before we could even start designing the progression system for your scholarly studies, we first needed to take a step backwards and decide how magic works within the world of Witchbrook. Is everyone in the town of Mossport magical? Are you born with magical abilities that need to be harnessed, or can magic be taught? What type of magic will you be able to learn, and how can we make spells fun and interesting in general gameplay?
To answer these questions (and more), here’s Witchbrook’s Producer, Rosie Ball, who alongside Abi Cooke, proposed the concept for Witchbrook (then known only as ‘Magic School Game’) back in 2016 during a pitching process.
From the very start, our take on magic was to be as grounded as possible. Magic is all around you in Mossport, and anyone can harness it with the right attitude and some practice. It takes hard work and passion, just like any vocation, and as such, magic is still a mystery to most people. The townsfolk of Mossport keenly rely on the budding witchpopulace (that's YOU) to help them with their problems, great and small - how lucky to have a magical College on their doorstep!
You'll be learning and refining your craft at Witchbrook College's hallowed halls. In Alchemy classes, you’ll learn to use the local flora (and sometimes fauna) to craft remedies like herbal teas and topical salves for pesky everyday ailments, progressing over time to complex cures in the form of potions. In the College Observatory, new students will attend daytime divination classes in tarot card reading, progressing to night classes where you’ll learn to communicate with the many constellations of the cosmos. A witch with divination skills can provide valuable advice to townsfolk on subjects such as travel, finance, love, and much more.
The Arcane Arts are taught only to Witches who can prove their knowledge and pass their semester 1 & 2 exams. This is the realm of rituals and demons.
You'll discover more classes to learn new spells to aid you in daily life as you progress with your academic studies. When it comes to applying your new magical skills, practical magic requires a hands-on approach. Every step of the way you’ll be consulting with clients face-to-face, sourcing your own ingredients, scouring ancient tomes, crafting the cures, and hand-delivering the goods in person.
We love the practical side of magic in Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching books, where the protagonist's Grandma is a shepherdess and her deep knowledge of the outdoors is considered a form of magic. Likewise Witchbrook's approach to civic witchcraft was also inspired by Kiki's Delivery Service, focusing on using magic as a real service to the townspeople - a witch's vocation is to help people and keep the tradition alive. Your Coven are your classmates, the young Witches making the same journey through College as you, but not necessarily the same path! Everyone comes to Witchbrook College for their own reasons, and each Witch you meet has a story to tell.
I worked as a concept artist on the College, responsible for the “draw-over” layer, a detailed sketch over the greybox layout, which was masterfully designed by Witchbrook’s Art Director, Steph. The sketches were then rendered up by our talented Pixel Artists, who also added seasonal details, lighting and so many more details to bring the College to life.
Architecturally, Witchbrook is a sprawling collection of classrooms and campus buildings built across many years, with their style and materials reflecting the time period they were added.
The main buildings, including the Library, Observatory and Quad, are built of bright sandstone masonry in the grand style of Cambridge University, the heart of the beautiful city where Abi and I grew up. Adorned with statues and ornate pilasters, magnificent stained glass windows, and conical metal roofs. The fountain in the Quad is even based on the fountain in Cambridge Botanic Gardens, where I have visited countless times since childhood.
In the Library, I was inspired by the Wren Library in Cambridge, where the windows are above the bookcases on the second floor, allowing light to fill the room but giving the impression the room is empty when seen from the river Cam.
As you arrive into the College grounds, you’ll find yourself traversing a (metaphorical) gateway between the ordinary and mystical. Crossing a white stone bridge will take you away from pastoral farmlands and into the bustling student village - our take on a University town where witches live, work, and study, with the College main building at the heart of it all.
The curved bridge leading up to the Alchemy Lab was inspired by the MANY bridges of Cambridge.
A small detail that is very iconic of University towns is the uniformity of railings, signposts, and lampposts across the town. You can see the Witchbrook emblem features prominently in our designs - it’s hidden all over the student village. It’s also common to see these structures covered in various student flyers and their trusty bicycles! We tried to emulate this with brooms, but added the odd bike too for good measure. Flyers will also be a way for you to encounter new questlines, learn tips, and generally discover new things about all sorts of goings on in Mossport.
Many of the surrounding buildings are in a Medieval style with wattle and daub walls, timber beams, and wooden shutters. This includes the Alchemy Lab, Arcane Arts classroom and College Shop. These often incorporate the oldest elements of the College - crumbling red brick towers and archways, in the style of Dordogne, France.
There are some remnants of even older buildings in a solid grey stone, but their story is waiting to be rediscovered...
Last time we introduced you to Witchbrook’s first datable character, Hana. If you’ve been keeping up with our socials you might have already got the inside scoop on the Witchbrook Oracle’s editor (and eligible bachelor), Eli Ivers! Eli is a well-known friendly face around campus. If he’s not on the hunt for his next headline, you’ll find him working at the School Shop near the College. Eli is currently working away on the next Witchbrook Oracle, so make sure you’re subscribed to never miss an issue!
Next up we’ll be talking about all things customisation and fashion, so stay tuned for the next dev blog!
Got any questions for the development team, or requests for future dev blogs? Join our official Discord or find us on your preferred socials and become part of our lovely community.
Until the next one!
Katy & Rosie