Hello everyone! We’ve got a much-requested blog for you today, but before we dive in, here’s a quick dev update. It’s been incredibly busy at the studio as we’re just wrapping up our final internal playtest and are working through some fantastic feedback - we’re feeling good about our progress so far! While the teams work on localisation and ongoing console porting, we’ve also been busy polishing pixels and squashing those last few bugs. And just in case you missed it, our latest dev blog was all about customising your cottage and garden. The comments were really heartwarming, and we’re so excited to see how you all make your cosy cottage spaces unique to you! An extra customisation tidbit for you: Witchbrook has over 600 pieces of colour-swap furniture, plus clutter and knick-knacks to decorate with, so you’ll be spoilt for choice! Thank you and welcome to our Korean and Russian-speaking community members following the last blog’s localisation news; we’re so glad to be able to bring Witchbrook to more players around the world. New Challengers (for your heart) Appear!
Meet Leif! Keen-eyed community members will have spotted our green-thumbed witch in the first-ever issue of The Witchbrook Oracle. The latest in Mossport’s most eligible bachelors, Leif has a heart of gold and is the kind of guy to bring the sunshine when it rains.
Introducing Evadne! A walking daydream, Evadne is the only Witchbrook student who might accidentally invent a new potion while trying to make toast. Whimsical and charming, Evadne helps everyone to come out of their shell!
Now that you’ve met a few more covenmates, you’re ready for today’s blog, which is all about the tumultuous world of dating, penned by our wonderful Art Director and Writer, Steph! ____________________________ If there’s one thing life sim games have taught us, it’s that no matter how many plants you grow, fish you catch, or quests you complete, there are far more fundamental and critical questions that unify players in their extra-curricular pursuits. Who can you kiss? How can you kiss? When can you kiss? This left us with a huge responsibility to awe and impress, but as a team extremely well-qualified in wooing witches, we were keen to take on the challenge. It’s been a labour of love (literally), but we’re so excited to do a deep dive on the ins and outs of falling head over heels in Witchbrook! ____________________________ Let’s start with the cast! Fellow covenmates, they’ve all got their own personalities, interests, and quirks that reveal themselves and evolve across your time at Witchbrook College. We wanted to make sure there was a range of different ‘types’ to suit different tastes, so there’s someone for everyone! And there are… … Drumroll please… … Eleven of them! Eleven characters you can romance! You’ve already been introduced to Hana, Eli, Cormac, Pip, Leif, and Evadne, and you may even already have a favourite. All we’ll say is… just keep an open mind, because you don’t know who will be revealed next! Building a relationship involves spending time with them, gifting them things, getting gifts back, and more! If you come across a covenmate in their daily routine, they’ll have a thing or two to say about their day. And because the world around you is always moving, they’ll be reacting to it: the time of day, the weather, where they are, and whatever’s going on in their lives. Throughout your studies at Witchbrook, you’ll be supporting them in their own complex journeys and story arcs, with ≋dynamic cutscenes≋ packed with expressive, bespoke animations. We also get that dating isn’t for everyone and that some of you may want to uncover your covenmates' backstories without the commitment. You can progress each covenmate’s story arc without so much as brushing hands, reaching for the same potion materials. Friendship is fun! Take a look at the characters you’ve met so far! Can you imagine where their stories take them?
Different characters are ready to date at different times, depending on what they’re currently going through. A shy wallflower might be more reluctant to open up than the bubbly life-of-the-party, for example. But when they’re single and ready to mingle, make sure you’re ready to make your move!
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So how do you let someone know how you feel? Easy.
Mossport has a longstanding tradition of expressing affection through cards! Nobody’s sure when it started. Some say it goes back to old Mayor Wrigglesworth**, who fell deeply in love with someone three towns over. Not knowing when he’d see them next, he would come up with excuses to send cards for every occasion he could think of. Birthdays… seasons changing… Tuesdays… And the trend caught on! Others say the people of Mossport are just a tiny bit emotionally repressed and can’t bring themselves to say their feelings out loud. Both are probably true!
Either way, there’s a card for everything! Available at Mossport’s post office, you’ll find cards to ask someone out, cards to go steady, and cards to break up. There’s the classic stationery, but also a fun, rotating seasonal stock! Shyly express your blooming feelings through a springtime tulip card, or whimsically end your relationship with a sPoOkY jack-o-lantern (‘BOO! I’m breaking up with you!’).
The choice is yours, because in Mossport, love looks however you want it to! ____________________________ To explain the dating process, we’ve brought in an expert! And by expert, we mean Fable, your trusty corvid business partner, who insisted. Has Fable been on a date before? No. Does Fable know anything about dating? No. BUT, does Fable, at least, have SOME basic working knowledge of human romance? … Anyway… he did, however, write his own lengthy introduction for this blog post, which we removed. And letting him demonstrate dating instead was the compromise we settled on.
One of the highlights of Witchbrook’s dating system is how much freedom you have to play around in it and explore Mossport with your date.
Failure to plan is planning to fail - it’s up to you to pick and choose where you go on your date. You’ll need to figure out what they enjoy and take them out to two different activities. However, the time getting there and the things you see along the way are what make a date really memorable! There’s over 200 ‘date chatter’ spots scattered across the world, context-specific moments where your date will pipe up about whatever catches their eye.
So, be curious and explore! Take them places you’ve never seen them before. See what they think of the jewellery shop, the college’s romantic bridge, poking at seaweed on the beach (you never know what tickles someone's fancy). …or DON’T see what they think of other locations.
The chatter is also how you’ll get a sense for whether a particular activity is actually a good idea for your date. They might hint that they’d love to stop somewhere, or make it pretty obvious that they wouldn’t. It’s worth picking up on, because even promising dates can go badly, and you’ll find out if it has the moment you drop them off at home. A bad date will make itself very obviously known…
But, hey! So will a good date! And a good date can lead to another good date, and then another one, and then…
It’s a long way from handing someone a simple card, isn’t it?
Just like the real world, some characters wear their hearts on their sleeves and are ready to let you in (both emotionally and into their homes!), but others may require a little more effort on your part before they reveal their deepest, darkest secrets. Relationship requirements between NPCs will differ.
Things are going well. You’ve managed to impress the target of your affections with gifts, fun dates and regular contact, and now it’s time to step things up! Nothing says “baby, I wanna make you mine” like sending a covenmate a ‘going steady’ card. That’s right, you get to live out your childhood dreams of sharing a “do you like like me? Y/N” note. Going steady opens up relationship privileges like… sleepovers.
In multiplayer, you’ll each be able to date a covenmate. Sometimes this might mean you’re crushing on the same person and both vying for their affection until someone ends up going steady. What’s a little romance without some heated rivalry? On your marks… ____________________________ We hope you’re excited to experience all the romance in Witchbrook! If you loved what you read (and are keen to hear more), please be sure to wishlist us on Steam so that you can be notified when the game comes out. No dating card required! In the meantime, have a little think about who your type is… And if you can’t decide, don’t worry! Fable has opinions and he will share them, whether you ask or not. - Steph
** It’s noted that Wrigglesworth sent cards for the rest of his life, including on the morning of their wedding. For further detail of this particular card’s wording and thickness of paper, see B. Loverly, Dear So-And-So: A History of Written Affection in Mossport (Witchbrook College Press, 1932), 42.