We Interviewed the Creators of Witch of Oblivion!

We had the pleasure of chatting with the creators of Witch of Oblivion! Be sure to check them out over on steam to learn more about this amazing game! Here is some info on the game: “Witch of Oblivion is a sorcerous souls-like set in an enchanting open world. Explore an ever-changing forest and wield destructive fire magic responsibly: scorch hordes of enemies and reshape the environment, but overdo it and the wild flames may cause irreversible damage.”

What inspired the creation of Witch of Oblivion?

The core concept of Witch of Oblivion is inspired by human destruction of the natural world. With that core concept in mind – choosing our setting of a world overrun by nature, and letting the player run wild with fire magic as a witch felt like the perfect match, the only choice even.

As an indie game studio, what were the biggest challenges you faced during the development process?

The biggest challenges we’ve faced so far would definitely be our swap from Unity to Unreal Engine. We’d just finished development of our initial prototype when Unity made their announcement on run-time fees last year and we felt like if we were going to change engines, then it was then or never, so we took the plunge and started from scratch.

Learning the ins and outs of a new engine while we build our game has been a fun challenge that our team has really taken to, but nonetheless was tricky in the beginning.

How did you approach building the multiple possible endings in the game? What was important in making each choice feel meaningful?

While we’re still in the process of building these out, we want player’s choices to be reflected in the ending of the game. I don’t want to spoil too much here, but these will tie in to the core theme of the game, and a player’s destructive tendencies, collateral damage, side quests/events will all tie in to the outcome.

What drew you to focus on the theme of memory loss and the struggle between reclaiming the past or facing oblivion?



We were drawn to this as a way to help the character “become” Lyva. Their choices through her will shape the kind of person she grows into over the course of the game, be it bringer of destruction, savior of wildfolk, harmonious with nature, or something else entirely, by giving her a relatively “blank slate” starting point, we feel it will help to emphasize the players choices more.

What role did player feedback play during development, and how did it influence the game’s final form?

We’ve so far only had one playable opportunity for players; our booth at the Home of Indies at Gamescom 2024. We were really happy to see that while everyone had a great time playing the game, that we still had a lot of room to improve in terms of controls, and it was really fun seeing all the different strategies they came up with for fighting the boss we had in the demo. They also provided us a lot of great ideas that we’re currently experimenting with to come to light, such as some more challenging boss AI, some creative ideas for spells, some healing mechanics, and more.

We’re hoping to do a bit more of an open demo some time in the future, so please keep your eyes out for it.

What inspirations, whether from other games or personal experiences, shaped the art and atmosphere of Witch of Oblivion?



The art of Witch of Oblivion is most heavily influenced by the shadow painting works of artists like Seiji Fujishiro and Michel Ocelot. We spent a lot of time trying to get the look of the shadows and lighting highlights just right, and we had to make our own shaders specifically to get the effect we were looking for.

For boss arenas though, we’ve taken a different approach, and instead looked to perhaps one of the most iconic ‘Witch” anime, Puella Magi Madoka Magika, for inspiration when designing the backgrounds. We want them each to feel both unique and extremely unsettling.

For other indie game developers, what advice would you give based on your journey developing Witch of Oblivion?

We would recommend two things:

Have a clear vision for what you want to make. Be it a genre you really enjoy, a core concept, or even the art style, having these set in stone from the start makes it easy to start iterating, as well as having a core concept to return to so you don’t end up straying too far.

The second would be to listen to players. If parts of your gameplay aren’t resonating during playtests, there is ultimately going to be a reason for that, and players can really make finding that problem faster.

Where can folks support the game?

Witch of Oblivion will be coming to Steam sometime in 2025, and we hope to hold a playtest where players will be able to go hands on against one of our bosses in the near future. Otherwise, be sure to give us a wishlist on Steam and follow us on our official Twitter account to stay up to date on the latest development news! 

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3012050/Witch_of_Oblivion/

Twitter: https://x.com/WitchofOblivion 

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