Hello ghosties,
We’re deep into summer, spooky season is looming, and it’s time to talk about witches… or witchcraft… or Wtchcrft?!
That’s right, it’s time to sit down for a chat with our first Cohort 5 team: the Montreal-based duo known as Studio Wtchcrft.
What’s unique about the way you make games (and work together)?
Kylie: What makes studio wtchcrft unique right now is that we’re a married couple making games together. We have a very tight approach to development thanks to the fact that we’re together all the time and can constantly share ideas and work for feedback.
Sophie: Our studio motto is “trivial games for serious people,” and I think what will keep us unique even as we grow and add more members is a shared belief in the importance of games as an art form.
Sophie: There’s nothing wrong with escapism, but to me games are something that can serve a purpose beyond passing time. At their best, they can be tools for the exploration of self and identity that guide us to our own answers about the biggest questions human beings can ask.
The biggest takeaway from the Baby Ghosts program so far?
Kylie: Focusing on ✨values✨ has been an eye-opener for me. When we started, it felt way too early to think about studio values, but now that we’ve had big conversations about it, I feel like I’m leaning on our values for most decisions and ways we talk about ourselves.
Sophie: For me, it’s how meaningful it is to have others to struggle with. Game development is, by its nature, a very isolating practice, and social media can give the illusion that you’re supposed to find it (as everything in life) easy, painless, and fun. Holding space with other early-stage studios helped me to see that the challenges we face are universal, and that even people who seem successful from the outside need support and validation.
What do you think we (all of us involved in game making) can do to make the video game industry better?
Kylie: A big aspiration for our little studio is to make the idea of small co-ops look like a viable, successful option for studios. Of course that means becoming successful which is never a guarantee. So, while on the hopeful road to success, it’s important to help build up your fellow devs as you go, so more people have chances at success.
Sophie: On the subject of building up your fellow devs: buy more video games from small studios, and boycott works made by companies that subject their workers to crunch, abuse, or union-busting. Tell someone on Bluesky you like their screenshot or that their idea seems cool instead of scrolling past it. The old ways won’t go away until we start to perform new ways.
Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on right now?
Kylie: We’ve been focused on our third game, Fateweaver, for the last few months. It’s a Tarot-themed puzzle deckbuilder that has you collecting and playing cards to traverse a shifting landscape of tiles.
Sophie: Besides a more traditional endless roguelike mode, it also has a story mode where you are a soul trapped in purgatory that needs to convince various aspects of themselves to reincorporate so that you can be admitted into the afterlife. We’re hoping to explore themes of mortality, queer identity and meaning-making, and what it means to live a good life.
You can wishlist Studio Wtchcrft’s Love in the Time of Spellphage on Steam, which is currently part of the Steam Debut Festival! You can also check out their horror-comedy narrative game Escape from Precinct 27 on itch, and follow them on Bluesky for more about Fateweaver.
We’ll be back with more Baby Ghosts updates very
… very
… soon!
— eileen & Jennie