Publisher and developer The Astronauts announced Witchfire is delayed to 2023, but to significantly tweak its core gameplay.

The dark fantasy shooter was supposed to launch for PC via early access this year (via the Epic Games Store) but is now coming in early 2023 – a delay to change its arena combat to open-world style fighting.

Due to this significant change in its core gameplay, The Astronauts creative director and co-founder Adrian Chmielarz talked up how much effort had to go in to reinventing the game’s combat flow.

“The feature is now 95% implemented. It makes the game better. It is kind of hard for me to imagine the player did not have that freedom before,” Chmielarz said.

He added, “Sure, you can still be trapped by the witch in this or that spot, and some doors will be closed until you find a key, and it might be too dangerous to enter areas closer to the boss before you are ready – but the world is wide open for you to explore in almost any order, and you can both push forward and retreat as you please.”

Another reveal is planned for later this month: “Let’s call it Witchfire Halloween Week. It won’t be any gameplay footage or stream or such, but if you are interested in the story and the world and great 2D art, it’s going to be a treat,” Chmielarz said.