The Witching Hour Design Diaries Pt. 3 - Let Development Begin!

From puzzle flow to playtesting, The Witching Hour went through many iterations before ending up perfectly packaged in a box. This is Rebecca Channon’s experience of the development process of The Witching Hour:

1. INITIAL REVISIONS:

   This took a while. And by a while, I mean a few years. After the initial Secret Santa exchange that the game was created for, I made some changes to the game, increased the scale, and added more puzzles. This was all done on a very part-time basis while I was working on other projects and trying to work up the confidence to pitch it to PostCurious. I always thought the theme and world of the game would be right up their alley, but they are such a well-respected company that it was daunting to make the initial approach.

2. PITCH:

   Finally I wrapped up my tinkering with the game and made a PDF pitch document, outlining the story, themes and mechanics of the game, plus some photos of the components in action. When I sent this to PostCurious, they asked me for a prototype copy of the game!

3. PROTOTYPE:

   Making this new prototype took some time, as I had to order certain customised items online and send off various files to be professionally printed. Then there was all the cutting and assembly, plus postage time between the UK and California, meaning it took another couple of months before PostCurious received it.

4. ACCEPTANCE:

   A few months later, Rita contacted me over email to set up a Zoom meeting, without any indication of whether it was going to be good or bad news. I logged in, unsure what was going to happen, to find the PostCurious team discussing Kickstarter slots and what would be the best time of year to launch it. So that was a yes, then!

5. DEVELOPMENT PHASE:

   We properly started work on the game in the summer of 2025. PostCurious had a few things they wanted to change: the title (it was originally called The Witch Maze), adjusting the story delivery system from a booklet to a deck of cards, and adapting the hints to a new system. I also worked with Arlo Howard on firming up elements of the story and gameflow so it felt clear and balanced. As a result of adjustments to the gameflow, we revised some puzzles, and added in even more puzzles, because who doesn’t like more puzzles?

   

   Arlo made some incredibly helpful diagrams that laid out all the gameplay elements in several different ways.

6. PLAYTESTING:

   In early 2026, Rita set up some playtests in the US, and Arlo and I organised one in the UK as well. Each playtest was timed and we wrote notes about anything that caused people trouble or seemed unclear in any way. This led to...

7. EVEN MORE REVISIONS:

   I am a tinkerer at heart, and I’ll happily revise anything I think isn’t working. Is it even a proper game if it hasn’t been altered a million times?

8. ILLUSTRATION & PHYSICAL ITEMS:

   We had chosen illustrators for specific elements of the game and they started working away on things, once the puzzles were firmed up enough. They would occasionally send sketches or images to us for feedback and we’d discuss colours and layouts, etc. At this point, Rita was also talking to manufacturers and 3D-designers about how to make the physical objects in the game.

9. EDITING:

   PostCurious brought in a professional editor to go over all the text, of which there was plenty! We made changes based on her feedback, mainly for clarity and brevity. This was all done in our shared spreadsheet document, which was the best way of keeping track of all the different numbered cards and their accompanying text.

10. EVEN MORE PLAYTESTING:

    In June and July, once a good portion of the art was ready, Rita set up some late-stage playtests, and I managed to pull one together in the UK as well. You always need to playtest again once you’ve made revisions, to catch any possible knock-on effects you hadn’t expected.

11. YET MORE REVISIONS:

    Yep, you guessed it. These were much smaller and more specific revisions this time (fixing a missing comma or slight misalignment, etc).

12. MANUFACTURING SAMPLES:

    Rita received samples of the items she had specified, and we discussed colour, size, texture, finishes, etc., until we were happy. It was hard for me to weigh in on this completely as I was in another country and so could only see photos/videos of the items, but I trusted Rita’s judgement.

13. REVIEW COPIES SENT OUT:

    By the start of August, we were reaching the end of the process and coming up towards the Kickstarter launch, even though some of the illustrations were not entirely complete, so the review copies that were sent out had a small amount of incomplete art on them.

14. FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND REVISIONS:

    We finally pulled everything together, leaving us with a complete game.

15. KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN:

    PostCurious decided, very sensibly, to launch this during the autumn period, as it is a spooky game and perfect for the Halloween vibes at this time of year. So the launch date was set for the end of September, with the funding period lasting for most of October. Next will come manufacturing, before the final product gets delivered to all the backers in 2027!

16. SLEEP.

To see the final product in action for yourself, back our Kickstarter campaign for The Witching Hour through October 29th.