Robotality

Robotality is an independent game development studio based in Hamelin, Germany, and one of the two studios building Witchbrook. Working alongside publisher and lead developer Chucklefish, Robotality joined the project as a co-development partner, bringing a small team of veteran pixel-art and tactics developers into a life-sim that had been in and out of production for most of the previous decade.

Studio History

Robotality was founded in 2013 by brothers Simon and Stefan Bachmann together with Nia Schmidheiny. The studio started as a three-person operation focused on hand-crafted pixel art and turn-based tactical combat, and grew over the following years into a tight-knit core team of around seven developers covering code, art, game design, and community. The studio describes itself as a small but mighty group, with a philosophy built around the idea that a compact, passionate team can produce unique experiences that larger studios would struggle to make.

The studio's relationship with Chucklefish began early. Its debut title shipped in 2014 under the Chucklefish publishing label, and the two companies have continued to collaborate on every Robotality release since. Over time that partnership evolved from a straightforward publisher and developer arrangement into a closer co-development model, first on the sequel to one of Chucklefish's own strategy titles, and then on Witchbrook.

Previous Games

Before joining the Witchbrook team, Robotality shipped three full titles. Each one leaned on the studio's strengths in pixel art and turn-based tactical combat, and each was published by Chucklefish.

Role on Witchbrook

Witchbrook had been in development in various forms since it was first revealed in 2017. Production paused at one point, then restarted in 2020 with a new engine, a new art direction, and a substantially different scope. Chucklefish fully shifted its internal focus to Witchbrook once Wargroove 2 shipped, and Robotality carried over into the project as a co-developer rather than moving on to a fresh title of its own.

On Witchbrook, Chucklefish retains the role of lead developer and sole publisher, while Robotality contributes across art, code, and game design as a co-development partner. The studio's pixel-art background fits naturally with the cozy, hand-illustrated look of Mossport and Witchbrook College, and its experience with systemic, grid-driven games feeds into the seasonal routines, classes, relationships, and multiplayer co-op that the finished game is built around.

Location and Team

Robotality is headquartered in Hamelin, a small city in Lower Saxony, Germany, though the studio describes its wider team as a global group rather than a single-office operation. The core team that shows up in credits and on the studio's own roster is compact, typically around seven people, with roles spanning business development, code, art, game design, and community management. That size has stayed roughly stable across Halfway, Pathway, Wargroove 2, and now the Witchbrook co-development.

Development Philosophy

The studio's public identity is built around two ideas: that a small, tight-knit team can produce work with a stronger voice than a larger production would, and that pixel art and turn-based design are not legacy choices but deliberate ones. Every Robotality title so far has used pixel-art visuals and turn-based or grid-driven combat as a core pillar. Witchbrook sits slightly outside that lineage as a life-sim, but it shares the studio's long-running commitment to tight pixel art, readable systems, and hand-authored world-building, which is part of why the partnership with Chucklefish on this specific project has been stable across multiple years and platform announcements.