Stardew but potions game Little Witch in the Woods is now in early access

Little Witch in the Woods - Ellie stands in her robes and wtich hat outside a small cottage in a green forest. — (Image credit: Sunny Side Up)

Witch shop life sim (no, not that one, and not this one either) Little Witch in the Woods has entered early access on Steam this week and looks like it's already charming players. This little community and crafting sim asks Ellie the apprentice witch to collect items around the forest while helping out the local community. As expected, the Stardew-but-little-witch concept seems to be reasonably popular so far in the first few days of early access.

As Ellie, you're partnered up with a talking witch hat named Virgil and sent off to live in a little house in the woods. There are no dead relatives as the base for this plot thankfully, as life sims are so in the habit of doing. Instead, it's customary for apprentice witches to do some on-site work, honing their craft and supporting a nearby village until they can become a full time witch.

I played just a tad of a Little Witch in the Woods demo during a past Steam Next Fest event and remember it for having an undeniably cute look and some pretty swell tunes that reminded me of PS2 RPGs.

No farming here, mind. Ellie explores the forest collecting plants and cataloging creatures in between chatting with the locals. Crafting potions involves following recipes with precise steps at different brewing stations down in her witch lab. I'm certainly more interested in that than the pared-down crafting systems in other games, which often just involve having items in my inventory.

As it's just launched in early access, developer Sunny Side Up has explained that its goal is to get to full launch in 2023. Right now, Little Witch includes a prologue and the first chapter of the story, which Sunny Side Up estimates to be about five hours of playtime. The finished version is planned to have the prologue, three chapters, and an ending. The developers will be adding more activities, locations, items, and characters during its time in early access.

Sunny Side Up is already digging into initial feedback, with two posts detailing its plans. One main ask from players is the ability to rebind controls.

"We fully understand players' needs for keybinds customization, but at present, the development and implementation of this function is somewhat difficult, and we may need more time to ensure the implementation of it," Sunny Side says. So that'll be coming at some point, it sounds like.

You can find Little Witch in the Woods over on Steam where it's normally $16 and currently 10% off for another couple days.

Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017. She joined the PCG staff in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can't stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years.