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Forbes
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Quantum Witch' Review: A Malevolent Deity And Pesky Sheep Run Riot
How do you manage the impact of a traumatic childhood once you become an adult? Make a video game filled with absurdist comedy that pokes fun at it, of course. That's what the solo developer NikkiJay has done with her debut release, the autobiographical Quantum Witch. Her upbringing forms the basis of this 2D indie adventure's narrative themes and characters. Jay grew up in a religious cult in the north east of England where she wasn't allowed friends. She certainly couldn't be gay (which she later realized she was). Preachers told her that if God's orders weren't obeyed, he would come back and kill everyone. It's no surprise that in Quantum Witch, Jay pits us against a malevolent deity. The game starts out in the idyllic realm of Hus. It's brought to life with a stunning pixelated art style inspired by point and click titles such as Day of the Tentacle and Darkside Detective. As a shepherdess called Ren, we tend to a flock of pesky Faer (this world's sheep) that have escaped their pen. We pester her wife about repairing a ladder in their little lodge. We wander cornfields and chat to a cow. It's all rather wholesome. Ren's blissful bubble bursts (just as Jay's did at the age of 19 when she was exiled from the cult) after she discovers a strange portal in the woods that can transport her to another realm. Everything turns sinister as an evil God harbouring in this new universe drags Ren into a conflict with potentially life-changing consequences. The main challenge then circles around will power - can Ren resist the allure of this villain's promises, or will she succumb to her? We're given the choice. Quantum Witch has more in common with a Choose Your Own Adventure novel than a platformer - which it initially resembles. There's tough decisions to make, all of which can affect the fate of the game's weird cast of characters. A giant warrior teaches Ren how to fight, but then informs her that 'true combat is of the mind'. It's what we do with Ren's words that matters, not her fists so don't expect tons of action. Chatting to a Lara Croft lookalike at a market stall in Hus. The words in Quantum Witch are hilarious though. Dialogue has a satirical edge that is distinctly British - think Red Dwarf - and it often breaks the fourth wall with quips about in-game fetch quests and overused video game tropes. A standout moment comes while chatting to a Lara Croft lookalike at a market stall. She unloads her life's story onto Ren, including a line about finding her butler locked inside a walk-in freezer. Gamers of the nineties will lap this up, especially when a Pac-Man wannabe starts talking about drugs. Not every joke lands in its entirety though; some require more knowledge of Jay's background for them to fully make sense. There's a scene that spoofs a religious sect and its whimsical beliefs inside a temple that's about as subtle as a sledgehammer (intentionally so) if you're aware of where it derives from. Getting around the kingdom is a bit of a slog at times. It's laid out like a traditional Metroidvania as Ren trots back and forth to retrieve items, making use of teleportartion portals. The absence of a map makes this slightly difficult. There aren't tons of locations to visit and each one is distinguishable from the other by the presence of different buildings, but some guidance wouldn't go amiss. Navigation aside, Hus is fleshed out with lore and each character is given the freedom to express their own identity, regardless of who they are. It's remarkably well written by Jay (with some help from Bafta award winning writer, Paul Rose and journalist, Stephanie Sterling) with tons of depth which is impressive considering the game only runs for around four hours. A final mention must also go to the game's music which is composed by Jay and Jerden Cooke. It reminds me a lot of the soundtrack to Twin Peaks; it's a jazzy concoction that at one moment is light and upbeat, the next it's full of dread. It's wonderfully atmospheric.
Metro
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Quantum Witch review and interview – video game development as therapy
After escaping a cult, whose members included her parents, and learning to program an indie developer explains why Quantum Witch is such a personal project. With its pixel art graphics, bucolic setting and status as a solo creation by developer NikkiJay, you could be forgiven for imagining that Quantum Witch is offering yet another slice of cosy gaming. And in its initial moments, it coyly plays with that illusion. On the outskirts of an unnamed, rural village, you take control of a woman called Ren, living happily with her wife Tyra. Your first task is to find the couple's sheep, who have escaped from their pen. So far, so comforting. But it doesn't take long before Quantum Witch's apparent idyll takes a darker, and infinitely more thought-provoking turn. Humour is in evidence from the start; at the market, for example, you meet characters from well-known video game franchises selling what is essentially merchandise. You soon find a pool area, where the villagers go to conceive children in huts – a mysterious process, since there appear to be no male inhabitants. And on the far side of town lurks a church occupied by a religious cult dedicated to a lampshade god. You're given a crash course in melee combat and platforming at the local dojo, but it soon becomes obvious that Quantum Witch isn't an action game. NikkiJay describes it as a 'plotformer', which means that while it may superficially resemble a platform game it's really all about the storyline which emerges as you explore, interact with people, and amass objects. The village has its own mad scientist in the form of Lev, who will become Ren's most useful ally, and pretty soon a critical change occurs when Ren meets a woman called Hannah, trapped on the edge of the village by roots which have clearly been magicked into existence to keep her immobile. When Ren frees her, she acquires the crucial ability to temporarily shift background objects into the foreground plane, allowing her to get to places that others can't reach. Soon, Ren is spirited off to other locations which, she learns, are mere destinations in the multidimensional Qverse. In the first, Riverhome, Ren encounters a population of people dedicating their lives to praising Riverhome's creator, known simply as Her, and when she starts questioning their blind faith, things soon go south. Back in a sepulchral Qverse hub area, Ren attempts to restore any damage she is perceived as having caused, while working towards a showdown with Her. Many games have promised differing outcomes according to the actions you perform while playing them, but few have delivered on those promises. Quantum Witch, however, emphatically does. It's a game you would be a fool not to navigate multiple times. With a playthrough time of roughly three hours, and a large number of possible outcomes, it offers up storylines which diverge to a striking degree – from quite an early point when you go back to it for a second time. Its themes remain the same, though. Overall, it is a game about breaking free from coercive control, and the tortuous logical thinking required to slavishly surrender all responsibility to a higher power. It's very wordy, but never preachy. Ren is by no means a saintly type and her determination to challenge those she finds herself up against can lead to dilemmas and some dark places. If you value nuance and intelligence in our games, you'll love it – although if you crave non-stop action, you'll be disappointed. With thousands of members from all over the world, our vibrant LGBTQ+ WhatsApp channel is a hub for all the latest news and important issues that face the LGBTQ+ community. Simply click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in! Don't forget to turn on notifications! To understand where Quantum Witch has come from, you have to understand NikkiJay's background. I spoke to her while working on this review and she describes a childhood which is beyond nightmarish: 'I was born into quite an extreme religious group which was very high control. My parents and my grandparents on both sides were also in it. 'It was one that doesn't allow you to have friends outside the group, so your entire social structure is just the people in the group. They regulate what information you have access to, what activities you're allowed to do, what sports you're allowed to get into, what medical treatment you can accept. I had a friend who died from not accepting medical treatment.' From a young age, NikkiJay realised she was gay: 'Anything LGBT was banned; it was of the devil. Those people, they said, were depraved and controlled by demons. Not a very nurturing environment for me sat there as a young baby queer.' But one thing came to her rescue: the acquisition of a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 3+ and a SNES: 'There was a summer when I was about 11 when I sat with the Spectrum +3 manual and taught myself how to program.' Living in north-east England, she acquired a weekend job working at a video game shop: 'When I was around 18 or 19, I decided that I had to leave, I had to get out. Because I had a job in a video game shop I had a few friends outside the group that nobody in the group knew about, so I was able to sofa surf, although I was homeless for a while.' Harrowingly, she talks about what might have happened had she not discovered video games: 'I don't know how you want to present this to readers, but I'll be honest. I would have ended up killing myself if I hadn't had that escape. The first time I thought about doing that was when I was eight, and I realised that I was never going to be good enough for God. 'But there was teaching with the group that said if you died, you instantly paid for all your sins and then God would bring you back, because you'd paid for your sins. So in my eight-year-old mind it was like: Well, if I kill myself now, I've paid for it all, and I'll be fine with God. That's a dark thought for an eight-year-old.' Having escaped the cult and honed her games development skills, NikkiJay's decision to solo-develop Quantum Witch shows she's still seemed determined not to take the easy path through life: 'I kind of made it as difficult as possible for myself without realising it. Because not only had I chosen a retro look – which hardly any games do now; there are only about 100,000 out every week – but I also wanted to create something that wasn't really in an established genre. 'A plotformer: what's that? Who knows? I created an engine that allows me to construct these intertwining narratives, and I think the script comes out at about 32,000 words in total. It's totally choice driven, and no matter what choices you make, you get a coherent story. You get to the end, the credits roll, and that's your story. And if you play again, you can make different choices and get quite a different story.' NikkiJay admits that making Quantum Witch offered some catharsis: 'In terms of getting all of this stuff out, I'll be honest: there was some stuff that came out that I didn't realise I still had to deal with. But it was a great experience. It almost has been like therapy.' More Trending And there should be more to come; NikkiJay envisages Quantum Witch as the first part of a trilogy of games: 'In my mind, the first game is about breaking free of control and gaining your freedom. And taking control of your own choices, even though it's revealed in a couple of the endings that you've also been manipulated by this character who appeared to be friendly. 'The second game is a much bigger story in a much more expansive world, because now you've tapped into the multiverse and you can explore more. It's again got the trademark 'let's make fun of the horrors' humour, but it is about the horrors that come with freedom. That feeling that nobody is coming to save me: I now have to do all this myself. And the horrors that people do to each other when they have that unchecked freedom. And then the third one is a close to the story about bringing harmony. Much nicer endings in that…' NikkiJay took Quantum Witch to various publishers, including many that specialise in indie games, but none of them committed to it. However, she persisted and was able, virtually unassisted, to get Quantum Witch out on Steam and the indie-centric platform. Hopefully, the next two instalments of her unique vision will be given the backing they deserve. In the meantime, if you crave a game that engages your brain, Quantum Witch is simply a must buy. In Short: A thought provoking yet funny retro style adventure, that offers one of the most complex and versatile branching narratives in gaming. Pros: Jaunty pixel art graphics and a story that is darkly comic and shifts wildly according to your actions. Thought provoking and genuinely affecting. Cons: It takes repeated playthroughs to appreciate the full scope of the game and the lack of action can cause pacing problems. Score: 7/10 Formats: PCPrice: TBAPublisher: NikkiJayDeveloper: NikkiJayRelease Date: 24th June 2025 Age Rating: N/A Samaritans are here to listen, day or night, 365 days a year. You can call them for free on 116 123, email jo@ or visit for more information. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. 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Forbes
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
How A Religious Cult And Absurdist Humour Led To Quantum Witch
NikkiJay doesn't want you to know her real name. She doesn't want you to see her face. On social media, she appears only as a pixelated version of herself. Anonymity isn't an easy choice for her, it's the only choice. She's scared that if she reveals too much information about herself, someone will find her. 'I'd call the police if certain family members knocked on my door' she says. 'I'm trying to avoid the chaos it'd bring for the sake of my daughter.' It's not the typical conundrum a video games developer faces. To this day, Jay only speaks with one person in her family. The rest will have nothing to do with her. It all stems from her upbringing. She grew up in the north east of England in the eighties as a member of a religious group she describes as a 'cult'. Her experiences as a child have formed the basis for the characters and story in her upcoming adventure game, Quantum Witch. Both her mother and father's family have been involved in this particular religious circle (which Jay doesn't want to name) for two generations and so it was inevitable she would be too. It meant she couldn't have friends and was expected to dogmatically preach her beliefs to anyone she met. NikkiJay appears only in pixelated format online FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder 'I'd have to reject invites to Christmas and birthday parties before explaining my beliefs to other kids' Jay says. She's talking with me over Zoom from her home. Sitting in a dark room with a green sheet draped across the window behind her, Jay recalls being spat on at school by a group of girls. 'People would call me a 'religious freak' and a 'weirdo'' she explains. She found herself isolated socially. After school, Jay would be expected to study in preparation for religious meetings that were held multiple times a week. These gatherings were in a building she describes as a corporate meeting hall without windows. 'It was the most soulless, life sucking experience imaginable' Jay adds. Beginning with a prayer, meetings would last for two hours. The group's male leaders recited sermons from a stage about how everyone in the world is being misled, while a crowd watched on. Jay says they were deliberately delivered in a monotone voice to keep people 'dazed' and to prevent any critical thinking. 'The routine was so monotonous, you'd just go into zombie mode. 'Brainwashing' is a strong term, but here it's warranted' she says. These sermons filled Jay's head with traumatic ideas. '[They'd say] God is going to come and kill you if you don't do everything he says' she remembers. Members of the group were also forbidden from receiving certain medical procedures (again, she doesn't want to elaborate through fear of reprisal). 'If you needed an operation, you'd have to be prepared to just die' Jay says, adding that a friend passed away as a result of this ideology, believing that God would resurrect her. Despite the sore topic, Jay tries to remain upbeat throughout the conversation. She says that inappropriate humour is her coping mechanism. A Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer (Photo by) During this period of her life, Jay used video games as a form of escapism. At the age of eight she begged her parents for a ZX Spectrum and they eventually obliged. She then spent the summer holidays reading through the system's manual and learning how to programme her own text-based adventure games. 'As soon as I found I could escape into these worlds inside computers, I knew it'd be my life's special interest' she adds. But things were made worse for Jay at the age of 17 when she realised she was gay, something that was strictly prohibited in the religion's ideals. She recalls one preacher saying that it would be great when 'all the lesbians are dead' in a sermon. Terrified, she didn't reveal her sexuality until she was 19. It proved to be a dramatic turning point in her life. It led to an argument with her family. Devastated, she was forced to flee her home and was exiled from the 'cult'. With no money, Jay became homeless. She recalls being forced to use a hacksaw just to open a tin of tuna, the only edible item she possessed. 'You're taught [by the religion] not to invest in the outside world so when you're forced into this position, you have no idea where you're going or how to eat' she says. No-one in her family would answer the phone to her. Eventually Jay understood that she would need to build a life of her own. A Saturday job at a video games store popped up and she began making friends for the first time. It led to couch surfing before a job in web development and her own apartment came along. Quantum Witch is about making your own choices 'That's a strong theme in Quantum Witch' explains Jay. 'Towards the end it becomes an issue of choice and agency, taking control of your own actions and not being led by the whim of others' she adds. Quantum Witch is a 2D pixelated adventure game set in the realm of Hus. Players take on the role of Ren as she discovers something is awry in her idyllic life. There's fetch quests and narrative decisions to make inspired by the ZX Spectrum's Dizzy series (1987) and LucasArts games such as Day of the Tentacle (1993). The game started out as a novel but Jay found writing a book to be too difficult. 'I turned a few of my experiences into metaphors and short stories, but I couldn't string them together into something cohesive with a through line and a strong narrative' she says. Although Jay has developed Quantum Witch alone, she received narrative input from Bafta award winning writer, Paul Rose and journalist, Stephanie Sterling - both are credited as writers on the game's end credits. Other inspirations include the comedy TV show Red Dwarf, the works of author Douglas Adams (The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and fourth-wall breaking films such as Deadpool (2016). 'I wanted to do something that was retro looking but also cartoonish that could go from happy and jolly to quite dark quickly' Jay explains. She now lives with her wife, daughter and cat and says she has been able to separate herself from the oppressive way of living she grew up with, although she concedes it took her decades to do so. Some of the memories she conjured while making Quantum Witch are still difficult to remember, however she now has a fresh perspective on her past. 'Instead of looking at [my past] and playing it out as a tragedy, I wanted it to be an absurdist comedy. I took that cult background and created characters from it that just amplified the ridiculousness of it. It really helped me. If you can laugh at something, it takes away it's power' she says. Quantum Witch is available on PC from June 24
Newsweek
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
INTERVIEW: Nikki Jay Escaped a Cult — Now She's Making a Game About It
Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors Quantum Witch developer Nikki Jay grew up in a cult. It was a heavily religious environment, with strict rules and harsh teachings. Most medical assistance was shunned, and there were constant lectures about the end of the world, how she was never good enough, and that God was going to kill her and all her loved ones in horrible ways. Nothing was more abhorrent to the cult, though, than the concept of homosexuality, and that was a problem for Nikki, who realised she was attracted to women at a young age. "I knew that I liked girls from the age of 8," Nikki tells me. "I distinctly remember, at the end of term at school, teachers brought in Labyrinth for us to watch. I saw Jennifer Connelly, and I saw David Bowie, and I knew who I preferred." The religious group's disposition on homosexuality, combined with its total ban on outside interaction – friends outside of the group were considered to be "controlled by the devil" – and limitations on LGBT+ discussion in public life in the UK throughout the 80's and 90's, meant that Nikki was isolated and alone. Her escape throughout these difficult times was video games, where she fell in love with games like Chrono Trigger, which offered her something new: an opportunity to choose her own path. "I remember playing through Chrono Trigger for the first time, and I've got a choice," Nikki recalls. "I can be enemies with this guy or be friends with him. And the ending is different, my party is different, my abilities are different depending on that choice. I love that so much." That feeling of choice is something that Nikki's tried to capture in her own game, Quantum Witch, which is in the final stages of development now. Quantum Witch is a narrative adventure game with light platforming elements, and it's one of the most choice-heavy games I've ever seen. Everything you do – or just as importantly, everything you choose not to do – has an impact on the story, the options available to you later, and the ending. In Nikki's own words, she's probably gone a little overboard with it — there are five endings to the main story, four endings to one of the game's chapters, and at least two endings for each NPC in the game. A screenshot from Quantum Witch showing main character Ren talking to an ensnared woman and declaring there must be another way. A screenshot from Quantum Witch showing main character Ren talking to an ensnared woman and declaring there must be another way. Nikki Jay These choices come up in every aspect of the game, and shape your journey through the world Nikki created. "A choice you made early in the game will color the choices that you have available to you later in the game, because the choices you make not only affect the story, they affect the character development of the main character," Nikki explains. "By choosing to go with the flow with a certain group, that means she's going to have less confrontational options available to her going forwards — fewer options in one way, but more options in another. "It's incredibly complex, but from a player point of view, you can play it and go, 'oh, that was the story, I got my story' and it's not really until you look at the achievements and go 'but I only got half the achievements,' and then you might talk to a friend who goes 'well, that's not the story I got.'" It's all made possible by a custom scripting language – and a lot of spreadsheets – that Nikki made herself. Initially, development on Quantum Witch started in Javascript, but after the realization that it would unnecessarily lock her out of a potential console release in the future, she decided to make the switch to the C programming language. The only problem was that she didn't actually know C, so she gave herself two weeks to learn it, and another week to implement her custom scripting language, dubbed Witch Script. It turns simple text scripts into game material, effectively allowing her to implement and change content at a rapid pace. After our conversation, Nikki realized there were a few changes she wanted to make, adding a few more choices for players to pick, and it was implemented in just a few minutes. The heavy focus on choice, and the comedic lens through which it's presented, is in part a coping mechanism for Nikki. Growing up, she didn't have a lot of choice, and while she was technically free to leave, it came at a big cost. It's something she's poked fun at in Quantum Witch, where a cult-like group allows main character Ren to leave after a meeting — but only by pushing through the "Fine Mesh of Separation," a metal net that would effectively kill anyone attempting to leave. This, Nikki says, is essentially a comedic twist on what it was like when she left. She was free to leave the group, but it meant giving up her life as she knew it. "If you leave, you give up your life, it was a big part of that group," Nikki says. "When I left, I lost my entire social structure, because you're not allowed friends outside of the group. And if you leave, you are completely shunned. So no friends, I ended up homeless because I had no support structure. "So I thought I'd make a silly joke about it. You can leave anytime you want, and you're totally free to leave... by being pushed through this fine metal mesh — but it's your choice to do that. If I didn't laugh about it, I would just cry about it, so that's how I cope." These days, she's in a much better place. She has a job and a family, a lovely wife and child, and she's had the opportunity to make Quantum Witch, in the hopes that others can connect with her experiences and know that they're not alone. She's put her heart and soul into this game, and it shows — it's not the prettiest game I've ever played, and mechanically might be a bit on the simple side, but it's earnest and full of personality, in a way that so few games are after they've been sanded down for commercial interest. Despite that, Nikki is very aware that it won't be for everyone, and she'll probably get backlash and abuse for it. Social media has emboldened some of the worst parts of society to push back against anything featuring queer characters and experiences, labeling them "woke," and that often comes with a lot of hatred directed at the developers behind these games. Women get the worst of it, and queer women especially so, but Nikki isn't letting that stop her from sharing her experiences. "I'm fine if there's a lot of people who hate the game, and I know that there will be," she admits. "But I know that there'll be an audience that goes 'yeah, I see myself in this' and love it. I'm not taking anything away by making this game, I'm expanding the audience of games. "Simply existing as a female game dev is an act of defiance. We're told 'stop messing about in our games, go make your own games,' so we did and they said 'no, don't make games like that, you're doing it wrong.' We're here, we're in this space. If you don't like what we do, it's not for you." Quantum Witch is still a few weeks out from releasing. Nikki is hard at work polishing it and tying up any loose ends, and provided there aren't any snags along the way, it's scheduled to be released on Steam on June 24, 2025. What happens after it releases is anyone's guess – Nikki says she'd love it to do well and get the opportunity to do a sequel – but actually finishing a game is a success in itself, and she's days away from doing exactly that. Nikki says she's not very good at promotion – in part because she struggles to talk about herself and her creations after years of being told not to – but she encourages everyone to wishlist Quantum Witch on Steam and give it a go when it's released. Having played a small slice of the game's opening, I think there's a lot to love, and anyone who's been through difficult experiences like Nikki has will find a lot that resonates with them. "A lot of the issues I had, which are represented in the story, were about being told that anything you do is not worth boasting about. If you said that you've done something good, that's prideful and boastful, and you mustn't do that, because all glory must go to God," Nikki explains. "So it's really difficult for me to say 'please go and tell everyone that Quantum Witch is extremely exciting and wonderful, and you must go wishlist it now,' because there's still that oppression there saying 'you're not allowed to do that.' "But if people like games where they start off in a living, breathing world, not really told what to do but to go discover the story, and the way you discover it will actually shape the story, and when you play through it again you get a different story, and it's extremely queer. If that appeals to people, please go wishlist it."
