Being and Becoming Interview

Metroidvanias thrive on interesting visually impressive premises that mix with unique atmosphere and enjoyable gameplay. Developer Ichthys looks to combine all of the above and more with their Soulslike Metroidvania Being and Becoming. Joining RPGamer today is creator, game designer, and writer for the game Anthony Fischer to dive into the gameplay and visual inspirations for this upcoming title that will be releasing on Steam.

Ryan Costa (RPGamer): Being and Becoming is quite the atmospheric Metroidvania. Can you talk about some of the ideas in its design, such as the underwater cathedral of the first level?

Anthony Fischer: I have hypnopompia, which is a condition where I sometimes continue to dream after waking up. Usually this is paired with sleep paralysis so you cannot move while you are getting spooked by whatever hallucination you are experiencing. However, I rarely get paralyzed so I run around my room like an insane person trying to fight whatever dream spilled into the waking world with me. This was the core inspiration behind the idea of The Dream.

Being and Becoming pulls from biblical locations, characters, and prophecy, steeping them in the strange logic of dreams. The underwater Third Temple that the player begins in is depicting a biblical location altered bizarrely by the eldritch nature of The Dream. The reasons as to why the Temple is sunken deep underwater with these people stuck in diver suits will be explained in time through the story.

RPGamer: Will players uncover bits of the protagonist’s past and how they came to enter the dream?

AF: Through exploration and meeting different characters the player will learn all about the protagonist’s past and how that ties into The Dream. The protagonist entered The Dream with a convent of sisters and learns of their fates as they explore.

RPGamer: There is a lot of detailed spritework for characters and enemies alike. Are there any in particular that the team is proud of creating?

AF: Our art director’s favorite work is the save point. We see this beautiful garden of eden location through a ghostly doorway acting as a portal. This was created with the help of several visual effects artists and our art director himself doing the sprite work.

RPGamer: What are the main ideas behind the mechanic of defeating enemies to feed into the player’s ability to heal?

AF: Blood has an important place within the story of Being and Becoming. The player collects it through combat and can heal with it. The reasons behind why this works exactly will be revealed in time throughout the story. We wanted to provide in-world reasons for each of our game mechanics for a more interesting atmosphere.

RPGamer: How many weapons are players able to find and how much do they differ?

AF: We are still playing around with the total number of weapons, but we will have at least 5 weapons the player can use. Each is designed with a unique combo system that plays to the strengths of that weapon. For example, the protagonist’s basic weapon is a fast, dual wielded axe and cleaver that strikes twice with each press of the attack button. They soon find a much slower but more powerful anchor that can launch enemies into the air. Weapons are designed to fill a specific role not covered by any other weapon, but are designed to compliment the movesets of each other. Launch an enemy with the anchor and you can use the blunderbuss to juggle that enemy mid air with a ranged shot to keep them airborne.

RPGamer: Will the various locales all be interconnected through one large world map or are the areas segmented?

AF: The sunken kingdom the player explores is interconnected through one large world map that expands outward from every direction from the Third Temple where they start the game.

RPGamer: The Steam updates often feature quotes from H.P. Lovecraft. Are there other artists or writers that have helped inspire the story and setting?

AF: Being and Becoming has its primary story inspirations from H.P. Lovecraft, the Bible, and Kierkegaard’s writings on being and becoming. I have taken the theme of cosmic horror from Lovecraft and wrapped it around biblical figures and prophecy to make something distinctive.

Our art director was most inspired by Bibliomania from a design standpoint. There are some inspirations from Fromsoft, Castlevania, and Hayao Miyazaki as well. For the color work, Heartmachine’s titles were the main inspiration.

RPGamer: Will there be new abilities to unlock far into the game, or will most of the basic skills be learned early on?

AF: There will be many abilities the player unlocks throughout the game from the start up until the very end. Our goal is to keep introducing new weapons and abilities that keeps the player engaged and excited for discovery from start to finish.

RPGamer: Are there any aspects or mechanics within Being and Becoming that you think will stand out for RPGamers?

AF: We do not have a stat screen or anything from the numbers side of RPGs, but we do have an interesting build system with our relics. In our public playtest, we featured 4 relics that all combined in interesting ways. For example, we had a relic that left a ghostly afterimage of a launched enemy that transferred damage (and further knock ups) to the flying flying enemy, which could be combined with the ability to dodge cancel attacks to leave behind your own afterimage continuing that canceled attack. So you could have your afterimage attack their afterimage while you attacked their actual body. Each relic can be upgraded to change its function and combined with others for a ton of unique builds and playstyles.

RPGamer: Between the save points and parts of boss fights shown in the trailer, there’s an overlapping set of visuals that occur that seem like one world breaking into another. Is this part of a motif that could be expected to seen frequently?

AF: Each area of the game has at least one unique environmental mechanic. The Aqueduct of Jerwan seen in the trailer shows a rift that opens into a completely different background with new level geometry from what was once there outside the rift. There are other areas that build on this idea that are related to The Aqueduct, but there are also many more areas with completely different environmental mechanics.

RPGamer would like to thank Anthony Fischer for their time in answering these questions about Being and Becoming as well as Sarah Blackwell and Stride PR for making it all happen. Those looking forward to this atmospheric Soulslike Metroidvania can look forward to its release on Steam.