Becoming Saint News

Heretics,

Our third dev blog will preach the importance of the setting of the game and how it shapes your journey in sanctity as well as the way to achieve it through conquest.

[h3]Medieval Italy as a place of changes and evolution[/h3]

14th century Italy was an interesting place: commerce and investments were flourishing in Italy. It was the time of the birth of international banks Italy-based, but with European (and beyond) wide markets, when, at the same time, there was an emergence of pauperistic movements. These movements conflated social justice and religious issues, the latter part and its contrasts are masterly presented in The Name Of The Rose book.
We wanted to have a setting that triggered reflection on social issues that are actually relevant for everyone today within a historical context.


[h3]Your surroundings during battles[/h3]

At each starting game, patterns are generated for each town; platforms, fountains, and monuments are placed in the town grids accordingly to these patterns. Thanks to this mechanic, each campaign generates a different set of town grids.

• Platforms give the occupying unit an advantage in both defence and attack;
  
• Fountains block a cell so that nobody can cross it;
  
• Monuments both block the cell where they are set and also can block projectiles.
  

So, placing and moving units on platforms and behind fountains or monuments can be a great way to improve your chances of converting a town to your faith.



[h3]Giving birth to an environment[/h3]

The artistic style is directly inspired by the preference for simplicity and lyricism found in the paintings of Giotto and his school and by the austere and minimalist style characteristic of medieval miniatures. Consequently, the emphasis is on symbolic and expressionistic value rather than on realistic and verisimilar representation.

Source: Sailko, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons & Codex Manesse, UB Heidelberg, Cod. Pal. germ. 848, fol. 14v, Markgraf Heinrich von Meißen

For the scenarios and architectural elements, let's consider for example the "2D" representations that we find in ancient manuscripts and in Giotto's paintings where architecture is predominant.

Source: Cacciata dei diavoli da Arezzo, https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacciata_dei_diavoli_da_Arezzo (2024, October 4), Wikipedia

We chose cities and regions that had somehow evolved at the time as independent entities, which is, of course, a new historical feature that emerged at the time. So the map of Italy is “distorted” if compared to modern projections because most “free towns” were around central Italy, so that part of Italy is wider, and as the south of Italy at the time had very few independent towns, it is shrunk. Also, in several maps of the time, the upper part of the map is not north but East, and that fit the user interface orientation of the game, so we adopted it

Source: Sailko, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

To you, which Italian towns are the most iconic and should have their own battle map and buildings? Feel free to comment your suggestions on Steam or share it on our Discord!

The next dev blog will dive deeper into the gameplay mechanics and is planned for next month!

Stay blessed, heretics!

- The Becoming Saint team -

Heretics,

Our second dev blog is centered on the humorous aspects of the game and how units are part of the narrative as representation of society but also part of the gameplay with their unique synergies.

[h3]Humour in tragedy[/h3]

The player’s situation in Becoming Saint is overall tragic, given how easily you die one of the possible horrible death: hanged, burned, beheaded, or thrown off a cliff. This harsh reality actually creates an ideal context for humorous details and content, very much like the Black Knight in Monty Python’s Holy Grail:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
While Becoming Saint has the appearance of a game of conquest, your “army” is composed of the poorest and persecuted elements of society, in line with the principle of the last shall be first, and the first last. In the unit’s design and animation, even the most pompous types, like cavaliers, have been given a cardboard-like representation of their might.



And even more absurdly, your true career, of becoming a saint, starts with your death.
With these contrasts, we hope to have achieved a form of ludo-comedic consonance between tragic destiny and the paradoxical human condition.

[h3]Medieval setting, contemporary issues[/h3]

Becoming Saint is not a satire of medieval Italy; we don’t intend to tease medieval society and beliefs; the absurdity of the life and events that you lead in the game is perfectly contemporary; it concerns just as much our way of living as it does theirs; it's more at an existential level. There is quite as much paradox in contemporary life as there is in medieval times.



The main goal of the game is to live a life so impressive that you will climb the career ladder to become a saint in the shortest time possible -after, sadly, your passing-, but mainly for the kind of game it is, you should focus on survival, and you can't survive without your devoted Followers.

[h3]Tell me who you go with...[/h3]

There are 16 units that may follow you and 14 units that you may find protecting towns, each of which may have 3 to 4 different levels. Some can be female or male. Each unit attacks one of three possible features of other units (energy, faith, or courage), they can have a special form of persuasive attack against other units and may convert in synergy with different units. For example, naked fanatics and naked-foot beggars clearly should have some synergy in their conversion efforts, as you probably guessed!



What inspired us in creating these Units was our study of the lives of St. Francis and St. Chiara, which mix fanaticism with humbleness, and they consistently focus their efforts and message on the most destitute elements of society. As for the cities, Italy in the 14th century had towns exploding in a rampant and expanding new form of capitalistic and even financial production, and this too is represented by the units in the game.

[h3]...and I'll tell you who you are[/h3]

Without spoiling too much, let’s say that the units that follow you are compatible with certain political choices that you make. So for example, your relationship with property and money will determine if naked feet fanatics will follow you or not. Deciding whether to convert towns controlled by the Pope’s bishops may determine whether you are the objective of the next crusade or an ally of it.
In gameplay, your political choices influence even how effective your cursing and blessing are in the heat of the confrontation in town.



Stay tuned believers, we will soon come to you with news and holy content!

- The Becoming Saint Team -

Heretics,

Our first dev blog is about all the inspirations we took to give life to our game whether in literature, videogames or paintings... And how it gave shape both to the art direction of the game but also its mechanics and core gameplay.

[h3]Games that inspired us[/h3]

We love simple tactical games, like Bad North and Tabs, or even Into the Breach. We always wondered how these games would be by adding in some way a narrative layer integrated with their wonderful mechanics and design; a layer that is not just a bridge between battles but that has an influence on the mechanics. Also, we are fascinated by autobattlers, like Despot's Game: Dystopian Battle Simulator. We like battles in small grids, as in Banner Saga and Into the Breach. So Becoming Saint is inspired by all of this but also with a quite unique touch.


[h3]Medieval inspirations[/h3]

For the content style and characters, Pino -our art director- studied extensively Italy’s 14th-century iconography and earlier medieval styles, and also the large source that are illustrated manuscripts. For the combination of 2D characters and 3D settings, Bad North was a very cool inspiration.

The main references for us are Umberto Eco’s wonderful novel The Name Of The Rose, Monty Python's Holy Grail and Life Of Brian.


[h3]Goals in Becoming Saint[/h3]

The main goal of the game is becoming a saint in the shortest period of time after your death, or even during your lifetime - but it is a very hard journey. The more impact you make in your lifetime with your conversion skills, the more likely that you’ll become a saint quickly.



This is also inspired by the events of St. Francis's life and death, where his very disturbing set of beliefs from the point of view of the Christian Church as an institution (and also the Franciscan abbeys) led to his quick canonization after death and rewriting of his teachings, so to make it compatible with extensive power and richness.


Well the idea is that starting as a destitute heretic preacher, talking to the most poor and marginalized parts of society (poor peasants, lepers, sex workers, persecuted witches, naked hermits…) your chances of conquering a large following and not being immediately destroyed by the powers that be (be it the Church, the Emperor or the merchants and banks) are slim. Therefore, this is a game of trial and error, somehow nondeterministic, where a combination of persuasion through whatever it takes, subtle political choices and just luck may get you far.


[h3]Themes[/h3]

The game is unique in several dimensions:

• The union of a political/sociological game of choices that dynamically generates a sort of “army” of destitute people
  
• The notion of battle and conquest turned into a confrontation of persuasion and determination
  
• The tragicomic tone and themes; spiritual belief as a source of rebellion instead of a tool for conservation
  
• The mix of autobattler features and real-time tactical management.
  

Becoming Saint is a quite unique kind of career, that lasts after death. Hereticism has historically been linked to class struggle, and playing, mocking, and rebelling to power are often connected attitudes that we’d like to… encourage!



Stay tuned believers, we will soon come to you with news and holy content!

- The Becoming Saint Team -

[h3]WATCH OUR ANNOUNCEMENT TEASER TRAILER[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We’re proud to introduce you to Becoming Saint, developed by OpenLab and published by Firesquid!

[h3]Storyline and Narrative[/h3]

Play as a young woman from Assisi, in medieval Italy, setting out to become a preacher. You start with a small following and will pick from the vast array of heretical beliefs of the time to define your creed and try to convert one small town at a time.

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

The game loops around conversion battles where you can pick a fitting set of units required, deploy them within the chosen town, and then the confrontation begins! You can change units’ actions to reach your goal and turn the non-heretics into your cause.


Adding counties to your domain will grow your power, resources, and influence, you can then pick in a wider spectrum of behavior and political choices, eventually changing previous choices that influence your evolution, leading to greater power and personal triumphs… as well as setbacks.

Join our followers and be part of our community of believers:
► Discord
► Twitter

And support the game development by adding Becoming Saint to your wishlist:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2643010/Becoming_Saint/

Stay tuned believers, we will soon come to you with news and holy content!

- The Becoming Saint Team -