Inside Mortal Shell II With the Developers | Between Levels Podcast Ep. 9

The developers of Mortal Shell II join Between Levels! For Episode 9, WheelieAverage, FightinCowboy and Sarthe sit down with Mortal Shell II co-founders Vitaly Bulgarov, Andrew McLennan-Murray and Anthony for an in-depth conversation about the making of one of our favourite Soulslikes of 2026. We discuss the huge leap from the original Mortal Shell to Mortal Shell II, how Cold Symmetry’s creative process works, why a bug accidentally turned playing as a sheep into a full feature, the game’s original roguelite beginnings, Shell design, lore, memories, difficulty, community feedback and how player telemetry influences balancing decisions. The team also talks about the future of Mortal Shell II, including the possibility of expanding the existing world with new areas, Shells, weapons and more — and even gives us an interesting answer when FightinCowboy asks the all-important question: where is Solomon? We also have a deeper discussion about the Slayer Seal, achievements and accessibility, why Cold Symmetry prefers diegetic difficulty options, maintaining creative freedom as development budgets grow and what the team has learned from the response to Mortal Shell II. 00:00 Introduction 00:49 Meet the Mortal Shell II developers 02:27 The massive glow-up from Mortal Shell to Mortal Shell II 05:58 How Cold Symmetry came together 06:48 Becoming disenchanted with AAA development 07:55 Why games should be transformative 09:18 “Just some guys who want to make cool stuff” 10:06 How playing as a sheep became a feature 12:53 Mortal Shell started as a roguelite called Dungeon Haven 13:35 Designing the Shepherd boss 16:20 Adding crazy features vs fixing bugs 17:22 How community feedback shapes Mortal Shell II 18:29 Launch-day patch changes 19:16 How telemetry influences game balance 21:15 When should developers ignore vocal complaints? 22:38 Beacons, runbacks and intended difficulty 24:16 Why struggle matters in Soulslikes 26:33 The developers reveal their favourite Shells 32:37 How do you design a Shell? 37:13 What Cold Symmetry learned from Mortal Shell 40:23 Designing Mortal Shell II’s brutal executions 42:48 Shell memories and environmental storytelling 48:15 Why the memories are optional 50:18 Night mode and hidden content 53:17 Why indie games can take risks AAA games won’t 55:34 How the lute evolved into a gameplay feature 58:52 Can bigger budgets destroy creative freedom? 1:02:52 What’s next for Mortal Shell II? 1:03:32 Is Solomon coming back? 1:04:09 New areas, Shells and weapons? 1:04:43 FightinCowboy wants boss refights 1:06:47 Why Slayer Seal disables achievements 1:08:39 Accessibility and achievement concerns 1:10:34 FightinCowboy’s hot take on achievements 1:11:51 Why Slayer Seal exists instead of difficulty settings 1:13:28 The developers reflect on launch day 1:17:21 The risks behind removing stamina 1:19:05 The deeper meaning behind Mortal Shell II 1:20:43 Mortal Shell II Steam giveaway 1:22:35 What’s coming next on Between Levels We’re giving away THREE Steam copies of Mortal Shell II! To enter, leave a comment telling us why you want to play Mortal Shell II and/or what you enjoyed most about this episode. This episode contains some light discussion of Mortal Shell II story, bosses and late-game content. Let us know what you think of Mortal Shell II and what you’d like to see from its post-launch future! Featuring: WheelieAverage FightinCowboy Sarthe Vitaly Bulgarov Andrew McLennan-Murray Anthony Follow Between Levels: X: @BtweenLevels Instagram: @betweenlevelspodcast TikTok: @betweenlevelspodcast