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 – Welcome to Between Levels Episode 9

00:47 – Meet the Mortal Shell 2 Developers

02:46 – The Stress of Launching Mortal Shell 2

04:24 – How Cold Symmetry Came Together

06:31 – Leaving AAA Behind & Building Games Differently

10:16 – “We Have To”: How the Sheep Became a Feature

12:17 – Mortal Shell Started as a Roguelite

17:13 – Community Feedback, Balance & Telemetry

25:28 – The Developers’ Favourite Shells

31:06 – How Mortal Shell 2’s Shells Are Designed

41:36 – Improving Mortal Shell 2’s Storytelling

48:01 – Night Mode, Horror Areas & Missable Content

52:42 – How the Lute Became a Weapon

56:18 – Bigger Budgets vs Creative Freedom

1:03:49 – Why Slayer Seal Disables Achievements

1:08:39 – Why Mortal Shell 2 Doesn’t Have Difficulty Options

1:10:21 – The Developers React to Mortal Shell 2’s Reception

1:17:01 – Mortal Shell 2 Steam Code Giveaway

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

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