80 Level sits down with James Petruzzi, President of Bit Kid Games, to discuss the studio’s upcoming sci-fi World War II Metroidvania, WOLFHOUND, and the design inspirations behind it.
It was a slow process to reach the end concept. The starting point was only that I knew I wanted to make another adventure game in the Metroidvania genre. The market looked overcrowded with fantasy ones, so I decided to go back to the roots and lean into the Metroid side. I began brainstorming different ideas that would fit, and one day a vivid image came to me of a soldier fighting zombies in the woods. I thought that could be interesting, but I still didn’t have a who, why, or when.
As Capt. Chuck “WOLFHOUND” Rossetti, take on mutants, zombies and the like to destroy an Axis base found in the middle of the mythical Bermuda Triangle. With a retro aesthetic that hearkens back to the CRT days, WOLFHOUND keeps a foot in both the retro and modern eras. While there is some NES-inspired design, the game also included a reload mechanic that keeps enemy encounters strategic and intense.
That was mostly just going back to the original Metroid and studying what worked about its combat. In run ‘n guns like Contra you can typically fire diagonally and hang far back trying to hit things across the screen, which contrasts with Metroid where the range of the bullets is much smaller, and the player must carefully approach enemies to engage. Adding the reloading mechanic on top adds another layer of preparation for each engagement rather than just spamming the screen with projectiles.
Read the full interview here. Follow Bit Kid Games to stay informed on the latest WOLFHOUND updates.
