Van-14aims to put theMetroidback in Metroidvania, featuring a power-armored sci-fi heroine who must defeat a race of malevolent gods. Developed by Robin Eyre, Iron Gate Studio’s “generalist artist” andValheimveteran, theindietitle draws inspiration from the genre-definingSuper Metroid, while also being mindful ofHollow Knight’s major contributions to the formula.
Robin Eyre spoke with Game Rant about his goals, hopes and process for the passion project being developed in his off-hours.The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Making a Metroidvania
Q: Can you please introduce yourself and describe Van-14 for those who are unfamiliar with the project?
Eyre: My name is Robin Eyre. I work at Iron Gate Studios and makeValheim. That’s where I work during the daytime. During my evenings, I do personal projects. That’s whereVan-14started, soon to be one year ago. It’s a retro-Metroidvania with lots of bosses.
Q: You acknowledge that Van-14 is another entry in ‘a sea filled with poor to amazing Metroidvanias.’ What do you think are some of the landmark Metroidvanias that have been developed since Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night helped establish the genre?
Eyre: In recent years,Hollow Knightis a masterpiece. That’s the only one that I look to as a guiding star. I am really looking forward toSilksong.Crowswornalso looks really, really nice. The art style is very similar toSilksongandHollow Knight. Otherwise, I think theclassic Super Metroidis what primarily inspired me to makeVan-14.
Q: With Van-14, you stated that rather than ‘reinventing the wheel, we want to use it on a new vehicle.’ What are you hoping to preserve from classic Metroidvanias, and what are you hoping to renovate?
Eyre: I’m not sure if I want to renovate anything. This is basically just me sitting down, taking a genre that I love, and loved exploring when I was young, and seeing if I can just make a Metroidvania. Because there are so many things that go into making a Metroidvania that people may not always think about. What if there was no Metroidvania genre at all?
I’m working fromthe idea ofSuper Metroidbeing the baseline, and trying to incorporate the abilities that you normally use. The double jump, grapple hook, and so on. We have a dodge, which is something that is new, but the thing I wanted to push on a lot is the ability to get abilities, but also change them a bit. For example, with the double jump, you can swap between three different modifiers. Utility, defensive, and offensive. If it’s too difficult to play the game—which I’m trying to make a bit more hardcore—then you should probably lean into defensive modifiers. If you have the hang of things, maybe offensive modifiers are more suited to your play-style.
Q: How many distinct Zones will players be able to explore over the course of Van-14?
Eyre: Currently—not to overscope anything, which I will probably do anyway down the line—I would say it’s about five. It may grow into more zones later on, but five to six zones right now is the plan.
Q: Van-14 boasts an interesting upgrade system with utility, defensive, and offensive nodes that will adjust Van’s suit performance. Will Van unlock other upgrades, or do these nodes also include traversal items?
Eyre: You get all these abilities that allow you to get further into zones. But there are also these upgrades—I’m just calling them upgrades right now—which are again built around utility, defensive, and offensive play styles. Defensive translates to more shield, energy, and health. Offensive is obviously stuff like faster fire rate and more damage. Jump height and running speed fall under utility. These upgrades are locked behind challenges, bosses mostly.
Q: Will players be able to respect all of their unlocked abilities, or are certain upgrades fixed?
Eyre: That’s a great question! I need to put that in. I do not want it to bea roguelike, so I should put that in.
Q: What can you tell us about Van’s robotic companion EYRIE?
Eyre: Van is basically the player without a voice. And Eyrie is the one guiding you through the whole world, describing the situation and the world. She is basically the storyteller guiding you through, hopefully without being too annoying. We do havea lot of lore in the game, and I want it to be read—voice-acted—because, personally, I dislike having to read text when I am playing a game. So I want these voice-overs to play as you are playing the game. And if you don’t want to listen, you can cancel them, or listen to them later by checking the logs. I’m going for very non-disruptive gameplay. If you want to carry on, please, just carry on. Because I’ve played some games where you just have to sit and listen or skip, and then you end up not being very invested in the story.
A Love Letter to Super Metroid
Q: Super Metroid featured a seemingly endless number of secrets, including a number of secret power bomb moves, which the Metroid series never really revisited. Is there anything comparable in Van-14? How do you approach discovery and hidden content?
Eyrie: There’s going to be lots to discover. I want to hide as much as I can. If you start hiding things, people will start looking for things and exploring in a different way, which I really enjoy. Going back to whatSuper Metroiddid, there are certain similar abilities that you can take advantage of. Like, there’s a bomb, and I’m currently just calling it bomber. You can shoot the bomb to get more lift, and launch yourself into areas that you shouldn’t normally be able to reach yet. Not too many testers have tried this yet. So, not exactlylikeSuper Metroid, but there’s always wiggle room for unintended mechanics that might show up.
Q: Wicked Cherry refers to Van’s story as ‘a woman in power armor trying to do good for the universe in the face of seemingly hopeless odds.’ Is this strictly an homage to Metroid, or if Van-14 were developed in a void, would you use a similar premise for the story?
Eyre: I think I would. Even ifMetroidnever existed, I think I would have done it the same way. Here, the only difference is that you play the 14th version of Van, as the 13th has just died off trying to complete the same mission set upon them.
Q: One of the video tidbits revealed on the website is titled “The Old Gods,” and showcases a mysterious sphere featuring a red, constellation-like symbol on it. What can you tell us about the Old Gods? Are these Old Gods similar to the bird race of Chozo in Metroid?
Eyre: In Van-14 you come into this technologically advanced place and don’t know anything about what’s going on. But basically, these Old Gods are enemy entities essentially. So they aren’t anythinglike the Chozo. You come across these statues that they forced people to raise in their honor. It’s up to you to try to take them down—to try to destroy them essentially. I don’t want to overscope too much, but you get to fight against one of these Old Gods and their spawn inVan-14, trying to set up for a sequel and a third game, if everything goes well down the line.
Q: In Devlog 003, you tease a mysterious figure in a red cloak. Can you share anything else about this enigmatic character?
Eyre: I’m not sure if that’s canceled just yet, but the whole idea was that we needed a shop or a place to feed your currency into. And the idea was originally that this mysterious figure was going to be Van-13, but I’m not sure if we are going forward with that just yet, because we have a place for you to use your currency and plug in modifiers. If we put too many characters in the game, I worry we will lose thatdesolate feelingthat you get fromSuper Metroid.
Q: Without giving away too much, what else can you tell us about Van-14’s story?
Eyre: A long time ago, there were three big gods, stuck between the fabric between universes. As they entered Van-14’s universe, they started wreaking havoc: destroying planets, eating worlds. They are more supernatural beings. Then there is another race that is superior in technology. They find a way to one of the god’s worlds, and they harness the power of those gods, introducinga magic versus science dynamic. This race starts to lose, so they clone a human—who are long since extinct. But they clone this human, Van, make her into a weapon of war, and she, along with EYRIE, are the last hope against the gods.
Anime Influences
Q: Van-14 boasts pixel art cinematics inspired byGhost in the Shelland other classic 90s anime. Who is handling the animation?
Eyre: That’s me! [Laughing] I’m handling everything. It’s a lot of work, but I love it. I’ve been a generalist artist for so long. It’s really fun to utilize everything I know in my tool box. The animations are made in something called Krita, a free painting software that everyone can get a hold of. It’s like Photoshop, but it’s free. All the animation and as much as the art as possible is done in Krita. The game itself isdeveloped in Unreal 5.3at the moment. That’s one thing that I think is really fun as well, since there aren’t that many 2D games done in Unreal.
Q: One of the most striking features of Van-14 is its dark and moody color palette. Most of the screenshots revealed so far juxtapose turquoise with a sort of lurid orange. Is this the defining look for the game, or do other zones have distinct color palettes?
Eyre: Every zone has its own color palette and its own distinct biome kind of feel. As an artist, I try to make it as clear to players as possible that they are in separate zones, thus you need other colors, and other tech, and other things going on. You get up to the surface, at one point, a dusty desert place with blowing wind. At one point, we are going to bedeep diving in oceansas well, I hope.
Q: How are you approaching SFX and music for Van-14?
Eyre: I create all the music and the SFX is mostly me, but I get some sounds from Unreal Engine marketplace as placeholders for now. As we get further in production, it would be nice to have somebody come in and redo the sound to make it feel more unique and give more character to the game. Right now, I’m just picking some sounds and modulating and editing on my own, but it would be nice to have a professional SFX artist to help me out.
Lessons Learned
Q: What do you think is the most important feature in designing a successful Metroidvania? What separates the amazing from the mundane?
Eyre: You need gameplay first. Always gameplay first. How does it feel to traverse the platforms. You need lovely art that you’re able to be invested in looking at for several hours. But you alsoneed a mystery. The mystery, for me, is probably the biggest reason to continue playing. Enticing me with lore, or interesting places to go to. Those three really need to go hand in hand. You also need non-linear gameplay. I am not a big fan of too much backtracking, but I like it better than playing just one level after another. I want to go look around myself. To this day, I still thinkHollow Knightis one of the best Metroidvanias of the modern era, though I haven’t playedPrince of Persiayet and I understand it’s very good.
Q: Valheim and Van-14 are two very different genres. How did you settle on a Metroidvania as your next title?
Eyre: I don’t know. We’re constantly working onValheimall the time—which is great! But I’ve always wanted to do something sci-fi, and I always wanted to do a Metroidvania. So it’s great that I get to work on this big title that isValheimduring the daytime. We are currently gettingAshlands ready for release. But it’s also really nice to have something totally different in the evenings for myself. Just sitting, and doodling, and tinkering around, since there is no pressure anywhere, I can simply sit there and tinker. I can see how far that love can carry me.
Q: Did you learn any lessons over the course of creating Valheim that apply to the development of Van-14?
Eyre: I think I’ve learned a lot makingValheim. We work iteratively and organically. We attempt to follow the fun. And that’s something I take with me when working onVan-14. We don’t have placeholder things inValheim. If you have a whole biome filled with placeholder stuff, you will never get the feeling for it. So at Iron Gate, we try to finish things. Like with creatures, we try to pull them all the way to the end, so we have their final VFX and SFX, to establish their distinct place in the game. It is so much easier to build a biome that way. I think that’s what I’m doing withVan-14as well. Get something to a good state before continuing onto the next thing. That’s definitely something I brought with me fromValheim.
Q: Do you have a projected release window for Van-14?
Eyre: No. I have no projected release date just yet. I’m hoping to be done within two years, but also, if I feel like I need to up it to ten zones, obviously that’s going to push the schedule back. But right now… maybe two years? Hopefully? If everything goes right. I’m still just one person doing stuff for two hours each evening. So those two hours really need to count. But I attempt to get as much done as possible in those hours. It would be nice to take on some more people to help me out. I was about to throw this away a couple months ago, but somehow, apparently, people are interested.
Q: Is there anything else you would like readers to know?
Eyre: I hope that people check outVan-14and follow along for the ride. I do stuff on my YouTube page where I show off the development ofVan-14.And yeah, I just want to show people that everything is possible, provided you sit down and do it for two hours every day.
[END.]
Van-14is currently in development. A release window has yet to be announced.
