[Find Your Indie] Becoming Saint arrives this July, bringing tactical quest for faith and power

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Launching on Steam July 15, 2025, Becoming Saint puts you in 14th-century Italy as a young woman preacher. You will have to convert city-states to your heretical creed to achieve sainthood or die trying. Developed by Florence’s Open Lab Games (Football Drama, Roller Drama) and published by Firesquid, this game blends historical inspiration with dark humor and strategic depth for a unique take on the strategy genre.

The game casts you as a preacher in Assisi, roughly a century after Saint Francis, tasked with building a following in a turbulent medieval Italy. You begin with a small band of believers and define your creed by choosing from a range of heretical beliefs rooted in the era’s religious upheavals. From there, you travel from town to town, engaging in “conversion battles” that play out like an autobattler with a twist, an evolved rock-paper-scissors system where unit matchups and terrain tactics determine success.

These battles, playable in either autobattler or manual movement modes, challenge you to deploy up to 16 unique unit types, from cursing nuns to drunken singers, each with specific strengths, weaknesses, and synergies. Your choices shape not only your strategy but also your preacher’s political and spiritual identity, impacting your followers, economy, and influence as you aim to conquer Italy’s city-states.

In Becoming Saint, you will have access to:

• 10 different personalities based on in-game choices, will you stay true to yourself or swing from one side to the other?
• 50 different “chapters” of rules and decisions about your movement
• 16 different units based on your personality and political choices, each with their own strengths and weaknesses
• A map of Italy with more than 40 Italian cities to convert
• Battlemaps that have different environments depending on which city it is, diverse at each runtime
• Various enemies and bosses that will challenge your forces
• Management system of food and charisma to keep the belly of your followers full and their devotion to you intact
• Random encounters that can bring good fortune or bad omens to your movement
• A training mode to let you practice your strategy and units’ synergies before going into a real confrontation

Rougelike structures ensures you’ll keep coming back for more

Open Lab Games based Becoming Saint on medieval Italian research, exploring class struggles and religious fervor. Director Pietro Polsinelli states the game aims for “an intriguing and accessible generative story with challenging tactical battles” rooted in this fascinating period. The result is a world where beauty and turmoil coexist, making your preacher’s journey personal. Every choice carries weight, whether you’re blessing units, cursing foes, or managing resources through a unique begging system.

Each playthrough offers new paths, with setbacks like martyrdom unlocking new challenges in your next incarnation. The game’s roguelike structure ensures failure feels meaningful, helping you refine your strategy to spread your creed faster. This narrative depth, paired with a tragicomic tone, brings to life the struggles of the poor and rebellious in a minimalist art style that balances charm with the era’s dark realities.

Becoming Saint will cost 14,99 euros, there will be a 10% discount during the 14-day launch period to celebrate the release and Open Lab Games is aiming to port this title on Nintendo Switch as well as on mobile.