Cult of the Lamb sees the participant battling their means by dungeons, but in addition managing a cult of cute animal pals. Cute as they’re, maybe they’re extra helpful to you as a sacrifice to unlock some larger energy. That duality led to some complicated choices, each for gamers taking Cult of the Lamb for a spin and for the builders tasked with creating the 2 complementary sides of the sport.
Game Developer sat down with Jay Armstrong, director of recreation design at Massive Monster, to speak about how cuteness may be made to make unspeakable acts rather a lot simpler to swallow, the thought course of behind giving gamers larger rewards for sacrificing their most beloved followers, and the way poo grew to become an necessary piece of the sport’s related programs.
Game Developer: What impressed you to combine cult caretaking and roguelike dungeon crawling in Cult of the Lamb? What sparked the thought of mixing the 2?
Armstrong: The mixture of base constructing and dungeon crawling was the start line for the sport, even earlier than we settled on the theme of making a cult. This got here out of our expertise with our earlier recreation The Adventure Pals, which was very linear, which meant that, at finest, you could possibly play the sport as soon as, and, at worst, you could possibly eat the sport by watching a streamer play it and also you’d by no means must play it your self in any respect!
At the identical time, I seen roguelike video games reminiscent of Enter the Gungeon and Binding of Isaac, in addition to colony sim video games like Rimworld, had been completely implausible at creating distinctive tales each playthrough. They supplied infinite replayability and emergent narratives – tales that sprung forth from the sport’s mechanics – and I puzzled why nobody had considered combining them earlier than. It wasn’t till a lot later that we discovered the cult theme to be the right method to mix them collectively.
Getting Away With Murder
Managing the cult feels much like managing a city of cute creatures in Animal Crossing, however with a sinister underbelly. What concepts went into balancing the lovable nature with a few of the grotesque issues you may perform?
The power of the lovable artwork is that it permits us to place horrendous issues within the recreation with out it ever feeling too horrible. You can do some really darkish issues which, if we had a extra sensible or darker artwork fashion, would have felt unpalatable. We actually needed to let gamers go down a darkish path with out them realizing how evil they had been turning into till it was too late!
Moreover, once we selected the cult theme, we knew we had sure expectations of what goes together with that and had an obligation to satisfy the guarantees we had made to the participant. It would have been a lot simpler to make a recreation about operating a city, however we knew with a cult there have been sure expectations that had been implicit reminiscent of sermons, ritualistic sacrifices, and many others. We really made a listing of ‘what’s a cult’ and did our greatest to hit every of these factors with the sport design, nevertheless it was actually an thrilling problem to combine them as we hadn’t seen many issues prefer it earlier than.
The theme attracts on the reality that energy corrupts and we needed the participant’s journey to match that. So, we knew we wanted to arrange rewards and alternatives for the participant to use their followers for their very own acquire. We are cautious to by no means power you, however the mechanics are undoubtedly set as much as lead you down a darkish path.
The power of the lovable artwork is that it permits us to place horrendous issues within the recreation with out it ever feeling too horrible.
What ideas went into the cult caretaking components within the recreation? What actions felt appropriate to operating a cult with such an cute visible fashion? How did you translate these actions into gameplay components?
We used to have much more busy work within the recreation (reminiscent of having to tug the weeds earlier than you could possibly construct), however discovered that with a way more action-orientated recreation, it was extra enjoyable once we stored issues extra streamlined. Other programs, such because the follower’s poop, developed naturally. After we launched meals, it was solely pure that followers would wish to poop and that poop may very well be used to extend farm yields as fertilizer. We at all times tried arduous to attach the programs at any time when attainable.
Players may be form or merciless of their administration of the cult. What drew you to let gamers take completely different ethical routes, and the way did you create these paths?
We at all times needed to permit folks the selection to be the kind of chief that they needed to be, however we undoubtedly arrange temptations for taking place a darker route. We felt it was necessary to offer a nicer different – even when it was simply there to focus on what a monster you’ve change into while you ignore the good issues in favor of the trail of evil!
A very good instance of making such a path is the sacrifice ritual. Not solely will we make it entrance and heart by having it gifted to you by the One Who Waits as an alternative of unlocked as a selection like all the opposite rituals. Originally, you’d solely get gold from it, however we realized it wasn’t tempting sufficient for gamers. so on the final minute, we modified it in order that it upgrades the participant. We instantly discovered gamers utilizing it rather more usually!
Additionally, we at all times attempt to verify higher-loyalty followers are extra helpful, so there’s the fixed temptation of killing your favourite followers to your personal acquire. Setting the participant to use their followers was at all times central to the sport’s design philosophy.
With the charming visuals however bleak material, how did you discover a cautious stability between cute and horrific by the visuals and gameplay? What challenges did you face in sustaining that stability, and the way did you overcome them?
Numerous the cuteness within the recreation got here from the pure fashion of our artists James Pearmain and Julian Wilton. Whatever they draw is cute, and there’s nothing they will do about it. So, there was at all times an inevitability that irrespective of how darkish we tried to make issues, they’d change into cute.
The different cause for leaning into the cuteness on the subject of the followers is that it helps endear them to you. You look after them, and so it creates a stronger emotional stake while you come to do horrible issues to them, or even when your favourite follower ultimately dies of previous age.
Was something reduce within the curiosity of sustaining this stability? Tweaked ultimately? Can you inform us about a component that will have been troublesome or that you simply needed to alter?
Creating this recreation was a really iterative course of. I’d say about 60 % of the work we did ended up on the slicing room flooring, just because it was arduous to stability all components of the sport and ship on the promise of being a cult chief. It was additionally troublesome to stability either side of the sport and maintain them equally necessary.
One of probably the most troublesome issues was making certain that every half of the sport at all times fed into the opposite. We knew from the start that this may be a defining precept of the sport, however in follow it was troublesome to determine. We lastly bought there although, nevertheless it took years of experimentation to crack it!
What concepts went into integrating cult actions into the roguelike play of the sport? How did you design the connections between the 2?
We at all times knew that the important thing to a profitable style mash is to have both sides of the sport feed into one another, nevertheless it proved tough to get proper for many of growth. The earliest idea was at all times to go dungeon operating to get sources, however having the bottom aspect of the sport enhance the fight aspect took a number of iteration and experimentation.
It took us a surprisingly very long time to resolve how the participant would get upgraded, however once we lastly did, every thing clicked into place. We tried quite a few issues reminiscent of having your followers come into the dungeon with you, nevertheless it actually muddied the motion. We discovered that at any time when we streamlined the sport, it grew to become extra compelling.
Two, Two, Two Games in One
What do you’re feeling this connection between the 2 components added to the sport?
I feel video games like this, when accomplished proper, can change into greater than the sum of their components. We love Moonlighter and that actually proved to us that the idea was viable. With Cult of the Lamb, both sides of the sport needed to be easier than a recreation that solely does one factor. For instance, we regularly get comparisons to different roguelike video games, however this may be an unfair comparability as these video games do only one factor, whereas Cult of the Lamb is 2 video games in a single.
It was a relentless stability of attempting to not overcomplicate a recreation that might simply change into fairly unwieldy.
When we experimented with having the dungeon aspect be extra sophisticated, it will take away from the cult-building aspect of the sport and vice versa. It would additionally exclude people who find themselves maybe extra serious about that aspect of the sport. So, it was a relentless stability of attempting to not overcomplicate a recreation that might simply change into fairly unwieldy, however I feel we struck an important stability ultimately.
The cult may be related to Twitch and a streamer’s viewers. What drew you to create this connection to the Twitch viewers?
Twitch has change into such an necessary a part of the trade that we knew we needed to discover a method to join with streamers and their viewers. When this concept got here up, none of us hesitated. We knew it was a implausible alternative and we couldn’t imagine that it hadn’t been accomplished to the identical extent that we’ve accomplished it in Cult of the Lamb. I’ve a sense we can be seeing much more extensions like this in future video games!
