Cult of the Lamb combines cute with creepy and dungeon-crawling with base-building, and launches for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One later this year. For our latest Xbox Indie Spotlight, we reached out to developer Massive Monster, and spoke to art director James Pearmain, who was kind enough to answer our questions! Read on to find out more about Cult of the Lamb…What is Cult of the Lamb?Cult of the Lamb is a strategic roguelike action-adventure game which combines dungeon-crawling with base-building. It’s in development from Massive Monster and is published by Devolver Digital.When does Cult of the Lamb launch?We haven’t yet got a release date for Cult of the Lamb, but it is expected to launch sometime this year. We’ll keep you posted!What’s it about?Well. In Cult of the Lamb, our titular lamb is saved from a sacrificial death by a stranger, and must work to repay this foreboding stranger by building a cult in that stranger’s name. We’ll be recruiting members, eliminating rival cults, and generally spreading the Word. How does Cult of the Lamb play?Cult of the Lamb, it seems, will keep us very busy. We need to collect new followers, look for resources, explore dungeons, build and expand our base, give sermons, perform rituals, and more. “So you’ll embark on a crusade into one of the randomly generated dungeons to find resources and new followers to bring back to your cult,” Pearmain explains. “Along the way you’ll find different weapons, curses, and tarot cards that give different abilities and buffs, and encounter enemy cults, monsters, and bosses to fight off. You’ll also meet various NPCs that give you items, quests and also tell you about new locations you can visit.”Then, back at our base, we’ll “indoctrinate any new followers and build structures with resources you found on your crusade. In your temple you can give daily sermons to draw power from your followers, grow stronger, and unlock new weapons and curses to use on your crusades. You’ll set your doctrine and make decisions on how you want to interact with your followers, and how they react to you. You can also perform rituals and do things like sacrifice naughty followers, throw grand feasts or resurrect the dead… You can even marry a follower!”In our TA team first impressions of Cult of the Lamb, what took us by surprise was this mashup of base-building and dungeon crawler elements, and we wondered how the devs had implemented this combination so that the change in gameplay pace didn’t feel jarring. “The goal was for the two sides of the game to always feed into the other, so you are always making progress. For example, in the combat side of the game you might rescue a new follower who you bring back to your base,” Pearmain begins. “This follower will then work for you and attend sermons which unlock new weapons and powers for you to use in the combat side of the game. So by making the two sides of the game always affect each other then the player is always motivated and doesn’t suffer from the potential whiplash of changing pace.” Rather than simply viewing our followers as just another resource, it sounds as though our relationship with them will be far more in-depth. “We put a lot of time and effort into making the base fun to be in,” Pearmain says. “It’s not just a fancy upgrade tree, it’s a full-fledged colony sim. Your followers will have personalities and lives of their own, some will help you, some will hurt you, you will have your favourites, and they will all eventually grow old and die. There are a lot of emergent stories that come out of interacting with your followers, and on top of that they will always have a new quest for you.” Nor does it sound like we’ll ever be stuck for something to do next. “Because the followers and base are constantly simulated, if you are waiting for a building to complete, you can go for a quick dungeon crawl and when you get back it will likely be finished. So if there is something in one part of the game that’s slowing things down, you are always free to explore other parts. In addition to this there are locations you can discover across the world which offer new characters to meet and quests to complete. So we always try to let the player have choices in how they spend their time.”And our followers need more care and attention than simply being brought back to base. “Followers have different needs and will require feeding and somewhere to sleep,” Pearmain explains. “You’ll need to keep your cult clean, otherwise they might get sick.” Another interesting feature is that your followers can apparently turn against you, should you not care for them properly. “They also have a faith level that must be maintained to keep them happy, otherwise they can dissent against you and try to persuade others that you’re a false prophet,” Pearmain warns. “It’s up to you how you deal with these moments — you could carefully talk to them and re-educate them in the ways of the lamb, or throw them in jail until they repent. You could sacrifice them to the gods, or just straight up murder them and feed their meat to your other followers — they might not be happy about it though!”Followers will also have lives of their own within your cult. “Followers have different traits that make them unique and react differently to your actions and other followers around them. You can read their thoughts to see what’s making them happy or unhappy, or what they really think about their fellow animals. They can become enemies with each other, they can fall in love.” They also have a number of different roles within your cult. “Your cult members will also help you around your base,” Pearmain says. “They can pray at the lamb shrine to unlock new buildings, and then help build them once placed. They can tend to your farms, or become janitors and clean up mess. You can send them off as missionaries to bring back new resources or followers, or you could convert them into demons to help you on your crusades!”And as for build balance — Pearmain says Cult of the Lamb “leans more towards restrained power levels” (like Nuclear Throne), “but there are definitely combinations of weapons and tarot cards that will give some fun results! You can find yourself becoming pretty powerful at points in the game. We’re planning more weapons, curses and cards that will be added later on in free updates too.”What’s the world like?Cult of the Lamb will send us out into the world to collect followers and destroy rival cults, and in doing so, we’ll explore four mysterious regions. “Darkwood is a deep and scary worm-infested forest. Anura is a hot and overgrown fungal grassland, ruled by frogs,” Pearmain begins. “Anchordeep is a swampy ocean bed full of coral, shipwrecks and jellyfish. Silk Cradle is a terrifying nesting ground for spiders, deep under the earth.” Interestingly, Pearmain adds that “each of the regions is ruled by one of the four bishops of the Old Faith, and connected through a network of ancient temples.”One of the first things you notice about Cult of the Lamb is that sharp contrast between its cutesy, cartoonish art style, and its dark, horror-fuelled content. “We’ve always had quite a cute, cartoony art style in all our games. With Cult of the Lamb we wanted to keep that cartoon style we are known for, while also bringing in some darker themes and visual elements to give a more striking aesthetic,” Pearmain says. “Once we settled on the theme of cults, the religious and occult imagery came naturally and helped give the game its juxtaposition of cute and scary, light and dark.”This contrast between light and dark themes is also echoed in the game’s choice of music. “We are working with Melbourne based Narayana Johnson AKA River Boy, who has brought his unique electronic beats and production to the game,” explains Pearmain. “He’s really given COTL its own identity through the music, and helped channel those light and dark themes running through the game into the music as well. We wanted the outside world to feel like a dark and scary place full of horrors, and then time spent at your cult feel more like a relaxing haven. Narayana has really helped emphasise those two opposite feelings!”We also wondered whether Cult of the Lamb’s pseudo-satanic themes might have the developers worrying about its reception. “I can understand why some of the imagery might not be for everyone, and that’s ok,” Pearmain answers. “The religious and satanic themes are just something that came naturally as we explored the core mechanic of starting a cult, and the themes of light and dark, good and evil. We’re not setting out to offend or make a huge statement for or against religion with the game, we just wanted a strong aesthetic surrounding the player fantasy of being a cult leader. We want the game to feel like a playground with lots of different options, and then let players make their own choices in how they act as a leader. Will they be good or bad?”Any news on the Cult of the Lamb achievements?We haven’t got the Cult of the Lamb achievements yet, but we’ll update you as soon as we do! In the meantime, Pearmain gives us an idea of the team’s design process when it comes to achievements. “Achievements are a great way to encourage people to play games in ways different to how they usually might, and help give clues and motivation to seek out the deepest corners of the game,” Pearmain says. “We always like to have a good range of short term and long term, as well as a few secrets thrown in. We tried to put in variety so that casual players can feel rewarded and the completionists can know we appreciate them — because we do!”Cult of the Lamb looks to be an awesome mashup of dungeon-crawling and base-building, all wrapped up in an eye-catchingly vibrant art style and an intriguingly dark story. What, out of all of this, is Pearmain most looking forwards to having players experience? “I think the marriage of combat filled dungeon crawling and character-driven base building feels quite unique and brings something new to both those genres, so I think people will enjoy the flow of the two sides to the game working together,” Pearmain responds. “I’m excited to see how players interact with their followers and the stories they make together — you see some funny moments around your base as the different systems work together. I also think we’ve created a unique world with lots to discover, I’m excited for people to meet all the characters and find all the secrets!”So, what do you think? Cult of the Lamb is definitely on our radar — how about you? Will you be establishing the Cult of the Lamb when the game launches later this year? Let us know in the comments!
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