With Cult of the Lamb getting a big free update to Relics of the Old Faith soon, we took the time to chat with the development team behind the cute but creepy roguelike game of 2022. PCGamesN spoke with Massive Monster developers Jay Armstrong and James Pearmain at WASD 2023 on the upcoming update, the game’s engaging and haunting art style, accessibility tools, and the importance of Twitch streaming to the success of Cult of the Lamb.
Relics of the Old Faith is the first major update for Cult of the Lamb and it will be free. Armstrong tells us, “We’ve been amazed at how many people love this game. We’ve never had anything like it before.” We are very happy and grateful.” The team sees this and a second free update scheduled for later this year as a way of saying thank you to the fans.
“I think it’s really important for us to make the game the best it can be,” says Pearmain, citing other celebrities in the roguelike genre as inspiration. “We really want to see games like The Binding of Isaac and Don’t Starve – how the game compares now to what it was at launch, we want Cult of the Lamb to match those games.”
As for what fans can expect from the update, Pearmain promises “tougher versions of all the bosses in the game” as well as “a new resource you can spend on a new shop owner that can give you rare unlocks.” He describes the new, harder mode as “kind of like an improved New Game Plus: instead of having to fight the same enemies, we’ve made them harder.”
It’s not just about the combat: Pearman points out that the lack of depth and variety in the dungeons was one of the main criticisms from players of the base game, so improving it was a high priority for the team. “From the beginning, the idea behind the game was: let’s make a game that we can continue to develop on.”
Streaming on Twitch has also been a big part of the game’s success. Pearmain alludes to the concept of streamers allowing his viewers to join his cult and make decisions, which he says has worked very well for the game. However, it was important to the team that the tone was in a fun direction to avoid too disturbing developments.
“It can be quite a heavy subject,” Armstrong notes, “you can feed [your cult members] other subscribers… [but] The DNA of the game is just to have fun. Although there are all those terrible things you can do. So the team had to find a balance between the inherent horror style and something lighter.
Piermane explains: “There was a lot of controversy: we wanted it to be cute, but we didn’t want it to be too sweet; and then we wanted it to be horror, but we didn’t want it to be super gross, brutal body horror. So it took him several iterations to find where those two goalposts were. As the game’s art director, he notes that “everything was so cute and they kept telling me to make it more and more evil.”
“We knew we didn’t need red blood because we thought some people wouldn’t respond well,” Armstrong says. Instead, the game has opted for tentacles that ensnare your villagers and drag them into the mysterious void below. “I think we couldn’t have done things differently based on the kinds of things we do,” he explains. “We keep trying to make it dark, and that naturally comes back to being fun.”
There is still a lot of work on Cult of the Lamb. The Relics of the Old Faith update includes a set of tools with improved accessibility, including high contrast text mode and dyslexic font settings. Pearmane also mentions that the team is working on day/night pause options for dungeons and looking into ways to allow players to independently adjust combat difficulty and core sides of the game to better customize their experience.
We asked, are there any plans to increase the size of the camp? “Not with this update,” Pearmain replies, “but I think it’s definitely something we’d like to do.” However, he notes that the team wants to “make sure we don’t expand the world too fast and too shallow.” because even [with] what we have now, we could add more depth.
“We remain open to exploring what makes a game more fun,” concludes Armstrong. “It was a big problem.”
If you’re just starting out, don’t miss our Cult of the Lamb Beginner’s Guide and tips for fighting all the Cult of the Lamb bosses. We’ve also selected the best indie games for PC if you’re looking for smaller, more exciting releases to keep you entertained.
Nat Smith interview at WASD 2023.
Source : PC Gamesn
