With Cult of the Lamb set to obtain its huge, free Relics of the Previous Religion replace quickly, we took a while to sit down down with the workforce behind 2022’s cutesy however sinister roguelike sport. PCGamesN spoke to developer Huge Monster’s Jay Armstrong and James Pearmain at WASD 2023 concerning the upcoming replace, the sport’s adorably unnerving artwork model, accessibility instruments, and the significance of Twitch streaming to Cult of the Lamb’s success.
Relics of the Previous Religion is the primary massive replace for Cult of the Lamb, and it’s going to be free. Armstrong tells us, “We have been so blown away by how many individuals love the sport – we’ve by no means had this earlier than. We’re simply so glad and grateful.” The workforce sees this and the second deliberate free replace, loosely scheduled for later this yr, as a option to give again to followers.
“I believe it’s actually essential for us to only make it the most effective sport attainable,” Pearmain explains, pointing to different massive names within the roguelike style as inspirations. “We actually need to have a look at video games like The Binding of Isaac and Don’t Starve – how the sport is now in comparison with what it was at launch, we would like Cult of the Lamb to suit alongside these sorts of video games.”
As for what followers can anticipate from the replace, Pearmain guarantees “more durable variations of all of the bosses within the sport” in addition to “a brand new useful resource that you should utilize to spend on a brand new shopkeeper who can provide you uncommon unlocks.” He describes the brand new, harder mode as “type of a souped-up New Recreation Plus – as a substitute of simply making you struggle the very same enemies, we’ve made them more durable.”
It’s not simply concerning the fight, nonetheless – Pearmain remarks {that a} lack of dungeon depth and selection was one of many fundamental criticisms raised concerning the base sport by gamers, so enhancing on that was an enormous precedence for the workforce. “From the very inception of the sport the concept was, let’s construct a sport the place we are able to simply continue to grow it.”
Twitch streaming was additionally an enormous a part of the sport’s success. Pearmain nods to the idea of streamers letting their viewers be part of their cult and make selections, which he says labored rather well for the sport. Nonetheless, it was essential to the workforce that the tone of the entire thing leant in a enjoyable course to keep away from issues getting overly sinister.
“It might be fairly a heavy material,” Armstrong notes, “you’ll be able to feed [your cult members] to different followers… [but] the DNA of the sport is simply to have enjoyable. Although there’s all these horrible issues you are able to do.” As such, the workforce needed to strike a stability between the inherent horror stylings and one thing a bit extra light-hearted.
Pearmain explains, “There was a number of backwards and forwards – we needed it to be cute, however we didn’t need it to be sickly candy; after which we needed it to be horror, however we didn’t need it to be tremendous gross, violent physique horror. So it took various iterations backwards and forwards to seek out the place these two goalposts have been.” As the sport’s artwork director, he notes that “Every little thing was simply too cute, and so they stored telling me to make it an increasing number of evil.”
“We knew we didn’t need crimson blood, as a result of we felt like perhaps some individuals wouldn’t reply very effectively to that,” Armstrong says. As an alternative, the sport opted for tentacles that seize your villagers and yank them down into the mysterious void beneath. “I believe we couldn’t have performed it every other approach based mostly on the kind of issues we make,” he explains, “We stored attempting to make it darkish, and it simply naturally comes again to enjoyable.”
There’s loads extra within the works for Cult of the Lamb. Together with the Relics of the Previous Religion replace is a collection of elevated accessibility instruments, together with high-contrast textual content mode and dyslexic font settings. Pearmain additionally mentions that the workforce is engaged on choices to pause the day/night time cycle whereas in dungeons, and contemplating methods to permit gamers to regulate issue independently throughout the fight and base-building sides of the sport to raised fine-tune their expertise.
Are there any plans for growing the scale of the camp space, we ask? “Not with this replace,” Pearmain responds, “Nevertheless it’s undoubtedly one thing that I believe we’d love to do.” Nonetheless, he emphasises that the workforce desires to “make sure that we don’t broaden the world too shortly in a shallow approach. As a result of even [with] what we’ve got now, we may add extra depth to that.”
“We’re nonetheless open to exploring no matter makes the sport extra enjoyable,” concludes Armstrong. “It’s been an awesome downside to have.”
For those who’re simply getting began, don’t miss our Cult of the Lamb newbie’s information and ideas for preventing all Cult of the Lamb bosses. We’ve additionally picked out the most effective indie video games on PC, in the event you’re in search of extra smashing smaller releases to maintain your self entertained.
Interview carried out by Nat Smith at WASD 2023.
