James Pearman and Jay Armstrong, two of the minds behind 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Cult of the Lamb, did their homework on taking control of your very own cult. “We tried to watch as many movies a🌠nd read as many articles as we could about cults so we knew what the꧋y consist of,” Armstrong tells me. “So we ended up with the list of what makes a cult, and we went through it like ‘we’re hitting that, we’re hitting that, this mechanic means that we have this.’”
Pearman says that charismatic leaders, indoctrination, and rituals were a constant theme, which is why they’re so prevalent in the game. “Throughout development, we wanted to make sure that player fantasy of starting your own cult was met. We found ourselves going back to those [key ideas] and making sure that adding new things would relate to that fantasy. It was very easy to find ourselves going down random paths 𝓀and suddenly realising that it had nothing to do with what we were trying to achieve.”
This focus on the realism of a cult, despite playing as cute and fluffy animals, shaped everything i🍰n the game. Pearlman tells me that originally, sacrificing followers only netted players gold, but when they were rich, they didn&rsꦦquo;t sacrifice, and that needed to change. “We needed players to be doing that to make the power fantasy, and make players follow this path and then look back and think ‘oh my god, look at all these horrible things I’m doing.’”
This copious research seems to have emboldened the pair. When asked whether they think they could start their own cult thanks to their newfound knowledge, Armstrong is eager to answer. “I think we have; that’s what we already have! Hundreds of thousands of followers… on Twitter.” Armstrong even proclaims himself the ‘angelic, beautiful, charismatic’ leader while Pearman embraces the ‘monstrous devil🅷 on your shoulder’ role with glee.
Cult of the Lamb offers some great boons for cruelly exerting your power over your followers, but that ‘oh my god’ moment is the real reward.𝔉 In this, the lamb is the ideal mascot - the sacrificial lamb is a signifier of purity, but here serves as the lens through which the player’s cruelty must be witnessed. But even Pearman and Armstrong couldn’t predict how iconic it would become. Armstong says, “I think we definitely knew it was a good character, but I don’t think we know quite how much people would love it.” The characters in the game all went through several stages of feedback, but they were aware that the lamb would have to stand out. Pearman explains, “We simplified it as much as possible, with the hope that the simpler it is, the easier it is to get fanart. That was a consideration, you know? To make sure that fans of the game, even y♏ounger ones, can draw this character.”
Armstrong says they looked to Hollow Knight and other simplistic yet iconic characters, “A lot of Nintendo characters are simple and unique and jump out in a page of other characters.” When asked about whether they liked the lamb’s recent memelord status, Armstrong answers immediately, “We love it. We like embracing the fun, and I think it took us a little while to find a voice. We just recently got a new sociꦍal media manager Josie [Fletcher], who’s been killing it and starting fights with other brands. We’re all about the mystery and the chaos. Our whole vibe as a company is ‘keep it weird, keep it funny.’ It’s more interesting than being boring and corporate and trying to keep it plain; 𒉰we like keeping it spicy.”
Speaking of spicy, when asked for some fanart highlights, ment🔯ioning how creators twist them into, let’s say, ‘imaginative’ interpretations, Armstrong is quick to confirm our worst fears. “Oh, it’s all the sexy stuff.” Pearman is just as quick when following up. “There’s a hashtag. If you know what I’m talking about, you know what I’m talking about.” I don’t know what he’s talking about. Promise.
Armstrong does go on to express some more wholesome thoughts, though, praising the talent of the creators who produce the art featuring their characters. He especially had praise for those who cosplayed characters from the game.💃 “Seeing people actually dressed up as characters is a crazy experience, especially when you go to a ꦓshow like PAX, and there’s like 30 people walking dressed up as characters from your game. Having those characters that people can latch onto and express themselves through and attach themselves to is really good.”
We don’t often see religion tackled in such a unique way as Cult of the Lamb does. “It’s interesting because not many people do religion as mechanics,” says Pearman. “That was challenging, how do you make a sermon something that you want to do every day and not be boring? The answer is just ‘fill up a progress bar!’” Indeed, engaging with the daily tasks of being a cult leader doesn’t feel like a chore, and the game does a great job of feeding the results of the cult management side of things into meaningful rewards for the combat side of the game🔯🦩, such as through new ability unlocks.
However, mechanics aren't the only things you have to think about when religion plays such a big part in your game. Armstrong says the imagery leans Christian, but only because of his own background. “Having grown up in a Christian country, like a lot of people who have played the game, heavily influenced the Christian imagery [in the game],” he says. “There’s a weird importance of power that seems to surround it, even if you’re not Christian yourself; there’s something about churches, stained glass windows, and crucifixes that are ingrained subconsciously. I think that’s a really powerful tool to make the artwork feel striking and more important and interesting.” Pearman says the game doesn’t mean to go after Christianity, or any religion, only to use it as a narrative tool, “We also deliberately didn’t want to criticise real-world religions or things that people believe in; it’s more like holding up a mirror to the player and being like ‘you have power, this is what you do.’”
Cult of the Lamb will soon be getting a large content update, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Relics of the Old Faith, which promises to revamp the combat side of the game significantly. The cult management side of things will get some love, but the focus 🎶seems to be on making the dungeon-diving mechanics more engaging by adding more gameplay variatio♏n and even a permadeath mode.
