STACK #222 April 2023

GAMING FEATURE

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ALTAR YOUR PLAY!

We asked Julian for his top tip for those who are new to Cult of the Lamb … “Make sure you're sacrificing them up, the more level juice you'll get from them to get stronger.“ followers! The more you level

The game's core idea was the gameplay loop of dungeon crawling to colony sim/base building. The 'cult' aspect would come in much later after many iterations and a bit of devil worship. It took a

After taking over the world, Australian sensation Cult of the Lamb gets a much-deserved, ultra-collectible physical release this month.We chatted with the game’s creative director at Massive Monster, Julian Wilton, about how they’ve raised the baa... Words Amy Flower

lot of work to make it a delicate balance of pushing the player to each side of the loop and creating reasons for you to have followers.

• Cult of the Lamb is out on Apr 14

The art style is a delightful collision of cute and creepy, what was involved in getting this balance just right? We set out to create a dark and mature game, but our artistic skills were too adorable to resist. It's like trying to make a horror movie with a cast of puppies. But hey, we decided to lean into it and make our cute characters the stars of the show. Walking between creepy and cuddly was a fine line, but we made sure to give our world depth and rules so it wouldn't come across as a kiddie cartoon on acid. How closely did you work with River Boy – AKAWillow Beats' Narayana Johnson – on the superb soundtrack to the game? I was already a HUGE fan of Willow Beats and had been to a few gigs with them. So, when we got to collaborate with Narayana we were like, ‘Here are our suggestions but, ultimately, do whatever the heck you want!’ So often the feedback we gave was just trying to get a bit more energy out of some of the tracks if they were for a big boss fight for example, and he would bring the heat! We have to know… How do you prefer to play, leaning more towards good or evil? I love all my followers equally, except the ugly ones! I save them for the sacrifices. Next, I ensure the others are well-fed and have plenty of time for naps between sermons. Finally, if anyone starts looking a bit off, I slip them a little something to perk them up, like mushrooms.

Your ace little game has gone really, really big. How has joining the video game quadruped revolution changed things for Massive Monster? Well, I guess we've finally found our calling! Who knew that starting a cult would be the key to our success? Our game studio went from barely scraping by to having a cult following (pun intended). We’re figuring it out at the moment to try to turn our scrappy studio into a ‘proper company’ with employees and processes. We're going to have to start brainstorming some more bizarre games to keep our devoted followers entertained! What's been the biggest buzz for you with the success of Cult of the Lamb ? I love seeing all the fan art! There are a lot of people a lot more talented them me using the character to make excellent art. We really have a fantastic community around the game. Are there any particular challenges that you've faced in game development that may be unique to working in Australia?What sort of support did you receive in development? We're basically a global company, but without the fancy private jets and first-class accommodations. Time zones are our arch nemesis, and we're perpetually confused about what day it is. Being in Australia, specifically Melbourne, we could rely on VicScreen bailing us out while we sorted out a vertical slice to pitch to publishers.

What originally sparked the idea to make a game about animal cultists? Did you go through many other plot ideas before landing upon this one? We started with more humanoid-looking people but quickly found that having to add gender, skin colour etc., didn't feel very inclusive. I also suck at drawing people, so the next logical step was animals! I leaned into the idea, too, because people already have emotional connections to specific animals, which would work well to create interesting choices for the player and would be good marketing. Who wouldn't want to play a game where you can finally sacrifice a sassy koala?

Was Cult of the Lamb always to be the adventurous combination of dungeon crawler and city builder that we now know and

Cult of the Lamb sold a million within its first week of release. DYK?

love, or were other genres considered?

10 APRIL 2023

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