MAR #3: GUYON
Priest + Ghoul DLC now live on mobile!
Yesterday we launched the Priest and Ghoul DLC on mobile! You can finally devour the dreams of the dead and/or self-flagellate on the go. You can get 'em on the App Store or the Google Play Store as £1.99 / $1.99 IAPs.
Cultist Simulator was launched one year ago on mobile, so it's 50% off for the rest of the week in birthday celebration. Enjoy!
Exile DLC update
Cultist is a deceptively big game, and writing DLC for it had got really difficult. Alexis needed to find interesting mechanics each time, and those mechanics needed to interlock meaningfully with the mechanics that were out there. It’s even harder now that we’ve localised the whole game, because it’s very difficult for Alexis to go back and change existing content.
Then he watched a couple of seasons of Ozark. The protagonist is burdened with an extraordinary sum of extremely illegally obtained money that they need to dispose of quickly and safely. It was the total opposite of the usual Cultist Funds tension. What if, in Cultist, you had as much money as you needed, but you were in constant danger and had to think hard about how you could safely spend it and stay ahead of your pursuers?
It didn’t sound practical as a DLC theme, because it would mean completely re-inventing half the game. If you were on the run, you couldn’t send out expeditions or built up books in the same way. The Suspicion mechanics would have to work very differently. You probably wouldn’t even have a cult.
Then it occurred to Alexis that this was also an opportunity. If he blew up all the mechanics the player was used to, then he wouldn’t have to integrate all my new systems with them, and they’d have the fun of rediscovering how everything works from scratch. It might just take too long to build, but it might also take less time starting over without worrying about fitting everything that already existed.
He spent a week prototyping. He got enough working to be confident that it would be a big chunk of work, but not a crazy big chunk of work. The core loop was this: you’d land in a city, you’d set up capers and operations with your contacts, you’d convert the stolen goods into cash, and then you’d pick your moment to run. Run too early, and you’d lose opportunities. Run too late, and your pursuers might catch up with you. He had an idea for the stolen goods and the pursuers, too, something he’d wanted to get into the game for a while: the reckoner mobs, the illicit dealers in years who existed uneasily alongside the taxonomy of Know and Long.
Your final goal would be to disappear, with as much luxury as you could arrange for a comfortable retirement. Your other final goal would be an Edge ascension – something our players had long hungered for – but that would come in an unexpected way. Exile’s got seven different shades of the victory conditions at the moment.
It’s a big one – right now, it looks like it might be as big as the Dancer, Priest and Ghoul DLCs put together. (😱) Let’s hope it works out! At least – and he didn’t expect this at all when he started in January – after a couple of months of lockdown, people might be more in the mood for a dramatic flight across Europe and beyond.
We'll be randomly selecting a pool of people to help test Exile next week, so now's your last chance to register your interest in the beta. Help us make Exile................................ exilent. 😎
Tarot of the Hours
In case anybody missed it, we sold out of our 500 limited edition Tarot of the Hours in less than two days. But DON'T FRET! We've ordered 1,000 more, and while they won't be hand-numbered, they'll otherwise be exactly the same.
These'll be back in the Church of Merch in mid-April, so keep an eye on our Etsy shop or wait for me to shout about it here when they're back in stock.
£1,030 for the National Emergencies Trust
We promised to donate 10% of our company profits each month to a charity which'll help people in these difficult COVID-y times. First up was the National Emergencies Trust, and with your help, we raised £1,030. That's a significant sum that may actually save lives in its own right - so thank you!
Next month is Médecins Sans Frontières' turn. Spread the word if you can, and see you then!
