From Browser Games to Facing Bankruptcy: How Cult of The Lamb Was Made

Video Description

Sign up to Milanote for free with no time-limit: https://milanote.com/thatguyglen0923 Support me on Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/thatguyglen Become a YouTube member ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_0e1271DHhRyiDIuX6B6aQ/join This Cult of The Lamb documentary details the development of indie roguelike colony sim Cult of The Lamb and goes behind the scenes of its creation. Discover more about developer Massive Monster and its three founders, Jay Armstrong, Julian Wilton and James Pearmain. In the early 2000s, all three developers started their careers making Flash games for websites like Newgrounds. Once they met in 2012, the trio decided to collaborate and, after making multiple Flash games together, founded Massive Monster in 2014. That’s when they shifted their focus to developing games for Steam and consoles. Unfortunately, their decision to develop two reimaginings of two of their older Flash games concurrently over the span of five years, led to financial difficulties. The team decided to pool their resources so they could create one more game. The documentary also explores all the design decisions that Massive Monster made and shows why 60% of work on Cult of The Lamb ended up on the cutting room floor. It also takes a close look at all the hurdles the team had to go through. Early concepts included an idea for a 2D platformer, a concept in which the player was a God taking care of a tribe atop a flying whale, and a "make your own hell" afterlife simulator. The small studio also struggled for years to find the right balance between the colony sim side and roguelike side of the game. Additionally, the team had to experiment a lot to make the role of cruel cult leader more appealing to players, as people initially didn’t want to be mean to their followers. Furthermore, for the cult management part of the game, the team took inspiration from Oxygen Not Included, Frostpunk, Stardew Valley, Don’t Starve, RimWorld, Animal Crossing and Moonlighter. When it comes to the roguelike side, they were mainly inspired by The Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon, Dead Cells and Hades. Lastly, the documentary takes a look at what’s still in store for Cult of The Lamb’s future. References: https://www.thatguyglen.com/article/VRhAER68ynU 0:00 Part 1 6:07 Ad 7:16 Part 2 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thatguyglen Website: https://www.thatguyglen.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GlenCallaert Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thatguyglen.bsky.social Outro song: Thank You R.G.E. - Joe Bagale #CultOfTheLamb #MassiveMonster #GameDevelopment