Allowing the player to oversee and develop a cult comprised of deceivingly cute animals, Cult of the Lamb has been long anticipated by fans since its initial announcement at Gamescom 2021. Game Rant recently spoke to Cult of the Lamb’s Art Director James Pearmain, who detailed the many different original concepts and forms that the game initially took during the early stages of its development, many of which were wildly different to what the game eventually became.
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The Original Framework of Cult of the Lamb
The development process for what would become Cult of the Lamb was always rooted in the overarching desire to blend a typical roguelike experience with a form of base-building colony simulator. With this core gameplay ethos in mind, the problem remained of what would be the best setting and context to merge these two beloved forms of gameplay, in a way that remained engaging and symbiotic.
Cult of the Lamb is being published by Devolver Digital, known for its prior work on other beloved roguelikes such as Enter the Gungeon. With the publishing studio building a repertoire of visually striking titles, Massive Monster has not disappointed with the adorably dark aesthetic of Cult of the Lamb. While building a colony in the name of worship to a sinister deity is the perfect compliment to traditional roguelike combat and resource gathering, the game looked wildly different early on in its development process.
The Previous Concepts for Cult of the Lamb
Speaking to Game Rant, Art Director James Pearmain gave insight to the plethora of different initial design choices that Massive Monster originally considered for their ambitious roguelike title. While these concepts started out drastically different to the cult-simulator that fans have come to love, it is clear how the final product began to take shape as these ideas were tweaked and built upon.
It is interesting to see how these concepts contain many of the primary elements of Cult of the Lamb as a final product, with the cutesy elements of magical Girl Scouts combining with the more nefarious and sinister aspects of the afterlife. Cult of the Lamb prides itself on its inherent juxtaposition between traditionally innocent characters engaging in ritualistic sacrifice and cult worship, and it appears this intriguing blend would not be possible without such a thorough selection of early concepts. With how much of a layered and unique spin Cult of the Lamb puts on the roguelike genre, it is no wonder that discourse and hype surrounding the title has been so widespread leading up to its release.
Cult of the Lamb is scheduled to release on August 11 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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