Who hasn’t wanted to lead their own maniacal religion with worshipful followers trying to do devilish things? In Cultist Simulator: Behold Our End, players can have a chance to do just that. Launched on September 1, 2017, Cultist Simulator has a modest goal of £30,007 and as of this posting has already surpassed it and is over £57,000.
At its heart, Cultist Simulator is a narrative crafting digital card game with the goal of leading a successful cult, using a legacy system of tactics so the game is meant for multiple playthroughs to achieve complete success. A prototype model is available for download via the Kickstarter page, and while it isn’t terribly fleshed out, it gives a really good feel for the flavor of the game. Helmed by the architect behind the Fallen London universe, Alexis Kennedy, fans of his previous work will be right at home with the brand new intricate and weird mythology that seems like someone picked up HP Lovecraft’s discarded Mythos notes and used tape and scissors to reassemble them. Other influences include Roger Zelazny, Mary Renault, Umberto Eco, The Dream of the Rood and The Battle of the Trees.
The project has a number of different, enticing tier levels for backers to pledge:
- Believer - £10 or more will get you a Perpetual Edition copy of the game, which includes any and all future DLC and is playable on Windows/Mac/Linux
- Disciple - £35 or more gets you the Perpetual game and the developer’s digital notebooks for the game in physical form, full of musings, renderings and interesting tidbits
- Stolen Name - £70 or more gets you your name in the game (or a pseudonym if you prefer) as well as the previous two tiers rewards
- Prophet - £150 or more will net you the answer to that one burning question you have about the lore of any game Alexis Kennedy has worked on. Just one. It also gets you a word he invents that will appear in Cultist Simulator and all previous tier rewards.
- God-who-was-stone - £300 or more, you will receive “I will send you a Thing. This Thing will be suitable for display, if you like that sort of Thing. All Things will be relevant, all things will be interesting, but not all will be identical.” Plus all previous tier rewards.
- God-from-Light - £1000 or more comes with the hefty responsibility for having a uniquely designed item appear in the game, as well as aforementioned Thing et al.
- God-who-was-Blood - £5000 or more is a hefty price to pay, however, it allows you to dictate any piece of game art to be tattooed on Kennedy, and all previous rewards.
Kennedy has experience crowdfunding previous games with Failbetter and other companies, including Sunless Sea. A noted skeptic of stretch goals, Kennedy has said that there are currently two possibilities he would be willing to consider for them. One would be a physical tarot deck containing designs from the game, including cards that are shown on the Kickstarter page. The second option would be a much bigger project that would have to be worked on after Cultist Simulator is released and would presumably be DLC for the game. Regardless of if any stretch goals are announced, Kennedy pledges that any money made beyond the stated goal will go towards making the game better.