Weather Factory

AK and I are big fans of open production: the process of making games transparently and honestly, bringing your community with you for the ride. AK gave an excellent GDC talk about it a few years ago, and I spoke earlier this year at IndieCade Europe about Failbetter’s ongoing open production habit.

We’d better reck our own rede on Cultist Simulator, then, eh? Have a look below at our sprint-by-sprint production roadmap from now until launch. We’ll update it regularly to reflect the sprints that have passed and what actually went into them. We’ll also post blog updates with a closer look at what we achieved each sprint, including new art, music, lore snippets, GIFs, you name it.

Feel free to share the page around, and ask us questions here, or on @factoryweather!

December #1 COMPLETE! View update.

Scholar’s Build released on itch.io! Basic Legacies complete (Aspirant, Scholar and Bright Young Thing); saving/loading complete; basic tiered research in; new content (Poppy Lascelles, the Ecdysis Club, new tomes); assets for all in-game tomes; Steam page live.

☽★☾

December #2 COMPLETE! View update.

Christmas lights; Christmas cake; Christmas presents; Christmas jumpers. Oh and QA/bug fixes for the Scholar’s Build, some R&D into Mansus-related UI, GOG page set-up and this roadmap went live.

January #1: Arnold COMPLETE! View update.

?? Alexis’s birthday! ?? (V important.) Content writing, icon commissioning, Steam distribution prep, bug fixes, and Kickstarter backer rewards confirmed and set in motion. Hint system added, Magus/Explorer content skeletoning out.

☽★☾

January #2: Browning COMPLETE! View update.

Picked as indies to watch out for in 2018 by PCGamesN and GamesMaster, sent out Steam keys to backers, announced Perpetual Edition was closing at the end of February, commissioned some wonderful ritual/spell art from Clockwork Cuckoo, skeletoned out the remaining content up until release, and introduced new follower upgrades. Oh and released NEVILLE’S BUILD.

☽★☾

February #1: Collins COMPLETE! View update.

Focused writing/design on the Adept role, bug fixes. Icon commissioning, UI/UX spit and polish from Martin, and Lottie gives a talk on ‘Producing Successful Narrative Games’ at UCA Farnham.

☽★☾

February #2: Deronda (ADEPT’S BUILD) COMPLETE! View update.

Adept’s Build ready for release! Bug fixes, new content (en game magic, ritual tools/ingredients/influences, more defined followers and cult specialisms, new title screen, EGX/GDC prep, localisation/porting plans, new art from Clockwork Cuckoo, new art from Lottie, three new Hours deck cards from Sarah.

☽★☾

March #1: Eliot COMPLETE! View update.

Focused writing/design work on the Explorer role, bug fixes. Icon commissioning.

☽★☾

March #2: Forster (GDC) COMPLETE! View update.

Ongoing Explorer work. Lottie and AK head to GDC, where AK will be giving an Indie Games Summit talk on ‘Intensely Practical Tips for Growing an Indie Studio’. Wish him luck! Lottie will probably cosplay our Cultist Simulator header-heroine (nicknamed ‘Iris’) all week.

☽★☾

March #3: Gwendolen (EXPLORER’S BUILD) COMPLETE! View update.

MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT MILESTONE! Aiming to release the Explorer’s Build at the end of this sprint. Polish/pre-release QA, and new art from Clockwork Cuckoo.

☽★☾

April #1: Hopkins (EGX REZZED/DEVELOP) COMPLETE! View update.

This is a Buff Month. Time for final amendments, polish, bug fixes, marketing noise. Lottie and AK head to EGX Rezzed, where AK’s giving a talk on [ REDACTED ]; AK then heads to Develop Reboot in Croatia, where he’s giving another talk on [ REDACTED ].

☽★☾

April #2: Irene (HARBINGER’S BUILD) COMPLETE! View update.

Final pre-launch polish time! We square everything away, test, add, tweak, broadcast lore. The Harbinger’s Build will contain all the extra goodies that might get cut if we run into production difficulties. (Anything cut will go in after launch).

☽★☾

May #1: James COMPLETE! View update.

Harbinger’s Build, Detective legacy, tutorial breadcrumbs, remaining tome text, final FNORD removals, new Rites (the end *is* beautiful), revamped painting system, Steam/GOG cheevos, additional icons, KS backer rewards sent out, bug fixing.

☽★☾

May #2: Keats (LAUNCH) COMPLETE!

OMG IT LAUNCHED! Week 1 update here, full retrospective here. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re part of our community, in which case, THANK YOU. We couldn’t have arrived here without you, and long may you enjoy dying horribly in search of the House.

Depending on how well we do with launch, whether we sign with any publishers, and the particular alignment of Orion with Mercury, we may do a number of things with Cultist Simulator at this point. We’re primarily looking at localisation and porting to mobile. But we may also release additional, role-based DLC.

Here’s our post-launch list of candidates. Nothing below Householder is confirmed, and the order may vary:

• Ghoul
• Lover/family
• Artist
• Householder
• Criminal
• Spy
• Svengali
• Priest/renegade priest
• Tycoon