Category: Design

12th December 2024
25 comments
Posted by:
Travelling At Night

Announcing Travelling At Night,a dialogue-driven choices-matter combat-free CRPG in the tradition of isometric greats like Disco Elysium, Planescape: Torment, and Fallout 1+2.

Read
31st May 2024
2 comments
Posted by:
The Mansus Has No Walls

Happy birthday, Cultist Simulator – and a bunch of BoH and HOUSE OF LIGHT updates to boot.

Read
26th April 2024
1 comment
Posted by:
The Big Ones and the Little Ones

HOUSE OF LIGHT’s coming on 26th September! And a bit about how pie makes AK depressed.

Read
28th March 2024
5 comments
Posted by:
What will you do with Thirza’s Knife?

A deep-dive in HOUSE OF LIGHT design, new Notebooks of the Hours, and more.

Read
8th December 2023
no comments
Posted by:
TWELVE DISMAYS OF CHRISTMAS

Welcome, all ye merry souls, to the TWELVE DISMAYS OF CHRISTMAS.

Read
27th January 2023
12 comments
Posted by:
BOOK OF HOURS: the Early Draft Edition

BOOK OF HOURS gets an ‘Early Draft’ demo.

Read
23rd September 2022
5 comments
Posted by:
The Ragged Crossroads

Update on BOOK OF HOURS and the full Major Arcana of the Lucid Tarot .

Read
26th August 2022
11 comments
Posted by:
“Shutter the windows against the sea…”

BOOK OF HOURS has a prototype, a release window and a shiny new face.

Read
25th June 2021
9 comments
Posted by:
The Confusion of Tongues

Linguistics quiz! Everyone loves a linguistics quiz.

Read
26th February 2021
4 comments
Posted by:
February #2: DAR AL-‘ILM

Ongoing BoH dev. Our February newsletter goes out.

Read
26th June 2020
30 comments
Posted by:
June #2: MARINELL

Weather Factory holidaaaaay (and maybe Skeleton Songs ep5 comes out).

Read
18th February 2020
1 comment
Posted by:
“What are your influences?”

This is probably the question I’ve been asked most over the years, and every time as soon as I answer it I think of someone

Read
9th May 2019
1 comment
Posted by:
Cultist Simulator Updates/Fixes for May: Research makeover!

Finally, you might have noticed that both Skills and HQs are involved in the research mechanic, because this change is what we were leading up to. So high-end Reason and Passion skills now finally have a proper use, and swapping HQs is now a lot more than just flavour.

Read
4th March 2019
2 comments
Posted by:
The Interactivity of Reading

The primary form of interactivity while reading is in the mind digesting the text of a book. Actually taking the words on the page and converting them into a full cohesive story in the reader’s mind is an interactive activity. It requires effort from the player and is even a developable skill.

Read
9th November 2018
1 comment
Posted by:
Christopher’s Build: The Long March

In January, we’ll be releasing Christopher’s Build, the second major free update to Cultist Simulator. (Anyone following on the beta branch will see some of the updates well before January).

Read
19th July 2018
3 comments
Posted by:
Centuries Ago The Dark Lord: when and how to dump

‘Lore dumps.’ It’s not an attractive phrase.

Read
24th April 2018
1 comment
Posted by:
The Labyrinth Under the Skin

We took Cultist Simulator to Rezzed a week ago. Player-facing events are really useful for feedback. We got a very, very positive response, but again and again people fiddled with combinations that didn’t work. There’s a lot of trial and error, they said.

Read
4th April 2018
3 comments
Posted by:
Writing Pithy Game Microtext: Dactylic Megaliths

[I did this as a tweetstorm, but here it is as promised for people who prefer long form.]

Read