From Flash Games to Facing Bankruptcy: How Cult of The Lamb Was Made
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- Опубликовано: 12 июн 2024
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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.
0:00 Part 1
6:07 Ad
7:16 Part 2
References:
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Outro song: Thank You R.G.E. - Joe Bagale
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#CultOfTheLamb #MassiveMonster #GameDevelopment 
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Do chained echoes next!
Please do Blasphemous next. I would love to see the development behind the game.
In this case regarding Unity drama, hope Massive Monster remake Cult of the Lamb via Godot (free open-source game engine) and then launch it again, because newer future generation gamers want to play this game too. And they fear of not playing it after it gets delisted
This team can't catch a break.. first Flash, now Unity
oof
@@Jake28 The only option is to go open source.
@@aviatedviewssound4798 why ping *me* lol i just said 'oof' (i am developing my own engine in java...)
@@aviatedviewssound4798Excuse my lack of knowledge but, what does that mean?
@@heppecogheron6016 Open source software, sometimes referred to by the acronym FOSS, is software in which anyone can view and modify the code to their desires. Blender, for example, is one popular application which is FOSS.
I never found the art style to be "jarring." I always viewed it as "adorable evil." Cult of the Lamb was one of my favorite games of last year and I can't wait to see what Massive Monster does next, despite all the horrible shit going on with Unity lately.
Yeah same!
Would be interesting if they could develop an open source engine to get around their issues with Unity. They could even call it something catchy/silly like "Engine Of The Lamb" or "The Cult Engine."
Idek why he used the word jarring there
Overlord, Lmfao.
@@maskedbadass6802there already is a popular open source engine: godot
My favorite game is quickly becoming cult of the lamb. I’m disabled and often can’t play games with lots of combat as I just can’t react quickly enough to ever succeed. The “easy” mode of this game still provides a challenge for me while being enjoyable to play. The design of the game is just so amazing too! From the smallest sounds to the details of the bishops in their fights, it’s an amazing experience.
Yeah something I don’t understand about a lot of games that I find interesting is that there’s no easy mode they start off normal and get harder from there. Some games I just can’t play because they’re too hard and I don’t get joy from losing over and over
fr
@@lucialight2002
Yeah man, I'm a cripple myself, normal's asinine anyway, the only dif between normal and easy is you get a whopping extra heart and the mobs have their health doubled, so it's like you deal half damage. If you want to make your life easy on yourself, use the axe. Attack speed isn't as spammy, you hit hard and the power attack let's you have a ranged attack that let's you fling the bitch and walk away, homing and damaging everything on the return, ezpz.
There's also an accessibility option that let's you freeze time during crusades, so you can take your time without your villagers trying to eat shit when you aren't around. God knows one fucker vomits around the prayer circle and they just chain barf everywhere until you get the janitor closet, lol.
I love playing games on “easy” mode as well and I hope more devs pursue that!
@@lucialight2002challenge intentions, I guess?
Some creators just want to make an incredibly difficult game (ala dark souls) like how cozy games exist.
I honestly... didn't realize how evil I was playing the game until watching this. I did feel a little bad when I did the sacrifice you can't get those followers back, but only because I accidentally sacrificed a high level character that was useful. This is such a good game and they do free updates. It's 100% one of the most unique and interesting game I've ever played.
you can bring them back if you get the reanimated perk
@@Nonentity_Artist I forgot to specify that it was for that dude that freezes them in solid gold. I killed and reanimated my lover like 10 times so far LOL.
Man I’m pretty messed up ngl, one of my cultists killed my oldest (with skull necklace tho) cultist. BECAUSE “they thought it was funny”…..So I gave em the moon necklace(so he never sleeps) and put them in prison, until they die😅😂
Something I really like about cult of the lamb is that it is the equivalent of a meal that you make with limited ingredients but tastes absolutely delicious. The game is made in a pop up book style environment, where the 2D images are placed in a 3D environment, which not only creates a distinct and iconic style used in very few games, but is also extremely cheap, where assets can be made within a few days instead of several weeks with 3D modeling. The game is very very budgeted, not having nearly as much detail as other games, but it is still beautiful, still distinct. The game is probably one of my favorites to look at and hope soon I can get it.
Super cool documentary, thank you for giving us a BTS for the development process that became CotL! Funny how one of their failed concepts was literally done in the form of The Wandering Village. Now... time to mash Cult of the Lamb and The Wandering Village together!
My pleasure, glad to hear you enjoyed it! And that’d be a mashup I’d love to see!
Thanks for the video. I watched it with my boys (6 and 7) who are big fans of the game (don't judge my parenting style haha). We used it as a break in our homeschooling and it triggered a great follow up conversation about long term goals, failures etc. My older one also created a little comic about the Lamb later that day.
That’s so awesome to hear! Love that. And no judgement here :D
I WANNA SEE THE COMIC! 😂💞
I WANNA SEE THE COMICCC
WE WANT TO SEE THE COMIC!!
Took me awhile to realize that Massive Monster also made Super Adventure Pals.
I was like "YOOOO! That game was the shit!" Super happy to see them finally earn a place in the indie spotlight.
440 days in a save 150 hours on steam and a follower with level 52. Beautiful game in my opinion after playing since October 2022
What indie game would you like to see me cover next? Leave a suggestion in the comments below! Also, if you enjoyed the video, please consider subscribing to stay up to date on future “How Games Were Made” episodes. Leaving a like and sharing the video also helps out! Support me on Patreon and get exclusive content like Q&A sessions, ad-free content, access to my Discord server and more: www.patreon.com/ThatGuyGlen
Sea of Stars
Rollercoaster tycoon??
Katana Zero?
Ultrakill was the first Indie to come to mind.
@@Casulite I would actually want to see a video about Ori (though probably The Blind Forest not The Will of the Wisps since it's the first game, and thus would probably be more interesting to hear about).
hearing stories like this really inspires me but also makes me wonder about other stories like this that may or may not ever surface! But awesome video as always!!
Thank you! It's true, there's so many indie dev stories out there, both about big and small games, I wish I could cover them all! My current format doesn't really support getting videos out the door quickly, but one day I might be able to come up with something that allows me to cover games quicker and more efficiently.
@@ThatGuyGlenquality above quantity my dude, i would rather get one good video a month, rather than the creator turning into a content machine
@@ThatGuyGlen LIke @NerguA44 said, I'd rather have quality videos released sparsely rather than being bombarded with average videos.
I loved their flash games! Never knew they were the same people who made those amazing games!
I'm planning to buy the game in a discount now that i know their roots ❤
Blessed for the Switch free trial, tried it out there and instantly fell in love, immediately bought it on Steam and it has been one of my best purchase from last year, and I'm still obsessed over it, just love everything about it
You do a great job on the editing and graphics! Thanks for another informative video!
My pleasure, glad to hear you enjoyed it!
betraying ratau was when i realized i was the villain
CULT OF THE LAMB IS PROBABLY MY FAVORITE GAME THIS YEAR can’t wait to give this a watch when I can!!
CAPS LOCK
EXCITEMENT AND MUCH LOVE. ❤❤❤❤
I love Cult of the lamb. There are some issues though. It starts to get a little glitchy once you get around 20 followers.
I'm amazed how different the ideas were in the begining.
Also, there are players like me who got everything unlocked and upgraded in the cult before even starting the third dungeon area. Partially because I kept dying in the dungeons until I eventually unlocked enough upgrades. Now I have too many cult followers that cause my game to lag, more money than I know what to do with, and I'm considering just ignoring my cult for a while and dungeon crawling because I just don't need them anymore.
peak channel peak game
Good taste
Oh hello blue, liked your latest HK video!
I love your videos about indie games keep up the good work 🧡
Will do, love making them!
great video, love your editing! it would also be important to note that a big part of cult of the lamb's success has to be attributed to the financial support that VicScreen (formerly Film Victoria) gave them before they got devolver digital as a publisher! it was thanks to state government funding that they were able to get a polished demo to devolver 😊
Interesting! 😮
Great to see the development process of this game. Thank you :D
My pleasure, glad to hear you liked it!
“The followers looked so cute that people didn’t want to punish them”
Me sacrificing my followers when they get a single wrinkle : I’ll ignore that
4 months later, its Guns, beer, and sex
I'm still not believing that they actually did a *SEX UPDATE*
@@umrayquazashinyapareceu1672 Sins of the flesh
@@darrincheng771 and there's a difference between na- Ooooh yeah, they also added cannibalism
Well it's what there fans wanted......
You didn’t once mention why they may be facing bankruptcy.
Unity that simple
Probably because they didn't have money
You unlocked a meomory with "the adventure pals" i played so often on armor games but forgot the name after years and now there is a steam edition thank you for this video
Remember that this game will dissapear from stores next year.
Thanks Unity, very cool
It was a joke 😶
@@InducedharpI hope so
They're not.
devolver put them majorly in the spotlight in pax east that year which is what got me to check it out!
Thanks for the very well made video, man!
They took inspiration from some of my favorite games no wonder Cult of the lamb is one of my favorite games.
Great Video as always and it didn't disappoint. A bit off topic, but instead of a success story like you normally do, could you try doing a failure indie game story, because a failure is just as interesting as a success.
Glad to hear you liked it! And I guess the problem with your suggestion is that if the game’s a failure, most people (including me) probably don’t even know about it. Unless you’re talking about games that got bad reviews. In that case, I’ve covered things like Rain World which wasn’t critically well received.
@@ThatGuyGlen Understandable, those just to clear up what I want to say, I want you to talk about a game that is well known but people genuine hate it because it was actually bad which lead to it doing poorly financially.
Love these kinds of videos! Amazing.
Thank you!
I love how you structure your videos :) they’re very bingeable
I've never actually considered the bingeability of my videos, but I'm glad to hear they don't get boring after a while :D
Amazing video as always
I liked a lot the video, good documentary as always! Learned a lot and learning how even big, but small studios work and strive helps me a lot. Revita should be a really good roguelike to make a documentary, I hope you will consider it in the future! Thanks again for your videos and have a good day!
Absolutely love those videos! Watched each and every one! KEEP IT UP!
Awesome, glad to hear you enjoy them! Working hard on the next video now :D
i’ve never seen a Milanote ad, but i use it every day i absolutely love it! also this video has been awesome so far :)
Milanote is awesome! They’re great to work with behind the scenes as well, awesome team.
@@ThatGuyGlen if i could ever be sponsored by them 🥲 i will try!!
14:04 They work with Carles Dalmau this explain why game graphics have this whimsical feeling.
I adore this game. You can tell there's love in it. When that happens, magic happens (look at Final Fantasy) I'm so proud of the team
Hi ThaGuuyGlen ! The content that you make is top quality ! I wanted to propose a How it was made on "Faster Than Light" for a futur video, maybe one day... :) Thank you again for what you do !
Fascinating backstory!😮
0:29 Honestly imagined if they went with that idea that would be awesome
bro when you were talking about the "emotional bond between the player and their followers" it made me think about this one follower i had named Jana and she was a cow and she was one of my favorite followers and then she died and im sad
In this case regarding Unity drama, hope Massive Monster remake Cult of the Lamb via Godot (free open-source game engine) and then launch it again, because newer future generation gamers want to play this game too. And they fear of not playing it after it gets delisted
I just found your channel (and that Video), I appreciate the work you put in there! That is some top notch quality content, thats quite close to NoClip. Keep up the good work! Will look into the other videos for sure.
Thank you very much, that’s high praise! And will do :D
These guys deserve my money!
Great video and very informative! ❤
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
as always, great video and also thanks for that sponsor message really needed something like this for my work flow ^^ keep up the good work!
Thank you, glad you liked it! I know I'm biased, but I really think Milanote is a great platform and they're always a joy to work with behind the scenes. They have a good operation going.
I heckin love when you talked about the art development. I love the aesthetic for this game I feel like it has an almost perfect brand identity for everything and watching this you can really see how iterative they were with it to achieve that. Maybe im just a sucker for the subversion of mixing cutesy cartoon humor with horror and simple but bold color schemes but idk, i havent enjoyed a game like this in a hot minute. My boyfriend is a big fan of roguelikes like binding of issac, he plays it constantly and i never understood, Im not drawn to isaac as much but with cult of the lamb i feel like i finally get it. Mind you the survival/colony and basebuilding aspect of the game i enjoy more than the crusades, but thats just who i am i suppose 😂
Haven't seen your videos in a wile. Krep it up:)
I’ve been very busy with life stuff lately, but more videos are always in the works behind the scenes :D
Hey, you really have a good narration and this approche let is discover our game from the inside, i love it. Have you consider to make a video about Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice ? There is a looot to say about it's conception and the game is a real masterpiece. Have a good day
Glad to hear you enjoy it! And I hadn’t really considered that one actually. I loved playing Hellblade back when it came out and it does seem to have an interesting development story. It’s on my list now!
I played Hades before getting into Cult of the Lamb, and I think the gathered resources from runs that help with base-building, combinaed with social interactions that change the runs in both games is what makes them so accessible to ppl like me who're relatively new to gaming, and create such a specific but addictive loop.
Rogue-like games never appealed to me much, bc I knew I'd get fed up if I lost everything every time I died (which would happen so. many. times. more if you're not used to these types of games), and purely base-building games felt vaguely tedious and lacking in challenge/urgency (no shade to those games tho, I totally get wanting to just relax, it's just not for me).
The fact that in this game you get only a _portion_ of the resources you gathered cut away if you die, is actually more motivating to me than if I lost everything - and the fact that you have a bunch of helpers you can delegate tasks to (who will continue when you're gone, especially!), means the base-building isn't so tedious or overwhelming as it would be otherwise. Plus, the limited resources you can only find on runs create a sense of urgency to actually put care/attention into what goes where in the base, and how much you can afford to spend on things.
Also, not only are the decorations super cute and like a little treat/reward ("Oh yay, I can afford extra things bc I did well on a run!"-kinda thing), they actually have a FUNCTION - changing your followers' mood/faith, and sometimes they even get involved in quests by followers asking for them - they feel meaningful in-world that way.
Sure, characters comment on new decorations in Hades, and that's usually amusing, but they're really only aesthetic - they're hella cool, but they don't DO anything. Like, if you give me pile of towels near the blood-stream, why not let me use it? It's not a big deal, I totally get that something like that would involve a major load of work (bc if they do it for ONE, then...), and I respect the work ethic from the creators of Hades too much to really want to complain, but it does leave you a little bit miffed, since there's only so much "money" you can gather in a run, and runs you're willing to do to save up for something pretty but functionally useless.
The followers however will randomly and often go up to decorations and admire them - and with the right cult-traits, that can even gain you some faith! I've never seen that in a game, and it might be just a small thing, but I think it's really neat.
Another great video as always! Loved Cult of the Lamb
Much appreciated, glad you liked it!
i love how they went from being inspired by dont starve then collaborating with them
It's a very inspiring story.
Great video! I’ve been binging your videos the last couple of days, it’s so interesting to see how small dev teams make games!
I’d love to see a video about crosscode sometime, my favorite Indie game right behind Hollow Knight.
Awesome, glad to hear you're enjoying the videos! Crosscode is on my long list of games to cover ;)
Can't wait for a Vlambeer, JW or John Blow game
RimWorld mentioned, massive W.
Nice timing w/ this one. I might actually get this before the shutdown
They're not shutting it down.
@@tbhandrew5857 I meant their intention to remove the game for download re the steam pricing changes
@@tbhandrew5857 You think they were joking when they claim they would be removing their game at Jan 1 due to Unity?
@@smidlee7747They've not only made a tweet answering if they'll remove the game with a repost of their lamb/angry birds kiss pic, but then further went on to seriously explain on the massive monster discord that no, they aren't deleting the game.
Commenting for that algorithm, crazy this hasn’t gotten more views. You put a crazy amount of work into this Glen can’t wait for the next video
Much appreciated, Wock! I can’t wait for the next video myself, it’s about a game that people have been requesting for years.
@@ThatGuyGlen honestly made me consider purchasing the game myself, after seeing all of the work they put in refining their concept definitely makes you appreciate the end product a lot more.
@@ThatGuyGlen Is it FNAF?
Amazing content, once again. Well put, clear and wonderful montage. Full view, comment and a like from me guaranteed to help with stats, and hell, you do deserve it!
Thank you very much for the kind words and support!
love all your videos. hearing how Rimworld was an inspiration for Cult of the Lamb really makes me hope you do Rimworld next!
Glad to hear you enjoy the video! RimWorld is on my long list of games to cover ;)
My dream is to eventually make a game that gets one of these videos, still only 21 so I have my best years ahead of me!
Definitely, keep on creating!
I don't like that this game pulls on my heart strings they made they made the characters so cute! I hate it when I have to sacrifice them to progress
I need to play this
Thank you for this excellent origin story !
My pleasure!
I hope they find success with this game. Its so cute, i was buying the merch before i ever played the game because i really liked the art style, or atleast i tried to until the company cancled my preorder 🤷🏽♂️. But i ended up buying the game for the switch after playing it at my bfs house lol. Learning more about the devs makes me feel less bad about buying all the dlc lol.
12:22 uh oh
i really liked this game!
I'm am truly suprised Happy Tree Friends was not even an influence for this game
17:00 I really like the first design on the left, very cute
bigger eyes are probably better for emoting, but that simple face is so adorable
The title has changed 4 times, with the og thumbnail being changed three times(?)
Cult of the lamb is worth your money.
Once again, I'm trying a new game because of your videos 😂
I don't understand the title. Are they facing bankruptcy or not? And why?
Hell yea been hoping for this game to be a topic
The previous thumbnail and title were better (it made me add it to the watch later list). Not the first one, not the third one, but the second one...
Holy moly i was gonna ask for you to do this game!
They honestly did a great job with making you feel okay with being evil. I didn't realize how bad I was until I finally realized you could check your stats. I only had 2 favorite followers whom I would sacrifice sometimes but always bring back while had sacrificed 150+ followers for my benefit. 😅
Great video :)
Much appreciated!
I’m pretty surprised that 60% of the game’s content was thrown out!
Does anyone know what application they made the sprites with? thank you :))
You mentioned rim world in your video hope you can make a video about how it was made
It’ll happen one day!
You have to cover Minecraft eventually. Not only would it bring traction to your channel but i also think its a pretty good video to watch!
"Who knows what's in store for this game"
This aged well, no, really, this aged like wine.
And not a single word about poop eating... I bet it was hard. Good job Glen 😆
Cult of the lamb:the only base building,dungeon crawler,breeding game
YES YOU DID COTL!!!! Today is a good day, my friend. Love your videos, keep up the awesome work!
Awesome to hear you enjoy them! This one has been in the works for quite a while, I've been emailing the developers back and forth and they were very kind to provide lots of concept art, early alpha footage and detailed information about the game and their company. I'm really happy with how the video turned out!
i wonder how many cult survivors had input on this game to make it more realistic without being too triggering /genuine question
12:22
oh...............
poor developers
One of the best games
The platformer prototype looks really cool though
It does, doesn't it! I have more footage of it that's not in the video, it seemed interesting and different.
@@ThatGuyGlenCould you point me to where I could find this footage? I'd love to see a bit more of it
19:18 Well that explains the divine quality of the music in the game alright.
I have an option stick to scratch or try milanote for games!
Always enjoy your videos glen
Hope your week is going well 👍
Much appreciated WindowsNT! Can’t complain too much, but it’s been pretty stressful lately. Bought a house and the move is a whole ordeal. Better times on the horizon tough! Hope your week is going well too!
@@ThatGuyGlenCongrats on buying a house. I hope the move goes smoothly as I understand the stress that moving (both items and house) can bring.
My week has been ok for the most part haven't gotten much free time due to collage
4:50 so, they decided to choose a darker theme for the next game and stopped on... Girl scouts? I'm feeling chills down my spine just thinking of this game full of bright colors and smily characters
This has been on my wishlist for a while I need to buy it before they potentially take it down because of Unity being a dumb stupid dumb
Am I going insane or has the title and thumbnail for this video changed like 5 times?
Please do battlebit remastered next
I made the villager I married immortal and killed pretty much every other one once they got old