Project Type: Game Jam Project
Software Used: Godot, Aseprite, Ableton
Language Used: GDScript
Primary Role: Game Designer, UI designer, Assets Artist
Secondary Role: Programmer
During this 2 week game jam hosted by Pirates Software, me and my team of 4 created a game where players lead a cult devoted to an eldritch horror. The goal is to expand the cult's influence in different cities using mechanics like Fame, cult population, appeasement, and money through card play. The God's true nature is kept a mystery, however as the game progresses the nature of this monstrous celestial being unfolds and corrupts the player .The game ends when the player takes over the world to prepare for the arrival of God.
Game Overview
The player is put in charge of a cult spreading it’s influence over a city and converting it’s people to act as a sacrifice to an eldritch god. The player takes turns, in the form of days, enacting Actions on different regions of the city which influence the cult’s Influence, Converts, Money, and Notoriety. Occasionally Events occur which act as a trial, usually requiring the player to sacrifice resources or take a penalty if they don’t pass a “check” of one of their resources. The player must convert a goal percentage of the city’s population within a turn limit in order to win.
Color Palette
Rise of the Cult uses a pre-made color palette from Lospec.com
The author of the palette is credited to created by bluepathfinder
Dry Sea Palette
Rise of the Cult uses a pre-made color palette from Lospec.com
The author of the palette is credited to created by bluepathfinder
Dry Sea Palette
Thematic Interpretation
The theme in Rise of the Cult is inspired by Lovecraftian literature and set in Victorian-era England. Our color palette gives off a rustic and faded feel, trying to capture that an retro look. Unlike typical Lovecraftian art with dark blues, purples, and greens, we chose warm colors to deviate a bit from the theme while still drawing inspiration from it. These warm colors give the horror deity a fleshy look similar to demonic creatures while the creature design will retain some prominent attributes such as eyes and fleshly skin.
Contribution:
I was one of the main game designers for this project. Since the main artist, i had a lot of control over the game play aspect. The game's inspiration is closely tied to games like Reigns, Paper Please, and Plague Inc. The game was developed for a jam with the theme 'Spreading,' and I chose to explore the figurative interpretation by delving into the dynamics of religion. My design choices were further influenced by real-world infamous cults, prompting me to study their operations. This research helped shape the game's mechanics, art assets, and gameplay. Some of which includes a Doom's day Time line and Hoaxing miracles.
Personal experience
After the game jam, our group held a postmortem meeting to discuss play test comments and reflect on the overall process. We unanimously identified the UX design as the weakest part of our project. The game's actions involve using an action tile represented as a small panel. Many players were confused and unaware that there were more actions. We explored ways to improve this, including adding additional indicators to the existing UI to make it more intuitive for players to discover multiple available actions.
Individually, we all felt that we learned tremendously from this experience. Personally, I gained a greater sense of introspection during the game planning process and improved my ability to communicate effectively about my ideas.