Cult of the Lamb

This page details one or more prototype versions of Cult of the Lamb.

Massive Monster published Cult of the Lamb Pitch Deck from 2020 as an example of a pitch deck (that was apparently successful since the developer got a publishing deal with Devolver Digital).

The pitch deck contains information about the game, the developer and most importantly the links to gameplay video, trailer and demo build.

Differences#

Cheat Console#

Cheat console prompt can be activated by pressing ; button. Several cheats are available:

RESOURCES - gives 100 of three available types of resources
HEAL - heals the player
HEART - gives an additional heart
D - damages the player
KEYS - spawns 3 keys to The Goat's door
FREE - no effect, buildings shouldn't require resources to build

Story#

The story is entirely different. The story begins with The Lamb as a regular sheep that gets possessed by The Red Crown and gains sentience and humanoid form. The main objective is to defeat The Goat, The Snake and The Owl and collect their crowns so "The Great Kings will walk again".
The objective in the demo is to claim three Goat shrines and defeat The Goat's guards (that were remade into Aym and Baal) at the door leading to The Goat's land. The demo ends after entering the door.

Equipment#

Sword is the only available weapon. Holding the attack button executes a heavy attack based on which light attack was executed last. The Lamb can shoot up to 5 ranged projectiles that need to be recharged by killing enemies.
There is "Souls" resource gained by killing enemies and spent on rescuing followers, claiming shrines and tributing to the hub statue.

Dungeon#

The Evermoon Forest is in place of the hub leading to the four dungeons. The Evermoon Forest hub consists of paths leading to adjacent rooms, a door to The Goat's land with "Coming soon" message, a large hourglass and a statue.
Rooms are randomly generated at the start of the game and do not change afterwards, they still respawn enemies and resources after completing a run.
All dungeon rooms are placed in one map and there is no dungeon floor system.
The Lamb can always return to the base via hub.
There are portals across the dungeon that can be used to quickly travel, however the map interface is bugged and sometimes portals can't be selected.
All paths in the hub are closed until the bell at the hourglass is rang. Time can be extended with "Time tokens" gained from chests or spending souls at the hub statue. When the time runs out, unkillable "Forest God" appears that will continuously spawn mushroom enemies, forcing the player to go back to the base.
Enemy rooms are marked as a territory of The Goat or The Snake with different enemy appearances and music.
Enemies don't have to be killed in order to leave the room except for boss and rescue rooms.
Enemies occasionally drop hearts.
Explosive barrels and bombs are placed across the rooms.
Some room floors are divided with abyss that is passable with a grappling hook or dodge roll.
There is a friendly "Horsonia" village inhabited by humans.
Followers are regular animals that gain sentience and humanoid form after The Lamb rescues and performs a ritual on them. Instead of getting teleported right away, they fight alongside The Lamb until player returns to the base where they get an option to recruit or sacrifice them.

The Cult#

Followers have no age, hunger, faith and hygiene stats. They can only have Homeless and Jobless status.
Followers bow down before The Lamb. Followers can be picked up by the crown and assigned to beds and jobs.
Followers have no voice and instead use sound effects.
The Goat uses the voice of Clauneck who isn't present in the demo.
There is no day/night cycle. It is always night.
There is a moon cycle with no apparent effects. An unused letter implies the player would have to sacrifice followers or lose resources on the full moon.
Buildings can be only built in a predefined grid. Resources need to be transferred by The Lamb or followers from the temple to build them.
Temple can't be entered and serves as a resource storage.
Recruiting, sacrifices and rituals are done on an altar in front of the temple.
Only two rituals are available with 5 followers required to perform them. The first ritual gives The Lamb a permanent red heart and in the second one, The Lamb lets two followers to drink from a chalice, turning their robes to purple. Rituals can be performed only once.
Followers can spawn a demon at Fire Pit. Demon designs are very similar to final designs.
Followers can pray at Shrine to generate blue hearts.
Followers can train at Barracks, but they can't be deployed in the dungeon.
One follower can be assigned to study stars at Astrologist. The player can look through the telescope at the stars and assigned follower will place incoming moon cycles on the board, but the moon cycle doesn't seem to have any effects.

Unused Graphics#

Adventure Pals graphics#

BAG#

Massive Monster#

Blacksmith#

CAT#

Clothesline#

Conversation#

"MG" character originates from a scrapped concept of the game.

(Source: PAX AUS 2024 - 24:26)

CookingPot#

deadguy#

Demon#

DiveStation#

Enemy#

FARM_HOUSE#

GuyInContraints#

HeartBase#

Intro Room#

Intro room has several hidden objects like walls, water and The Goat with dialogue from the final encounter, suggesting The Goat was planned to be somehow involved in the ritual.

LootBird#

MoonGate#

There is a hidden yellow MoonGate placed behind the tribute statue, which was probably meant to lead to Snake Cult land. Sand-like ground hints it was planned to be a desert biome.