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I really enjoyed the piece by piece analysis of Combine society, such as it is ^_^

Bastion.

If you haven't purchased the Perpetual Edition yet, you have until the end of February to do so. Otherwise you have to buy any and all DLC separately. btw, here's the main Cultist Simulator discussion thread on the Failbetter forums. It's a fun little place where we repost announcements and art while speculating about the game's mysteries.

I suspect it's more a case of line-of-sight naming. The developers probably had copies of Zzap Magazine lying around. When they decided to change the game's name, they looked around for inspiration and their eyes came to rest on one of those copies. "Why not call him Zzap, that sounds science fictiony?" And the rest was history. This fits with the overall laziness of the whole copyright infringement. btw, I was really amused by this section of the review: This strongly implies that if the final level hadn't been so insanely difficult, Zzap Magazine would have given the game a much lower score!

For those who hate card games or are just interested in a more classic cult management game, I recommend Kitfox Games' The Shrouded Isle. You're the high priest of an isolated island village dedicated to the worship of the great undersea god Chernobog, who it is prophesied will soon arise from the sea to save your community from suffering. But as the blessed day approaches, more and more problems present themselves. There are sinners in your community and they need to be weeded out, lest they sap the village's ignorance, fervor, discipline, penitence, and obedience. Complicating your little witch hunt, the great families of the village expect constant favors and consultations in return for assisting your rule...favors like extra rations, convenient scriptural interpretations...oh, and not unjustly persecuting or killing their relatives! Endangering things further, contagious spiritual maladies, like mass hysteria or psychosis, are spreading throughout the village and their sufferers need to be isolated and "cured," lest things get out of hand. And on top of all of this, Lord Chernobog Himself is personally invading your dreams with deranged demands and He will not hesitate to strike you down should you fail Him. All this makes for a complex balancing act as you minister to the people, hunt the sinners, play the great families off each other, and scramble to please your god. Here's the original launch trailer: 28KYi1AhSME And here's the trailer of the new free content expansion: xlFxsTVCH3I It's quite pretty and very satisfying to play. Praise Chernobog!

The game is actually on GOG now along with its sequel. https://www.gog.com/game/war_wind https://www.gog.com/game/war_wind_ii_human_onslaught Oh, that's good to see. Thank you for telling me ^_^ Though some of the description claims are a little inaccurate. Like, none of the races have a meaningfully unique AI. In fact, the AI is fairly primitive, underperforming the AI in other 90s strategy games like Warcraft II or Command and Conquer (though in all fairness it plays much the same as those games - build base, create big army, attack enemy). The developers somewhat overcame their AI weakness by making the campaign scripted and intentionally puzzle-like. Also, there is no real alliance mechanics - on certain maps there are units from different races who will join your Clan if they encounter you. This is handy, but it's not quite what comes to mind when someone says "alliances." What makes the game stand out is that so much work went into its story, world-building, and art. Like, each race has its own distinct appearance, ideology, tactics, and language. The developers sketched an actual ecosystem, mapped out the continent, and named the various landmarks. There are reoccurring hero characters who appear via story and mission events - and you can select up to eight of your best soldiers to carry over from mission to mission, which makes you feel like a Clan leader. The mission maps have lots of intriguing features that have little to do with completing the objective - say a labyrinth that is the lair of a peaceful monster - and which seemingly exists for no other reason than to suggest a real landscape, with its own history. And of course everything is beautifully drawn and there are around 13 distinct and very atmospheric musical tracts for you to listen to. Here's the title screen music: 0Uq720NHzag Here's the race screen art/music: kLBaTAezA94 They even made a musical score and landscape shot for the credits: wKANVi29Gy0 And during battles you listen to stuff like this: djg492L0_ME f7wnx5EVwk4 It's things like this that really add up. There's nothing else quite like it, which is why it sticks in both my memory and my boyfriend's memory.

I actually have a friend who uses "Hella" like the blue-haired girl. She's in her early 30s, so she's a bit too old to be a character in Life is Strange, but there are people who unironically talk like that.

War Wind A very unique and fairly obscure mid-90s strategy game. The gameplay is flawed and the enemy AI poor, but it's something of a visual and auditory treat. The developers really cared about the world they were creating and it definitely shows. This is all the more impressive because the story takes place on a completely alien planet. I'm reminded somewhat of Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal. It's abandonware now. There is practically no discussion about it online and most of the Youtube videos are from Continental Europe - so it seems pretty forgotten by English speaking audiences. So perfect for the Game Dungeon. 2TvvvQ1UNDU mnxYwNhfsdY 8cq9adyPyGc

Cultist Simulator now has a Steam page. There will be a Beta for those who have backed or pre-ordered the game sometime in the next few weeks. I've played the free Alpha. It's pretty bare bones, only seven books, five types of lore, five cults, five endings, two rituals, two jobs, two locations, and lots of placeholder art, mechanics, and music, but I found it a lot of fun. At it's heart it's a narrative-resource management card game. You start with some cards, you gain cards, you lose cards, you use cards, you are menaced by dangerous cards, you are protected by helpful cards, and you combine or sacrifice cards to try and win different or more powerful ones. There will be a lot of cards in the full game: 150 occult texts, +36 alien gods, a multitude of cult types, and numerous relics/locations/followers/NPCs. Your decisions concerning your cards determines the story. One small example, if you spend a lot of time studying occult books and writing research papers, your character will gain a reputation for being a "Scholar," whereas if you instead spend your time largely practicing rituals and magic your character will become known as a "Magus." All these cards are really well illustrated too, with wonderful icon designs by Catherine Unger and Clockwork Cuckoo. If you're the sort of person who loves card games, you'll probably enjoy this game. If you absolutely hate card games, you probably won't enjoy it. If you could go either way on card games, but are definitely a fan of occult themed or Lovecraftian stories, I think there's a pretty good chance you will like Cultist Simulator.

And the CS Kickstarter has officially ended. Thanks to everyone who donated! UPDATE For people who missed the Kickstarter and would like to become slacker backers, there's the option of pre-ordering a Perpetual edition.

Only 31 hours remaining before the Cultist Simulator Kickstarter ends. If you're not usually a kickstarter person, but are pretty sure you'll buy the game, then you should totally contribute 10 pounds (approximately 13 dollars American) for the Believer package and its Perpetual Edition. You'll get all future Cultist Simulator DLC free forever, so it's a really good deal. For anyone who likes to play games on their phone, there's a new resource management cult game that has just been released for Android at the Google app store: Underhand. It's free and all the reviews are positive.

Hey, I’ve been kind of a silent watcher of Ross Scott’s Game Dungeon’s videos for a few years now. Among my favorites was his review of the prototype game , which put some really serious thought into what is a relatively unexplored genre: Well, a British indie developer named Alexis Kennedy had much the same idea and he’s designed his own cult sim: Cultist Simulator: Behold Our End, a narrative crafting digital card game that's heavy on the resource management. oODf9WS0UtU It’s currently being Kickstartered and there’s a playable alpha is available via the Weatherfactory website. Check it out, it's pretty interesting.