{"id":94408,"date":"2019-05-31T18:16:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T18:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/343780"},"modified":"2019-05-31T18:16:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T18:16:00","slug":"dont-miss-a-cultist-simulator-retrospective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/05\/31\/dont-miss-a-cultist-simulator-retrospective\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Miss: A Cultist Simulator retrospective"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra\u0092s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. <\/small><\/i><\/strong> <\/p>\n

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I talked at Develop this year about open production<\/a>, a system of developing games in the full sight of your community and building your audience as you go. It reminded me that I hadn’t shared the Cultist Simulator<\/em> retrospective as widely as I should have, and that the successes (and mistakes!) might be useful to indies who haven’t read it yet. So, here we are! Gama, spread this cautionary tale.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth mentioning that there are lots of things \u2013 both good and bad \u2013 which don\u2019t get a look-in, because they\u2019re not the headline points. We\u2019re absolutely delighted by Maribeth Solomon<\/a>\u2019s work on the soundtrack, for example, and I\u2019m very proud we didn\u2019t move project goalposts even when we were tempted. But I don\u2019t want to get stuck trying to tell you everything: below are the top-line woos and boos of Cultist <\/em>overall.<\/p>\n

\u263d\u2605\u263e<\/p>\n

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\u263d\u2605\u263e<\/p>\n

1. THE KICKSTARTER<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Alexis ran this back in September 2017, when he had a playable alpha and a clear vision for the final game. We asked for \u00a330,007, were fully funded in 12 hours, and were 273% funded by the end with nearly 4,800 backers.<\/p>\n

The numbers here are great for a small indie game, especially one planned for open production. But the campaign was also designed realistically, thanks to Alexis\u2019s prior experience crowdfunding games like Sunless Sea<\/em>. Cultist Simulator<\/em> kept things simple, promising only that which a two-person team of our specific experience and skill could deliver. No complicated digital or physical rewards. No ill-thought-through stretch goals adding unknown complexity. No promises we hadn\u2019t run through the Yeah But Can We Do This 10 Months Down The Line When We\u2019re Really Tired And Are Sick Of The Whole Thing test.<\/p>\n

We probably could have squeezed more cash out of a Kickstarter if we\u2019d set more complicated stretch goals, but I\u2019m very glad we didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

2. OPEN PRODUCTION<\/strong><\/h2>\n


This is about being open with your community, delivering consistently and incrementally, and incorporating feedback ALL THE TIME. If we hadn\u2019t developed Cultist Simulator <\/em>like this, it would have ended up incomprehensible and un-fun. We would also have produced a buggy, unplayable mess, because we\u2019re two people with no dedicated QA resource and the fact that Cultist<\/em> was being played all the way through development absolutely saved our butts.<\/p>\n

Cultist Simulator<\/em>\u2019s open production highlights include:<\/p>\n