Failbetter co-founder's Cultist Simulator out next Halloween

Hey you, have a read of Joe's interview with Failbetter co-founder and writer Alexis Kennedy, who you'll surely know from Fallen London, Sunless Sea, and from the recent news that he'll be BioWare's first guest writer, scribing probably for something that rhymes with 'Bragon Rage'. Now you're suitably excited for Kennedy's Cultist Simulator, a "single-player digital board game of mystery, experimentation and self-destruction".

Kennedy's been pretty open with the development of Cultist Simulator, from its days as a Javascript prototype to a recent post that goes into the project in much more detail. One salient titbit is that Cultist Simulator will release "around Halloween 2017", although that date might slip on account of Kennedy's other work, including the aforementioned BioWare gig. That date also depends on whether he runs a Kickstarter, whether he signs with a publisher, and "whether the moon turns red". We'll probably have other things than games on our minds when the bloodmoon happens.

Writing on his website, Kennedy says that Cultist Simulator "combines my usual pungent prose with crunchy crafting mechanics, and with parallel victory conditions. It’s possible, though very difficult, to find success in career or romance. You can always turn back from the brink and try to make a life. But why would you do that?"

Especially when you can "find abominable rites in dreams. Craft tools and summon spirits. Indoctrinate innocents. Choose between sane and insane victory conditions. Become the herald of a new age".

Cultist Simulator will be out sometime around Halloween next year. Probably.

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.