If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Dragon Age writer and Sunless Sea creative director unveils Cultist Simulator

UPDATE: Funded with oodles of time to go.

In the interests of transparency I should point out Alexis Kennedy has written a few articles for Eurogamer before.

UPDATE 4TH SEPTEMBER: It's been a lovely weekend for Alexis Kennedy whose Cultist Simulator Kickstarter has sailed past its £30,000 goal. He's now scratching at £55,000 with 26 days to go.

"In the Cultist Simulator setting, there are thirty Hours," Kennedy wrote.

"This game was 100 per cent funded in a little over 12 hours.

"I normally have an aesthetic objection to one-sentence effect paragraphs, but fuck it.

"OKA WE'RE MAKING THIS GAME. Imma bring the dawn. SERIOUSLY you people have exceeeded my expectations in quite a terrifying way. I am very nearly going to ask you to stop giving me money but I'm not quite there yet."

As for stretch goals, Kennedy in principle isn't a fan as he'd rather spend time making the game people have funded. He has, however, a couple of ideas. One is a physical realisation of the game's tarot cards, but given the work and cost involved he'd only consider this at a lots-of-leeway funding milestone such as £100,000. Another possibility is reprinting an old, out-of-print short story of his via a small press, but it requires Kennedy re-reading it. He also has ideas for very small and fun stretch goals he can sprinkle on the campaign as it progresses.

ORIGINAL STORY 1ST SEPTEMBER: Alexis Kennedy - who created Fallen London, was creative director of the marvellous Sunless Sea, and who has recently been writing parts of the next Dragon Age for BioWare - has unveiled a deeply imaginative new narrative game called Cultist Simulator.

Set in the 1920s, Cultist Simulator is a game about chasing incomprehensible gods in your dreams while holding at bay the prying eyes of real-world authorities. Victory may be becoming a higher entity yourself or tearing down the world you lived in, or it may be choosing life, a relationship - maybe with an investigating member of the authority - instead.

As with Kenendy's other works the possibilities are many and winding. Cultist Simulator is a game about weaving a tapestry from your many choices. Mechanically it's a kind of story card game, where cards governing all sorts of different aspects or rituals can be combined to produce unknown outcomes.

Kennedy is Kickstarting Cultist Simulator with a modest goal of £30,000. Most of the game is done, he said on Kickstarter, but he needs your help to make it "sing". There's a playable build of the game available but it is very much a proof of concept with many placeholder elements on show.

Cultist Simulator's estimated date of delivery is May 2018. The cheapest tier you can pledge at to reserve a copy of the game is now £10. All tiers receive the Perpetual Edition of the game, which includes access to all in-development builds and all downloadable add-ons.

There's a bit more about Cultist Simulator on Alexis Kennedy's website.

Topics in this article

Follow topics and we'll email you when we publish something new about them.  Manage your notification settings.

About the Author
Robert Purchese avatar

Robert Purchese

Associate Editor

Bertie is a synonym for Eurogamer. Writes, podcasts, looks after the Supporter Programme. Talks a lot.

Comments
Eurogamer.net logo

Buy things with globes on them

And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store!

Explore our store
Eurogamer.net Merch