Information Cult: Awakening of the Old Ones, Open-World Procedurally Generated RPG, Kickstarter Now Live

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Cult: Awakening of the Old Ones; Kickstarter

Cult: Awakening of the Old Ones is an open-world RPG that aims for everything to be procedurally generated: world, stories, myths, legends, civilizations, creatures, and gods. It's now on Kickstarter, asking for a mere $5,000, and it looks pretty interesting and ambitious to me.

What is Cult?

Cult is an open-ended role-playing game set in a user-generated world with a strong focus on storytelling, exploration, and environmental interaction. In simpler terms, it is about exploring a richly fleshed-out fantasy world unique from any other, with procedurally generated stories, myths, legends, civilizations, creatures, gods, and - well, basically everything! Cult is one part role playing game and one part experiment into the possible depth of procedural generation, and one of my goals with this project is to intertwine computer-driven storytelling with random content in a way that appears as seamless as possible to the player.

I drew my inspiration from games like Dwarf Fortress, the Elder Scrolls series, Darklands, and even Crusader Kings. I have also been heavily influenced by games from the 90's like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Evermore and Final Fantasy 3 which relied on a very strong story to draw the player in and keep them hooked. I love playing open-ended games, but I've always wanted a game that combined a randomly generated, complex world with equally complex stories, history, and characters. Since I've never been able to find any games like that, I decided to make one of my own!

Procedural storytelling? How will that work?

Dialogue, the personal stories of the various characters you meet, cultural anecdotes, and even the mythology of each world will be generated from scratch. Conceptually, it's fairly simple - I plan on writing many, many different possibilities for each different thematic element of the game to explore, so that each character, story, and personal exchange you make will seem organically unique. The hard part, as with any well-made procedural engine, is getting all the content accumulated in the first place. I've already started, but I view Cult as a very long-term project for myself, so this is something I'm going to be working on for years, if not decades! Of course, it will be released and playable long before the thematic elements are as polished as I'd like them to be, so it's also important for me to have the game engine stand on its own two legs as a great experience first. Eventually, I want Cult to be something of a combination between playing a game and reading a fantasy novel.

What language is Cult written in?

Cult is written entirely in Python, and utilizes the libTCOD roguelike library to make text look purty. Yes, that's correct - Cult so far is only text. Of course, I've done a bit of editing to the font set, but everything is still created using simple monochromatic characters. They're just mashed together in a way that makes them look nicer!

One reason I'm running this Kickstarter is because I'd really love to be able to get a custom tileset drawn up for the game.​

$15 gets you a digital copy of the game. If you feel like pledging or just studying the tiers and rewards, be sure to visit Cult's Kickstarter page.

For more information about the game's current progress and even more videos, you can also check out the Cult development blog.

 

[Jaesun]

Another month of Top Ramen. Backing this!

 

[Stabwound]

It sounds very cool. There's also a website which makes it look like it's been under pretty constant development: http://cultrl.wordpress.com/

It's also a roguelike according to the site.

 

[Castanova]

Definitely has potential. Too early in the process for me to donate money, though.

 

[Jaesun]

Definitely has potential. Too early in the process for me to donate money, though.

Yeah that was my initial thought as well. However I just found his ideas for this intriguing. As well as the artwork and music. I was willing to fund this a little and see what happens. And he's only asking 5K. That sounded reasonable.

 

[Castanova]

Yeah, I mean, this seems like a good-will gesture type of Kickstarter rather than a fund-serious-development type of Kickstarter. I'm not quite that generous at the moment, I guess.

 

[Metro]

Just to clear the pricing up $15 gets you into the alpha -- you have to pay an additional $5 for the full version when it releases (the difference between the donation and the $20 release price).

 

[Stabwound]

Sounds like a rather backwards way of doing it...

 

[Metro]

Yeah I find it odd especially since it's such a modest goal. What alerted me is that there is no mention of actually receiving a copy of the game in any of the tiers. So I scrolled down to the FAQ and found that little gem.

 

[Krash]

Man, someone definitively likes Dwarf Fortress legend and adventurer mode. Could be cool, but at this point I'll stick to DF.

 

[Fezzik]

Just to clear the pricing up $15 gets you into the alpha -- you have to pay an additional $5 for the full version when it releases (the difference between the donation and the $20 release price).

It says that $10 gets you the alpha and $15 the full version.

 

[pakoito]

My idea of a perfect game would be translating Goblins: The Comic to a game. Pre-existing world without the bullshit, lots of different adventurer parties going around winning and losing treasures, slight hint of D&D ruleset.

 

[Metro]

I stand corrected. It's fairly poorly worded. He should just set up the tiers and give out full versions at set tiers.

 

[Johannes]

We already have one of these in development... featuring bearded midgets.

I doubt DF will ever be good on the adventurer mode though, could be worth a try if this guy could do a better spin on the idea.

Oh, and there's ADOM II now also.

 

[Bulba]

In a year time only the engine will be finished, while the game itself will take many years, that's what the dev says. It's a very dodgy investment, even through if the dev will stay true to his word and you are willing to pay and wait, how do you know that this guy does not have brain tumor or lung cancer or smng and will not die in a year or two? he should include his med examination to the kickstarter page.

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

All the features listed would be pretty much enticing, but it would be nice to see, up close, an example of the story procuderal generation. Since it's always different, it wouldn't be spoilerish, amirite?

 

[Kz3r0]

All the features listed would be pretty much enticing, but it would be nice to see, up close, an example of the story procuderal generation. Since it's always different, it wouldn't be spoilerish, amirite?

Read Wyrmlord posts, if you find them amusing procedurally generated games are definitively for you.

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

All the features listed would be pretty much enticing, but it would be nice to see, up close, an example of the story procuderal generation. Since it's always different, it wouldn't be spoilerish, amirite?

Read Wyrmlord posts, if you find them amusing procedurally generated games are definitively for you.

Ba-dum, tssh.

But yeah, I remember something from the inanity of GD - a place I visited only when the homepage went down for the overhaul and I'm never coming back to.
Awful, awful memories.

 

[mondblut]

Procedurally generated fleshed-out storytelling? What else, immersive action-packed turn-based combat?

I am all for open-world and procedural generation, but wtf does "storytelling" have to do with that?

 

[sgc_meltdown]

wtf does "storytelling" have to do with that?

probably referring to mad libs style per-world lore generation

if they're trying for some coherency they will probably have some logic/consistency checks in there, like if a demon is said to have taken over dwarven mines(i.e. DWARF_MINE_OUTCOME : DEMON) it won't end up trading with the nearby human town, etc

 

[Wavinator]

I wish the guy best of luck but I'm really skeptical about this one. It's a cool idea to try to push the limits of PCG but as a technology it can make development hideously complex and time consuming. No wonder he says years or decades. A dev creating a set level with known content already has the hardship of balancing everything that goes into it-- challenges, enemies, rewards, state changes driven by triggers or events or whatever, etc. Now add not knowing where or (at his proposed scale) what anything will be. Testing, balancing, refining... ugly.

He might be okay if he focuses on Minecraft-style gameplay but that tends to be mechanics focused. I dunno.

 

[Transgressive Grenadier]

This is the direction the Daggerfall playing myself-of-the-1990s imagined RPGs would take. I didn't expect the 'graphical turn'... my gaming future was going to be one of vast game worlds and sophisticated AI with procedurally generated stories, quests and npc relations.

Needless to say I've been sorely butthurt ever since. I guess I should fund.

 

[Shannow]

A dev creating a set level with known content already has the hardship of balancing everything that goes into it-- challenges, enemies, rewards,

None of that needs to be balanced.

The emergent story-telling is probably similar to what some of us simulationists make out of the development of Total War games, crusader Kings or M&B. The trick would be in keeping the npcs aware of the triggers that make sense that they know. He'd probably use conditional prefabs like with his nations/cultures.
"Evil wizard *insert name* to over ruined tower *insert name/location* and started harassing my village *insert name/location*. Will you help us? we've but together as much gold as we could. *insert amount*" And similar prefabs. Could be as simple as that but also significantly more complex with several state changes and checks, emergently developing due to player and world decisions.
While I wish him all the best, I don't see a single guy ever finishing that in an acceptable quality.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Same as Dwarf above.... Looks interesting but won't risk my jewgold on this.

 

[darkpatriot]

probably referring to mad libs style per-world lore generation

if they're trying for some coherency they will probably have some logic/consistency checks in there, like if a demon is said to have taken over dwarven mines(i.e. DWARF_MINE_OUTCOME : DEMON) it won't end up trading with the nearby human town, etc

Unfortunately, from what he is saying it seems like that is as far as he is planning on taking it. Procedurally generated history, background information, and characters combined with world simulation mechanics. Those can be fun to play with but those aren't really going to produce the engaging storytelling that is one of his goals. His goals are close to what my dream RPG would be so I hope I am wrong.

Hopefully he has plans for some kind of electronic DM. Systems that will generate more content that reinforces the emergent narrative that develops when that procedurally generated stuff interacts with the reactivity to the player.

That's already two steps ahead of what has been achieved so far though. We haven't even had an RPG that does decent procedurally generated history, background information, and characters yet. Dwarf fortress is probably the best we have but it still produces lot's of stuff that is silly and most of the stuff it generates wind up being really similar to each other. There also aren't that many interesting ways to interact with the world.

Like others have said, it is probably too much work for one person to pull off in his spare time. Maybe even if he was doing it full time. I am looking forward to seeing what he is able to accomplish and what methods he uses to try and accomplish it. It's another step towards a type of RPG that I would like to see made.