Deeper mechanics in Cultish
Cultish is a game that allows you to run a cult, so long as you make your quotas for the corporate overlords. You start each game in a world that is slightly larger than your screen size, which you can scroll around with your arrow keys. You start the game with one follower. Your followers will mine rare earth metals automatically, regardless of their behavior. This tutorial will be broken down into three parts. First, we will take a closer look at the members of your cult. Next, we will investigate the game loop, and what kind of control you can exercise over your cult. Finally, we will share tables of values and interactions important to the game.
Your followers
Your followers are your key to success. They mine materials for you, help you recruit, and when all else fails can act as a valuable commodity to be sacrificed. Every follower is spawned at level 1, and can progress up to level 5. Followers are spawned with a name. Even when their mind is sacrificed, their name will remain. Each follower is also assigned three personality traits- sociableness, wanderlust and risk taking. These personalities subtly reflect themselves in the behavior of the followers.
The game loop
Every game starts with 1 follower. Your two stats, faith and blessing, both start at 100%. Faith regenerates naturally, at a rate of 2 percentage points per second. Blessing decays, at a rate of 1 percentage point per second. At the 15 second mark, a second follower is auto spawned. From there on, the normal spawn table is followed (see tables section below). Players can hold X and press arrow keys to select and move through followers. This will display their name, level, and how many materials to advance their level. As blessing decreases, the rate at which you collect the rare earth metals will drop. The way to restore your cult's blessing, is to sacrifice the mind of a follower. The level of the follower will dictate how much blessing is earned. However, this also drops the faith the cult has in their leader. See the tables below for a more in depth break down.
Tables
Follower Spawn Intervals (by Faith Level)
- 75-100% Faith: New follower every 30 seconds
- 25-74% Faith: New follower every 60 seconds
- 0-24% Faith: New follower every 120 seconds
Material Collection Intervals (by Blessing Level)
- 91-100% Blessing: 2 second base time
- 51-90% Blessing: 5 second base time
- 26-50% Blessing: 10 second base time
- 1-25% Blessing: 20 second base time
- 0% Blessing: No collection
Sacrifice Effects
- Level 1: +10% blessing, -50% faith
- Level 2: +25% blessing, -50% faith
- Level 3: +50% blessing, -50% faith
- Level 4: +75% blessing, -50% faith
- Level 5: +100% blessing, -50% faith
Follower Level Requirements
- Level 2: 10 total materials collected
- Level 3: 30 total materials collected
- Level 4: 60 total materials collected
- Level 5: 100 total materials collected
Quota Progression
- Quota 1: 5 rare earth metals in 20 seconds
- Quota 2: 20 rare earth metals in 60 seconds
- Quota 3: 50 rare earth metals in 60 seconds
- Quota 4: 100 rare earth metals in 60 seconds
- Quota 5+: add 100 rare earth metals in 60 seconds
Rare earth metals roll over between quotas.
Cultish
Run a techno-religious cult
Status | Released |
Author | BrightOstrich |
Genre | Strategy |
Tags | Cyberpunk, Game Boy, Indie, Management, PICO-8, Retro |
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