Cult of the Lamb’s cutesy horror “just naturally comes back to fun”

pcgamesn.com:

With Cult of the Lamb set to receive its massive, free Relics of the Old Faith update soon, we took some time to sit down with the team behind 2022’s cutesy but sinister roguelike game. PCGamesN spoke to developer Massive Monster’s Jay Armstrong and James Pearmain at WASD 2023 about the upcoming update, the game’s adorably unnerving art style, accessibility tools, and the importance of Twitch streaming to Cult of the Lamb’s success.

Relics of the Old Faith is the first big update for Cult of the Lamb, and it’s going to be free. Armstrong tells us, “We were so blown away by how many people love the game – we’ve never had this before. We’re just so happy and grateful.” The team sees this and the second planned free update, loosely scheduled for later this year, as a way to give back to fans.

“I think it’s really important for us to just make it the best game possible,” Pearmain explains, pointing to other big names in the roguelike genre as inspirations. “We really want to look at games like The Binding of Isaac and Don’t Starve – how the game is now compared to what it was at launch, we want Cult of the Lamb to fit alongside those kinds of games.”

As for what fans can expect from the update, Pearmain promises “harder versions of all the bosses in the game” as well as “a new resource that you can use to spend on a new shopkeeper who can give you rare unlocks.” He describes the new, tougher mode as “sort of a souped-up New Game Plus – instead of just making you fight the exact same enemies, we’ve made them harder.”

It’s not just about the combat, however – Pearmain remarks that a lack of dungeon depth and variety was one of the main criticisms raised about the base game by players, so improving on that was a big priority