Cult of the Lamb

Did You Know?

• The game's soundtrack was composed by Narayana Johnson, known as River Boy, who also voiced all followers.
• A graphic novel adaptation titled The First Verse was launched on Kickstarter on 12 March 2024 and reached its crowdfunding target in six minutes.
• The marketing team posted 'We will add sex to the game if we hit 300k followers by the end of the year' during promotion for the Sins of the Flesh update.

Plot

The Lamb, the last of its kind, is sacrificed before the Four Bishops of the Old Faith. Upon dying, the Lamb is brought before The One Who Waits, a chained deity who gives the Lamb a demonic crown and resurrects it to start a cult. Assisted by Ratau, the Lamb establishes a cult and crusades to defeat the bishops Leshy, Heket, Kallamar, and Shamura. Each bishop's death breaks one of four chains holding The One Who Waits. As the Lamb progresses, The One Who Waits reveals the bishops betrayed and imprisoned him, and he intends to rule the world. Before the final battle against Shamura, Shamura reveals The One Who Waits is named Narinder, the Fifth Bishop of the Old Faith and their brother, who was imprisoned after betraying the bishops. Shamura warns the Lamb that Narinder will come for them once all bishops are dead.

Development

Cult of the Lamb was developed by Massive Monster, an Australian studio known for The Adventure Pals, Never Give Up, and Unicycle Giraffe. The team wanted to move away from a perception of catering to children and toward themes of horror and the occult. The premise evolved from a lamb god rebuilding a following on earth, to the Lamb running hell, to the final concept of running a cult. This secured a publishing deal with Devolver Digital.

Additional funding came from VicScreen's Victorian Production Fund. The game was announced at Gamescom in August 2021 and released on 11 August 2022. Post-launch free updates include Blood Moon Festival (October 2022), Relics of the Old Faith (April 2023), a Don't Starve Together crossover (August 2023), Sins of the Flesh (January 2024), and Unholy Alliance (August 2024), which added two-player cooperative play. Paid cosmetic packs include the Cultist Pack, Heretic Pack, Sinful Pack, and Pilgrim Pack, the latter including a digital comic.

Reception

Cult of the Lamb received generally favorable reviews on Metacritic. GameSpot praised the combat as fast-paced and fluid, and noted high replayability. Nintendo Life liked the dungeon variety and intense battles. Destructoid found the tutorialization digestible. PC Gamer compared the game to Animal Crossing and enjoyed the cult management complexity. IGN praised the balance of macabre themes with cute visuals. Game Informer criticized the difficulty of finding time to customize the cult. The Washington Post disliked the combat, calling it a jumbled mess. Polygon praised the interesting characters found in dungeons. Eurogamer praised the art style. The game sold one million units in its first week, 4.5 million by October 2024, and 7 million by April 2026.