You have arrived at the hallowed sanctum of GameCult, home of the GameDev Gods, the great creative beings that hail from all over this world. Here, we are benevolent overlords to our players, and in this first act of outreach, we will share with you our knowledge.
Now that we got all the cheese out of the way, let’s get to business.
GameCult consists of a highly diverse team of creatives with an arsenal of skills such as game design, programming, writing, composing, and anything else you can think of! The world is our office, thanks to our flat, distributed structure and the fact that all of our collaborative work is done online through Discord and Github!
We at GameCult believe in Open Source, heck, we go as far as to stake our business on it. And... it works! We aren’t the only company to use this model and make money. But, as of yet, no game studios have adopted it. That’s where we come in. GameCult as the first entirely Open Source Game Studio!
Now, what does that look like exactly?
Our Open Source model allows for players to have a voice in the way our games are developed. Have a cool idea for a mod? Written a killer storyline? Have suggestions for in-game items and loot? All it takes is having, or knowing someone with, the skills to create the additional content and adding it to the game!
I can see what you’re thinking; mind powers are only one of the benefits of becoming an adept. You’re thinking, “if your games are open source, aren’t people just going to steal all your work and sell their own version?” This might be true for regular mortals, but our flagship games rely heavily on networked player interactions. Selling your own version is a silly idea for the same reason you can’t just go and make a better Twitter: the existing one has all the users! Nobody’s gonna want to tweet into a void no matter how much better the platform might be. Single player games are a little different; for those we’ll have to use a less-permissive license on some assets. This won’t stop piracy, but then again nothing can.
Now, of course, as a fledgeling company we aren’t able to put all you interested folks (there’s a lot, right? We’re just gonna assume there's a lot) on the payroll just yet. We will be incorporating a bounty system into the GCLP to assign tasks and track who’s added what and this system will open up once we’ve got some cash to share. Still, in the meantime, you can join our Discord or send us an email if you’re interested in helping out! Once we are able to bring the bounty system online, we’ll make sure everyone gets updated. Watch this blog for more info.
Well, that was a lot of talk about money… Let’s get to the fun part! After all, what’s a game company without games? We currently have three games plus a prequel in the works: Aetheria and its Prequel, Metamorphosis, and CultPong.
Our first game, Aetheria, is the largest of the three projects. Our goal with Aetheria is to revolutionise how people see MMOs by having the player be able to directly influence the in-game world. Player actions can create meaningful and persistent changes to the in-game history and path to the future.
Our goal is for Aetheria to support two different game modes in the same game world, the first being a large-scale multiplayer real time strategy game in which player corporations compete against each other for economic dominance, while the second game mode is more akin to the traditional action role-playing game. This second game mode allows players to explore the galaxy, a galaxy made all the more vibrant by the clashes of player corporations, while also engaging in combat, trade, and quests. Ambitious, no?
Because of this ambition with Aetheria, and our heavy focus on ensuring that we can develop a polished game that we are proud of, we have other shorter-term projects that we can release in the meantime. Our first shorter-term project will be a prequel to Aetheria that involves players in the events that precipitated the social and economic environment the main game takes place in.
L’appel du Vide is a single player experience where you play as a private investigator who gets involved in events spanning the entire colonization fleet. This game introduces the ARPG formula which will be used in one of the MMO’s gameplay modes, but without the immense overhead such a project involves. It is a story-driven experience that lets the player dive into the world of Aetheria while also remaining heavily engaging. L’appel du Vide is an hors-d'œuvre, intended to hone our skills and whet the appetites of gamers for what’s to come.
The second of our shorter-term projects is the Twitch extension game, Metamorphosis. Much like the classic game of (pretty much) most of our childhoods, Metamorphosis allows for stream viewers to capture and train a host of adorable creatures to battle on-stream against other equally adorable creatures. This would be a revolution in stream extensions, as it would be heavily interactive, beautifully-rendered, and feature rich.
Thanks to Metamorphosis’ relatively simple and fun to play mechanics, streamers who have the extension installed could see higher rates of viewer retention as viewers stay longer to fight more battles or catch more monsters! Another benefit to Metamorphosis is that streamers are entitled to 80% of the income from in-game purchases, thus enabling you to help support your favorite streamers while also playing with your friends online!
Another new take on a classic formula, CultPong is a fast-paced, competitive 1v1 and 2v2 pong game, with a twist! Instead of the straight paddles found in the classic, this game features a selection of uniquely-shaped unlockable paddles, which allow you to bounce the ball in any direction if your placement is precise enough. In addition, there’s a bash mechanic, allowing you to press a button to thrust towards the ball, imparting a vicious amount of momentum to it if your timing is right. This turns the game into a nail-biting shoot-fest, where you need to get into your opponent’s head to survive, as you’ll not have the time to get into position if they land their bash move.
As an online multiplayer game, this is a prime opportunity to implement a ranked matchmaking system, as well as regular tournaments, where you can win prizes to show off your skills. There is also a wide variety of skins and other cosmetics allowing you to deck out your paddle in extravagant finery.
Considering how convenient the gameplay is for short sessions and touch input, this one is also a prime candidate for porting to mobile platforms. We have an innovative time dilation algorithm in the works which should allow for seamless play regardless of latency, important for guaranteeing a good experience on mobile networks.