We love mods and the people who make 'em. There are 136 mods in the Cultist Sim Workshop (!), someone turned CS's tabletop into Super Mario, and a while back we wrote a how-to guide to help modders get started. The more mods in Steam Workshop the merrier! Apart from that weird one which takes Laidlaw's shirt off. I see you, degenerates. Aaaaanyhoo, all this creativity - not just mods, but all the fanart, writing, tabletop games, tattoos (you would not believe where some people get Moth tattoos) - leads me on to some big news. We're opening up Cultist Simulator's IP to let you use it for creative projects on a much larger scale, and even make money from it. SO READ ON! But in Alexis's voice, 'cause he wrote the next bit.

How It Is

How It's Going To Be

Other fun stuff coming up

LONGIFLORUM: the Easter lily, the trumpet lily, the lily Aurelian. "Consider the lilies of the field; they toil not, neither do they spin" - it was longiflorum that chap was talking about, probably. I didn't grow up rich, but I did grow up in Oxford, and my secondary school had a Latin motto, SICUT LILIUM, 'like the lily'. I never really understood why a school has a motto that incited its students not to work. I tried to use this as a philosophical platform for not doing homework. Consequently the secondary school threw me out and I had to go to a weird boarding school for weird kids. On the upside the headmaster of the weird school lent his copy of Gormenghast and changed the course of my life. I've left out some details but this all approximately happened. Anyway lilium longiflorum is very pretty but also utterly lethal to cats. A couple years back I carelessly brought home a bouquet for Lottie with a couple of longiflora in it. By the time we realised, our hapless cat Chi (aka Chione, like the book in Cultist) had jumped up and coated himself in rust-coloured pollen. Lottie had to wash it off in the bath.
Chi is the same cat who appears in this image...
...which is a good segue to talking about what happened last week. We've been pushing out small releases from beta to live about every two weeks, which is a bloody good pace for a four-year-old game, and we'd got a bit gung-ho because it all went so well. Last week we put out LONGIFLORUM v1 as a reminder of the three basic truths of existence: 1. Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains; 2. Nature is red in tooth and claw; 3 Even well-tested code has bugs. LONGIFLORUM last week was very well-tested (Chel is thorough)... but there were some changes to save code, which is always a pit of barbed wasps... so it wasn't well-tested enough. Consequently we had to roll it back, which itself caused some hiccups. So here it is again, after another week in the shop getting the dents knocked out. What's actually in the patch? - Game no longer crashes when challenged with a corrupted save file. Instead, you are prompted to try restoring a backup. Almost half of the support requests I get are corrupted saves. I think a good 10% of all those are specifically 'a cat jumped on the power button and turned off my game as it was saving'. I'm serious, though I haven't actually run the numbers. I'm ready to claim that almost 5% of all the support requests over the last few months are caused by cats. Anyway there was some code (mine) in there which was supposed to revert to backups but it wasn't working properly. There is some new code (Chel's) in there which works better. - Upon crashing on startup, the game will automatically turn off all enabled mods. If don't want this behaviour (for example, when testing your own mod), add \"knock=1\" to config.ini. - Additional precautions when loading mod-affected saves. BOORING... NOT. At least half the support requests I get these days are mod-related. Often this happens because a save becomes addicted to mods and dies when the mods are uninstalled. The most frequent culprit is Genroa's excellent Shelves mod. Anyway the only answers I could give were 'talk to the modder' and 'purge your save' and occasionally 'UGH WHY DID I EVER ADD MODDING'. Many of these problems will now go away. I can't promise you can now add and remove mods with abandon. There is always a risk to after-market work, as anyone who's tried to fit wings to their car will know. In the near future we're going to make it sliiightly harder to add mods which dramatically change functionality - i.e. DLL mods - by requiring installation of a gatekeeper mod which gives stern warnings. It's probably only a matter of time before some villain tries to slip ransomware into a mod, and we'd rather not feel responsible. - Rites which consume followers will no longer suggest that they can be used to renew Burgeoning or Shattered Risen. Technically they renewed and consumed the Risen, which was legitimate but not very helpful. This was hilarious, except when it happened. - HOTFIX: Occasional save incompatibility with the previous version is fixed.\n I'm very proud of the fact that you can still load a save from the 2018 version of Cultist in the 2022 version of Cultist. I still wake on winter nights sobbing about the save converter I had to write in 2021. Please don't prove me wrong by crashing the game with an old save. - HOTFIX: Strange and unexpected card presences - seasons, books, and many more - are fixed. For a moment, you were peeking behind the veil of the game's inner workings - the game decks, and they became visible. A digression. I can't talk too much about BOOK OF HOURS here, because the Steam admins are a bit sterner about flagging cross-promotion these days. But you know that thing with long runs of bad luck in Cultist? Like, you've got a 10% chance of failing a vault run and getting a curse, and it happens six times in a row? In Book of Hours I've moved away from (digital) dice rolls to (digital) card draws to manage randomness. In other words the runs of bad luck are limited. There's only one critical failure (or whatever) in the deck to draw. I wish I'd done this years ago. - HOTFIX: Fixed a crash on lore subversion. We codename our bugs while we're tracking them down. This was CONSUMMATUM. - MODDING: Mods with empty synopsis no longer crash the game. "Silence! Oh, well are Death and Sleep and Thou Three brethren named, the guardians gloomy-winged, Of one abyss, where life and truth and joy Are swallowed up." Nice bit of Tuesday morning Shelley. You're welcome. - MODDING: Verbs can now have innate aspects (defined as \"aspects\": { \"something\": 1 }). - MODDING: Verbs can now react to xtriggers - in particular, to transform into a different verb. Keep in mind that verbs still can't have mutations. Sneaking a significant one in at the end. This is actually a bit of functionality I wanted for BOOK OF HOURS, where verbs can be things like desks and houses, and you lucky CS modders are getting the benefit. Let me end with a question.

MPC x The Lady Afterwards edition now available!

• The Lady Afterwards Game Runners Guide, a ~50 page TRPG scenario set in 1920s Alexandria
• The Secret Histories Rulebook, a ~30 page mechanics primer
• 18 hand-aged clues, including telegrams, lovers notes, photographs and more
• An antique golden magnifying glass, to inspect them all
• The Essential Hours pocket tarot deck of 23 Major Arcana cards
• A full 78-card "Tarot of the Hours" deck
• Eight customisable character sheets with personalised questionnaires and connections
• Eight art deco character pins in silver and gold
• A sterling silver cigarette case, including several in-fiction calling cards and clues
• A Game Runners Journal to keep track of players, game-states and evidence
• A beautifully-scented black opium candle to evoke the Invisible Serapeum
• A full-colour A3 map of contemporary Alexandria with real 1920s photographs
• Two sets of antique TRPG dice in a burlap bag
• A year-long 10% discount token for ourmerch shop and the Locksmith's Dream
• Access to a custom-built mood-music playlist of 1920s songs
• A full digital edition of The Lady Afterwards worth 30
• Housed in a custom hardwood "Taurus Express" travelling chest

Will you win the Golden Ticket?

[quote=The original Lady Afterwards]"Youve been summoned to Alexandria, a city of coloured lights and curious histories. An old friend needs you to track down a woman. Shes probably in trouble. Probably trouble herself. Plus a change..."[/quote] We're working with the Mysterious Package Company to create a new, extremely high-end Lady Afterwards edition with MPC-level props and accoutrements! MPC are the absolute top of the pile when it comes to making beautiful antique physical items. They usually specialise in Lovecraftian stuff (AK and I bought their Hastur experience years ago, and it was amazing), so The Lady Afterwards caught their eye. The MPC edition includes everything that's in our original Lady Afterwards box, but adds an extra layer of high-quality artefact...ry: a custom wooden chest, hand-aged clues, and a few extras like an antique magnifying glass and silver case with new business cards inside, a Essential Hours and a full Tarot of the Hours deck...

What's The Lady Afterwards?

• The Lady Afterwards Game Runners Guide, a ~50 page TRPG scenario set in 1920s Alexandria
• The Secret Histories Rulebook, a ~30 page mechanics primer
• 18 hand-aged clues, including telegrams, lovers notes, photographs and more
• The Essential Hours pocket tarot deck of 23 Major Arcana cards and a full 78-card "Tarot of the Hours"
• Eight customisable character sheets with personalised questionnaires and connections
• Eight art deco character pins in silver and gold
• A Game Runners Journal to keep track of players, game-states and evidence
• A beautifully-scented black opium candle to evoke the Invisible Serapeum
• A full-colour A3 map of contemporary Alexandria with real 1920s photographs
• Two sets of antique TRPG dice in a velvet dice bag
• A year-long 10% discount token for our shop
• Access to a custom-built mood-music playlist of 1920s songs
• A sterling silver cigarette case, incasing several characters' business cards
• An antique 1920s magnifying glass
• A custom wooden carrying case
• A full digital edition of the whole game

How can I get my hands on it?

The expansive gentleman in the picture below is (probably) the naturalist Pehr Kalm:
He was a widely-travelled eighteenth-century Finnish naturalist, and the genus kalmia was named after him:
. Pehr looks cross in that picture. It might be that his handsome waistcoat is too tight, it might be that the pinecone is spiky, or it might be that the flower named for him was later nicknamed kill-kid. This is less horrible than it sounds, because 'kid' is also a juvenile goat, and kalmia is also nicknamed lamb-kill and sheep-poison. It's stuffed with neurotoxins, is what I'm saying. Don't let your goats near it. Or your kids. If Cultist has taught us anything, it's the unwisdom of putting something in your mouth just cos it looks pretty. Over to Chelnoque for the patch notes for KALMIA. These are pretty bland, because he's done a lot of work behind the scenes on content import and logging that isn't interesting to write about. We've also just put the LONGIFLORUM release on the beta branch, which is a bit funner, especially in that it makes games more resistant to the notorious Cat Jumped On My Keyboard bug. But I'll post the patch notes for that one when it goes live. 2022.9.k.3 KALMIA - Several minor typos in slot requirements are fixed. - Blank credits panel in Russian localisation is fixed. - HOTFIX: The game started to treat some save files as if they were corrupted. They, in fact, weren't, and this all is now behind us. - HOTFIX: Newly-spawned verbs no longer snatch a single random card from their birthplace. - HOTFIX: Newly-spawned verbs no longer snatch a single random card from their birthplace. - MODDING: Greatly increased the vigilance and informativeness of JSON import logs. bonus content: The Monastery of the Fifth Cup box. It's sold out, but there's some lore here that people got excited about.
The Locksmith's Dream. Pictures from the beta!
Have a spooky day, as they say on that one podcast. - AK

Happy Friday, everyone! I hear you like the secret gods known as the Hours, and AK is good at tantalisingly not revealing much about them. So I just wanted to share a quick update on the Lucid Tarot, our upcoming tarot deck for BOOK OF HOURS, whose Major Arcana focuses entirely on the Hours of Cultist Simulator. It's all-new art drawn directly from the saucy, source-y lore of AK's 'CS Design' spreadsheet. You can't get tastier than that.

The Lucid Tarot

Teeny hotfix for lore upgrades

ILEX is not a wild goat. That's 'ibex'. Ilex is holly: a glossy, pretty plant that takes no nonsense from anyone, with glossy, pretty berries that occasionally murder people. And it means Christmas. I'm very fond of holly. I'm also very fond of JUNIPER, because it's what makes gin taste like gin. Holly was sacred to thunder gods, and juniper to fertility goddesses. So the Thunderskin is the official sponsor of the ILEX patch, which we released today, and the Red Grail is the official sponsor of JUNIPER, which is now on the beta branch. Let's talk about what you can find in each one. Chelnoque wrote the patch notes, and [my comments are in italic brackets]

ILEX: MAIN BRANCH

• Improved performance and display of card timers
• Aspects were counted twice for cards in the Verb output.
• Upgrading lore sometimes destroyed innocent bystander cards. [So sometimes you might lose a Health when you were trying to upgrade Heart lore. Thanks to Xardis for bringing this one up.]
• Incorrect chance of getting an Exultation when preaching with Passion is fixed. [Apparently this had been there since 2019. Now I think about it, I vaguely remember the bug report, and I vaguely remember fixing it, long ago. Maybe I forgot to commit ]
• Formula: Elixir Zeboim cannot be consumed in a rite. [Elixir Zeboim, as any ghoul kno, is something you consume that helps you get value out of consuming dead bodies. It's not real. Don't eat dead people. Anyway it was getting used up if you put it in the consumption slot of a rite.]
• MODDING: In-game debug panel now allows to manually xtrigger present cards. [When I saw Chelnoque had added this, I grunted appreciatively. If you use the dev console, you might grunt appreciatively too. If it means nothing, think of it as pleasant background noise, like the Shipping Forecast, or a bumblebee in a holly tree.]

JUNIPER: BETA BRANCH

• An inability to interact with certain UI elements that occurred in windowed mode at widescreen resolutions is fixed. [This one was actually a Unity bug, and it's fixed by 'updating to the latest version of Unity']
• In addition, due to a hiccup in update releases, several DLC-related fixes were declared, but weren't properly present. [And this is just a fancy way of saying 'we didn't run the right scripts'. There's an extra step to updating DLC on Steam that's easy to forget, and we forgot it :)]
• When devouring a reckoner, Ligeians no longer consume the content of the Reckoner verb slot. [e.g. if you had just fended off the Reckoner with your Edge lore, the Ligeian would eat the Edge lore too. Ligeians don't play fair, but this was _particularly_ unfair. ]
• The game will no longer suggest you relax or negotiate when you're trying to start an operation in Exile.
• Buying a profane weapon with another profane weapon does not result in mutual annihilation. [This was an unbelievably obscure and complicated bug that only cropped up in a rare exploit where someone tried to buy a loaded gun with an unloaded gun. I would never have noticed it]
• MODDING: Mods now can self-define their tags through \"tags\" property in synopsis.json. Consult with MODDING_README.txt in StreamingAssets folder for the details. [This is also of most interest to modders... but it's important to everyone who uses mods too.]

(guest-starring Chelnoque again) - Yet another round of card-handlery tweaks: - Cards put more effort into finding a landing zone as close to the hover position as possible. - Card ghosts sometimes ended up in a wrong position (and generally made no sense). - Cards save their preferred tabletop location between sessions. - Cards should no longer completely overlap each other - or, at least, should do this significantly less often. - Cards correctly replace each other in slots. - Dropzones are now more proficient (and elegant) in their craft. - Verbs occupy a more modest space on the grid. - Verbs go straight to the dropzone when spawned. - Different kinds of camera movement should feel smoother, and are less interruptive towards each other. - Dragged cards follow the camera movement. - When a card is moving into a verb slot, it no longer slows down if said verb's windows opens or closes. - Initial board setup respects the grid. - Interactions with the Mansus are slightly oiled up. And also: - Shattered Risen could sometimes lack Follower aspect. - Buying a profane weapon with another profane weapon does not result in mutual annihilation. - Rare freeze on \"Collect All\" is fixed. - MODDING: Deck effects now support aspect references, as in \"deckeffects\": { \"deckeffects\": \"lantern\" }.",

- New modding feature: configurable local achievements - Verb windows display cards, aspects and deck draws more cleanly and more clearly. - Influences are properly removed on a skill upgrade. - Fixed dropzones sometimes blocking interactions with their contents. - Cards more reliably seek the nearest verb on a double-click (and on a right-click). - Purging cards in a completed verb now correctly updates the previewed amount. - Aspect display in a verb window now updates properly on mutations. - Various optimizations to make the game more stable in longer sessions. - Korean text fixes. - HOTFIX: EXILE borkage - HOTFIX: it's again possible to create a seventh-level lore fragment through combination - HOTFIX: a lamentable surplus space in the log was baking Chel's noodle - HOTFIX: more optimisations when lots of cards are created at once - HOTFIX: scrollbar adjustments - HOTFIX: issue with card expulsion to new situations - HOTFIX'S HOTFIX: an expulsion issue that was introduced in the previous hotfix is fixed - HOTFIX'S HOTFIX'S HOTFIX: explulsions are truly really fixed this time - MODDING: mod long description is no longer overwritten on mod re-upload - MODDING: expulsion filters now can have negative requirements\

If you're wondering what an eryngo is, it's one of these. Handsome things. They have umbels, and they're cousins to the carrot.
I've seen a handful of reports about crashes that I'm trying to track down, but the game is thank Christ generally stable again, and FRAGRANTOLIVE, om beta, is more stable still. You might have noticed that one of our long-time modders, Mr Chelnoque, now has [developer] flair on the forums. We'd tried him out on some contract work to add modding features, and we liked his work enough that he's working with us part-time: adding modding and other features, hunting bugs, and doing the QA work that I am so notoriously not great at. We're bloody pleased to have him. In particular, the COLLECTION feature in FRAGRANTOLIVE was Chel's proposal. It tracks Achievements in the game UI, but it *also* allows modders to add achievements of their own (Not on Steam, because I don't think Cultist would benefit from the inevitable cascade of penis-related achievements, but modder achievements will nestle nicely in the UI alongside the official ones. FRAGRANTOLIVE also has some more stability features and UI tweaks, and it's stable enough that you can hop over to the beta branch if you're feeling even slightly adventurous. It'll make its way to the main branch around about 9th August unless something goes awry, and you should see GALANTHUS on beta around about then.
BTW, if you're still on the classic_ui branch, then honestly I would suggest you join the rest of us in the future. Card snapping just works now, the newer version's save code is more robust, and you're missing out on a trickle of new QoL and modding things. But I know that everyone has their preference (vodka not gin in martinis??) and I've committed to leaving the classic_ui branch up permanently. This condemns me to a trickle of emails in about 2025 when Windows n+1 finally stops supporting Unity 2019, but I can live with that if you can. I leave you with something charming from Lottie. If you're wondering what Hush House looks like, or what Ambrose Westcott did in his spare hours, this will enlighten you slightly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVVJ-TjhrrM Dream furiously AK

Dahlias. The Aztecs ate them. Mexico selected it as the national flower. And PG Wodehouse named Bertie Wooster's favourite aunt after them. Here she is in full cry: "To look at you, [Bertie], one would think you were just an ordinary sort of amiable idiot - certifiable, perhaps, but quite harmless. Yet, in reality, you are worse a scourge than the Black Death. I tell you, Bertie, when I contemplate you I seem to come up against all the underlying sorrow and horror of life with such a thud that I feel as if I had walked into a lamp post. I thought as much. Well, it needed but this. I don't see how things could possibly be worse than they are, but no doubt you will succeed in making them so. Your genius and insight will find the way. Carry on, Bertie. Yes, carry on. I am past caring now. I shall even find a faint interest in seeing into what darker and profounder abysses of hell you can plunge this home. Go to it, lad... I remember years ago, when you were in your cradle, being left alone with you one day and you nearly swallowed your rubber comforter and started turning purple. And I, ass that I was, took it out and saved your life. Let me tell you, young Bertie, it will go very hard with you if you ever swallow a rubber comforter again when only I am by to aid.
Next time you're playing as the Bright Young Thing and worrying about juggling Dread, remember that at least you don't have a Wooster aunt to worry about. I should probably have put one in. Dahlia is a stability patch, though for the first time in years, it does include a tiny extra bit of content. (I need to sort out localisations in four languages for that bit of content, which is why I don't often add content any more.) === - Hardened against some crashes from less well behaved mods - Hardened against corrupted config.ini files - If your save is corrupted and there are valid backups, you won't need to rename manually - Prisoners can now be freed, murdered, or enlightened. - Aspect sprites now appear again in Apostle runs and Dancer - Tidied up options panel === You may have noticed the patches have slowed down lately. Those of you who follow the Weather Factory blog will have seen some recent drama. Lottie and I reckon 40% of our time in the last couple of months has been taken up with that drama, and I HOPE it's now resolved. This frees me up, but I also have BOOK OF HOURS to make. So we are going to bring in a little more part-time testing and dev resource (from a name some of you will know). This means more stability, fewer hotfixes. (I HOPE). Bonus content.

The Book of Issues

The Books of the New Forge

The Locksmith's Dream, Volume ?

The Book of Hours

- You can now set gridsnap to 'no gridsnap' again. Welcome, children of the Moth - Magnet-grabbed cards now return to their original position afterwards (e.g. when the detective gets lost post-suspicion, he won't) - Weird dropzone ricochet effect no longer occurs when you put a card into a slot where it doesn't fit - Card stacks now place properly - Card stacks no longer open information window when dropped on the desktop (don't even) - Stack badge shader now uses backface cull so it doesn't appear on reversed cards - KEEP SAVE button works again - Perf improvements

Fixed a gridsnap bias that favoured left/top row. Damn that's better. Fixed a blurry text issue on cards Fixed frequency bug in card shuffle. Particular thanks to Chelnoque and Clocq (no relations) on this Added workaround for crash bug in latest Unity version. This one was, for once, not my fault, folks

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CULTIST SIM!

• Cultist Simulator (66% off)
• The Dancer, Priest, Ghoul and Exile DLC (50% off)
• Cultist Simulator's OST (50% off)
• The Anthology Edition bundle, which includes all of the above @ 65% off-ish (bundle maths is hard)
• The Lady Afterwards digital TRPG (50% off)

BOOK OF HOURS

THE LADY AFTERWARDS

THE LOCKSMITH'S DREAM

I've put a patch on beta that fixes the two really annoying leftover placement issues. One was the INSISTENT DROPZONE, where if you dropped the dropzone on top of existing cards, it would want to be picked up before it let you pick them up. One was the GUTTER ENFORCED, where 1:1 gridsnap meant 1:1 horizontally, but left a vertical gap between rows. I liked the effect. A lot of folk didn't and let me know it, so I've changed it BUT only in new games. (Otherwise it'll screw up everyone's existing layout.) To repeat this is on only on the beta channel for now - gateofhorn - and it'll stay there until at least next week. The latest Unity update keeps doing this to me in the editor:
and while it doesn't happen in the built version, it's giving me the spiderchills so I'm going to wait for a response to my ticket. Yes devs submit tickets too. Unity presumably submit tickets to OS vendors. I don't know who OS vendors submit tickets to. Maybe they submit petitions to a higher power instead. In Vak probably Anyway tickets to *me* go to support@weatherfactory.biz. Please let me know about any spiders in the beta. Alternatively, if you're technically enthusiastic, you can submit it as a Github issue. (In this case you might also be interested to know I make the source code available for the convenience of modders and the curious.) The full bug list:

• More tweakss to card placement: moved card closer to desk, tidied dropzone grid placement
• Narrowed gridsnap so you can put cards immediately below each other at gridsnap 1. THIS ONLY HAPPENS IN NEW GAMES, so people's card arrangements aren't messed up\n
• Dropzone now reliably stays out of the way behind cards\n
• Stack badge and verb timer also now render behind\n
• Close button on deck details window now works.\n
• Some poor soul kept trying to use Rite Intercalate to baptise a Chosen Compass. People shouldn't do that, but let's not let them try.
• One more round of jp_loc fixes
• Non-Latin messages no longer display as tofu when returning from the Mansus

YERMA is an opera based on a really savage play by Federico Garcia Lorca, about childlessness and murder. Lorca was one of the best-known sons of Granada, the very beautiful, very steeply sloping Spanish city where I lived two decades ago. He was murdered under murky circumstances, because a brilliant, gay, left-wing, avant-garde playwright is a bad thing to be under fascism. In another History, he almost certainly visited the Mansus on the night of his death.
Lorca RIP, thanks for ending our run of opera-based patch names. I was going to do one more (ZAUBERFLOTE) but YERMA is the PATCH WHERE CARD PLACEMENT IS FIXED, so I want to end it on a high. NB that is FIXED, not PERFECT. There's room for further improvement, and I have a list of other QoL issues (yes detective homing) to work through. But card placement has gone from being FSCKED to being SHONKY to being MUCH IMPROVED to being FINE. Thank you all for your patience, bug reports, and feedback. A quick roundup of the last set of changes: Fixed a bug where dropping the card while the ghost was moving could leave the card stranded between the grid. - a real head-slap moment, this. A number of people pointed out that sometimes cards ended up off the grid, but it took some debugging time to work out why. Added some camera angle correction. The game already compensated for the card being above or below the camera when calculating where it drops. (This was the biggest single fix previously.) It also now compensates for the table tilt. Q. AK, why you tilt table? tilt table look confusing. There even mod to untilt. A. Dear player, once long ago I agree, but a contract UI designer back in 2018 convince me not so. just make environment look more lively. Four years on I still think he's right. That said: Turned off lively but confusing card wiggle when dragging cards - there's long been a pseudo-random wiggle on the cards when you move 'em. I did like this but it is needlessly confusing when you're deciding where to put the cards. So I finally turned it off, and I like the cleaner effect. If I get twenty emails saying the wiggle's disappearance makes the game LITERALLY UNPLAYABLE, I'll put it back in, if I get just one, I'll write a sorrowful reply saying sorry, wiggle dead. made the grid a bit more insistent - honestly this is too boring to explain default gridsnap is now 1/2, give it a try - IMO 1/2 gridsnap is the sweet spot. (I haven't forgotten I promised a NO GRIDSNAP option too - still coming.) Anyway this patch went live on beta yesterday and then again this morning. Then I noticed I'd included the stupidest bug of my entire career. From your side, this was 'GAME CRASHES WHEN I MOVE CARD DROPZONE', which is not a good back of the box feature. From my side this was
which for those of you who don't code means 'not only immediately crash Unity with an infinite loop when this method runs, but do so in a jaw-droppingly obvious way'. My testing is always a little shaky (we're a two-person team and Lottie is busy drawing skill icons) but I don't see how I missed this one. I'm hoping it's some weird build process/source control hiccup and not actual senility. ANYWAY IT'S FIXED NOW SORRY. Talking of (a) testing (b) Lottie
the Book of Hours Secret Historian's packs are looking good. and Lottie was delighted that she'd found a wide selection of actual 1920s cigarette cards to add to them. but almost too late she realised that not everything that appears on a 1920s cigarette card is appropriate in 2020, and has had to go through them all carefully to make sure we didn't send anyone anything INCREDIBLY RACIST by mistake. An extra thank you to everyone who suggested naming conventions for subsequent patches. I was tempted by cheese names. I was more tempted by Zulu names. But because of some relevant lorey backgroundy contexty business, I'm going with flowers, and the next patch will be ASPHODEL. As Dagmar von Nagelburg would say, pip pip, pots of love. AK

• CARD PLACEMENT - fixed a bug where dropping the card while the ghost was moving could leave the card stranded between the grid.
• CARD PLACEMENT - added some camera angle correction. CARD PLACEMENT - made the grid a bit more insistent
• CARD PLACEMENT - default gridsnap is now 1/2, give it a try
• CARD PLACEMENT - turned off lively but confusing card wiggle when dragging cards.
• Console fixes
• Fixed crash when a verb was deleted on the cusp of situation execution
• Trimmed player log spam

Hullo; contrary to unkind opinion, I'm still alive. Proof: [url=https://weatherfactory.biz/skeleton-songs/]
Any developer knows how important it is to make sure your game is stable going into a major sale, and not to patch it the night before. I'm not any developer, so I dropped two updates yesterday. Fortunately they don't appear to have broken anything important, and they have made some much-requested changes to the card placement mechanism. Here are the patch notes for both VIOLET and WUTHERING:

• Fix: You no longer need to restart the game to restore CONTINUE to the menu
• Fix: $remove command no longer breaks mods
• Fix: correctly handling extends as well as inheritance in older mods
• Fix: Card ghost no longer disappears when card is removed from an additional slot
• MAJOR CARD PLACEMENT CHANGE: the placement position now corrects for the camera. This means the card ghost goes much closer to the card. Many thanks to Genroa, Dylan and others who managed to get this point across to me.
• A couple of other minor placement tweaks
• Card grid no longer assumes a gap between rows. This may require some fiddling with big existing layouts, sorry, but the feedback over time was clear here.
• Slightly better Mansus exit experience
• Fixed hilarious bug with multi-select. (yes you can shift-drag to multi-select cards, semi-hidden feature)

This is a smallish patch with a couple of significant hotfixes. The first is the problem that made people think they were losing their saves: you weren't, they're still there, but you needed to restart the game to get at them, which was extremely not ideal, sorry. The second was an issue with the modding upgrades which were breaking a popular mod; props to Chelnoque for getting back quickly with a hotfix. - Fix: You no longer need to restart the game to restore CONTINUE to the menu - Fix: $remove command no longer breaks mods - Fix: correctly handling extends as well as inheritance in older mods - Fix: Card ghost no longer disappears when card is removed from an additional slot

- Card ghost uses the mouse cursor, not the centre of a blocking card, to determine direction to seek in. This makes, ah, quite a difference to card placement feel. - Better handling of corrupt save files - More variety in the menu screen promo blocks - Fixed Exile content bugs: Velvet, Medusa, Book of Suns (which I thought had been fixed!)\n - OSX/GOG now works again - Substantial fixed and upgrades for modding. Many thanks to Chelnoque. More details in MODDING_README - Animations and images should work correctly in mods - Options Panel now better supports mod-driven config options (see /testcontent/core/settings/z_mod_config_demo.json) - More stable modding incompatibility / interoperability - More modding commands - see MODDING_README and /testcontent/core/settings/mod_ops_demo.json

- Quick fix for silliness with the starting dropzone alignment - Fixed lots of Japanese loc garbling. Particular thanks to Clocq for their work on this! - Console slot now allows stackables. - Fix for insane bug where game became unresponsive when you alt-tabbed out of the Mansus. (I caused this bug.) - Applied kibble to cat bowl to shut up cat. You don't think that's a bug but then you don't have to listen to this monster.

- Notable token snap improvement (position wasn't updating when your pointer was above a ghost) - Tokens now drag from the cursor position where you pick 'em up - Right/double-click to send now goes reliably to closest token, if no window is open - Book of Suns in EXILE can now be assembled again, again. - Medusa now gives pentiments again - Prev and next buttons for notes now show usable usefully again - A once-stacked token returning to its stack after a window is closed will now merge with that stack - Corpses now retain more effects from their previous lives (again)

- EXPERIMENTAL: Hold SHIFT and click multiple cards to drag them at once. - You can now drop cards in drop zones directly. I didn't think anyone would want to, but you do! You mad fools! So now you can! - Restored some visual flair to newly spawned verb tiles. - A little bit more proofing against one save-corruption scenario. - Tweaked zoom factors. - Fixed Sanskrit Text icon

Happy Friday, peeps! We've stopped doing our fortnightly sprint updates (please tell us in the comments if you'd like us to start doing them again), but we have lots of irons in the fire and I thought it's high time for me to give you an update. So here's what's coming up in the next chapter of Weather Factory: Still Not Doing the Visual Novel We Made Up In 2018.

Cultist Simulator

The Lady Afterwards

Other stuff

Nother week, another patch. My routine at the moment is to push a patch, work on Book of Hours and other things for a few days, and then come back, assess feedback and tweak. I'll keep doing this until I stop seeing any significant complaints about the UI. (At least no significant *reasonable* complaints - there'll always be someone who wants it to be a hexagonal grid or to run on a smart fridge or something.) BUT this patch is on the beta branch for now, because there've been some significant changes behind the scenes, and there's also an experimental feature in there. I think it's pretty stable now but I bet there'll be some weirdness I've missed.
Ugh, those colours! I'm not sure how that happens, but I usually do it in grayscale now. SHIFT + CLICK selects the extra cards. There's another experimental feature coming in the next patch or three. This is something that I built for Book of Hours but am considering backporting into Cultist if people find it interesting. Ignore that horrible button, it's super temporary.
While I'm here, how do people feel about a Steam Deck verified version of Cultist? I don't think it needs much work, but it does need some, and it'll sit at the bottom of my priority pile unless Lottie and I think people are really enthusiastic. ------- v2022.3.q.1 QUIETPLACE EXPERIMENTAL: Hold SHIFT and click multiple cards to drag them at once. You can now drop cards in drop zones directly. I didn't think anyone would want to, but you do! You mad fools! So now you can! Restored some visual flair to newly spawned verb tiles. A little bit more proofing against one save-corruption scenario. Tweaked zoom factors. Fixed Sanskrit Text icon

- card ghosts more appropriately spectral - cursor key pan works again - edge scrolling (again) only works when you're holding a token. - added more flexibility to card placing, again - greedy slots will no longer try to double-grab at the end of their cycle - fixed embarrassingly long-standing but with Dancing for Heart Scars - releasing mouse button after a dragged card has been grabbed should no longer cause weirdness - slightly more robustness when mods are removed (no promises)

- Fix to prevent exhausted cards trying to stack with their unexhausted cousins\n - Fix to prevent cards returning to the same spot when another card is now there.\n - Basic fix for edge scrolling (I'll refine)\n - Fix (I hope) for Mansus cards getting stuck on return to the waking world.\n - Fix for very old bug in Priest DLC where a useless Refiring card appeared\n",

Cards at start of new game no longer annoyingly unaligned with grid. Magnet slots now grab from tabletop->outputs->slots, in that order. Cards you're dragging count as 'on the tabletop' for that priority :) When a card decays at the exact moment it reaches a greedy slot, it no longer causes a confusing info popup. Teeny border on elements in situation. Fixes for some obscure save state problems

It's ten days since that nasty business with the big update, and I've just released, counting on my fingers since that can't be right, yes it is, the twelfth patch. More if you count hotfixes. There were a lot of bugs. Sorry, all. I think the vast majority of save-eating evening-ruining bugs are fixed. Maybe even all, though I won't count on it yet. I'm tracking thirty-five remaining issues ranging from 'that really annoying thing where the magnet snatches a card from a slot' through 'DOA on Mac Monterey, sometimes' to 'wrong influence upgrade text in rare circumstance'. So I'm going back down to yellow alert, bugs-wise. I think that'll last until middle of next week. But you want to know about the snap-to-grid fixes. I'm not done with these, I'll revisit, but we're in a better place. Let me talk about that now.
Okay, this is why everyone was so unhappy. When I was staring at this sort of thing for hours and fixing subtle recipe logic bugs, it didn't really register. The moment I look at it out of context, right, ugh, it's like being punched in the brain. I'm thinking of adding a HORRIBLE option to the gridsnap besides 1, 1/2, 1/4 so people who really want to do hardcore speedruns can do it on boards that look like this.
And this is what it looks like now. The biggest problem was that the cards and the tiles both lived on separate grids. This made sense to me when I was coding it but obviously they should live on the same grid so they can line up with some friendly space around them. Now they do. My thanks to the folks who helped me grok this. It wasn't the only problem. Here's another thing that attracted what you might call disenthusiasm:
Funds card really, really gets attached to those spots. The fix here was just 'recalculate card ghost position while moving over other tokens, not just over tabletop':
I've tweaked a bunch of other stuff and I'm going to step back and watch the feedback channels. It's not perfect yet. I noticed that the card ghost, at some resolutions/config settings, displays a sort of prankish, playful attitude:
I think it's actually quite charming, like having a tiny goat ambling over your board, but I suspect most will disagree. So I'll fix it, but as ever the main problem will likely be something that didn't occur to me at all, which might make the whole thing irrelevant. THE DOWNSIDE: if you've got a board setup aligned to the old grid, there'll be some fiddling to tidy it all up. Sorry: the alternative was some sort of automated realignment, which would almost certainly have ruined someone's whole day. To make it easier, I do have a small surprise in the pipeline that'll make card org easier:

but it's not stable yet, and the last thing I want to do is unleash another wave of bugs. --- The last ten days have been exhausting but also surprisingly positive. I've been in a bit of a shell since the whole cancellation thing. This has forced me to engage with the community more than I have in years, and by and large you're a good bunch. Apologies again for fscking up the game, and thanks for bearing with me. Q. Did you post any more of those videos? A. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvfr83sBAefP3I9hWVfmdrJOD1epq66ay Q. Hey, you never answered... A. I've got 50 tickets on the back burner that I'll work through gradually. The answer is usually 'fixed in last patch' but not always. Q. Didn't you post an influences list about Where You Get Your Ideas? A. yup, here: http://weatherfactory.biz/influences Q. Do you want to shill your book again like you did at the big update? A. That sold a surprising number of copies, and I was tempted to do it again but it looks a bit tacky right now so I'm settling for this casual drive-by. I'll probably put it in the game menu like Tynan does when things have calmed down. Q. Who is the cat in the error page? A. His name is Chi and he's frankly a disgrace.

Overhaul of card placement and grid snap Cloud save works for new save file format Fixed 'Canterville' crash\n Fixed 'Leucrotta' issue with child slots eating cards on game load Fixed Shattered/Burgeoning Risen summons Experimentally removed experimental post-processing filter Mansus exit portal no longer looks like a coder threw up on it

Fixed 'Esau' card-vanishing bug. Stacks of cards no longer calculate multiples of their aspect when determining if you can put em in a slot. Fixed crash on exiting Mansus. Reduced log spam.

Teeny hotfix

- If you visited the Mansus too often, your save would eventually eat your memory and crash. On brand but no fun. Fixed - Fixed another Mansus-related crash. - Fixed another angle on the 'Gryla' bug. - Stacked cards aspects don't show multiplied by stack total in the info window - Double-click or right-click to send will now rememeber the card's original location.

- Fixed that bloody bug where everyone's Glover and Glover job was disappearing, and some similar issues. - Post-Mansus pause now definitely fixed. (It wasn't working if you quite reasonably pressed the space bar instead of N.) - Fixed clipping plane issue at farthest zoom - More consistent fix for 'Glugageggir' bug - Probable fix for game-breaking bug when game is played in English with Turkish regional settings in Windows. fml.

- Missing verb slots restored to verbs. - Increased distance of farthest zoom level - Cards now autostack in preference to dropzone

-Fixed nasty set of 'Gryla'-related crashes around decaying cards - Game ending no longer crashes with default lorem ipsum text - Better logging for speed changes, so I can work out why pause still sometimes sticks

- Fixed intermittent Exile crash around halting verbs. - Changing high contrast setting no longer crashes game - Returning from Mansus no longer requires a restart to unpause - Elements shown correctly in status bar in Exile. - Reckoners no longer send an inexplicable corpse to your next destination when you leave. - Fixed issue where it was sometimes possible to start recipes with the hotkey but not a button click. - Likely fix for crash codename 'Gryla' - Likely fix for crash codename 'Gluggagegir' - Likely fix for crash codename 'Stekkjarstaur' - Started naming cause-undetermined crashes after the Yule Lads so I can keep track

Last Thursday I released a significant update to Cultist Simulator and sat back, feeling pretty pleased with myself. Most of the work was under the hood - a near-total rewrite - but it included some long-requested QOL features that I thought people would like. I reckoned there were a few minor bugs to tidy up the following day (priority 5 on a scale where 1 is 'EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE' and 9 is 'is that even a thing') but it'd been in beta for several months so I was confident it was stable. I spent the evening watching the MLP movie with my kid and didn't think much of it. The next morning I fired up my PC and found a Steam forum full of cross, bewildered players, about fifty support emails, and the orange text that puts the fear in every indie dev on Steam:
It wasn't even the bugs that were most upsetting people. It was the rework of the card placement UI, which worked, I rather suddenly realised, about as well as trying to fit ice cubes into a cat. And a 'minor' camera navigation issue that I'd long ago stopped noticing. I'd fucked up royally and I'd never seen it coming. How? I'd got complacent. Sure, it had been in beta for months, but there was no compelling reason to play a slightly janky beta. It seems plenty of players had seen the problems and assumed they'd be fixed before I went live. One player had written a heartfelt and articulate critique of the camera and UI issues, but it had ended up as one of six links in a bundle of four emails and I'd missed it. More insidious still, I was getting pages and pages of high quality feedback from one particular modding group, funnelled through one helpful modding rep with screenshots and repro steps:
so since I'd fixed hundreds of bugs over months of testing, and the bugs had slowed to a trickle, it must be fine? Right? Okay, it wasn't fine. What I really needed to do - what I should have done - is sit down and play the bloody game for a couple of days and take notes. And before that, I should have formalised the beta test, checked in with specific people, taken notes, like I did with the Exile DLC. If I'd done that, I'd have seen all this stuff and fixed it a week later in a much better state. Lesson learnt. Like I said, I got complacent. SO let me apologise to all you loyal souls for foisting this nasty surprise on you, wrapped up like a Christmas present. And let me say that the community has actually been very nice about the whole thing. I've had some mildly grumpy mails but loads of supportive, helpful, detailed mails which take time out to say how much they love the game. -- To business. I spent Friday and the weekend trying to sort out this nonsense, and fixed the worst issues and a bunch of nuisance ones. I'm staying on this next week. The card grid snap is going to get another round of love, and I still have a couple of dozen issues in my list. If you'd still like to roll back to the old version, you can find instructions on doing that here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/718670/discussions/0/3182361055551113455/ I'm off to drink me tea. Have wildly coloured dreams, everyone. AK PS bonus content: [previewyoutube=X3lMn6Jm2jI;full][/previewyoutube]

CARD PLACEMENT FIXES! - Much more user freedom on card placement. Sorry about the earlier trouble. - 1/8 gridsnap by default. This is as close to no gridsnap as makes no diff, but I may yet add that too. Watching feedback.",

Sorry all! The Metamorphosed Edition broke more than I realised. I'm working on fixes, but if you want to roll back to the old version in the meantime, instructions are here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/718670/discussions/0/3182361055551113455/ Fixes in this patch: - Camera feels smoother (I haven't added the old drift effect back - but I might yet) - Force-set gridsnap to 1/4. This will address a lot of perceived card placement probs. You can change it back tho. - Game no longer crashes when scouting a city in Exile immediately after travelling to that city - Fixed Chinese & Japanese loc - Leaving at Mansus, then reloading, no longer crashes game - Slowed down token travel time for greedy slots and click-to-send, rapid speed was alarming erryone

I'm going to post this for a third and final time, because people always seem to like it: "As you know, holometabolous metamorphosis is one of the most ghastly things in nature. The larva is driven by chemical imperatives to entomb itself alive in its own final skin. Then the absence of a protective juvenile hormone permits the activation of the imaginal discs embedded in its infant flesh. These spew forth a torrent of enzymes which tear apart most of its cells in a sort of quasi-digestive self-immolation, leaving it as basically a shiny bulging sac of goo in which the discs float, spinning new parts and organs round themselves out of the dissolved ex-caterpillar. When theyve finished, the imago will explode out of its old skin like a John Carpenter special effect. Its wings at this point are still soft and soggy, with the consistency of used kitchen paper, so itll have to hang upside down, dry off and pump hemolymph into its wing-veins before it can take off and make innocent humans coo over its beautiful colours. Anyway, so the point were at is that Ive spun a cocoon round Cultist Simulator and Ive pumped enough liquefying enzymes into it that its more goo than game at this point. This is progress." The last paragraph, I'm pleased to report, is now out of date. Cultist Simulator has emerged from its cocoon after its rewrite. After a long period of what I would love to call spectacular buggery, if that didn't mean something else that had nothing to do with bugs, but 'Spectacular Buggery' sounds like a band name or a minor David Foster Wallace novel or perhaps an exhibition at the ICA c.1985, right? Where was I? I've lost my glasses. Here they are. Oh Lottie's bringing me a cup of tea, that's nice. I'm fifty years old now, you know.

CULTIST SIMULATOR REWRITE

FAQ

Another set of bug fixes and tweaks for the beta rewrite. This is RC2; between you and me, I think we'll go to RC3, i.e. there'll be more one more update before this hits the main branch. I'll tidy up a few immediate bugs and go back to Book of Hours. I've mentioned before that this code rewrite is because I'm building Book of Hours inside Cultist Simulator. I originally said 'as a Cultist Simulator mod' but that very quickly became unrealistic. Still, it's right in there:
I've said before that a lot of BH will be CS under the skin, albeit with a different UI and a lot more functionality. Like this:
I hope you can see the point through the fog of horrible placeholder gfx. Dropping a book in a bookcase is not unlike dropping a card in a CS verb slot. Indeed, in some senses bookcases (and crafting stations, and your avatar) are the BH version of verbs. Some of the rules are different: it's not all one big tabletop, for example, so you can't drag books into an adjacent room (or, in most cases, unless your avatar is present in the same room). But many of the rules are the same, which makes things easier for me both from a technical and from a game design perspective. This means that anyone really keen can dig in and see some very early Book of Hours material. Their eagerness will be matched only by their disappointment, because one of the things that build switch does is include/exclude content, so there is no BH content to speak of, and all the code is super-early. But if you see it, that's what it's there for. And it's a little easier to see it, because of this: https://github.com/weatherfactory/cultistsimulator-visible which is a public branch of the source code for Cultist. I haven't open-sourced CS! This is just a convenience for modders and the curious: it's already possible to decompile the source code from the finished Unity build, and people have been doing this for years, but this makes some extra info (like comments) visible. It also makes it possible to log issues directly on GitHub. There's a handful of modders and other very engaged community members who've been giving extremely helpful, technically detailed feedback and bug reports, and this makes it easier to do that without routing everything through standard support tickets. But if you're just a player whose game has crashed and this all looks forbiddingly technical and irrelevant, that's cool, support@weatherfactory.biz is still what you want. To play us out, some recent ethnolinguististorical business that's fed into Book of Hours: "Too Long Near The Woods To Be Frit By Owls"

This is another pay-no-attention-to-the-man-behind-the-curtain release. It's largely 1/ code rewrites to support Book of Hours; 2/ teeny extra features which I like or am trying out pre-Book of Hours; 3/ tweaks for which modders have politely pleaded; 4/ bug fixes because 1/ or 2/ or 3/ have broken other things. I'll talk more vividly about some examples. The banner feature of this release is that IT'S NOW POSSIBLE TO STACK DECAYING CARDS!!!!! as long as they're all within one second of different remaining lifetime values, so you can put your 21.4s Contentment card on your 20.8s Contentment card and well done, you've extended the lifetime by 0.6 seconds, ekeing out happiness' embers a sliver more effectively. This is possibly a Statement about Life. Did I mention I turned 50? 'Would you like me to stick my head in a bucket of water? I've got one here.' Anyway this feature is genuinely a feature but the reason it's in is this. One of our more helpful beta-testers pointed out that card stacks split weirdly under two exotic circumstances; one of which is if you tried to drop a whole stack in a slot, and the other was which (deep breath) if a recipe created a stack of 3 or more lifetimed/decaying cards, like Contentment. The second one doesn't happen at all in the base game! But it does in some mods, so I have to support it, and to be fair I might some day decide to add it to CS DLC (no announcements here, but you never know) or to Book of Hours. And more generally, weird exotic rare case bugs can sometimes come back to wreak havoc if you don't fix them early. (If you need convincing, read about the Yellowstone Zone of Death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_Death_(Yellowstone) It won't really allow anyone to get away with murder, but it will probably give a judge a bad migraine some day. ) 'Split weirdly' means that a stack of n cards would split to two stacks of n-1 cards. This doesn't matter with a stack of 2 cards. It matters a lot with a stack of, say, 5 cards:
So I had to fix this. In the process I found that there was no provision in the codebase for splitting (or creating) decaying card stacks. The assumption is you'd never have a stack of decaying cards. And I remember flagging this with Martin, the contractor I got to help with the game back in 2017, and him pointing out quite reasonably that it wouldn't make sense to need to combine them, because you'd never have two decaying cards with the exact same lifetime, right? And sure, back then it made sense. This is the thing about four-year-old code bases where the designer keeps having more ideas and then modders keep having MORE more ideas. But now I had to fix it. And the fix was easy. So you lucky people have a new feature for free. Sorry it's not a very exciting one. I am sometimes[1] asked: AK, why all the penny-ante technical releases? Why not more content? That's what everyone's here for. The answer is simple: localisation. Any content I add has to be localised into Chinese, Russian, Japanese and German, now that the game is available in those languages. And the actual translation of a teeny bit of content takes little time, but talking to loc partners, providing translation notes, chasing, finding mistakes, and following up when our fan base find mistakes[2]. And this is probably a good thing. Or I would still be working on adding more material to original CS and Book of Hours would literally never happen. But localisation continues to be an ongoing Thing, especially now we have people eager to support fan localisations. I've learnt more than I ever expected to about Unicode, fonts, and text in Unity. ('Would you like me to stick my head in a big bucket of Unicode?') I have had plaintive mails over the last year from Polish and Hungarian players asking me to add better Latin-2/Latin-A support for the special characters in those languages, and I kept thinking, I thought I'd added that? It turns out there was a bug in the fontscript selection, and a problem with the font asset I'd set up in Unity, none of which I'd ever have noticed without being hassled about it. Your attention is waning, isn't it. I don't blame you. Let me win it back with this trivium: Unicode has a code page specifically for the (never-deciphered) characters found only on a disc of fired clay dug up in the Minoan palace of Phaistos on Crete. https://unicode-table.com/en/blocks/phaistos-disc/
(By C messier - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38737955) More in the actual patch notes if you're interested. In theory this is a second release candidate for the main branch: I think it'll go to a third release candidate while I turn up leftover irritations like persistent card ghosts ('oooooo SHUFFLE oooo') and exotic save conversion bugs. But we're almost there. -- [1] constantly [2] or just take exception to a particular translation. And then I have to make a call on whether to go with the translator or the player. Because we have unusually engaged and thoughtful players, this is possible, but often quite involved. Here's an example from 2020. -- [From: redacted] Hello, on some occassions the word "Forst" is used for "Wood", like in 'Way: The Wood' (see screenshot). "Forst" is most of the time used for a managed and/or commercial wood with forestry and foresters and selling trees and such. Depending on the lore this might or might not be the correct for 'The Wood'. ;-) ...but in case it is not, the normal, common word for Wood is "Wald", (like it is used in the entry screen). ==== [From: me] Thanks! Can I dig into this a bit? We should pick and stick to one term, and it sounds like 'Wald' is probably better, but (1) Our cognate in English, 'forest', originally meant an area set aside for hunting; but because these areas were large and uncultivated, 'forest' took on the colloquial meaning of 'especially large, wild woodland area' and that's how most English speakers would now understand it. Do you think the same applies in German with 'Forst', or is it explicitly managed woodland? (2) I chose 'Wood' because of the connection with 'wildwood', which has a particular resonance in the UK particularly with the mythic and primal, but also with children's stories. Does 'Wald' have any similar connections or overlaps? I'd welcome your thoughts. (and thanks for all your feedback: I've just added you to the Special Thanks section) ==== [From: redacted] Sorry for the long answer. Since the answer has potentially big implications if the term is changed everywhere, I did some research and thought about it in detail to be able to give as precise answers as possible. (1) "Forst" in the 7th century was unowned, unused land. Later the term was used at times to distinguish large areas of woods from smaller ones ("Forst": larger, "Wald": smaller). But the term changed the meaning again in the Middle Ages, when landlords began restricting free use of the resources of the "Wald", i.e. banned hunting and harvesting wood for everyone but themselves. Such a restricted wood would then be called "Forst". Today the term "Forst" is generally associated with some kind of management and restriction and is often a less wild, 'cleaner' version of "Wald" because of it's commercial usage. (2) I am a little bit older, so unfortunately I cannot say anything about the associations children today have with forests or what stories or myths they know about it. As an adult I have some direct associations with the term "Wald", which is probably the direction you are looking for: - forest burials [a] (getting more and more popular here) - a historical and mythical battle - germanic paganism [c] - use in classical fairy tales [d] (where the forest is dangerous/mythical/a place for transformation) - home of mythical creatures like forest ghosts, forest goblins, fairies, elves, trolls Long story short: Yes, I think there are mythical and primeval connections to the word "Wald". [a] https://www.dw.com/en/the-green-way-of-death/a-19527764 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Teutoburg_Forest [c] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_trees_and_groves_in_Germanic_paganism_and_mythology [d] Brothers Grimm: Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Town Musicians of Bremen, Snow White (3) Another theoretical option: If you really want to emphasize that the forest is untouched by humans, you could also use the word "Urwald" ('primeval forest'). However, "Urwald" is often associated with the Amazon rainforest or any jungle in german. So aside from the artistic choice, the less ambiguous variant would be "Wald". ==== From: [me] Thank you very much for this lengthy and thoughtful response! I've made the change and I'll roll it into the next patch.

Verb dropzone, smoother animation, a bunch of fixes to positioning logic. If the beta version featured your cards fleeing the board, this will discourage 'em.

The Lady Afterwards is our Cultist Simulator-inspired TRPG set in the Secret Histories, a 1920s world of apocalypse, yearning and the Hours. The boxed edition sold out in 60 seconds - and then the pre-orders we hastily put up for sale sold out in 72 hours. But the unlimited digital edition is out now, and everyone can get their hands on it with our shiny new Steam bundle!

The Lady Afterwards: Digital Edition is available as a 'Complete the set' bundle with Cultist Simulator, giving you 15% off both games. If you already own Cultist Sim, you'll just be charged for The Lady Afterwards. This is the first time a developer has ever released a digital TRPG like this on Steam, we think!

What's included?

The other Secret Histories

I've been reworking the whole Cultist Simulator codebase so I can use it in BOOK OF HOURS too. And also so that I can provide some additional modder support, and fix a rare but nasty bug in the old save system. If you've been paying close attention, you'll have seen updates being released on to the alpha branch (aka gateofivory), very quietly, like a semi-retired widower-spy releasing messenger-bats at twilight. These updates are now on the beta branch (gateofhorn). Here's what you should know if you want to go in there: [olist]

In line with Steam's Tabletop Fest 2021, Cultist Simulator's TRPG The Lady Afterwards is OUT NOW! But it sold out in 60s so we're offering 500 pre-orders via our website here.
The Lady Afterwards is a luxury boxed tabletop game inspired by classics like Chaosium's Horror on the Orient Express. It's a non-linear, combat-light, story-centric tabletop RPG for 2 - 8 players set in the Secret Histories - the world of Cultist Simulator - where hidden gods watch over a Lovecraftian world of apocalypse and yearning. It's been designed to offer an accessible experience to people who've hesitated to played TRPGs before, but to offer plenty of meat to tabletop aficionados too. Each box includes everything you need for an evening of occult Egyptian noir, such as a full scenario and rulebook, 18 hand-stamped clues, a pocket tarot deck, full character sheets and pins, a large map, two sets of antique dice, and more! See a full list of contents and see all our beautiful photos on our shop, and watch us chat through a very chill, candle-lit unboxing session here. We're only releasing 100 boxes in this first run, though if it sells out in a trice we have contingency plans ready!
For anyone who misses out - or for anyone who prefers their TRPGs digital - we're releasing a digital-only version on Thursday 18th November, on our shop, Steam, and various online RPG sites like DriveThruRPG. If you want to be notified when that's available, make sure you're signed up to our mailing list! (The boxed edition includes the digital edition, so you can play with friends who live close and friends who live on the other side of the world.)

Tabletop Fest

Developer AMA

Happy Tabletop Fest! We'll have a lot of things to reveal tomorrow which we can't talk about now. But we can invite you to chat to us live on our subreddit, for a celebratory weekend AMA!

• Starts: Thursday 21st Oct @ 6.30PM BST / 10.30AM PDT
• Ends: Monday 25th Oct @ 6PM BST / 10AM PDT

Veteran player Systemchalk - one of our earliest adopters, the man with the velvet voice, and possibly the only person who's actually beaten New Game+ - is once again tackling Cultist Simulator as part of Steam's Tabletop Fest. We'll have a bunch of exciting things to announce at the start of his stream, so hope to see you there!

The Lady Afterwards

Developer AMA

Steam Freebies

Cultist Simulator alpha build

• The modding community has been asking for a DLL loading hook, for a long time. Its in there, and it might even work. Check MODDING_README.TXT for details.
• There's no backwards save compatibility right now. To fix some horrible, stubborn save bugs that have been in there from the beginning, we needed to change the format completely. We'll (95% certainty) write a save format converter before it gets to the beta branch.

World Mental Health Day

Win free, forbidden things

The Lady Afterwards

Want more Cultist Sim? Well..... SO DO WE but we're busy making BOOK OF HOURS. But we *do* have updates on the upcoming The Lady Afterwards, our Cultist Simulator TRPG, which we hope will feed your Fascination. We mentioned that part of the mechanics the Regard of the Hours, specifically require a tarot deck, so in case anyone doesnt have one were including a mini pocket-deck called the Essential Hours. Heres a mock-up!
Each decks a portable A7 size and includes the 23 Hours we know and, possibly, love, from the Moth to the Mare-in-the-Tree. No minor arcana, no messing about, and the only way you can currently get a God-from-Nowhere on a card. Who wouldnt want a God-from-Nowhere in their pocket? Ive also been working with a new supplier on our character pins and have a test run in the works. Theyve told me we have to change the design slightly to cater to reality pfft but it should still maintain the 1920s feel. Ill share pictures of the real things when they arrive!
And the biggest part of my sprints been on writing the whole Game Runners Guide, which I cant show you at all yet. So in the meantime, as everyone seemed to enjoy the Dancers, have another character questionnaire! This time for the BYT.
If you still want more, there's a deep-dive into BOOK OF HOURS's Wisdom tree and a new Skeleton Songs episode on D&D and TRPGs' enduring legacy over on the blog. Enjoy!

Its Cultist Simulators anniversary weekend, so we have some big things to announce! Were running a mega Daily Deal on Steam, with the honey-voiced Systemchalk broadcasting the game for the uninitiated. Go watch him try not to die! Were also running a half-price sale on the Nintendo Switch port, and have a new game, a new book and updates on our stained-glass tarot deck to share. Read on...

The Lady Afterwards: a Cultist Simulator TRPG

• The Lady Afterwards, a Cultist Simulator TRPG scenario set in 1920s Alexandria
• A game-runners handbook, incorporating all story, locations, lore and mechanics
• An exultation* of clues, curiosities, clippings and collectibles
• "The Essential Hours", 23-card pocket tarot
• Eight customisable character sheets, complete with secret agendas
• Eight art deco character pins in silver, brass, copper and gold
• A scented Serapeum candle, to evoke that which cannot be seen
• Three Mansus candles, for important plot points
• A full-colour map of contemporary Alexandria
• A set of seven antique TRPG dice in a velvet dice bag
• A Steam key for Cultist Simulator, in the unspeakable instance where someone hasnt played it yet
• A 50% discount token for the Church o Merch
• Access to a custom-built mood-music playlist, to further SET THE TONE

Against Worldbuilding, and Other Provocations

The Lucid Tarot

Stained glass tarot

Secret second project

PS

POINTS SHOP EXCLUSIVES

SOMETHING IS COMING...

SKELETON SONGS IS BACK

RUSSIAN TRANSLATION

Good afternoon, everyone. Here's the latest beta->live patch: - fixes legacy-carryover issues, e.g. the wrong cult showing up in Apostle runs - more localisation fixes and tweaks.

Just a quick update, Believers! We've just released a new 52-card deck in the Church o' Merch which finally lets you buy something with Neville's face on it. Meet The Sibyl's Leaves: a gold-embellished Cultist-style future-telling card deck based on 19th-century cartomancy!

The deck uses the usual 52-card system - Aces through Kings for Diamonds, Hearts, Spades and Clubs - but each card also includes a unique meaning. When dealt in the proper way, these meanings combine to give you an idea of your future! And don't worry, there's an instruction manual inside each pack.

Alternatively, you can just use this deck for any normal card game you'd play with a 52-card pack. The only difference is occasionally you'll run into Saliba. Won't that jazz up your next game of solitaire?! I can't promise international adepts that this'll reach you by Christmas, but I'll be filling orders more quickly than usual to give you the best chance. More info and a bit of historical cartomancy over on the blog. Enjoy!

Happy nearly-Halloween, believers! Its Alexiss and my anniversary today, so what better way to celebrate than, er, to release Cultist Simulator to Steam, GOG and Humble in Japanese and German! Theyre now out! YAY! Please tell all your Japanese- and German-speaking friends about it!
Thank you to everyone who helped us with beta testing this month. Were extremely grateful! Please feel free to continue sending any bugs you find any of our translations to support@weatherfactory.biz. Its really weird not being able to read your own game, so we need your help to make sure that Cultist Simulator reads and plays well in different languages. Blessings of the Velvet will fall upon anyone who helps. Probably. If Japanese and German do well, we may translate into other languages in future. For now, have a look in Cultists Workshop if your language is missing. A few trail-blazing linguists have uploaded fan mods for other languages (French, Italian, Korean), so your language might be there if it isnt in-game already. Enjoy!

Other news!

I'm going to talk about where we are with Cultist Simulator localisation. Throughout this post, I've embedded thumbnails of some of the Q&As I've had with translators. Click on 'em if you want to know why translating this game is such a total pain in the bum.
ON THE MATTER OF THE GERMAN AND JAPANESE TRANSLATIONS: We've moved the German and Japanese localisations from the beta to the main branch. We had dozens of extremely detailed and helpful bug reports - particularly for Japanese, where the culture gap from English is much bigger - and the localisation is in much better shape now. There will still be issues we've missed. Please let us know at support@weatherfactory.biz; and please include a screenshot, it's worth a thousand Google-translated words. Thanks for all your help.

ON THE MATTER OF THE RUSSIAN TRANSLATION OF EXILE:

ON THE MATTER OF THE CHINESE TRANSLATION OF EXILE:

ON THE MATTER OF FUTURE LOCALISATIONS:

ON THE MATTER OF COMMUNITY TRANSLATIONS:

Hey everyone! Today were launching our Japanese and German beta. Thats over 160,000 forbidden words localised into two totally new languages, probably with a few typos and mis-translations at least. So please: help us make these translations shiny and great!

How to join the beta

• Navigate to your Steam library and find Cultist Simulator
• Right click and select Properties
• Select the BETAS tab in the top of the pop-up window and choose gateofhorn from the drop-down menu
• Click CLOSE

How to submit a bug

Particular things to look out for

How long does the beta last?

Happy October, everyone! This is the month of ghosts, ghouls and gruesome things, so what better time to release the EXILE DLC in simplified Chinese and Russian?! Thank you for being so patient while we finished translating. The latest update of Cultist Simulator now includes full simplified Chinese and Russian, so you can play the whole game start to finish in either language. To start an EXILE legacy immediately, simply click on the DLC & Mods menu on the title screen and select The Exile. If you dont see The Exile as an option, check that youve purchased The EXILE DLC or that you own Perpetual Edition. If you still have problems, email support@weatherfactory.biz. If you find any bugs in the Chinese or Russian versions, please email them to support@weatherfactory.biz. And remember: start a new game after changing languages. If you change languages in the middle of a game, things might explode. Finally, tell us your favourite Chinese and Russian streamers so we can offer them Cultist Simulator keys! Wed love to grow our communities in those languages, but need your help to do it. So tell us your favourite streamers, and tell your Chinese and Russian friends that Cultist Simulator is now 100% translated and ready for them to play! Thank you, and dream furiously.

I've just rolled out STEAM WORKSSHOP INTEGRATION to the main branch... along with all the other beta changes since August. This means: - improved modding framework - Unity version update, which will probably fix various niggling technical issues - perf improvements - custom keybindings Also I attached a picture of a cat to this update, because I can, and because it's his birthday.

I now have just a couple of features to add and a medium-sized list of bugs to fix before this can go to the live branch. The list of bugs will probably grow over the weekend, of course. Thanks, all, for your help so far.

A quick update for y'all from today's sprint round-up.

Coming up soon

Zingara fortune-telling cards

Cats

Thanks for everyone who submitted bug reports to our old friend support@weatherfactory.biz. It's been enormously helpful. Issues addressed in this patch: - images weren't working in some mod /images subfolders. They should now. - merge-overwriting entities didn't quite work as advertised (property operations failed when merge-overwriting). This is fixed. - fixed a subtle and horrible bug with expulsion filers, which now work again. I've also done a lot more in the way of under-the-hood rewriting. The ideal situation is that you won't notice the difference at all. The likely situation is that I've introduced a handful of extra bugs (e.g., I just noticed the end game animation isn't firing properly). Why am I bothering, then? Because back when I started building Cultist, I hadn't done any real coding for at least five years, and I was learning Unity from scratch. So there's a lot of nonsense in there at the foundations. Then I got four different freelancers in at various stages to write code- all of them extremely competent, but all with their own styles and quirks and all working independently. So the effect right now is that of a big house built in the architectural styles of five different eras, mostly by one novice in a tearing hurry who's only read about houses in books, who's had seasoned craftsmen dropping by to help him with the windows and the plumbing and the electrics. The kind of place you'd love to go round with a knowledgeable guide who can explain why the builder saw fit to leave a hole in the ceiling above the kitchen table ('so guests can pass down mugs for washing') and put the front door on upside down ('just too much trouble to change back'). But not the kind of place you'd want to live in, in case you visit the bathroom in the small hours and plummet through a hole to crash into the kitchen table. And definitely not the kind of place you'd want to use as a basis for a larger, more ambitious house... a library, for example. So I'm taking some time to tidy it up. Bear with me. It'll stay on the beta branch until I'm fairly confident I'm not going to put a pickaxe through the wrong wall and release a gush of undesired spiders.

Workshop updates

Travelling at Night Kindle / eReader cases now live!

Skeleton Songs ep 8: "An Inheritance of Stones"

Cards in progress...

In case you missed it, as of 7th August we now have an improved modding framework and also STEAM WORKSHOP INTEGRATION - on the beta branch only. It's on the beta branch because I'm still adding features and fixing bugs. There have been a couple more patches since the 7th, mostly to improve localisation support. There's a couple of other bits, though... v2020.8.a.3; 'The Bottled Ink' - available languages are now specified by the 'culture' entity in /core/cultures - which you can mod by adding a culture entity to your json. - 'culture' also specifies UI labels, so you can add them for a given localisation - you can also specify which base font script a mod will use - Latin, cyrillic, or 'cjk' for a font which should support Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean. This is pretty primitive and you're out of luck if you want to localise into e.g. Arabic. I'll update if there's any demand for that. - in response to modder pleas: it is now possible to have the same entity id specified twice in two different mods (or in the same mod, if you're being weird). Specifying an entity id in a mod for an existing entity will merge-overwrite the two, with the mod values taking precedence. This is also how mods will now affect existing entities. NB, then (a) if you want to remove existing values from a core entity, specify an empty string or dictionary [I'm much happier with this, because it makes altered behaviour explicit] (b) you no longer want or need to use 'extends' to build on an entity with the same id - just merge-overwrite it. v2020.8.a.2; 'The Correspondence of Origin' - updated to latest major version of Unity - /images/ui added to modding framework. You can now use tablecoverimage:, tablesurfaceimage:, and tableedgeimage: on Legacies to customise table appearance. - Fixed Chinese loc - Fixed Chinese and Russian slot labels, which were showing in English - loc files renamed to loc_[culture] - loc files are now loaded *after* mods - so if you've extended an entity in your mod, any relevant loc will still apply to it - you can now add loc files to a mod (or create a mod consisting only of loc files) - just add loc json files to loc/loc_[culture] v2020.8.a.1; 'The Solution of Memory' - substantial code rewrite; there may be odd bugs. - mod framework rework and upgrade - Steam Workshop integration, styled as 'The Invisible Serapeum'. (GOG players: the mods will work if you install them locally.)", -- More on modding Cultist: https://weatherfactory.biz/daybreak-in-the-invisible-serapeum/ https://steamcommunity.com/app/718670/discussions/1/2800629075194099834/

If you couldn't tell, Cultist Simulator is heavily influenced by weird fiction, and weird fiction by H. P. Lovecraft. He turns 130 next Thursday, so we're running a week-long merch giveaway to say YAY to his ghost. You could win any of the following...
All you need to enter are any social media account on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Pick your poison, then check out the relevant post!

• Twitter - retweet this tweet and follow @factoryweather
• Facebook - like the Cultist Simulator page and comment on this post
• Instagram - tag a friend on this post and follow @weatherfactory

Happy Friday! I come bearing two bits of info.

Steam Workshop

Zingara fortune-telling cards

Hey cultists! A quick update from us on what we've been up to recently.

10,000 of charity

New merch: pins, bundles and Kindle cases

Skeleton Songs #7: Top Hat, Flight Guy & Tales

Hey everyone! Happy Steam summer sale! Just a quick update for y'all about what we're up to at the moment.

TapTap's Game Awards 2019

Forbidden Kindles

Vote for your favourite Weather Factory project!

EXILE

FREE WEEKEND

DISCOUNTS GALORE

EXILE'S NEARLY READY, BELIEVERS! We're almost finished with content and art in the run-up to launch at the end of this month. It's releasing on Cultist's second birthday, so spooky cake for all. EXILE is now the same size as the entire of Cultist Simulator was at launch. Here's the most important info to know:

• Releasing on Wednesday 27th May at 6PM GMT / 10AM PDT
• Available on Steam, GOG and Humble
• Itll cost 7.99 / $9.99 / 8.99. Its really big.
• If youre a Perpetual Edition owner, its FREE
• Only English at launch did we mention its really big? Simplified Chinese and Russian loc coming ASAP!
• Will be coming to mobile, but no release date yet!

Happy May, Believers! I come bearing EXILE updates, new tarot, charity donations and podcasts about blood. Yum!

EXILE

TAROT OF THE HOURS

CHARITY

SKELETON SONGS

A quick update from the blog! Firstly, the EXILE beta is now live. Keys are going out to everyone today after a bit of delay - sorry! If you weren't randomly picked for the first test, don't worry. We'll add some more testers later down the line. We're launching EXILE on Wednesday 27th May so we expect to be in beta for a month or so.
Secondly, the Tarot of the Hours is back in stock on Etsy! We're capping it to 200-deck bursts, so I (the sole person who manages this shop) don't get snowed under with orders. But don't worry: if you find the deck's sold out again, I'll renew the listing on a weekly cycle so you'll be able to get it SOME time. :)
Thirdly, we have MORE merch on the way. I'm designing four new pins - the Marinette, Hint, Lunatic and Maid pins - which will be sold individually, but also go into the Beach-Comber's Treasures bundle along with our original Iris pin and our glitter witch pin.
And next week, we're launching an Hours postcard set of seven randomly-chosen postcards, so we can all keep in spooky touch with one another during this isolating pandemic.
Finally, here is a picture of Sulochana the cat. May she keep you safe in lockdown and stop eating my plants.

Priest + Ghoul DLC now live on mobile!

Exile DLC update

Tarot of the Hours

1,030 for the National Emergencies Trust

TAROT OF THE HOURS

CHARITY

A quick update to let all you occult enthusiasts know that our long-awaited Tarot of the Hours is now live on our Etsy store! Cultist Simulator's tricksy pantheon of semi-gods can now be yours in a lovely 78-card deck that's so goth I went through about eight producers before I found one who could print 'em black enough.
Alexis and I are hard at work on Exile, which is shaping up to totally rework Cultist Simulator's mechanics and provide an entirely new mode of play. It'll be our largest bit of DLC to date, with multiple endings - some of which will be (relatively!) attainable like the main Forge, Grail and Lantern ascensions, and some of which will be as hard as winning New Game+. Edge is the power of struggle and conquest, after all.
To confirm a few details:

• Exile launches on Weds 27th May at 6PM GMT / 10AM PDT
• Itll release in English, simplified Chinese and Russian at the same time
• Itll cost more than other DLCs, though we havent confirmed how much yet
• Perpetual Edition owners get it FREE

Happy Friday! Some new announcements from our latest blog.

The Exile DLC

IMGA Awards

Hey, Believers! We've just released a hefty sprint update with a couple of KEY CULTY THINGS I'd like to highlight.

WELCOME TO EXILE.

REWORKED BOOK OF HOURS DESIGN

FULL TAROT OF THE HOURS REVEAL

[quote]"I know the ink that you describe. It exists. I shouldnt tell you even that, and for the sake of our friendship I ask you to burn this letter after reading. The ink is called here 'encaustum terminale' and it is a great treasure of the House."[/quote] A brand new letter has come to light, from a mysterious 'F.' to Christopher Illopoly. It sheds light not only on the 'secrets of inks' but on the Hours, the Librarian and Christopher's own heart, too. Check out the originals and their transcript on the blog.

CHINESE LUNAR SALE

MOBILE UPDATE: THE DANCER

MAYBE SOMETHING FUN

SKELETON SONGS

BOOK OF HOURS UPDATE, SORT OF

Happy 2020, everyone! Here's a quick update on Weather Factory's plans this year.

MOBILE DLC

BOOK OF HOURS CONFIRMATION

NEW PODCAST

NEW BOOK BY ALEXIS KENNEDY

ROADMAP

Today we're releasing Russian to the whole of Cultist Simulator. The base game and all its DLC - adding up to over 140,000 words - is now playable entirely in Russian, on Steam, GOG and Humble, with no need to faff around with beta branches anymore. Once youve downloaded the latest update, you'll be able to switch between English and Russian via the 'Languages' button in the top right-hand of the title screen. We recommend starting a new game after switching languages, as switching mid-game can cause some text to display oddly. AND NOBODY WANTS THAT, DO THEY. If youre a first timer, take a look at our Beginners Guide to give you a bit of a head start.
If you run into any problems, email support@weatherfactory.biz and Ill reply in English - or, if you force me, in terrible automatically translated Russian. And I will love you forever if you spread the word amongst any Russian-speakers you know that Cultist Simulator is now extremely Russia-friendly. Thank you!

MOBILE PLAYERS, LOOK OVER HERE

Happy Friday, Believers! I'm just cross-posting a few lore-ful drops from the Weather Factory blog. Firstly, we've announced a new item we'll soon be selling on the Church of Merch shop: a TAROT OF THE HOURS. A tarot deck is probably the most requested item of merchandise so far, so hope you like it! It's currently at the test-print stage, but we'll shout as soon as it's available to buy. We haven't yet revealed who the Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings are, but I'll be publishing any correct guesses I see here or on the blog in our next update...
We also discovered a letter from a mysterious Ms D, to one of the curators of Hush House. Thought the deeper lore-hounds amongst you might be interested.
You can take a look at photographs of the originals, OR read a slightly more accessible transcript of the letter, over on our blog. (This letter includes a lot of Cultist Simulator lore, but is specifically part of the BOOK OF HOURS world. So if you're not following that already, do!) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1028310/BOOK_OF_HOURS/

Happy Unity Day, everyone! Im not sure how unified everyone is about wanting to play Cultist Simulator in Cyrillic, but HEY, NOW YOU CAN. Cultist Simulators 140,000 words can now all be turned into RUSSIAN by switching over to the Steam beta branch called 'gateofhorn'. You can access this beta branch by:

• right clicking on 'Cultist Simulator' in your Steam library
• clicking Properties
• clicking on the 'Betas' tab
• selecting 'gateofhorn' from the drop-down menu
• clicking 'Close'

Russian is finally here! Well be releasing a Russian language option to a Steam beta branch on Monday 4th November, to say YAY UNITY DAY.
You'll be able to access this beta branch by:

• right clicking on 'Cultist Simulator' in your Steam library
• clicking on the 'Betas' tab
• selecting 'gateofhorn' from the drop-down menu
• clicking 'Close'

Today's Deal: Save 40% on Cultist Simulator!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends Friday 10/4 at 10AM Pacific Time

Hey all! Today we're finally releasing full simplified Chinese, after a successful month of beta testing. Cultist Simulator and all its DLC - adding up to over 140,000 words - is now fully playable in gleaming, delectable simplified Chinese. https://store.steampowered.com/app/718670/Cultist_Simulator/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/871650/Cultist_Simulator_The_Dancer/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/871651/Cultist_Simulator_The_Priest/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/871900/Cultist_Simulator_The_Ghoul/ If you're new to Cultist Simulator, now is a very, very good time to nab the full Anthology Edition, which'll give you an extra 15% off everything anyway. GOSH. With the latest update, you'll now see a new 'Languages' button in the top right-hand of the title screen where you can switch between English and simplified Chinese. We'll be adding a Russian language option in there soon, too - we'll announce a specific date for Russian release as soon as possible. One thing to note: we recommend starting a new game after switching languages. Switching mid-game can cause some text to display weirdly, and Cultist Simulator's text is WEIRD ENOUGH ALREADY. :)
Anyway, to celebrate our long-awaited full Chinese release, Cultist Simulator is now 40% off on a Steam Daily Deal, so get this extremely good deal while you can! I hope to have more news about Russian - and possibly even some NEW CONTENT - for you soon. <3

It's here! Simplified Chinese is now live on Steam, via the beta branch 'gateofhorn'. You can access this beta branch by:

• right clicking on 'Cultist Simulator' in your Steam library
• clicking on the 'Betas' tab
• selecting 'gateofhorn' from the drop-down menu
• clicking 'Close'

Afternoon, Believers! We've just posted a production round-up of what we're up to on our blog, so thought I'd crosspost a quick update on a couple of culty things. :)

1. DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

2. SIMPLIFIED CHINESE

3. BOOK OF HOURS KICKSTARTER

Hey Beloveds! I'm delighted to announce that our new and final planned pieces of DLC - the PRIEST and the GHOUL - are now live! https://store.steampowered.com/app/871651/Cultist_Simulator_The_Priest/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/871900/Cultist_Simulator_The_Ghoul/ Just like The Dancer, these are story-packs that investigate some previously untapped areas of Cultist Simulator. The Priest is all Knock, adding one new Legacy, two new Ascensions and the truly gruesome story of the Martyr of the Keys. The Ghoul is all Winter, adding another new Legacy, two other new Ascensions and a suitably beautiful end of paintings, digging up and eating the dead, and the Elegiast in all his Wintry glory. Perpetual Edition owners get both automatically and for free, of course! Everyone else, they're only 2.50 / $2.99 each, so pretend you're buying a really occult cup of tea...? [quote]FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF DOUBT: TRANSLATION Now that we have the full English content of Cultist Simulator, we'll be able to finish off our in-progress Russian and simplified Chinese localisations of the game. We'll announce their release dates as soon as we can. Keep your eyes peeled![/quote]

ANTHOLOGY EDITION

• Cultist Simulator (all 110,000+ words of it)
• all three DLC packages (Dancer, Priest and Ghoul, adding another ~30,000 words)
• the delectable 15-track soundtrack

NEW GAME: BOOK OF HOURS

Happy Friday, Believers! I come with NEWS.

LUDONARRACON

• play arguably the most horrible CS content Alexis has written to date
• not die immediately
• explain what's going on to people in chat at the same time

DEATH IN GAMES

ANTHOLOGY EDITION + NEW DLC

CULTIST HAS LAUNCHED ON MOBILE

WHAT NEXT FOR WEATHER FACTORY?

WHAT'S THIS, TRANSLATION?!

I can't believe I'm writing this, but... Cultist Simulator's been nominated for not one, but

TWO BAFTA GAMES AWARDS!

Hey believers! Just a quick update on where Cultist's heading over the next couple of months.

THE MANSUS ON MOBILE

SMOL UPDATE IS SMOL

• Rooms Behind a Bookshop
• House Violet
• the Opulent Townhouse
• the Heterodox Church
• the Candle-lit Mithraem
• a Darkened Warehouse

WHAT'S NEXT FOR CULTIST SIMULATOR

• the Priest Legacy, introducing a new Knock ascension
• the Ghoul Legacy, introducing a new Winter ascension

It's finally here! Christopher's Build - comprising an advanced player-versus-demigod mode where you help a previous character ascend while muzzling (or murdering) one of four displeased immortals - is here! All 20,000 extra words of it. It's free for all players, and you should see an update queued in Steam. It puts the 'cult' back into........... 'difficult'. A ha ha ha. Ha. :)

KEY FEATURES

WHERE'S THE NEW CONTENT IN-GAME?

SOUNDTRACK

LIVE BROADCAST

Happy 2019, Believers! In case you missed it, we recently announced a release date for our big update coming at the end of this month: new game plus with a load of new content will launch on Tuesday 22nd January at 11AM PDT / 7PM GMT. It's free for all players, and will drop alongside our bootiful soundtrack (which is sadly not free, but only costs 7.99 / $9.99 and will haunt your dreams for life). Full deets on our blog, but the highlights are...

NEW GAME PLUS

NEW ART

UPCOMING THINGS

• Monthly design stream - we'll be hosting another live design session with Alexis Kennedy, on Thursday 17th January @ 4PM GMT (if you miss it, these design streams go up on our YouTube channel later).
• Launch-day Steam broadcast - Systemchalk, a good streamy friend of ours, will be streaming these impossible new Legacies when they release, live on our Steam page. If you're not quite sure whether hardcore mode's for you, come watch a Cultist master be, er, probably horribly killed.

Hey all, and merry merry Christmas! Just a quick update on what we've been up to, seeing as everyone is about to scatter to the winds like festive moles running for cover from beglittered hawks. Full details on our blog, but the highlights are:

New design vid!

New icons!

Opalia

The Expeditions update has spent a few weeks baking on the beta branch, and is now live on main. The big change here is to reduce the amount of RNG in the midgame. Each expedition now has a set (and thematically consistent) set of rewards. This means *much* less grinding away at expeditions waiting for the ONE ITEM YOU STILL NEED FOR YOUR VICTORY to drop. Exceptions: the last expedition in each area (Forsaken Reach, Kerisham, etc.) now give intentionally repeatable rewards, and will allow you to get rewards from earlier expeditions if a Rival snaffled that expedition. There are also six new Expeditions with some significant snippets of lore (yes this is all a free update, I don't know what I was thinking). All in all, this will make the game much more playable the first few times through, though less ultimately replayable.... but the Apostle legacies / Major Victories coming in January should provide a lot more playability. More about those here: http://weatherfactory.biz/christophers-build/

Hullo folks I normally just post beta patch notes on the patch thread, but this is significant enough that I wanted it on the front page. One of the (IMO more justifiable) complaints I hear about CS is that the mid-game gets grindy. I've reworked how Expeditions operate to make it easier and quicker to get the treasures you want. The effect of this kind of change is all about player experience not specific balance... so it may have unintended effects, and I'm very interested in your feedback. This is on the gateofhorn branch now. v2018.11.e.1: - Major Expeditions rework to reduce midgame grind, including six new Expeditions. Expeditions now give fixed, more thematically suitable, and usually more impressive, rewards. Default expeditions give you a chance to scoop up books from any Expeditions consumed by Rivals, and also can be repeated to gain Ingredients. (Details of which items show up in which Expeditions may shuffle around further). - Fixed a rare issue where it was still sometimes possible to put a stack of >1 card in a slot (if you swapped out one card of that type for a stack of identical cards) - Fixed an even rarer issue where saving the game with two funds in unstarted Expedition slots would leave you with only 1 Funds on reloading. - 30% of the time, failing to use a Favour to save a Follower would leave you under suspicion instead. This should no longer happen. - Removed Bloodshed, for now. - Reduced Fleeting Reminiscence duration to make it more Fleeting.

Hey all! I've a sprint update for ya. You can read the whole thing over on our blog, but the headline points are:

Christopher's Build

• Apostle victories, which are three new 'tier 2' victories evolving the current Forge, Grail and Enlightenment victories. You'll only unlock these Apostle victories once you've won the game with one of the original three lore victories. Beware: Apostle victories are much harder than the basic victories, and will pit you against your very own Long nemesis...
• New Expeditions, fixing issues with mid-game grind and item collection, as well as adding in a few new places to definitely not send Followers out to die in. We're talking the well-stocked Key-Hunter's Garret, spooky Forman House with definitely not a ghost, and deeply unsettling mass at St Felix of Schuren...
• New HQs, partly replacing your current Temporary HQ, and partly making HQs more involved in the game.

• Cultist Simulator's OST: from the wonderful Mickymar Productions, nab the 15 remastered in-game tracks along with nice artwork + a world-leading Erhu master. Because obvs we needed that.

Hey BELOVEDS! Our Dancer DLC is now LIVE! Weve released it with a whole bunch of free updates to the main game, so all in all the update adds an extra ~30% content (from ~72k words to ~95k words, now). So, er, its quite a big release. Anyone who owns Perpetual Edition gets the update automatically and for free. Anyone who owns the normal edition of the game, dont fret! It only costs a measly $2.99 / 2.50 / 2.39.

DANCER DLC: WHATS IT ALL ABOUT, EH

HOW DO I ACTUALLY FIND THE DANCER CONTENT IN-GAME?

GIMME THAT SWEET, SWEET FREE STUFF

ANYTHING ELSE THATS FUN?

Hey everyone! In case you didn't see it in the press, we announced that we're releasing our Dancer DLC on...
Apart from the particularly classy GIF, it includes: ★ One new Legacy! Rise to unearthly fame as the Dancer, employed at the infamous Gaiety Theatre, Ecdysis Club or in some of the more exclusive city parlours. ★ Two new Ascensions! Explore a trinity of insights into the powers of Heart, Moth, and those who came before. Realise your true form, and perhaps even tempt one of the enigmatic Ligeians to the Dance… ★ Animal spirit-selves! Some dances can only be performed in far places, and some cannot be performed in human shape.



If you own Perpetual Edition, you'll get the Dancer DLC automatically for free. For everyone else, don't worry! It only costs $2.99 / £2.50 / €2.39, so fingers crossed that everyone has enough Funds. The DLC will come with a clutch of new updates for everyone, including Follower wounds/scars, romance, rebellion and a bunch of UI/UX improvements to make running your cult that bit more fun. We go into this in a bit more detail in our latest sprint update. Keep your eyes on 16th October, and back soon with more news. :)

Hey everyone! Just a short post to keep you up to date with Cultist's development. We posted our latest sprint review over on the blog. The major points are:

Church of merch!

Romance!

Dancer DLC

Hullo everyone. Lottie's escaped to Italy for a couple of days but she's still working even in a haunted villa: https://twitter.com/tronbevan/status/1036954807418933248 so she wrote this and now I am posting it. Enjoy. http://weatherfactory.biz/september-1-rossetti/

Hey all! Just a quick post to link you to our sprint review for August #2, which you can read over at our blog. We've also just announced the winners of our Lovecraftday competition, so have a look in our blogpost or on our Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to see if you've won. More updates coming soon, and to everyone who's sent in bug reports, we are ON 'em like a very hungry mouse on Époisses.

Today's Deal: Save 25% on Cultist Simulator!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends Wednesday at 10AM Pacific Time

Happy Lovecraftday, believers! It's HP Lovecraft's 128th birthday today, so we're doing a bunch of FUN THINGS. Our giveaway competition ends tonight at midnight, we released a 'Which cult are you?' quiz to Scientifically Discern which one you should found, and we've just introduced a full suite of necronomnomnoms to the game... Look away now if you don't want your game drops spoilered!

Trading cards

Badges

Emoticons

Backgrounds

Hey believers! If anyone missed us shouting about it on our various social media, we're running a Cultist Simulator giveaway for Lovecraft's birthday on Monday 20th August, where you can win free copies of the game, Orchid Transfiguration USBs or even your very own Beach-Crow statuette. Take a look at the full competition breakdown here, and/or enter on any social platform you fancy! - Twitter - Facebook - Instagram Good luck, and happy birthday HP/Cthulhu.

Hey believers! We've finalised the roadmap for the next eight months or so, so here's what's coming up for Cultist Simulator. The TLDR version, for those of you who just want the juicy bits, are:

• Teresa's Build out at the end of September 2018
• Christopher's Build out at the start of January 2019
• Franklin's Build out at the start of March 2019

August #1: PORPHYRIA

August #2: QUO VADIS

September #1: ROSSETTI

September #2: SHELLEY

September #3: TENNYSON (Teresa’s Build release!)

October #1: UNDINE

October #2: VERNE

November #1: WHARTON

November #2: XEXANOTH

December #1: YOG-SOTHOTH

December #2: ZOLA

January #1 (Christopher’s Build release!)

January #2

February #1

February #2

March #1 (Franklin’s Build release!)

Hello all We’ve got all the post-launch hotfixes out the door, we’ve been to Brazil and back, and now we’re making some more Cultist Simulator. Here are the three updates you can expect to see next. You’ll notice it says ‘probably roughly’. What’s this? Weather Factory not committing to deadlines? Why not? Well, firstly, I have one last bit of potential just-when-I-thought-I-was-out-they-pull-me-back-in part-time freelance design/writing work. I said I wasn’t doing any more freelancing, but this is something that’s been on the cards since 2016, and I’m keen to be involved with it. It’s still under discussion, but if I do get involved, it will affect the CS schedule a bit. But secondly, we really hustled to get CS out, as Lottie discussed in the retrospective. So we’re making a point of taking things a little easier in the back half of this year. Maybe a proper holiday even! Anyway, here’s the plans! THIS PLAN IS NOT FINAL AND ANY AND ALL OF THE POINTS BELOW MAY CHANGE UNDER WHIM OR WEATHER. I’ve included our current thinking on what’ll be a free update and what’ll be paid DLC. TERESA’S BUILD (probably roughly end August) ‘The finest artisans all dream of the White Door in the end. I’m no artisan, only a scholar. I think there’s a Secret that all these artisans know, but I think that Secret is only half the story.’ Focus on followers: Wounded and Missing conditions [free] Rebellion [free] Romance [free] More uses for Talk, finally [free] The Tainted Blood advanced victory, and the Long Hunt [free] Enhancements to the Detective Legacy [free] The Dancer Legacy: hone your flesh and spirit at the Ecdysis Club [paid] CHRISTOPHER’S BUILD (probably roughly end October) ‘To reach the Stag Door, I believe that all you really need is to want something enough. But I’ve never wanted anything that much, except of course [Teresa], and I’m very much afraid that the knot in the story is this: what [Teresa] wants is the Stag Door.’ Focus on scholarship and expeditions: a use for the Scholarship skill! [free] enhanced Research mechanics [free] more specific goals for expeditions [free] player-written tomes [free] The Shaped advanced victory [free] Expedition stories [free and/or paid] Apostle Legacy: take up the mantle of a fallen cult leader [paid] Priest Legacy: when your faith fails, where will you turn? [paid] MY LORD FRANKLIN BANCROFT’S BUILD (probably roughly end January 2019) ‘Bancroft seems to have been a talented adept, but devoted his energies to frustratingly whimsical projects: arranging ‘grape-fetching races’ between Mansus-spirits, teaching Percussigants to juggle, and conjuring storms of imaginary blossoms for the rose-witch [Fionna] Ayrshire, who resolutely refused ever to couple with him. Bancroft spends twenty pages bemoaning this last.’ Focus on earthly pleasures, and their consequences: Luxuries! The Delights of High Living [free] The Ravages of Age! Which May Yet Be Averted [free] Beyond Notoriety: Infamy! [free] Painting: A Bouquet of Engrandisements [free] Hard Times: Seasons of Wretchedly Straitened Resource [free] Golden Days: Occasions of Munificence [free] Pets and Familiars: (We May Count At Least On These Little Souls When All Humankind Proves Both Cruel And Faithless: Ah, Fionna) [free] Patron Stories: Opportunities for Close and Warm Acquaintance [free and/or paid] Familiar Legacy: Less than Human, and More [paid] Survivor Legacy: What Have Ye Done [paid] We’ve got some other stuff on the boil as well, but when I pre-announce things Lottie looks disappointed at me, so please imagine a vaudeville hook has appeared stage left at this point to hook me off – Here’s our mailing list Here’s our subreddit Here’s Lottie, me and Weather Factory on Twitter.

Hello everyone! Well the launch went *much* better than expected. Thank you for that! I've caught up with the worst of the outstanding bugs, but I'm testing the fixes on the beta branch first, because we have a *lot* of new players. (Welcome!) If you'd like to help test - or just generally see new content and bug fixes as soon as possible - you can switch to the beta branch like this: - right-click Cultist Simulator in your library - Properties - Betas - 'gateofhorn' Here's what the beta branch currently contains: v2018.6.b.2 - Lots of crash-on-startup issues fixed - Dragging Scholarship skill to Work no longer crashes on OSX - Subverting Winter lore to Heart now consumes Winter - Cater and Hero can no longer be started with zero funds and end leaving Treacherous Ground in play - Unnumbered Stones have an ending message. - Audio and music no longer default to 10% volume. - Logo visible on Linux - Added someone to the credits page who was incognito as House Skintwister.

Cultist Simulator is out today at 7PM UK time, May 31st. Seize the day. Here are some super valuable early hints: https://steamcommunity.com/app/718670/discussions/0/1697174779842844716/

Hello all. We've been updating the game at a furious pace, but from here on in, the pace of updates on the main branch will slow right down. From 31st May, Cultist Simulator will be in full release, and we will want to keep the game stable. BUT! if you like life in the fast dark lane at the edge of the midnight river, you can opt into our beta branch to get the newest, most thrilling and least reliable updates. To do this - right-click Cultist Simulator in your library - click PROPERTIES - go to the BETAS tab - choose 'gateofhorn' from the drop-down. Thank you very much. You can have your eyes back now.

Good evening, beloveds! An update as we enter the FINAL STAGES of development. We released our last major build before launch last week (the Harbinger's Build), which'll be the last time you find yourselves with incompatible save files. It includes a bunch of bug fixes and UI/UX improvements, as well as a whole host of breadcrumbs which lead you better through the game. It also includes the Detective legacy for the first time, too! So enjoy the tables being turned, briefly, before you inevitably die.
Full patch notes on the blog as usual, and hope you're all ticking down with us in our daily Hours countdown from now until release...!

In case you missed it, here's a walkthrough of the Expedition mechanics as an announcement! http://weatherfactory.biz/the-explorers-build-expeditions-preview/

As is our wont, we've just posted our latest sprint update on our blog. It focuses on locations, the next and final big batch of content to go into Cultist Simulator ahead of the Explorer's Build. (NB: the Explorer's Build won't be out until the first week of April or so, so please don't hold your breath quite yet.) Happy Friday!

We’ve put three hotfixes live in the Adept’s Build since yesterday! Here’s what’s been hotly fixed: It is no longer possible for a detective to arrest you while he’s locked in your cupboard. premature ascension no longer occurs (it’s safe to use Notions with rites) major fix to how research works to make it more generous and less quirky. Researching two duplicate lores together now just levels up one of the lores and leaves the other; various odd combos no longer eat lore and leave you confused. I hope. Honestly, I’m kicking myself for not using the current implementation earlier. Let me know how it goes. adding Reason to a research process no longer has bewildering effects. (Look closely and you’ll see why.) Burglarising Strathcoyne’s library no longer causes explosions (though the library will still catch fire) it is now possible to answer *all* the Stag Door riddles, although it may require a lot of hard work or luck, and if you have a saved game where you’ve already burned through the bookshop inventory, you’ll need to restart. (dev builds, eh, sorry.) Mac build now works (Linux build is still broken, sorry!) fixed an issue where Hangers-on could not be promoted to Pawns fixed an issue where the Society of St Hydra wouldn’t accept reputation, so couldn’t be used to recruit fixed two issues that often prevented Rites from being found/created (still working on this tho) clarifying fix to options panel text Ecdysis Club has slightly happier endings (edited) Serpent’s Way can no longer be mistaken for the Thyrsine Way tiny edit to the text for sending out a cultist to seduce a stranger home restored WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? to credits, because people said they missed it Good luck. We’ll probably put out another patch later this week.

Today we release: THE ADEPT'S BUILD! This is a long-awaited magic-focused build of the game, introducing all ten possible Rites in-game (the Rite of the Sea's Feasting; the Rite of the Beast's Division; the unholy, cataclysmic Intercalate Rite...). It also introduces Tools, Ingredients and Influences to help with your rituals, as well as a number of new summonables and dastardly culty deeds. And a whale's belly of associated Lore, Followers, NPCs, art, UI improvements, bug fixes... . . ✨

For anyone who missed last sprint's update on the Weather Factory blog, we announced something we'd previously kept secret: the inclusion of an exquisite, fully-navigable map of the Mansus in-game, accessible via Dream. Focus your unconsciousness correctly and you'll be able to enter the Mansus in several places, pulling through a smidgen of unfiltered Glory back with you to the world of the awake. This isn't yet implemented in-game, but it will be present in the release version (and probably in the Explorer's Build, but NO PROMISES). Full update on last sprint here, for those who're interested!

I come bearing the gift of Neville, pale and pensive and delightful. We've a new update for Cultist Simulator in the form of Neville's Build, bridging the gap between the Scholar's Build and the upcoming Adept's Build later on. We've posted a bit of an update about Neville here on our blog, or you can simply read the full patch notes below. This build was supposed to mark the fluid, effortless distribution of Steam keys to all Perpetual Edition owners, and thus enable all current owners of Cultist Simulator to play via Steam. We've, er, run into some issues with itch.io's system, so currently Kickstarter backers are still waiting on their keys. But we're on this, promise! Backers, we shall come back to you with a solution anon. <3

PATCH NOTES (29/01/2018)

• tutoring now possible, meaning you are no longer entirely at the mercy of Chance when learning languages;
• individual named detectives will now investigate you, and unchecked Dread or Fascination may end your career;
• updated card images and placeholder assets, replacing big blank cards;
• version number is now included in save file, to prevent accidentally loading incompatible saves
• you can now zoom in up to 200%, addressing text size issues on high resolutions;
• no more blank legacy images on loading;
• no more issues recruiting for your society (even for the prissy Children of Silence);
• a single click will now allow you to collect all cards when a recipe is completed;
• you can now drop cards directly on to verb tokens, without opening them manually first;
• minor save/load issues resolved;
• improvements to pause functionality (e.g. shouldn’t lose cards already placed in slots anymore);
• you can no longer generate infinite patrons, sadface;
• no more incorrect text in Verb window titles after loading;
• no more borked progression at Glover & Glover;
• improvements to UI (e.g. issues with interacting through notifications/options menu buttons should now be resolved);
• tragically, you are no longer able to do this;
• we’ve improved burn images, so they fit in better (WIP!);
• new cards will glow slightly, to address feedback that new players didn’t realise they were clickable;
• the camera will now zoom to the culpable Verb when you die;
• you shouldn’t see any more blurry buttons in options menu.

Today our unspeakable baby hits BETA! The Scholar's Build is now out and available for purchase on itch.io. Unless you're a backer, in which case you own - our firstborn (not feeling maternal though, I'm sorry) - an itch.io key, which has been emailed to you. There's an update on what's in the build here. We may be incorporating Steam builds into the equation in the new year, so keep your eyes peeled for updates here. For now, Mansus be with you. And behind you. And in your eyes at night.

AFTER MANY BATTLES WITH FRIGHTENING THINGS (well, after politely asking Valve to review this page, in accordance with their clear submission guidelines), the Cultist Simulator Steam page is now live. Woohoo! We posted our production schedule to the Weather Factory blog earlier in the week, so take a look there for our major milestones from now until launch. We're aiming to release on Windows, Mac and Linux in May 2018, and will update you all with a specific date nearer the time. Let us know if you have any questions here, or follow us on @factoryweather for updates, occult ramblings and occasionally GIFs of, like, really cute cats.

• Combine cards to tell your own story in a rich, Lovecraftian world of ambition, appetite and abomination. Corrupt your friends. Consume your enemies. There is never only one history.
  
  
• Found a cult, dedicated to the Red Grail, or the Witch-and-Sister, or the Forge of Days. Recruit Believers and promote them to Disciples to serve as burglars, researchers, cat's-paws. Use your disciples to keep you fed - or feed on your disciples.
  
  
• Unravel arcane, unacknowledged mysteries. Translate grimoires and glean their lore. Locate and pillage the Star Shattered Fane. Penetrate the realm of the Hours, and win a place in their service. Perhaps - if you are very cunning - you may even glimpse the Mansus.
  
  
• Outwit rivals, investigators and the increasingly suspicious Authorities. Your own altered Appetites may force you to act abominably, but your Cause must not be stopped.
  
  
• Transcend death with a story-driven legacy system. Perhaps your inheritors will complete the Rite of the Crucible Soul. Perhaps they'll find peace in a pleasing career. Perhaps they'll bring the Dawn.

• OS: 64-bit system; Ubuntu 20.04. Ubuntu 18.04. and CentOS 7
• Processor: 2GHz or betterMemory: 1 GB RAM
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics: 1280x768 minimum resolution. OpenGL Core. post-2012 integrated graphics
• Storage: 500 MB available space