We have also released the Sinful Pack! New Follower forms, lustful decorations, and cheeky outfits - all yours for a little extra, if you would like to help support the development of Cult of the Lamb. Check it out here!

We have prepared a special deep dive into the Sins of the Flesh below!

Click here for the Patch Notes.

New progression systems add more depth and complexity to managing the Cult of the Lamb! By following the sinful path, your Followers will delight in gluttonous rituals, vain buildings, and 8 new wrathful doctrines.



Followers can now generate a deliciously evil new resource, Sin, via rituals or building structures. Spend it on upgrading the Temple, removing the cooldown on purgatory, re-indoctrinating Followers and building shiny new structures!

We have packed this update full of dark new rituals. Use them to lead your Followers into depravity, into the stinking mud of vile repudiation... and as a medium to harvest SIN.

Perform the Rite of Lust, and choose your favourite Follower to become the Mayflower Leader! This flower crown clad Follower will gladly generate Sin for you. Followers will not work for half a day, and will instead prance around nakey. Just an average day at the Massive Monster office.



Oh, to be an anatomically incorrect nude animal frolicking with nothing but a leaf and freedom to my name...

Perform the Rite of Wrath - and watch Followers cause havoc! Choose your feistiest fellow to become the Wrath Leader. This Follower will chaotically generate Sin.



Or how about the Gluttony of Cannibals? Choose an unlucky Follower to be consumed in their entirety by the others, generating Sin and an inescapable sense of guilt for yourself. Unless you don't mind, in which case, you're just as much of a monster as we are.



If a Follower has Sinned too much, they will become consumed, and eventually damned. Perform Sinner’s Pride, and choose one sacrificial Follower to absolve all cult members of their Sin 🙏

To rescue Followers from their Damnation, find them during Crusades. They will seek you out, to destroy the cause of their suffering. Put an end to them three times during a Crusade, and revive them back at the Cult! If you can't find your Follower, try sorting the order by name.



Invite your most loyal Followers to the inner circle of Disciples, a revamped levelling system of Follower progression. The Discipleship Ritual will allow you to initiate a level 10 Follower, giving them the coveted position.



Upon initiation, Disciples gain the Faith Trait (allowing them to re-educate those naughty dissenting Followers once a day), and can generate more Devotion compared to regular Followers. Follower level is now capped at 10 - Followers at max level can still participate in any interactions or Cult events that would normally increase their loyalty, but their loyalty bar will not appear anymore.

Build the Disciple Collection Shrine so your most faithful can deposit devotion from other buildings into one central spot! The Disciple Boost Shrine allows Disciples to pray, and by filling up a shrine, give the Lamb a boost for the next crusade.

Sins of the Flesh comes with extra space in your Cult, and brand new structures!

The Drinkhouse
Craft drinks at the Drinkhouse for your Followers! Once a Follower consumes their delicious little treat beverage, they will generate sweet, sweet Sin, at risk of becoming Befuddled. Followers will stumble around, puke, fight, chat, laugh, sing, and generally have a merry old time!





If one of your beloved Followers finds themselves Injured from a particularly nasty scrap, they will limp around feeling sorry for themselves, until the 'Injured' state passes.

The Mating Tent

You asked for this.



When two Followers love each other very much, they may enter the tent, and find an egg afterwards... but what will hatch? Nurture the egg in the Hatchery, then care for the offspring until they're ready to pledge allegiance to your Cult!

✨ A Golden Egg may appear! Something special will hatch out of these!✨

Maid Dresses?!
Each of your cultists can flaunt their Follower fashion at the new Tailor building! Once unlocked, each cultist can wear their own outfit, with as many as 23 different snazzy styles to choose from. On your crusades you may find a new room, with a special NPC selling unique clothing!



Drum Circle
Put on a performance for your cult to enjoy, with a drum circle mini game for your chosen Follower to generate Sin! Perform well, the amount of Sin you receive depends on it.



Decorate richly these halls of worship, so we may always be reminded of Their blessed presence.



New Follower Skins have been added to this update - Lemur, Caterpillar, Seal, Snake, Worm and a Shaggy Dog (based on Poppy, our Art Director Jimp's beloved pal).



We've added a whopping 16 new traits for Followers, with varying effects such as increasing mating odds, producing Sin, and much more.

Jerk Followers will jeer at the Lamb, while Hot Tempered Followers may try and scrap with other Followers. Scared Followers run away from the Lamb. Will you reassure them or bully them? Read about all the different types of traits in the patch notes here!

When you indoctrinate a new Follower, you will also find a new outfit and necklace assignment option on the indoctrination screen - a much requested feature!


Learn even more about the Cultverse! There are now 15 Lore Tablets to collect across the game. These can be found once per crusade, within secret lore totems. Break these, and reveal truths unseen.

In response to your wishes for more, we have also added an extension to our old menticide mad friend, Sozo's questline!



On your crusades, you may come across a familiar face from the past. Dissented Followers who left your cult may confront you - will you show them mercy?

Shiny poop, baneful brooms, and bigger, better buildings improve busy Cult life! Shiny poops have special effects, like yielding fruitful crops and adding XP to your broom.

Levelling up your broom will make chores faster and more effective! To improve automation, there’s also a new tier for the Janitor Station and the Seed/Fertilizer Storage Structures so your Followers will take better care of themselves!



6 new types of poop!

• Glow Poop - Attracts fireflies.
  
• Golden Poop - Drops gold when cleaned. Drops gold/gold bars when harvesting a crop fertilized with golden poop.
  
• Rainbow poop - Gives 5 times the chore XP when harvested. Instantly grows a crop when fertilized with rainbow poop.
  
• Devotion Poop - Generates devotion when cleaned. Crop fertilized with devotion poop will generate devotion over time.
  
• Massive Poop - Drops multiple poops when cleaned. Followers can get stuck in the massive poop :(
  
• Poop pet - Drops a poop pet when harvested, but only when the poop is from a Follower with the poop skin.

Blast heretics away with the new Blunderbuss weapon! When loaded up, it fires big damage in close quarters to bring a new combat playstyle for your crusades. If you charge it up even more with a heavy attack, you can aim to snipe enemies from long range. Pew pew



Thank you for all of your feedback following our prior updates! We have added some much requested features and fixes, not limited to but including:

• You can now reindoctrinate and rename Followers!
  
• A prompt to signify that sacrificing followers in certain locations are permanent.
  
• Remove, hide and show necklace option.
  
• You can now skip sermons.
  
• Dissenters who have left the cult now have a chance to show up in the dungeon, and fight the Lamb!
  
• Auto levelling up followers after sermons and rituals.
  
• Six new achievements to collect.
  
• Fixed demons not joining in the final fight.
  
• Fixed certain follower questlines
  
• Fixed Morgue and Crypt issues
  
• Fixed certain weapons not showing on crusades

For the full list of changes and fixes, check the patch notes here.

Twitch Integration

We added more Help/Hinder options for Twitch Integration! Plus, Viewers can now select an outfit in the Follower builder after they win a raffle. You can also use all of the integration’s features on your mobile devices!




Vanity might be a sin, but these lil fellows don't seem to mind!

Indulge in the gluttonous aesthetic befitting of royalty with new Follower forms, outfits, decorations and a sinful new Fleece for the Lamb in this new DLC! As an addition, we have also added 2 Tailor outfits for those who own the Heretic Pack, and 2 Tailor outfits for those who own the Cultist Pack.

Hammerhead, Ladybug, Tiger, Llama or Sphynx - which will you invite into your Cult?




https://store.steampowered.com/app/2646130/Cult_of_the_Lamb_Sinful_Pack/



These Gnomes will be publicly released at a later date, but you can get them early during this month's Twitch Drops campaign!

Drops end Tuesday, 30 January 2024!

How to get the Gnome Twitch Drop:
You must watch a participating channel to receive progress towards the Drop. When you watch for the required amount of time, a claim message will appear at the top of the Twitch navigation, where you'll be directed to the Drops Inventory page to claim your reward.

Because there are so many streamers, we can't list them all - if you head to Twitch and search who's streaming Cult of the Lamb, it mention in the stream title if Drops are enabled!

Click here for more info!

Your cries have been heard by the mighty Lamb God 🙏

We have dropped a HUGE merch restock, of almost every product! Beanies, T-Shirts, Pins, Prints, the elusive Long Lamb Pillow - you name it!

Some are in-stock, whilst others will be available for pre-order (with expected shipping in May). Items such as the Floofy Enamel Mug and Long Lamb Pillow have been restocked BUT with limited quantities, so snatch them up quick!

Check everything out on the US Devolver Store, or our Global Store!



Lastly, we'd just like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us and Cult of the Lamb so far. Cult of the Lamb has reached so many more people than we could have ever imagined, and it's a dream come true to be able to work on a game with a fanbase as passionate as we have.

It's not over yet. We're still working on even more, and we can't wait for all of you loyal Cultists to see what's in store for the Lamb!



Continue to voice your suggestions and feedback to us in our Subreddit and Discord!

We are still hard at work on fixing lots of pesky bugs. If you do come across any issues, please report them in-game via the pause menu so we can investigate!

Greetings, Cultists!

It's the moment you have been waiting for. The Sins of the Flesh Update is now live for Cult of the Lamb! This is one of our most feature filled, cheekiest updates yet. Sins of the Flesh brings new features, rituals, buildings, fixes and much more - including a much missed old friend.

We've prepared a special deep dive into the update here. If you're just after the patch notes straight up, find them below!

• Added a new weapon - the Blunderbuss! Lamb goes pew pew.
  
• Added 6 new Achievements.
  
• Eggs - Followers can be hatched from eggs! Golden eggs will grant special skins.
  
• New Resources have been added. These include Grapes, Hops, Cotton, Silk Thread, and Yolk.
  
• Extra Resource rooms
  
• New Follower skins - Lemur, Caterpillar, Seal, Snake, Worm.
  
• Extension of the Sozo questline
  
• Sin Doctrine category (4 new choices, 8 new Doctrines)
  
• Auto levelling up followers after sermons and rituals.
  
• Rebuilding structures mini game.
  
• Shop room inside the dungeon with an NPC (Berith) that sells unique clothing.
  
• Re-indoctrination option on the indoctrination podium.
  
• Outfit and necklace assigning option on the indoctrination screen.
  
• Disciple ritual that turns level 10 followers into Disciples.
  
• Followers will now fight with one another, causing injuries and sometimes death.

The Sin System

• Followers generate sin which can be used as a new currency! Sin can be generated from specific Sin rituals and buildings. Spend it on upgrading the Temple, removing the cooldown on purgatory, re-indoctrinating followers and building structures.

New Rituals

• Rite of Lust - Followers will dance in their birthday suits around the shrine. Choose your favorite Follower to become the Mayflower Leader for half a day! This Follower will generate Sin. Followers will not work for half a day, instead they will prance around naked.
  
• Rite of Wrath - Followers will cause havoc on the base! Choose a follower to become the Wrath Leader. This follower will generate Sin.
  
• Gluttony of Cannibals - Choose a follower to be consumed by others. This will generate Sin.
  
• Sinner’s Pride - Choose a follower to absorb the Sin of all followers.
  
• Discipleship - Choose a level 10 follower to become a Disciple, in your inner circle of true believers.

Buildings

• Drinkhouse - Craft drinks at the drinkhouse for your followers. Once a follower consumes their delicious little treat beverage, they will generate Sin. There is also chance to become Befuddled. They may need a little tactical spew to keep the festivities going.
  
• Drinkhouse Level 2 - Queue more drinks.
  
• Mating Tent - You asked for it! When two Followers love each other very much, they may enter the tent, and find an egg afterwards...
  
• Hatchery - Place eggs in the Hatchery to make them hatch. What will come out?
  
• Drum Circle - Play a drum circle mini game for a chosen follower to generate Sin.
  
• Tailor building to craft and assign clothing to followers.
  
• Bigger silo storage buildings for fertilizer and seeds.
  
• Janitor station 2 building.
  
• Seed Storage - Followers will collect seeds from this building and deposit them into Seed Silo’s.
  
• Fertilizer Storage - Followers will collect fertilizer from this building and deposit them into Fertilizer Silo’s.
  
• Disciple Collection Shrine - Allows Disciples to deposit devotion from other buildings into a central building.
  
• Disciple Boost Shrine - Allows Disciples to pray that eventually fills up a shrine to give the Lamb a boost for the next crusade.

Follower States

• Befuddled - Followers will stumble around, vomit, fight, chat, laugh, sing, and generally have a merry old time until they are no longer befuddled.
  
• Injured - Followers will limp around feeling sorry for themselves until they are no longer injured.

Chore Levelling Up

• When cleaning a poop/vomit/burnt or cleaning out an outhouse, XP will be generated.
  
• Once the chore XP bar reaches full, the Lamb will unlock a new mop. There are as many as 10 (!!!) mops to unlock.
  
• The higher the mop, the faster the Lamb can clean.

Poop variations

• Golden Poop - Drops gold when cleaned. Drops gold/gold bars when harvesting a crop fertilized with golden poop.
  
• Glow Poop - Attracts fireflies.
  
• Devotion Poop - Generates devotion when cleaned. Crop fertilized with devotion poop will generate devotion over time.
  
• Massive Poop - Drops multiple poops when cleaned. Followers can get stuck in the massive poop :(
  
• Poop pet - Drops a poop pet when harvested, only when the poop is from a follower with the poop skin.
  
• Rainbow poop - Gives 5 times the chore XP when harvested. Instantly grows a crop when fertilized with rainbow poop.

Lore Tablets

• 15 Lore Tablets to collect across the game!
  
• Hover for locations of Tablets: 10 are located in a special dungeon room. 2 are located in a dungeon graveyard. 3 are located in special NPC encounter rooms.

Traits

• Disciple Trait - Can re-educate Dissenters and use special Shrines.
  
• Jerk Trait - Jeers at the lamb. Chance to steal Lamb’s gold. Will tell the Lamb they suck after a failed crusade.
  
• Hot Tempered Trait - May start a fight with other followers.
  
• Royal Pooper Trait - Only poops golden poops. Say that 5 times fast.
  
• Scared Trait - Runs away from the player. Can be bullied/reassured.
  
• Terrified Trait - Sits in the corner of base and cries. :(
  
• Lustful Trait - Increases odds of mating in the mating tent.
  
• Celibate Trait - Decreases odds of mating in the mating tent.
  
• Fashionable Trait - Generates Devotion 20% faster when wearing a unique outfit.
  
• Hedonist Trait - Decreases productivity by 10% but increases Sin generation by 15%.
  
• Ascetic Trait - Decreases Sin generation by 10% but increases productivity by 15%.
  
• Virtuous Trait - Produces Sin 20% slower.
  
• Unrepentant - Produces Sin 15% faster.
  
• Doctrinal Extremist Cult Trait - Choose to generate Sin from the Confession Booth instead of Loyalty.
  
• Violent Extremist Cult Trait - Chance of Sin appearing as a reward from mini-bosses.
  
• Fertility Cult Trait - Followers hatched in the Cult will be born with some Sin
  
• Allegiance Cult Trait - Followers hatched in the Cult will be born with a high Loyalty level.
  
• Dissented Followers have a chance to show up inside the dungeon and fight the player.

Twitch Integration Update

• Added outfits for viewer followers! Viewers can now select a snazzy outfit in the follower builder after they win a follower raffle.
  
• Added mobile support. You can now use all of the integration’s features on your mobile devices as well!
  
• Added additional Help/Hinder outcomes

• Follower level is now capped at 10 - Followers at max level can can still participate in any interactions or Cult events that would normally increase their loyalty, but their loyalty bar will not appear anymore.
  
• Balanced the Enrichment Ritual.
  
• Added prompt to signify that sacrificing followers in certain locations are permanent .
  
• Laplace Dice is now a single use relic.
  
• Paean demon will no longer give hearts whilst wearing the Berseker or Fragile Fortitude Fleeces.
  
• Rebalancing commandment stones from levelling of Followers.
  
• Remove necklace option.
  
• Hide/Show necklace option.
  
• Skip sermons.
  
• Followers level capped at level 10.
  
• Dissenters who have left the cult have a chance to show up in the dungeon and fight the Lamb.
  
• Achievements menu that displays unlocked achievements.
  
• Fixed confusion with end of level bonus items

• Fixed demons not joining in the final fight.
  
• Fixed certain follower questlines
  
• Fixed lighting issues with blood moon ritual
  
• Fixed Morgue and Crypt issues
  
• Fixed birds displaying above the base in photo mode
  
• Fixed certain weapons not showing on crusades

• 6 tailor unlocked outfits
  
• 6 new decorations
  
• 5 new Follower skins: Tiger, Llama, Hammerhead, Ladybug, Sphynx
  
• 1 player fleece
  
• As an addition : 2 tailor outfits for Heretic pack, and 2 tailor outfits for Cultist pack.

Continue to voice your suggestions and feedback to us in our Subreddit and Discord!

We are still hard at work on fixing lots of pesky bugs. If you do come across any issues, please report them in-game via the pause menu so we can investigate!

- Deutsche und Englische Videos in unterschiedliche Formate konvertiert (Blieb schwarz auf Linux)

We're happy to announce that Simula Games will be hosting a live Q&A session on Friday, January 19th, 2024! This is your chance to get insights into the development of Truck & Logistics Simulator, ask burning questions, and connect with fellow players and the truck simulator community at large.

Date: Friday, January 19th, 2024

Time: 18:00 PM CET

Location: The /r/TruckSim Discord Server! Discord

To make it even more exciting, there's a 5 key giveaway for those who actively participate by asking questions during the Q&A, so if you’ve yet to play the game, or if you want to snag a key for one of your friends, please join us! Get more info on the T&L Discord: Join the Truck & Logistics Simulator Discord Server! T&LS Discord

https://store.steampowered.com/app/490110/The_Precinct/


The Precinct traces its origins to our previous game, American Fugitive, in which players assumed the role of an escaped felon evading the law. The game was inspired by “The Fugitive” (1993) and “Dukes of Hazzard'' (1979-1985).

During development, we found ourselves pondering “What would it be like to be on the other side?” and questioning the scarcity of cop action games.

As a natural progression, the idea of a police sandbox took shape, influenced by our deep-seated passion for 80s movies and TV shows.

Drawing inspiration from classics such as "The French Connection" (1971) and "The Blues Brothers" (1980), renowned for their iconic car chases, we compiled a list of indispensable elements - from grungy alleyways to the thrill of smashing through cardboard boxes and fruit stands.



Some of our favourite examples come from “Driver” (1978). Transitioning from the flat environment of American Fugitive, we introduced hills and inclines to induce chassis-shaking jumps and spills, like "Bullitt" (1968).

When turning our focus to on-foot pursuits, memories of William Shatner's acrobatics in "TJ Hooker" (1982-1986) and the stylish action of "Miami Vice" (1984-1990) fueled our creative process.

Of course, it’s no secret that synth music (John Carpenter, Harold Faltermeyer, Vangelis) fits the neon-noir aesthetic perfectly, and we would be remiss if we didn’t mention movies like “Escape from New York” (1981), “Lethal Weapon” (1987), “Beverly Hills Cop” (1984), and “Drive” (2011) for their visual/audio influences on the game (more on this in a future dev Diary!)



That’s all we have for you this time officers.

Briefing over, good luck.


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Feel the thrill in #FCPro 24 Match Week 7! Cheer on your Group C favorites while progressing toward Season 4 Rewards. Only 2 will advance to the Knockout stage, who will they be? Tune in to find out.



https://store.steampowered.com/app/2195250/EA_SPORTS_FC_24/

We have a big announcement to make: we're partnering up with Firesquid to publish Space Prison!

We, at Wooden Alien, are a small indie team of 7 ambitious game-dev veterans who want to help people escape their daily lives and take part in otherworldly adventures in various parts of the galaxy. We are really glad to have found a publisher who truly connects with the Space Prison vision and who may greatly enhance your experience behind bars.

Firesquid is a developer-focused indie publisher who specializes in strategy games, which aims to modernize the genre and help various teams realize their vision and perfect it. Even though it's only the beginning of our partnership, our Firesquid partners have already added much value to our production process, while allowing us to freely unleash our creative spark. We are really happy about this Rat x Squid cooperation. They’re much nicer than the squiddy guards!



Given that some time has passed since the last Steam update (and we are cooking another one for you, to summarize what new, exciting elements you can expect in the game), for those of you who want to refresh their memory about what Space Prison is really about, we post a quick reminder:

Space Prison is a prison survival game focused on turn-based brawls and RPG-social mechanics. It mixes the dark atmosphere of a prison setting with humor and comic book-inspired visuals. The relationships with the other inmates and contraband are key. Become a powerful gang leader and escape the prison!

PS, watch our teaser trailer if you haven't already! (Psst... We are working on a new trailer coming soon...)



You're an inmate recently sent to jail in a maximum-security prison. You can't play by the rules to survive there—use dirty tactics to work your way around and live to see another day. Well, the guards won't let you stay dead anyway. This forsaken prison is a mind-boggling maze that changes every day. Make friends (or enemies) by helping fellow convicts, earn their respect, join a gang, and trade favors. Hiding contraband, crafting items, upgrading your cell, and taming rats—seize every opportunity to escape your sentence.

Don't let the system break you. Survive the toughest prison in the galaxy!


Join our community of convicts on:
► Discord
► Twitter
► Facebook

See you behind bars!
Wooden Alien Team

Welcome to our "Meet the Builders" series, where we delve into the creative minds behind some of the most remarkable room designers in Escape Simulator.

In our previous conversations we had a fun chat with Zesty and Cico, and now it's time for (drumroll.....) - Duc! Duc stands out as one of the crème de la crème in the realm of room building for Escape Simulator. His creations, such as The Projectionist, Under the Sea, The Clockwork Games (and more), rank among the finest available on the Steam Workshop.


Under the Sea



My alias is Duc, I’m 28 from the UK. During working hours, I’m an air traffic controller that dabbles in IT. Other interests include motorsport, photography, and laying down.

The date is 16 Dec 2021 - Some friends and I had just finished Overcooked 2 and were looking for more co-op fun. We had completed some escape rooms in real life so Escape Simulator seemed like an ideal purchase. We binged through the developer's rooms in short order and dove into the community rooms.

The unhealthy obsession continues to this day! I used to play a serious amount of Rocket League in my spare time. As of the time of writing, I’ve played 2467 hours of it. Steam tells me I haven’t played the game since Feb 2022 so escape sim has done pretty well to displace rocket league from my life.




Riddles, Books and a Lab

A friend of mine, ‘TheChubbyWalrus’ created a room for our group of 4 to have a go at. As soon as we finished it, I knew I had to return the favour. That room became ‘Riddles, Books and a Lab’. I published it as public, but it never occurred to me that anyone else would play it. The next day it had 20 likes, a couple of weeks later it had 1000. And from that moment on it just got out of hand.



Whatever you think my creative process is, it is far less sophisticated than that!

Rooms 3-8 were created around the same question. What interesting real-world environments can be feasibly created within the escape sim editor? I’ll crack open OneNote and brainstorm ideas with my partner. Before the model importer, skyboxes, and advanced lighting were added to the editor, outdoor environments were extremely challenging.

I have an old experimental room where I probably spent 30 hours playing around with various props in the editor trying to get it to work. But it never saw the light of day due to the editors’ limitations. And these 30 hours aren’t me trying to develop puzzles or playing with logic.

This is 30 hours of retexturing random props and rescaling them so that I can create whatever monstrosity it is I need for the environment to work. If there is a world record for the longest time spent rescaling a folded stack of clothes to turn it into a distant set of green hills, I am the record holder.

Once I’ve got an environment with a nice-looking floor and established a new horizon, then I’ll start planning out the total playable area in the editor. I’ll grab the nearest envelope and a biro and sketch a very simple plan. That envelope will then sit on my desk for the next for weeks/months whilst I clumsily place props in the editor.

Once the room is 60-70% physically assembled, then I will start thinking about adding puzzles. Generally speaking, the environment inspires the puzzles rather than the other way around.
Now the editor has more tools, there are fewer limitations. The model importer being the big one.

Fortunately, the days of using random props to create things are over! Most of my time is spent in Blender having a crack at modeling things. Imported models are the best way of getting the most performance out of a room, so long as the number of vertices and the texture sizes aren’t ridiculous.




The Projectionist

Shockingly, the 48 hours was far less stressful than Build-a-room #2 & #3’s 2 weeks. And I would put this down to the scope of the room (The Projectionist) being relatively simple from the start.

I knew that if I made the room too complex then any minor setbacks during creation would cause the room development to fall behind and eventually feel incomplete once the timer runs out. I made this mistake in Build-a-room #2 with The Virtual Prison. Learned from the mistake with The Projectionist. Then forgot the lesson again in Build-a-thon #3 with ‘Relativity’...

The 48 hours even included a picturesque walk in the lovely British countryside to record the footage for the movie clips in the room. That being said, I must have gotten 6 hours sleep within that 48-hour period.



Let me out

Creating a room is a labour of love. It consumes a considerable proportion of your life. In a way, they are all my favourite for their own reasons. Let Me Out is probably my current favourite as I’m a fan of horror rooms.

It was the first room (to my knowledge) to use a professional voice actor. Looking back it’s not the greatest and it doesn’t even have many puzzles in it despite being in a game about puzzles! Nevertheless, I have a soft spot for it.



Pure chaos. I’ve entered 3 contests and the 2 build-a-rooms were just madness. Creative direction is constantly changing. Entire ideas evaporating or appearing out of thin air due to necessity. I’d put this down to myself always wanting the scope of the rooms to be as large and impressive as possible.

At first, 2 weeks feels like an eternity. “Oh yeah, I can get that done in a day. Oh that puzzle will be easy to sort the logic for.” Then you realise you’ve got 2 days left, nothing is ready, and the original concept is a husk of it’s former self. Great puzzle ideas get ditched because the time to properly execute them no longer exists.

So yes. Chaos… But you better believe I’ll be doing the exact same thing in the next competition!

In my free time, ideas can come and go naturally. Assets can be created slow-time and if something is a creative dead end, it doesn’t matter. What’s the rush? Ideas that turn out to not be fun or don’t make sense can be deleted and better ideas have the time to be developed and sculpted.




Relativity

All I try to accomplish is the same feat that all other games employ. If there’s a window, you should be able to see something nice out of it. If you pour a bucket of water, the bucket should be animated nicely, make a water pouring sound, and have water coming out of it. It’s fair to say I spend 80% of the room creation time on these finer details.

They often add nothing to the puzzles. But it’s these details that make a room more memorable and enchanting to me.



Virtual Prison

The usual scenario is to pick a theme that hasn’t been done before. A theme that is possible within the confines of the editor. A theme that has the potential to look pretty or striking or both.

As mentioned previously, the puzzles are centered around the environment. For example, in ‘Under the Sea’ I was making a colourful animated fish as a background prop and thought “ahhhh, I can use that!”


In my crazy dreamworld, I like to believe that it’s possible to create a room that everyone plays and has a fun time with. This is not what happens. Everyone has different tastes. And that’s okay. The next best thing is to make a room that most players will enjoy.

That room has a difficulty that is easy/moderate. It might be challenging, but it most certainly will not be hard. A good room should not require the player to be very smart. But a good room should leave the player feeling smart.



Virtual Prison

Do you have a best friend? Forget them. Your new best friend is the ‘empty’. It is nothing, yet it can do everything. It might not be today, tomorrow, or even next week. But one day you will realise that the empty is the most important thing in your creative life.

Most effects can be retextured for some pretty impressive and often chaotic results. Play around with the effects and let your imagination run wild. I was able to create a ‘bubbles’ effect by taking the ‘snow’ effect, flipping it upside down and retexturing the snow particles with a simple bubble png.


What I like isn’t always what the rest of the world likes. And that’s okay.

A great example is found within my Build-a-room #2 submission, ‘The Virtual Prison’. In that room, there is a mini game which is essentially just basketball. There’s a little scoreboard and an announcer. I loved it.

But this is Escape Simulator, not NBA 2k23. People hopped into that room and got frustrated that they were having to throw basketballs into a moving hoop. And I completely understand. This is a puzzle game after all, and I handed the player something that isn’t a puzzle. That room also contained a frogger rip-off. I’m now asking the player to do some ‘action/platforming’ in a puzzle game.

I was hard on myself for months after this room was released due it’s less than favourable reception. It wasn’t until Dr_Poly played through the room on a stream that I decided to play it again myself… And I loved it!

It sounds horribly narcissistic, but I had a great time throwing balls with an over exuberant announcer and dodging cars like an 80’s frog.

It’s important for creators to understand that you should create what makes you happy. If you have fun playing it, there’s a good chance that most others are going to enjoy it too!



Under the Sea

I was putting together the layout of ‘Under the Sea’ in the editor and realised I had backed myself into a corner. I had accidentally placed all the assets in such a way that it wouldn’t be possible/make sense for the underwater facility to route where it needed to. I certainly didn’t want to undo hours of work.

Then my partner said to me, “why don’t you just go underground?” And I thought, “Nah that’s mad. I’d have to cut out a hole in the mesh of the sea floor and build an entirely new section off to the side to create an indoor space. Crazy. Too much work…”

Hours go by and I thought, well actually she is right. Going underground whilst underwater sounds quite fun and unexpected. You’re at the bottom of the ocean and you end up going even lower! It started as a simple ladder down into a basement.

Somehow that morphed into creating some sort of London Underground ripoff with a moving train section. I wouldn’t have even attempted a moving train section because I wouldn’t have considered it possible. Then I remembered towards the end of Zesty’s Ominous Obelisk; he had a moment where all the players move vertically in an elevator in a very convincing fashion.

So why wouldn’t it work horizontally?

In summary, Under the Sea’s most memorable section only exists due to my poor planning and a bit of lateral thinking from my partner.



Clockwork Games

It’s difficult to narrow it down. I’m grateful to have received a lot of positive support over the past 20 months (at time of writing) of this escape sim journey I find myself on. The comment section for Under The Sea is a great place to start.

Actually, scratch that. I know what it is. After the Build-a-room #3. Mumbo said this to me on the Pine Studio Discord regarding Relativity.

"Duc I think you are the number 1 greatest 3d environment artist escape simulator has to offer and this is the number 1 most beautiful room in ES."

There was plenty of helpful constructive criticism in there as well but the above comment has always stuck with me.


Pine choosing me for this!


True 2D sprites. We have transparents which is incredible. (RIP Space sticker.) But a transparent that rotates itself to always face the player would be neat.

Having more animation keyframes. The current workaround for fancy animations is to stack parented empties or whip out LUA. But it’s a bit cumbersome and certainly a roadblock for newer creators.
More animation curves. Linear and smooth are good, but it is not enough for all purposes. For example: an object falling off a shelf and hitting the floor. I challenge someone to animate that in ES and make it look realistic. I know how I would do it and it would be such a pain to put together.

Blender allows you to hold shift while interacting with an object to adjust it in finer increments. Having that in escape sim would change my life. And would save me needing to change the numeric values each time I want something lined up with something else. Having granular control over minute distances would be excellent.

Stairs. Stairs. Please.



The creators that stand out are the ones that are doing things that nobody had done before them. Pioneers. Visionaries. The list is colossal. I believe there are least 20 creators whose rooms I’ve played and gone “Wow, what a fantastic idea!” Sadly, I didn’t write down every time that happened so apologies to those not listed.

Cico: The OG pioneer. Those who have been playing workshop rooms from the very beginning will remember ‘A Pirates Legend.’ A Cico room which is no longer available today. However, it was the first true example of a very well executed outdoor environment. Before this, I had no idea the editor had the capability! If Cico hadn’t made that room, it’s a fair shout to say I probably wouldn’t have created 8 rooms by now. But this is surprising to no one. I’m certain every creator looks up to Cico in the same way as I do.

Zesty: He showed the community that escape sim can be far more than just a series of connected rooms. Devilish Diorama was a fantastic idea fantastically executed. A feat unmatched until he brought out a sequel. The game design in these rooms is so intelligent and intuitive. The player is transported into the mesmerising world that Zesty has created. I’ve spent the past few months continuously pressing refresh on Zesty’s workshop page hoping for a 3rd installment. Any. Day. Now.

Robin: In every Build-a-room competition I’ve entered, Robin has finished 1 place ahead of me. This is no accident. I remember playing those rooms and being overwhelmed with amazement. Immortal Canvas stands alongside the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and Machu Pichu. Absolute perfection in every regard and I have no idea how it was made. No doubt during my next room, I’ll be looking at Immortal Canvas and trying to capture a glimpse of its excellence. Shout-out to Spellbound.

Franch: Because audio is vital to creating a complete game experience. INSIDE, The Bastet Cat, and This Way Up are all auditory treats! No creator has put as much dedication into sound as Franch.
I’m hardly scratching the surface here. The community is rich with talent, and I would need a few thousand more words to give the credit where it is due.


I like to think that Under The Sea was a spiritual successor to Clockwork Inc. This next one is a spiritual successor to Under The Sea. It’s still early in development but the scope is very large. Far larger than Under The Sea.



The Collab: Museum

Beyond contributing towards the incredible Collab 2 Museum project. My main collaborator is my partner, Haze. Every room I’ve created has contained ideas, puzzles, concepts from Haze.

Even voice acting on occasion! Many of the rooms would have been completely different if it wasn’t for Haze’s influence. TheChubbyWalrus and AngryLasagne joined the team during The Virtual Prison for Build-a-room #2. Without their combined efforts, that room would have been an absolute shambles!


Thank you, Duc for taking the time to respond to our questions!

Interested in chatting with other room builders from our community? Or perhaps you've been contemplating becoming a room builder but aren't sure where to begin?

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We look forward to seeing you there!

Hello there!

Frontline Survivors releases tomorrow and you can check the latest trailer below !



See you very soon on the Frontline!
Vladirien

Tenno!

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