Ross's Game Dungeon: Super Cult Tycoon

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Well... that review was more about cults then the game itself.

Although I don't blame him for that, that game really doesn't have much meat on its bones, it really is just a prototype with a really interesting idea.

👍︎︎ 28 👤︎︎ u/Lubaf 📅︎︎ Mar 28 2015 🗫︎ replies

This would be a definite moneymaker if done right. But goddamn, that review was spectacular. It was just fantastic how he kept building in more and more elaborate cult-reasoning for how the game should've worked.

EDIT: Oh crap, I thought he sounded familiar! This is the guy that did Freeman's Mind!

👍︎︎ 23 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Mar 28 2015 🗫︎ replies

Build a cult outpost in the middle of a jungle?

Heh, looks a lot like "Jonestown simulator". Wonder if there is an option that allowd you to lace the town's water with cyanide...

👍︎︎ 18 👤︎︎ u/giulianosse 📅︎︎ Mar 28 2015 🗫︎ replies

I loved how indepth he went into how a good cult sim game would work. As amusing as it all was he had some good points on what features should be included and what changes should be made.

I hope he does more videos along the same lines as this.

👍︎︎ 9 👤︎︎ u/Aleitheo 📅︎︎ Mar 28 2015 🗫︎ replies

Can you turn off the depth of field? It seems very excessive.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/Paladia 📅︎︎ Mar 28 2015 🗫︎ replies
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[Subtitles by danielsangeo] Hey! It's starting to be springtime, so you know what that means: cult-recruitment season, so I'm going to be covering "Cult Tycoon", or the formal name: "Super Cult Tycoon 2 - Deluxe Edition". This is a cult-management simulator. Now, don't be fooled by the name; this is a prototype game, but it is overflowing with potential. Look at this opening screen. "Build 3 monoliths to summon the mothership, "then defend your compound until it arrives." Well, this is off to a good start already. I love how our cult has a clear vision from the beginning, something we can work towards. Now, "United Blisstonians" isn't a bad name, but I wanted to make my own. Although, you'd be surprised how hard it is to come up with an ominous cult name that isn't already taken. Take a look at these -- these are all in use by one group or another. Well, I'm saying hell with it, we're the "Children of Restoration". I'm probably offending some church in Baltimore right now, but that's just too bad. We need to summon the mothership and it's not going to happen if people think we're the Mickey Mouse Club. "Made for the Mysticism pageant at Super Friendship Club "itsalteracationtime.com". Wow. That tells you everything you need to know, doesn't it? Let's get started. So, we start off and a disembodied voice tells us we're already running from the FBI after our last escapade. Boy, that puts us at a big disadvantage already. This is going to be a short game. Also, the camera and van movement here are kind of choppy. It's the game, there's no way around it. Oh, yeah, this is bad. We need to leave now. Alright, here's the first big thing I dislike about this game: I hate how the background is always out of focus. Turning down the graphics doesn't help. It's always like this. This is apparently called "tilt shift photography" and while that could be cool for screenshots, I hate this for actually playing it. But, again, no way to fix it. So, after wandering the woods, we enter this convenient clearing with a big barn in the center. A perfect place to start our cult. This feels like a shortcut to me. We didn't have to buy the property, know someone who owns it, get permits... Now, if this was a full-fledged sim, I feel like you should start off with a certain amount of money, or know a certain number of people, and work your way up to acquiring property like this. The movies might make it look like all you need to start a cult is a bunch of hooded robes and a bonfire, but the reality is: it takes a lot of time, work and money for a cult to be successful, and it can all go wrong at any stage. That's why this is a perfect theme for a sim game. But anyway, we have property, we have some money, so our next big step, of course, is to get some followers. Now, in the game, this is a simple operation. You just drive your windowless van playing an ice cream jingle into town, and they'll walk towards your van, or you can just grab them directly. While I love the ice cream van music and how this is named the "Enlightenment Van", to me, this needs to be developed into much more complex process. Like, driving around and grabbing people to come into a van will be one method of recruitment. And not necessarily the most stable one. Better methods would be to campaign on college campuses, some church groups, yoga or meditation classes, natural food stores... in my opinion, those are the rich spots for recruitment, depending on your cult's message. Anyway, once you round up a full load, you bring them back to the barn, then BAM! They're converted into cultists and your FBI wanted rating increases. See, they're simplifying this WAY too much. Bringing nonbelievers into the fold, I would argue, is THE hardest part of the cult-building process. There are so many stages and you're never going to get a 100% conversion rate like you do in this game. Ideally, you would have a smaller introductory compound that new recruits stay in for a couple months before they join the real deal. See, as you get more resources, that could be a potential upgrade for the simulator. Basically, you want an easy exit for the initiates who are never going to fit in with the group anyway, but you want to cut off and isolate all the others from the outside world so that the cult becomes their family, and they're not led astray by the temptations of modern civilization. Also, this takes time. There shouldn't be any of this instant conversion crap. It should take at least a few minutes real time. In a good cult sim, you should always be planning ahead. Anyway, we have our fresh acolytes-- I like how they're dressed--but what's this? We have idle cultists standing around?! Not on my watch! Idle hands are the devil's workshop, so let's take care of that right now. "Crafts Corner -- Acolytes sew a variety of wallets and vintage jeans "for international export and fun." Perfect. Wow, look at the size of that. And the smokestacks. That is some heavy-duty fun they're going to be having. Now you may notice that now that I have my followers, my "Kool Aid" supply is going down. This is essentially your cult's morale meter. If you run out of Kool Aid, your cultists will get spooked and start leaving so, to offset that, you have to build Kool Aid Breweries. Again, this is too simple for me. It's a tricky formula determining who's going to stay or not. It depends on individual personalities, how many motivational speeches you're giving... Are you teaching your followers daily lessons about your cult's beliefs? Do they have a routine they follow? Do you have celebrations? Are people making friends? And so on. While, yes, you could drug Kool Aid to keep people in a kind of haze, that's a short term solution. No drug is going to be as powerful as a sober mind that's been focused in the right direction. Next, we need to build some housing for future acolytes. These are pretty cheap. We don't need to splurge here as the Children of Restoration are humble servants of a higher force. So, this pattern continues for a while. You keep driving into town or nearby farms, recruit more followers, and your economy, FBI rating and scale of operations increase and you get more upgrades along the way. One upgrade I had really mixed feelings about was the "Robert Sentry" which will round up stray cultists looking to leave. On one hand, we're clearly crossing over into fiction now. If you want to round up cultists, you use search parties, dogs, perimeter patrols, that sort of thing. On the other hand, this is in homage to the show "The Prisoner" where a giant "Rover" sentry would always stop the protagonist from leaving the area. "The Prisoner" was a very surreal show. I've seen the whole thing and I'm still not sure what happened. So, while the reference to the show is cool, I feel like this would be good as an unlockable or something for a goofier expansion pack. I think we're straying out of sim territory with this one. Let's talk about the economy for a minute. In this game, you get the bulk of your money from making the wallets and jeans, but you also get a little bit in tithes from new followers. If we're going to be realistic about this, I think it should be the other way around. In real life, donations from followers are hugely important. You need to be convincing people that your cult is all they'll ever need so they should cast off their old life full of material possessions, and donate all that stuff to the cult in order to further your cause. For poorer members, it just means pawning off their goods, but for wealthier ones, it means taking out a mortgage on their house, or donating additional property... this stuff can be your lifeline. Even then, for your true believers, you want to get some of them back out there convincing THEIR friends and family to donate THEIR money and possessions to the cult. I mean, yeah, you still want to keep selling the handmade crafts on the side, but getting fresh money coming in should be an ongoing need in the game. Anyway, after a while, your FBI rating increases even more and they start sending units to your compound. You have to stop them from entering your barn at all cost because you lose mysticism each time they get a peek. To prevent this from happening, you can build public relations buildings to bribe them to go away. To me, this right here is where the game falls apart. I have problems with this on multiple levels. First, only THE biggest cults have dedicated PR buildings like this. If you're operating out of a barn in the woods, you don't have a PR department. Second, we're BRIBING FBI officials?! Excuse me?! Now, I'm not saying it's impossible for an FBI agent to become corrupted, but the vast majority of agents are not going to back down if your cult throws bags of money at them. Do you have any idea how many background checks federal law enforcement officials undergo? Actually, no. Background INVESTIGATIONS. We're talking about the FBI, not the local town sheriff and his cousin deputy. The feds are largely vetted. You offer to bribe them, you're giving them a nice juicy excuse to bust your ass. Third, law enforcement should not feel welcome to come in and stroll about your compound. If an FBI truck is rolling up, they either need a warrant or need to get the hell off your property. The end. Now, if they DO have a warrant, that's another story; we'll come back to that in a minute. Now, if they wanted to make this more real world, they could do sweeps for surveillance equipment, or worst of all-- try to root out an undercover agent who has infiltrated your compound. That would only happen at late game stages, though. Before the FBI or the ATF start knocking on your door, you know who's likely to show up? Child protection services if they think any children aren't getting a proper education; the IRS if you're not on top of your taxes; city officials making sure your paperwork or permits are in order. That stuff can all bring you down long before the feds even know who you are. Your first line of defense with your cult is isolation. This game seems to cover that. But once "the Man" knows where you are, your next step should be to lawyer up. Make the law work for you. You should be handing those bags of money to the lawyers, not the feds. They're the ones who are going to turn these trucks around, or make them wish they never came here. You want to get sued for harassment? Because you're acting like you do. So, I don't like this PR building system one bit. But, sooner or later, if your cult keeps growing in influence and achieving greatness, the feds are likely to raid your place, especially in the post-Homeland Security world that we live in. Now, the way you handle this, I think should be based on how close to our goals we are. I haven't started building the monoliths yet because, in this game, once you do that, your FBI rating will not stop increasing. These monoliths get their attention; they can't handle the truth. But, really, what this game should do is if the feds were to raid you at this stage, then your best bet would be to have pre-built underground panic rooms where any VIPs, guns, known felons could hide out while they conduct a search. Like, this might get to be an issue if one of your cult members is related to someone influential, like, say, a congressman's daughter is part of your cult. You might think she would be more trouble than she's worth, but she could also be bringing in the MOST MONEY into your cult, so it's really a balancing act. Perfect of a sim game. But once you have enough resources, you construct the monoliths, then it's game on! I love how the tone changes here. Now this feels like a world changing event! But, god, I hate this PR building system, because, let's face it, if we are THIS close to our salvation, then now is when you bring out the guns. None of this PR building crap. The game should switch over to a tactical shooter at this point. You should bring everyone into the barn and start firing from the windows. You should keep whole families together, especially the children, because the feds will think twice about spraying the place with bullets if they know it's full of kids and other noncombatants. Now, if you were prepared, you would have gas masks and if you were REALLY prepared, you would have underground tunnels also, but that's a lot of work. 50% MYSTICISM! NO! WE ARE SO CLOSE, MY CHILDREN! All right, I hate to be a buzzkill with such a great buildup like this, but the ending to this game is really weak. Whether you win or lose, the ending is totally anticlimactic. If you win, you drive away and the ominous voice says hateful things to you. I don't even feel like showing it; it's just poorly written. It just ruins the whole mood. But here's the "bad" ending. So, yeah, that's "Cult Tycoon". I think there's a lot to be learned here. "Cult Tycoon" is serving up a prototype of a game that should be made. In the past, I would've said this game concept is money lying in the ground. If someone were to turn this into an all-out simulator, I'd think you could sell copies for sure. Nowadays, it's anyone's guess if a game will be successful or not, but there is currently no game like this on the market. There are no other cult simulators I know of, except for some cheap web game I found. It never hurts to have a unique concept for a game. All right, I should finish this up, but before I do, I know some people out there are saying, "Ross, now I want to get involved with a cult "but I don't know what to do! C'mon! You can't leave me hanging like this!" Well, not to worry, I've got you covered. Now, I can't tell you what cult you should join as that's a very personal decision, but I can at least get you started. If you want to get involved with a cult, the best resource I know is the Fellowship for Intentional Community homepage, or ic.org. This has everything--books, blog entries, its own magazine, various events, and most important, its directory. Here, every group that's anybody is going to advertise themselves and give you some details of what they're all about. There's a big variety, too. For example: do you hate technology and think it is evil? Are you tired of so-called "religious people" who don't REALLY follow their faith and want to be the with the True Believers? Do you love the Second Amendment and want to live in a community where every single citizen is armed at all times? Do you want to find neighbors with similar views that shouldn't be creepy to intentionally live near to yet somehow is? Or maybe you're a vegan and hate meat eaters and never want to be around another one again. Do you want to be involved with some expensive co-housing group that might be a scam? Do you like busting your ass doing farm work? This one in particular will make you popular with a lot of groups. Do you have so much debt your life is effectively ruined, or you're on the run from Johnny Law and want to fall off the grid? Do you have no direction in your life and want others to help find it for you? Or, maybe you're like me and want to see what your best options are before we exit peak oil and enter a long collapse scenario. Well, if any of these situations describe you, then you'll find what you're looking for at the Fellowship for Intentional Community. Or maybe you've got a cult ready to go and need to find some followers. Now, I should warn you. A lot of these entries, I'd say even the majority, are NOT cults. But you bet your ass some of them are. You'll have to read between the lines. It takes time to look through the directory and figure out who is actually going to start summoning the mothership or not. But hey, if you're not willing to invest time into this, cult life is not for you. Okay, let's wrap this up. Time for awards. First award: Bifocal vision-- I never got used to that damned blurring. Second award: Why hasn't someone done this yet? This is a game concept waiting to happen. There are multiple prison simulator games out there but we have nothing for cults. Somebody might want to get on that. Okay, that's all I have for this game. Stay tuned for the next episode which will be one of the worst named games I've played. Until then, "it's altercation time". [banjo music] [strange humming noise]
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Channel: Accursed Farms
Views: 498,349
Rating: 4.9278374 out of 5
Keywords: Ross's Game Dungeon, Super Cult Tycoon, Videogames, Indie Games, Video Game (Industry), Video Game TYCOON (Video Game), Freeman's Mind, Video Game Culture
Id: LnkqdMS1LkE
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 17min 13sec (1033 seconds)
Published: Fri Mar 27 2015
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