YOU are a cultist dedicated to bringing the old ones back into the world. Control your dark minions to move along leylines throughout the Seattle metro area. Each move will cast a ritual at a given node, and if you return to a ritual site, you will GROW its effect, drawing ever-greater magical energies.

When you completely surround a city with corrupting rituals, an elder god will be summoned, with a strength relative to the strongest adjacent ritual. The greater the strength of the summon, the larger percentage of the population will be taken, adding to a higher score, so take the time to build your energies before completing a circle.

Beware however! A meddling group of Investigators are casting their own protective magic that will undo what you have wrought. They are dangerous, and will kill one of your members every time you happen to cross paths.

Complete the corruption of all the cities and the Great One will be pleased. Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.

This game was created for the 48-hour game challenge Ludum Dare 34, which took place between December 11 and December 13, 2015.  The theme for this particular challenge was “Growth” (there were two to choose from).  I was kicking around a weird idea about growing your magical influence by traversing ley lines around a map of a real metropolitan area.  You control a fanatic Cthulhu cult who wishes to bring the elder gods into the world.  A classic set of “adventurers” are set against you.

The results of this Ludum Dare entry, including ratings and feedback from players, are found here.

This mechanic was poorly formed when I began the challenge, and it took a lot of rework to make it feel even remotely good. That said, there’s a lot of feedback as to how powerful your rituals are and how many cities remain that I didn’t have time for. Also, the enemy is pretty uninteresting to compete with… it’s definitely something I would have enhanced if I could.

I set up all the infrastructure to create more cities, but unfortunately didn’t have time to set them all up. I feel that there is a twisted appeal to wreaking havoc on your hometown or a familiar place.

It was created in Unity 5.3.  All art and sound had to be generated in the 48-hour span by the single entrant (me).

You can play the game on a webpage following this link (sorry if Chrome loads more slowly than Firefox):

You can also download the standalone PC player by clicking the adventurer:

Created using Unity 5.3. The Web version uses Unity’s WebGL, which loads a little slow on Chrome. The Windows version is a simple standalone ZIP.