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What is Cult?
Cult is a freeware game by Lee Blum.
Using negotiation and trade, one must resolve a situation involving barricaded cultists in a villa two kilometers away from town.
As you play, you wander around the villa, meeting some of the brainwashed cult members (and some reasonable people). You talk to them, find out what they want, and trade items with them for information. You learn a little about the social structure of the cult and even get to save some lives. Advancing from room to room, you find keys to locked doors and operate switches to remove barriers.
Today we witness too much blood in games when we want to solve problems. As the author of this game, living in the middle east, I want to show that problems can be solved by negotiation, and bloodshed can be avoided. There should be some games that portray negotiation as a peaceful - and viable - solution.
"Hi there. My name is Zack Bon, and I'm a cop.
I've been a member of the special operations unit for three years, and now I feel that I'm ready for my first solo operation.
Two weeks ago, about one hundred people who identify themselves as the "Cult of the Stars" barricaded themselves in a villa two kilometers away from town. We know they have guns and ammunition, but we don't know what for. There haven't been any negotiations; the cult members have refused to talk. Until now.
Two days ago I decided to go into the villa. I convinced my superior officer to go along with my plan. We contacted the cult leader and he allowed me to enter with two conditions - I must carry no weapons, and the leader's chamber is off-limits.
I agreed.
My goal is to work out this situation in peaceful ways. I can contact my captain at any time with a state of the art microcommunicator that the cult members don't know that I have on me.
This is the last chance to save whoever is in that villa, and the worst part is - we know there are children inside."
Story of the Cult project
It all started in 1997. I just wanted to make one of those old schooladventure games, opposed to the flood of Quake-style shoot-them-ups.
Low tech graphics and a good story were my weapon.Living in the Middle East, I knew right away that the whole idea in Cultshould be a non-violent solution to a very delicate situation. As violencewas necessary in order to beat any other game at that time, in Cult you hadto use negotiations and trade in order to reach a peaceful solution.
...Oh, and one more thing - Cult was free.
So it really succeeded and hundreds of thousands have already played Cult,but it started to look a bit outdated with its 8-bit graphics and sound.
On December 1999 I started working on Cult version 2, and in ten months itwas ready. This total revision include much better graphics (but it's stillain't Descent Freespace, as one Beta tester said), excellent music by JeremyRobson, solutions to most of the bugs, and the best thing about it - the
multilingual feature makes Cult available in TEN languages!
As Cult is FREEWARE, all the people who have worked on it worked for free,contributing their time, effort and good will. They have all volunteeredby contacting me through Cult's website, starting from Kevin Andersonwith his excellent proofreading work and great ideas and advice, and lateron with Vincent Bertrand and his translation of Cult to French. It continuedwith all the rest of the translators that did a splendid job. I wish tothank all of them for their work and friendship (they are credited at the bottom of this file). I'd also like to thank all the great Beta testers thathelped me fix all the known bugs in Cult.
By making the second version on one year of international effort, I found ahost of warm and diligent people, willing to work hard for a common goal.
But the job is never done, and version 2.03 now includes three more languages: Swedish, Czech and Turkish (Thanks to Christer, Daniel, and Metin!). If you speak a language that Cult is not featured in, contact me and join our team!
On versions 2.04, 2.05 and 2.06 we welcome the new Polish, Swiss German, Mandarin, Finnish, Greek, Romanian, Hungarian and the revised German and Spanish versions. This brings Cult to be available 20 languages!
Making Cult v2 was a team effort. I hope you'll enjoy the result!
Sincerely yours,
Lee Blum,
Author of Cult.
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Copyright Information
"Cult" in its distributed version can be copied freely. However, the game files must not be changed, hacked, or decompiled in anymanner. This software is copyrighted. Therefore, the graphics, music, plot or any other part of the game must not be copied or duplicated by any method. The author must be noted of mass distribution of the game by cdroms, diskettes, or any other distribution not through the Internet. The game must be distributed in its original full version with all the game files, unmodified. Not following these rules is a clear violation of the law. This software is provided "as is" and the author will not be held responsible in any way for any damage that it may cause. The correctness of the multilingual versions is under the responsibility of the translators.
