Cult county

Cult County takes place in Cullville, a fictional small town in West Texas that is undergoing heavy dust storms . The main character, Gavin Mellick, visits the city in search of his sister Alice, to inform her about her mother’s fatal illness. After unsuccessful attempts to find a sister, Gavin appeals for help to the residents of the town, who, unfortunately, can help little. However, they tell him about a certain cult called the Sand Devils, who had recently moved to the city, and about the unexpected suicide of Father Pierce, a local priest. During the continuation of his search, Gavin feels the attention of some people, barely noticeable due to a sandstorm. The situation begins to change and a threat to his life looms over the main character ^{[1] [4]} .

Cult County gameplay knows little. The development was carried out on the Unity engine, in order to support most of the currently relevant consoles and computer operating systems ^[2] . The visual style was performed using the village shading technology , and the game was given mystery through the effect of dust storms that impair visibility. Character control, as in previous Renegade Kid games in the shooter genre, is carried out in the first person ^{[7] [8]} . To fight against enemies, mainly melee weapons are reserved: a knife, a wrench and other improvised means ^[1] . Firearms, for long-range combat, also had to get into the game ^{[1] [4]} . According to the producer and game designer, Jules Watsham, the means to defend against enemies was planned to be "limited" ^[9] , in order to complicate the survival process for the player and force him to monitor his weapons ^[2] . The identity of the enemies who opposed the player during the game was not unambiguously disclosed. Probably, they could be members of a cult - one of them was depicted on a concept art with an ax in his hands ^{[2] [4]} .

Cult County was planned to be divided into episodes, each with a separate release date (this distribution format can be seen, for example, in Telltale Games games ). Initially, the Renegade Kid wanted to divide the game into two seasons in three episodes ^[10] , but after the opening of the Kickstarter campaign, the number of episodes was reduced to five - everything was planned to be released within one single season. Since the start of the Kickstarter campaign, all versions of the game (except for the 3DS version) had to use the Unity engine ^[2] .

Cult County was announced on March 22, 2013 at PAX East, along with a couple of other company games: Mutant Mudds Deluxe and ATV Wild Ride 3D ^{[2] [11]} . A demo version was presented, in which only one location was available, with a church and a cemetery, and a wrench acted as a weapon; there were no enemies. Unlike the other two developer games presented at the exhibition, they allowed to test the Cult County demo only to those who, in their opinion, were a true fan of shooters or their previous games in this genre. As Jules Watsham admitted, this was done in order to get ratings only from those people who were familiar with the genre ^[1] . The game was planned to be divided into separate episodes and distributed through the digital distribution service Nintendo eShop (originally planned six episodes). Since the portable Nintendo 3DS lacked the right joystick, which is usually responsible for managing a virtual camera in games, it was decided to control the viewing through the touch screen of the console; previously, developers have already done this in their previous shooters. As an alternative, it was planned to support the Circle Pad Pro accessory, which adds 3DS two additional triggers and the right stick ^{[1] [3] [12]} .

April 3, 2014 Renegade Kid posted their project on Kickstarter , motivating this by the fact that in this way they can attract players to the game and get rid of problems with publishers ^[4] . But among the declared platforms for which development was introduced, there was no Nintendo 3DS , which was previously the only platform on which the project was planned to be released. Renegade Kid explained that the cancellation of the 3DS version was the result of the company's decision to focus its efforts on development for stationary platforms ^[2] . However, on April 16, 2014, Renegade Kid announced that, thanks to fans' feedback, Cult County would still be ported to Nintendo 3DS ^{[13] [14] [15]} . Also, among other things, it was stated that the version for the PlayStation 4 will support the PlayStation VR virtual reality helmet ^{[16] [17] [18]} . To facilitate the creation of the game, the initial number of episodes was reduced from six to five, and the development was transferred to the Unity engine ^[2] . The creators of the game added that if the project raises $ 100,000 more than the required amount, they will release a documentary about the Cult County development process, and if there are another forty thousand more, the version of the game for the Xbox 360 console ^{[4] [19] [ 20]} . The game was demonstrated at PAX East 2014 ^{[21] [22]} . In addition, Renegade Kid contacted Akira Yamaoka with a request to write a track for the game ^[23] .

The campaign ended on May 2, 2014 - they managed to collect less than one-tenth of the required amount. The game needed to raise at least $ 580,000, but she managed to get only 46,736; total money donated 1,492 people ^{[4] [5]} . Despite this, game producer Jules Watsham did not abandon plans for the creation of Cult County , but warned that due to the failure of the Renegade Kid on Kickstarter, the development of the project would take much more time ^[5] . According to him, a good way to reduce the budget of the game would be the release of only one episode ^{[5] [24]} . Since Cult County was originally created as the successor to the Dementium series, with the rights to which developers had problems with the publisher SouthPeak ^[25] , after the company returned the rights to the franchise, Watsham said that Cult County would most likely not be released ^{[6] [ 26]} . The game was used to remastered Dementium: The Ward for the Nintendo 3DS console ^[27] , which was released on December 3, 2015 in North America and distributed through the Nintendo eShop service ^{[28] [29]} .

• Official website
• Kickstarter Game Page