Cult of the Lamb wins Best Indie Game at this year’s Golden Joystick Awards

Cult of the Lamb has won Best Indie Game at this year's Golden Joystick Awards

The single-player construction and management simulation game, with roguelike and action-adventure elements, lets you fill the hooves of a possessed lamb tasked with forming a cult at the whim of an ethereal deity who saved your life once upon a time. In order to do all of that, you'll explore a randomly-generated world conquering, and ultimately, corralling new recruits. 

The work of indie developer Massive Monster and publisher Devolver Digital, Cult of the Lamb is as off-the-wall as it sounds, and got the better of a category brimming with top indie hits from the last 12 months – including Tunic, Rollerdrome, Dorfromantik, Neon White, and Teardown. 

The full list of nominees looked like this:

  • Cult of the Lamb (winner)
  • Tunic
  • Rollerdrome
  • Dorfromantik
  • Neon White
  • Teardown

In her write-up earlier this year, Sam Loveridge described the nuts and bolts of Cult of the Lamb as "Animal Crossing meets Hades", while hailing its visuals and pitch-perfect presentation. She said: "It's somehow simultaneously cute and horrific, with monsters barfing acid and pulsating with warps and other grossness, compared to your cult folk that are tiny giraffes, unicorns, hedgehogs, cats, and other adorable critters. It's bright and colorful, but also dark and mysterious in equal measure. It's quite the feat to be honest, and utter screenshot fodder." 

"There's a reason Cult of the Lamb is getting a lot of attention. The way it blends its two unique gameplay styles with those graphics makes it one you won't want to miss. After all, do you really want to anger a god and answer to a cult?"

Discover the best games of 2022 at the best prices by checking out the Golden Joystick Awards Steam sale page

Joe Donnelly
Features Editor, GamesRadar+

Joe is a Features Editor at GamesRadar+. With over seven years of experience working in specialist print and online journalism, Joe has written for a number of gaming, sport and entertainment publications including PC Gamer, Edge, Play and FourFourTwo. He is well-versed in all things Grand Theft Auto and spends much of his spare time swapping real-world Glasgow for GTA Online’s Los Santos. Joe is also a mental health advocate and has written a book about video games, mental health and their complex intersections. He is a regular expert contributor on both subjects for BBC radio. Many moons ago, he was a fully-qualified plumber which basically makes him Super Mario.