For anyone who doesn't mind getting their brain dirty with a bit of forbidden knowledge, developer Crazy Goat Games has some very good news. Worshippers of Cthulhu, the studio's Lovecraftian city builder and cult management sim, will be summoned into this realm – er, released – on October 21, 2024, and a free demo is already available to play on PC.
For those of us who like our management sims with a splash of supernatural grime (and an eerily foreboding soundtrack by music label Cryo Chamber), there's a lot to be excited for here. Worshippers of Cthulhu's latest trailer, which debuted exclusively at the Future Games Show at Gamescom Presented by Sid Meier’s Civilization® VII, teases everything you'd expect from a game about life serving Cthulhu. Furled tentacles and giant statues of Cthulhu sit between housing plots and tomato fields, and you'll need to "harness human toil" – that's cult-speak for putting people to work – to ensure faith and building materials flow.
However, the most important resource will arguably be the people we'll be lording over. Besides gathering resources and working industriously, cultists will also be able to devote their lives to some pretty gnarly-looking rituals. One particularly brutal mechanic requires you to carve the right symbol into someone's back, while another shot from the trailer shows a plucky cultist bursting into a mass of tentacles before casting themselves into the ocean, from which a toothy monstrosity emerges. The Necronomicon even makes a brief appearance, which will let us summon demons to do our bidding in combat.
But the worst fate of all is reserved for "Mark from work," a subject who Crazy Goat Games goes to great lengths to rename and burn at stake. It's hard to tell what Mark's sacrifice achieves, but if it's a ritual designed to pique interest in Worshippers of Cthulhu – which will also be showcasing a demo during October's Steam Next Fest – it's certainly worked on us.
If you’re looking for more excellent games from today's Future Games Show, have a look at our official Steam page.
