THE MATTER OF BEING
Set in the world of Cultist Simulator, The Matter of Being is a narrative/strategy game where players haunt mortals, thwart divine punishment, and strike faustian pacts all from the perspective of an otherworldly spirit. The game, whose gameplay shares DNA with games like Sultan’s Game and Suzerain, is scheduled to launch its demo in early May, and its Kickstarter pre-launch page is currently live. It is being developed by Common Logic, and is the first game on Steam to be created under Weather Factory’s highly permissive community license, which allows creators to use the IP to make up to 50 thousand pounds per annum with no questions or royalties asked.
Canonical games in the Secret Histories franchise include Cultist Simulator, Book of Hours, and the upcoming Traveling at Night. These games have sold some estimated $USD 8 million in units.
KEY FEATURES:-Shape the Lives of Mortals: Cure cancer, make people immortal, and help the lonely find love. Your powers in the mortal world are great, but faced with limited resources and a ticking clock, you’ll have to choose who to help and who to use.
-Diverse Win Conditions: Different playable spirits win the game in different ways.This gives players the opportunity to revisit NPC stories across playthroughs and choose radically different outcomes to serve their needs.
-Manipulate Relationships: Characters with strong relationships will develop convergent opinions of you, and characters who like you will help you. Make introductions, set people against each other, and win their hearts to make the most out of every turn.
-”Modding-First” Design: The Matter of Being’s core content is, itself, designed as a “mod” with all the same tools that will be available to the community. This is to support the strong modding community that exists for Cultist Simulator and Book of Hours.
If The Matter of Being raises $100K during its Kickstarter, Common Logic has committed to releasing all code for the game, all art, and all music for commercial use in other projects provided they follow the terms of Weather Factory’s Sixth History Community License.
This $100k milestone was set after The Matter of Being won #5 in Blue Ocean Games’ “Rising Tide” competition, but was denied the opportunity for funding after changes were made to the competition concerning the use of licensed IP.
Along the way to this $100k milestone, other kickstarter rewards include:
-Mac support
-Native mod authoring tools
-Character romance
-More playable spirits and a larger cast of characters
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3869880/The_Matter_of_Being/
Content creators, streamers, and journalists are invited to reach out to Common Logic or Weather Factory for further comment. Exclusive keys that show content beyond the scope of the public demo will also be available for interested parties going forward. Common Logic is particularly interested in discussing game design philosophy and behind-the-scenes work.