El Cid & the Cult of the Wasteland
In the year 1081, on a windswept Spanish plain, an exiled hero emerges ragged, thirsty, and alone…
What happens when you combine Eldritch Horror with Spaghetti Westerns?
El Cid & the Cult of the Wasteland was made in homage to the writing of H.P. Lovecraft and the filmography of Sergio Leone.
To create both the visual and atmospheric elements for El Cid & the Cult of the Wasteland we chose to use RPG Maker MV, which has a classic JRPG style that has been used to make a host of successful indie horror games.
Along with the engine’s premade assets, our art team created custom designs for cover art and promotional materials. To fill out the other visual elements we used varied free assets from creators in the RPG Maker community.
As with any process this started with research, and thankfully for us, that research consisted of watching old cowboy movies, browsing beautiful desert landscapes, and reading cosmic horror stories.
Let’s turn to the narrative design though, as that was the part of the game that I focused my work on.
There were five key narrative elements that I used to tell this chilling and thrilling tale:
Cutscenes, Dialogues, Found Narrative, Atmospheric Storytelling, and Level Design
Cutscenes
At different key moments in the game, control is taken away from the player for a short time to show key events.
To build mystery and suspense, at the game’s onset, the player is shown a short scene of the antagonist doing dastardly deeds that take place immediately before gameplay starts.
The player is then able to find this same area, finding key information about the antagonist’s cult and their evil intentions driving the plot forward.
This tactic of showing the “bad guy” to set the events of the story in motion is very common in Spaghetti Westerns among many genres of media. It helps set the scene for the player and adds elements of mystery and horror, foreshadowing what is to come.
Dialogues
Throughout the gameplay, El Cid encounters not only enemies with short barks and dialogues but also recruitable companions.
Beginning the game with his trusty steed, Bavieca, as the player wanders through the Desert Wastes level, they meet a lonely doggy who fled from the cultist’s carnage in the preceding cut scene.
Though these two companions do not respond to El Cid’s conversation in words, per se, they do respond with neighs and barks. The silence of the characters with only occasional conversation sets the tone of the game as a Spaghetti Western, using the “Man With No Name” trope that Clint Eastwood made famous in the Dollars trilogy.
Curious players can also find the hidden ally in the Abandoned Mine level who offers to aid the player, but if El Cid insults her, he will have to face her wrath…
Found Narrative
To provide clues for unlocking doors and finding secrets in the game, there are several pieces of Found Narrative in the form of translations of the Punic language. These elements hint at the ancient and unknown, heightening the mysticism of the cult the player is pursuing.
If players read the hints and understand the riddles, they will know where to look for the most powerful weapon in the game and where to find the secret ally, making the final battle with Nyarlathotep much more manageable.
Atmospheric Storytelling
A key element to telling this story was the sound effects and music that I chose to heighten the narrative elements.
In each level, we used a different looping soundtrack that set the tone for the atmosphere of that level. Also, we used sound effects like swirling wind and dripping water to tie together the soundscape with the gameplay and story.
Though we just used free-use tracks, RPG Maker MV allows you to modulate the speed and tone in the engine, which gave us a wide range of dynamic “feels” for the game.
Atop these sound-based atmospheric storytelling elements, throughout the gameplay, the player resides within a space of mystery and uncertainty.
These were intentional choices we made to harken to both Lovecraft’s eldritch horror short stories and the Spaghetti Western films of the 1960s and 1970s. Tied together with the retro feel of RPG Maker MV engine, the elements create a cohesive atmosphere of adventure and horror.
Level Design
The final key element of the narrative is the level design. Both the progression from area to area and the differing styles of level design we used to feed into the overall storytelling elements.
The game starts with open desert levels that give a feeling of loneliness and possibility. Then the player fights their way through the cultists in the Ravine level with the feel of an action-adventure like a cowboy movie or The Mummy (1999).
This battle-filled level then leads to the Abandoned Mine level which forces the player to explore a twisting and turning maze-like level as they look for a way to find the inner sanctum of the cult. After finding the tools and keys needed to proceed, they gain access to the game’s final level, the Lower Mine.
In this final level, the player faces their most dangerous enemies and has the ability to find the second most powerful weapon in the game, Claw Extension for your hound Zorro. This level also confines the space for player movement even more than the preceding level as well as having darker lighting to set the scene for a horrific ending.
I won’t spoil the ending for you, but let’s just say your inner eldritch horror lover will not be disappointed by the game’s conclusion.
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“I was really impressed with this game. The music selection was very on theme and excellent for the whole feel of the game. The maps are well made and there are a lot of interactions available... It was a nice flowing story... Overall GREAT GAME, lots of fun.”
Reviews
“I liked the story and where it was headed.”
“The horse is my favorite character”
“A cowboy/lovecraftian adventure RPG seems like a really neat concept and I really enjoyed the gameplay as well as the presentation and visuals. I really do like the concept of this project.”