Doctrine: C.U.L.T.

Look, I'm not anti-AI. I don't believe having AI in a game makes it slop. I'm 100% sure that there are amazing games out there created using AI technologies; some amazing gem from a brilliant solo designer, programmer, or artist, that wouldn't exist without AI because you need all three to make a game, and that's rare to find in a single individual. AI art lets solo game designers make visuals. It gives experienced game programmers the ability to program 3 times as fast so new games can be prototyped and playtested quickly, and non-programmers a fighting chance at having game logic *at all*. I'm sure that somewhere out there, there's even design work being done by AI, because some highly talented artist has beautiful images, but not enough design sense to balance their game. AI unlocks the ability for these devs to bridge their weaknesses so they can play to their strengths. But you *gotta* have at least one branch, dude. You can't just rely on AI for *all three* and have it work out! The art shows signs of *careful* AI generation. Everybody has the right number of fingers, but it's clear there wasn't an artist behind it. I didn't mind this. The art was good and evocative (though unoriginal, as AI art tends to be). The design of the game is a mess. The UI is poor, the player signaling near non-existent, and very quickly, you get into a loop of the same few yellow events over and over again, because the requirements for getting new red events (the interesting ones) are way out of whack. (For instance, one requires 190 million followers. You get about 60 followers per yellow event.) The benefits and drawbacks to making decisions are opaque, and opening up the ScriptableObjects in Avalonia reveals that there's little rhyme or reason behind the numbers, a fact that they disguise by claiming that "Mystery is part of the theme of the game" and obfuscating cause and effect. Decisions don't so what you think they do. For instance, one common yellow event about your cult running out of money lets you institute tithes, ask for one-time offerings, or try to soldier on without it, but code analysis shows that the *only* thing this decision does is change your follower count: It doesn't affect your unity, transcendence, or leverage, it *looks* like they meant for it to affect your relations with the region, but that part of the code is bugged, and they don't even *keep track* of your cult's financial situation. In fact, when I opened up the code in ILspy, not only is the code sloppy and incomplete (sometimes the game will tell you it does something, and then it just... doesn't) but I also found signs of vibe coding that are so obvious that in the Modded Rimworld Discord we literally make memes about them. (If you're a senior Unity dev that's used AI assistance, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about, lol.) Again, I think AI coding is *great* when used properly, but there's a difference between developing a game using agentic assistance and "vibe coding" by letting the AI write your code for you. The people producing this game don't understand their code, or these "signs of vibe coding" I'm being vague about would absolutely not exist. Much of the "incomplete" feeling of this game, I feel, is likely based on the devs thinking the code is doing stuff that its not actually doing. I'm also nervous about the writing. I can't prove this, but there are certain idioms in the writing that I haven't heard in 10 years... except by Claude, who has used that idiom over three dozen times in the scant 8 months I've had a Claude Pro plan. Plus, the writing stylistically resembles Claude's to a great degree. This could explain the vague, non-specific nature of many of the events and the existential "feel" of the writing. So, when you've got the art, code, balance, and writing all done by AI, there's not really any room left for individual genius to shine forth. Humans seem to have brought nothing to this game but some prompts to give to Claude Code and whatever diffusion model they used. This deeply disappoints me. I want there to be some *amazing* game out there that proves that AI can be used to bring wonderful games to life that otherwise would never have gotten a chance to exist. But this is not that game. This is the sort of game that makes AI Stans cringe, because it fuels the "AI = slop" narrative the anti-AI folk are using. It's sad, because I absolutely love the concept of the game. I wish the game was actually lived up to the Steam description, but it doesn't. Because, of course, AI wrote that too.

Pretty fun game with a lot of potential. It’s easy to get into and works great for a chill evening or two. The gameplay is enjoyable and you can see where the devs want to take it. Music could be better and doesn’t always fit, but you can just turn it down. Looking forward to more content. Overall I recommend it, it’s a really nice game.

Options seemed limited and basically couldn't form the cult I wanted so now I have to go actually make one to scratch that itch.

It's a ok start. Its worth the few smeckles it costs, and i hope it gets better. a little bare bones at launch but i wont refund it yet. I'll be watchin the updates

The concept of Doctrine Cult is honestly great and has a lot of potential, which is why I’m keeping my eyes on this project. However, the current state of the user interface makes the game quite hard to enjoy. The UI is very unfriendly to the player, and reading the choice explanations feels like a chore. I understand that the stylized font is supposed to build the atmosphere, but it really needs to be larger or swapped for something much more readable. Despite these issues, I genuinely want to play the full version once the game gets some polish. For now, it's a thumbs up for the concept

DOCTRINE C.U.L.T. is a pretty trippy game, not gonna lie. The atmosphere is super creepy and kinda pulls you in right away — feels like you’re stuck in some messed-up cult story the whole time. Gameplay is more slow and focused on exploring and figuring things out, so don’t expect action. The story is weird and confusing, but in a cool way that makes you want to keep digging. It’s not perfect — controls can feel a bit off and pacing drags sometimes — but overall it’s a solid pick if you’re into dark, experimental indie games.

Played a while and I'm satisfied. Interesting concept, full of potential