Cozy roguelike game Grimoire Groves has drawn a lot of comparison to Cult of the Lamb: both are colorful games that put a twist on the usual roguelike format and include elements of other genres, such as building, crafting, and farming. Grimoire Groves began development prior to Cult of the Lamb’s release, meaning the latter game did not serve as a direct inspiration, but it gave the developers confidence that their concept of a combat-free roguelike game could be embraced by players.
In a conversation with Game Rant, Grimoire Groves lead designer Tabea Iseli talked about the comparisons that have arisen between Grimoire Groves and Cult of the Lamb, and how the game’s success made the Stardust team more confident that Grimoire Groves could work well. While Grimoire Groves is a much more light-hearted and cozy adventure with far fewer themes of cults, elder gods, and sacrifices, the two games do share some DNA in that both are twists on the standard “in a dark dungeon, slaying monsters and demons” roguelike formula.
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Cult Of The Lamb’s Success Was Good News For Grimoire Groves
“When you look at the final product,” said Iseli of Grimoire Groves, “a lot of people are pointing out, of course, Cult of the Lamb. But, funny enough, it wasn’t even an influence for the game because we started to work on the game long before Cult of the Lamb came out.” Grimoire Groves had a long development cycle, as the team struggled to find a publisher and ultimately chose to fund the game via Kickstarter. It also grew and expanded significantly during development, adding more farming and crafting mechanics as well as deeper NPC interactions.
However, while Cult of the Lamb did not serve as a direct inspiration for Grimoire Groves, the Stardust team was extremely heartened by the former’s success when it launched in 2022. Cult of the Lamb received extremely positive reviews and was nominated for several awards, with Iseli describing their reaction to this fact:
“When it came out, it was really like a relief to us because it was one of the first games where we really felt like, ‘okay, that’s kind of like a proof that our concept of mixing roguelike with farming and cozy elements can find an audience and find an appeal outside the community that we were building ourselves.'”
Grimoire Groves’ Inspirations Included Animal Crossing And More
While Cult of the Lamb did not serve as a direct inspiration for Grimoire Groves, other games did. One was Wizard of Legend, a “roguelike game about casting magic.” Another was the Animal Crossing franchise, which the team began using as inspiration when they realized that they wanted to add more dialogue and storylines to Grimoire Groves’ NPCs.
“When we started to come up with our NPCs, they were at first traditional shopkeepers like in traditional roguelike games,” said Iseli, but the team “realized that our audience, our community, started to get much more attached to these characters.” The Animal Crossing games served as a basis for the re-designed and expanded NPCs in Grimoire Groves, including an optional plot where players can choose to build houses for some particularly well-liked characters.
Ultimately, Grimoire Groves is not fully Cult of the Lamb or Animal Crossing but something all its own: a cozy roguelike with farming elements that de-emphasizes combat in favor of raising and feeding adorable plant creatures, befriending interesting characters, and crafting delicious food such as boba tea. Perhaps Grimoire Groves will go on to give other developers confidence to experiment with the roguelike genre just as Cult of the Lamb did for Stardust.
Casual
Roguelike
Action
RPG
Adventure
- Released
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March 6, 2025
- Developer(s)
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Stardust GmbH
- Publisher(s)
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Wings, Stardust GmbH