Narayana Johnson, known by his stage name River Boy, was the award‑winning composer and sound‑effects visionary behind Cult of the Lamb. He died while the studio was preparing the Woolhaven expansion, a major update for the game’s millions of fans.

Massive Monster producer Kelsey Gamble described the moment as “devastating,” saying, “How could you possibly fathom something like this happening and then just move on? The answer was, we couldn't. We stopped, you know, everybody obviously took time off to process.” The team halted work on Woolhaven and spent weeks grieving before resuming development.

The first step in returning to the project was to retrieve Johnson’s laptop and unlock the raw music files he had already created. This allowed the studio to preserve the unfinished tracks and the overall sonic identity that Johnson had established for the expansion.

Johnson had been collaborating with singer‑songwriter Ray Vavasis, who performs as Arrowbird, and with his niece Kalyani Ellis, a member of his band Willow Beats. After Johnson’s death, both Vavasis and Ellis continued to work on the soundtrack, ensuring his musical vision remained central.

Vavasis said she kept an unfinished snippet they created together as a tribute and a way to process grief, using it in many scenes and saying it gave her ‘the strength of two people.’

At the 2026 High Score conference, Massive Monster announced the River Boy Scholarship, a program that will provide funding, mentorship, and studio space to emerging game composers. JoJo Zhou, head of narrative, said, “The River Boy Scholarship is about helping composers make the leap from their discipline, into games.” Applications will open in 2027.