Moonlight Peaks is Animal Crossing, but it is also Story of Seasons, Stardew Valley, even V Rising in elements, and on the identical time, it’s none of this stuff.
Developer Little Rooster Recreation Firm is open about its influences, but in Moonlight Peaks these influences are deftly woven into one thing nearly in a style of its personal.
I spoke to producer Erik Kors and sport director Yannis Bolman in regards to the sport throughout the 2025 London Video games Competition.
The Moonlight Peaks you see in the present day is very much the product of years of labor, combining unique concepts and life sim inspirations into a cohesive mission.
“We began it from, ‘OK, what are the primary pillars that we actually need to construct on?” Yannis explains.
The Little Rooster staff ultimately settled upon a troika of ideas to construct their sport upon: adorning, romance and, in fact, farming.
“We actually see that gamers on this style actually love adorning,” he notes, “we additionally noticed that gamers actually wished romancing of characters, so we wished that to be a part of it as nicely.”
Whereas they freely take inspiration from the giants of the style, it was simply as, if not more, vital to set the sport aside from the remainder, therefore vampires.
However the sport’s vampiric charms usually are not solely visible, but play closely into the sport’s mechanics.
“Fairly early on we had the character remodel into a bat,” Yannis explains, “which gave us a lot of latest concepts – possibly it is cool to remodel into different varieties to produce other interactions.”
The way in which these three “pillars”, as Yannis calls them, work together are key to creating the sport not solely enjoyable to play, but immersive. Yannis and Erik goal for Moonlight Peaks to invoke the sensation of a “residing, respiratory world” with a broad alternative of the way you spend your time there.
The interaction additionally permits for loads of iteration – the staff is consistently pitching new concepts, new mechanics, new experiences.
The farming sim style is a crowded market, and whereas Moonlight Peaks has already stood out to many gamers, it is distinctive mechanics like romance or turning into a bat that will assist it proceed to do so.
Staff members will typically spend time researching different video games, whether or not that’s life sims or not, attempting to find inspiration for Moonlight Peaks.
“One of the simplest ways to be taught is principally to take a look at all of the video games after which see what you may incorporate,” Erik says. “If you can also make it your personal, make it higher.”
At one level, Moonlight Peaks featured a biting mechanic, much like more typical vampire video games like V Rising, wherein gamers must high up their blood provide by biting villagers. This was later eliminated, nevertheless, because it did not match the sport route and more cutesy vibes.
But whereas some vampiric concepts do not make it in, ideas from different stunning sources do.
The ultimate part of Journey, a stunning section wherein the participant scales a huge mountain, served as inspiration for one in every of Moonlight Peaks’ later areas: “That ultimate degree was so inspirational due to the setting and the sensation you get there.”
Time is cash, although, and as much as Yannis and Erik would like to spend endlessly including new mechanics, all video games have gotten to launch sooner or later.
“It is exhausting to ensure that we do not over scope every little thing,” Erik explains. Yannis chimes in, joking that this is what he and Erik conflict essentially the most over.
“[I’ll say,] ‘OK, let’s do that,’ and Erik is like, ‘Yeah, that’s a nice thought, but we really want to suit it in manufacturing as nicely,'” Yannis laughs.
“We’ve got this ever-growing checklist of issues that have greater precedence that we additionally should do. So, it is a battle. More often than not we have a look at ‘Does it make a lot of sense?’, ‘Can we see it in sufficient locations?’, to ensure that it is value funding in time to truly make it.”
Fortunately, Little Rooster has been capable of concentrate on improvement thanks to assist from their writer, life sim juggernaut Marvelous Video games, the corporate behind the enduring Story of Seasons collection (beforehand Harvest Moon, for these of us who keep in mind it).
“We’re actually fortunate,” Yannis says of the partnership, “I could not consider a higher match.”
“They will chime in with a lot of expertise and insights that we’d not have but, as a result of for us, it is the primary time doing a life sim,” he continues.
“They have been marvellous. Sorry for the pun.”
But whereas Little Rooster may scarcely have hoped for a higher publishing companion for its sport, in improvement, its biggest partnership is maybe with their gamers.
Little Rooster has labored exhausting to domesticate a particular type of sport, one that displays a particular group of players. Round 80 per cent of curiosity within the sport comes from ladies, and 10 per cent from non-binary players.
Dialogue between the studio and the followers is open, with fan suggestions, each constructive and detrimental, serving to to pilot the staff in the best route.
“The group is very useful and really open to no matter we throw at them,” Erik explains.
From the beginning, the builders shared their work on-line, be it idea artwork or early mechanics, and commenced to construct a group following a clip of theirs going viral on TikTok.
Instantly recognising the significance of this, group suggestions was rapidly factored into improvement: “This is actually highly effective,” says Yannis.
He offers the instance of a character mannequin redesign that the staff had deliberate.
“We had a three-month interval the place we had put a lot of labor into this new character which was a bit more grownup.
“We spent a lot of time tweaking the character, then posted a video and inside 20 minutes everybody was like, ‘We hate it, please deliver again the outdated one.'”
Whereas Yannis and Erik are eager to ensure they do not compromise on their total imaginative and prescient for the sport too much, group suggestions, and particularly group help, has been key.
“It is actually enjoyable to work on a sport that individuals are excited for. It actually helps with the final motivation to place in a bit of additional effort to make it shine a bit more,” smiles Yannis.
A mishmash of types and mechanics impressed by a gamut of various video games inbuilt response to participant suggestions may simply go mistaken. A Frankenstein’s monster of an expertise that does every little thing, certain, but does it poorly.
Moonlight Peaks, nevertheless, is positioned nicely inside that Goldilocks Zone the place every little thing seems in excellent, if fragile, stability. This is hoping it stays that means, irrespective of what number of new mechanics Yannis and Erik squabble over.
Moonlight Peaks is coming to PC in 2026.
Take a look at more of our Gaming protection or go to our TV Information and Streaming Information to search out out what’s on. For more from the most important stars in TV, hearken to The Radio Occasions Podcast.
