The Moonstone Equation

Andy Buck · Hippy Lizard

Released: Aug 20, 2018
Platforms: Windows
Last updated: 04 Sep 2026, 07:11 GMT

Updates & announcements

18 posts

12 Nov 2019Developer post
Version 1.4.56 Update
A small update to address a few issues that have built up since the last release. Updates Fixed a potential soft lock in one of the early-game NPC conversations Fixed the rest of the achievements (it should give you them on your next load if you're supposed to already have them)
A small update to address a few issues that have built up since the last release.
Updates

Fixed a potential soft lock in one of the early-game NPC conversations
Fixed the rest of the achievements (it should give you them on your next load if you're supposed to already have them)
Significantly reduced and refined the 'edge-of-ledge' movement code. It's much nicer now.
Added the ability to skip most cut-scenes for those people that like that sort of thing ('Return' on keyboard, 'B' on gamepad)
As I said in previous update, I'm not putting anywhere near as many hours into Moonstone Equation as I used to (so I can work on new stuff) so it will probably be a long time before there's another update (unless some new terrible bug is discovered).
As ever, I'll always be checking the community hub, social media and all my emails so you can still make sure I hear you if you have any ideas or issues. I'm also not totally ruling out more content in the future (It's just very unlikely)
Thank you again for all your amazing support.
Original post
07 Aug 2019Developer post
Anniversary Edition
How time flies. It's been a year since the original release of The Moonstone Equation and what better way to celebrate than by adding a little bit more content, fixing a few last bugs and having a bit of a sale. Once again, It's thanks to all of you for playing, enjoying and givi
19 Dec 2018Developer post
Complete Edition
It's been nearly four months since the first release of The Moonstone Equation and since then development has not really stopped (or slowed down). I've released a dozen updates packed full of fixes and new features that have transformed the game as it was at release into somethin
03 Dec 2018Developer post
Big Update - Version 1.3.53
It's been a few months since the last update. With the worst of the bugs squashed in the early updates I moved onto some more significant content changes. These have obviously taken longer to implement but hopefully you'll find the wait has been worth it. There are fixes, changes
It's been a few months since the last update. With the worst of the bugs squashed in the early updates I moved onto some more significant content changes. These have obviously taken longer to implement but hopefully you'll find the wait has been worth it.
There are fixes, changes and additions across the whole game. It will all integrate with your existing saves but if you want the full experience then you might prefer to start a new game. The easy way to do this is through the 'factory reset' option in the PDA menu (esc) or the quicker and more direct way is to press 'n' twice on the very first loading screen (you'll see a little message if you've done it right).
Some of the changes will be obvious very quickly but others are in some very obscure places. Also, some of the new puzzle are intentional very hard (but fair).
In general it seems that most of you have enjoyed searching around and piecing the parts of the plot jigsaw together at your own pace and in your own way. My intention was always to try and reward curiosity but there was a common thread of people feeling a little lost for what to do next.
I've not added any additional hand-holding but I hope you'll find the plots and pieces that make up the fractured world-story a little easier to piece together and as such find it a little easier to choose what you might want to do next. There's still plenty of very obscure and hidden stuff for those of you that really want to get all the answers.
So, With all that out of the way it's on to the bullet points. in no particular order.
Updates

More dialogue for almost all the characters. Some characters now have more than twice as much to talk about over the whole game.
More collectibles (and more plot because of them)
More post end-game content.
More puzzles. Not block pushing and not obvious to 90% of players but they probably represent a good few more hours of gameplay if you can find them. The early ones are easy enough but they get pretty hard.
More hidden but direct clues and information about the lore and meaning of the Moonstone Equation.
Subtle but important changes to the ledge balance points when idle. No more standing in mid-air. (also no more pushing blocks from mid-air, sorry)
Command history for terminals (just press 'up' and 'down' to step through previous commands.
Improved terminal email client a little bit.
Added the missing 'DigSite' terminal into the dig-site.
Allowed executable to use extended 32Bit memory space (Upto 3GB) so out-of-memory crashes should not happen anymore.
A few subtle level adjustments that you'd only notice if you know what to look for.
A few other small bug fixes.
If you're interested, you can follow my development progress very directly by looking at my
Trello Board
Warning! That's a direct look at my development tasks and my contain some spoilers. As much as possible I'll try not to give too much away but you have been warned.
Original post
21 Sep 2018Developer post
Friday Update - Version 1.3.51
Another week and another Friday update. It's a pretty big one this week with lots of little fixes and a few much requested features. Updates Doors that's you've been through before will now tell you where they go Special doors now indicate your progress in the special levels behi
Another week and another Friday update. It's a pretty big one this week with lots of little fixes and a few much requested features.
Updates

Doors that's you've been through before will now tell you where they go
Special doors now indicate your progress in the special levels behind them.
You can nolonger break your game by leaving the moon before picking up the sight stone
Fixed a control issue while swimming and pressing jump at the bottom of pools
Fixed lots of cases where chat dialogs didn't respond to input
opening a computer terminal while far away from a chatty NPC now works as expected
Hint dots under each level intro text are now correct in all cases
completed door puzzles now show the correct state when you view them.
Fixed lots of level exploits.
If you're interested, you can follow my development progress very directly by looking at my
Trello Board
Warning! That's a direct look at my development tasks and my contain some spoilers. As much as possible I'll try not to give too much away but you have been warned.
Original post
14 Sep 2018Developer post
Version 1.3.50 - Now Available
It's Friday update time again. I'm splitting my time between bugs and more long term feature development at the moment so this is quite a short list. Fixes Conecting to some terminals won't break everything anymore. Blocks can now jam doors open (instead of being forced through t
It's Friday update time again. I'm splitting my time between bugs and more long term feature development at the moment so this is quite a short list.
Fixes

Conecting to some terminals won't break everything anymore.
Blocks can now jam doors open (instead of being forced through the floor)
Emailing other characters should make a little more sense (though they still don't say much (one of the features I'm working on)
Thank you everyone.
Original post
11 Sep 2018Developer post
Version 1.3.49 - Now Available
Just a quick update to fix a few pretty serious camera issues introduced in the previous update along with a few other fun things. Fixes Camera won't get stuck and act wierd in some places anymore. Fixed a level exploit Fixed a few odd or missing tiles Lanterns activation and hin
Just a quick update to fix a few pretty serious camera issues introduced in the previous update along with a few other fun things.
Fixes

Camera won't get stuck and act wierd in some places anymore.
Fixed a level exploit
Fixed a few odd or missing tiles
Lanterns activation and hint distances now match
Added a bit more light to Specimen Tanks
Thank you everyone.
Original post
07 Sep 2018Developer post
Version 1.3.48 - Now Available
Another round of bug fixes and improvements. Mostly focusing on audio issues but there's a few other fun things too. Fixes Reverb for all levels is now correct (not just the default) Audio clipping issues (particularly on surround systems) should be fixed. Audio volume settings a
Another round of bug fixes and improvements. Mostly focusing on audio issues but there's a few other fun things too.
Fixes

Reverb for all levels is now correct (not just the default)
Audio clipping issues (particularly on surround systems) should be fixed.
Audio volume settings are now saved.
Better camera tracking when falling
'Worm' mini game is now playable again.
Thank you everyone.
Original post
04 Sep 2018Developer post
Version 1.2.47 - Now Available
Another quick update to fix a small edge case bug in one of the levels and a bit of light. Fixes Corrected an issue in one of the levels where a Trigger Stone was not correctly detected Added some light to The Upper Waterworks Also fixed a missing tile in the same level. Thanks e
Another quick update to fix a small edge case bug in one of the levels and a bit of light.
Fixes

Corrected an issue in one of the levels where a Trigger Stone was not correctly detected
Added some light to The Upper Waterworks
Also fixed a missing tile in the same level.
Thanks everyone
Andy
Original post
03 Sep 2018Developer post
Version 1.2.46 - Now Available
This is just a quick update that fixes and small but fairly serious issue in the unlocking of some areas of the game world. I know this might sound vague so if you're really interested you can read the spoilers below. Fixes If you'd used exactly the same number of trigger stones
31 Aug 2018Developer post
Version 1.2.45 - Now Available
Perhaps this version could be called 'the great escape' update as there are several significant fixes to levels (I had to add to the save file data just to fix some of these) so you shouldn't be getting stuck in odd places anymore. Fixes Added escape capability to MoonLab Removed
Perhaps this version could be called 'the great escape' update as there are several significant fixes to levels (I had to add to the save file data just to fix some of these) so you shouldn't be getting stuck in odd places anymore.
Fixes

Added escape capability to MoonLab
Removed random water block in Lower Waterworks
Fixed incorrect block in Lower Waterworks
Removed data block exploit in one of the levels
Very significantly reduced the graphics memory footprint in all levels (should help stability)
Added more memory allocations into pooling to reduce fragmentation issues (also to help stability)
Electric doors now wait about 1 second before opening or closing just to make sure the signals have settled down.
Thank you so must to everyone that's sent me save files, crash dumps and links to images and streams of bugs. These have all been immensely helpful in tracking down some of these issues.
It looks like I'm starting to settle into a pattern of end-of-week updates and patches. Unless there's a really critical problem then this feels like a good update rate. See you again next week.
Thank you everyone
Andy
Original post
28 Aug 2018Developer post
Version 1.1.44 - Now Available
This one's a pretty serious one so it get's a different version number change. That middle number only changes if I add or change things to the save format. In this case I fixed things. Fixes Significant issue in the game saves is now fixed, if you've lost progress between past u
This one's a pretty serious one so it get's a different version number change. That middle number only changes if I add or change things to the save format. In this case I fixed things.
Fixes

Significant issue in the game saves is now fixed, if you've lost progress between past updates that should all be okay now.
Journal entries (when to load the game) should be much more interesting (because they now work properly)
Fixed an exploitable level. A few more to come.
A few spelling issues fixed.
D-Pad support everywhere.
What Next
Continuing with the work on achievements but also looking at some of the more subtle signs and feedback issues that a few people have pointed out.
Don't forget, if you're still having any issues (or just want to talk about things) you can post them up here and/or email me directly at [email protected]
Thankyou everyone
Andy
Original post
23 Aug 2018Developer post
Version 1.0.44 - Now Available
So, it looks like along with all the lovely fixes in the last patch I incuded a few extra problems. This patch aims to fix them and a few other things. Fixes Unlocked things from prior to 1.0.43 should be unlocked again. sorry to be vague but it's mostly late-game secret stuff. S
So, it looks like along with all the lovely fixes in the last patch I incuded a few extra problems. This patch aims to fix them and a few other things.
Fixes

Unlocked things from prior to 1.0.43 should be unlocked again. sorry to be vague but it's mostly late-game secret stuff.
Setting the music to zero persists across levels
Reduced the activation distance for doors (no more accidental room exiting)
Fixed lots of general level issues. Including getting stuck in The Lower Waterworks
Lots of camera behaviour improvements in the mines
Stopped terminals starting up if you're having a conversation.
What Next
Some serious issues in the previous patch mostly forced me to change my priotities to get those things fixed. This patch has had a lot more testing (as I'm not submitting it at 11pm) so it shouldn't case as much trouble.
This all means I plan to focus on some fun stuff and act on all the useful feedback I've been recieving from lots of different sources over the past few days.
Obviously, if you're still having any issues (or just want to talk about things) you can post them up here and/or email me directly at [email protected]
Thankyou everyone
Andy
Original post
22 Aug 2018Developer post
Version 1.0.43 - Now Available
Thanks for all the great feedback you've given me over the past few days as well as the nice clear reports of the bugs and issues a few of you have had. I've put together a new version that resolves lots of these and I'm working to make more improvements and fixes in the coming d
Thanks for all the great feedback you've given me over the past few days as well as the nice clear reports of the bugs and issues a few of you have had. I've put together a new version that resolves lots of these and I'm working to make more improvements and fixes in the coming days and weeks.
Fixes

The whole game should be a lot more stable with much less occasional crashing
The hang on exit should be gone now.
Adjusted (widened) the deadzones for gamepad thumb-stick.
Added d-pad support for movement and menues (still one secret thing needs the same treatment)
Adjusted a level very slightly so you won't get stuck under some circumstances
Adjusted the camera tracking in some parts of the world to give a better view platforms below you. More of this to come in future updates.
Fixed an issue where one of the wall carving was partly missing.
What Next?

It's recently been reported that some specific terminals can just sort of dissapear after a while. I'm looking into this.
There's still some places where it would be nice to have a better view of platforms below your position.
Extra testing to make sure these fixes work on as many PC configurations as possible.
Lots of general fun stuff and more little bugs.
Start thinking about some fun steam achievements. Feel free to suggest things
Thankyou everyone,
Andy
Original post
21 Aug 2018Developer post
Now Available - Version 1.0.41
It seems that being a one-man team releasing a PC game has it's risks. I'm very glad that most people have been able to enjoy The Moonstone Equation and I'm very grateful for all the positive feedback it's been receiving. However, I'm also very aware that a few of you have not be
05 Aug 2018Developer post
Release Date: 20th August 2018
So, After over 9 years and between 6000 and 9000 hours of work, It's finally (almost) finished and I can relase it to the world for you all to explore and enjoy. I'll be posting things up here but you can also follow whats happening in the run-up to release and beyond on a few ot
08 Feb 2017Developer post
Coming Soon.
With Greenlight out of the way it's time to get back to the science, and some other things. The plan is to keep you all informed (and maybe occasionally entertained) about the build up to release day. So, what's next? First I have to focus on getting the store front all ready, th
08 Feb 2017Developer post
Coming Soon.
With Greenlight out of the way it's time to get back to the science, and some other things. The plan is to keep you all informed (and maybe occasionally entertained) about the build up to release day. So, what's next? First I have to focus on getting the store front all ready, th

Updates & announcements

Updates

Updates

Updates

Fixes

Fixes

Fixes

Fixes

Fixes

Fixes

Fixes

What Next

Fixes

What Next

Fixes

What Next?

1.0.41 - Potential Fixes

1.0.41 - Known Issues

So, what's next?

When can you play it?

So, what's next?

When can you play it?