Hello everyone,
Allow us to welcome you to our very first Developer Blog where we share some interesting insights about Dark Moon's development. This is going to be a series of Dev Blogs that will show you some behind-the-scenes materials, our thought process of how we approach designing new mechanics, and other stuff that usually doesn't end up anywhere else. Without further ado - let's begin!
Why Dark Moon?
Not an often asked question if we are being honest but we felt that it deserves some explanation. After all, it's always nice to know what drives developers to start and finish a project. Dark Moon is a game that we believe will be able to tell a story of loneliness, trust, betrayal, friendship, and most importantly it's going to be fully dependent on the player's choices throughout the adventure. We've always wanted to tell engaging stories and we hope we will be able to deliver an immersive experience about coming back home from the Moon.
Non-linear survival - what does it mean?
We're extremely excited to see what kind of decisions the players will make throughout their journey as, you've guessed it, each playthrough will be completely different thanks to random locations and events. If one player decides to venture to Location A and another player will head out to Location A as well - there is an extremely high chance they will meet up with a different group, reach different locations, find different resources, not to mention unpredictable events may occur before the location is even reached and it may completely change the current plan of action. This course of action generates a unique experience for each player. Oh! Remember that adapting to the current situation - is key.
Resources are incredibly scarce and the player must manage each type of resource to survive the long and dangerous journey. Easier said than done as on the lunar road you will meet groups of people who will help you out with their valuable skills in exchange for food and shelter. And you will need their skills, so the player has to manage not only the Mechaplex as a vehicle but also as a base with living and breathing people on board.
Still sounds doable? Let's add rivalries into the mix; your quiet group of engineers becomes mad at you for bringing on board a scientist from a rival nation. You need their technical expertise but you also need a scientist to research a vaccine as two of your crewmembers will die if they don't get that particular medication. Add the impeding, never-ending reach of the Sun and things get really… hot. Always stay on your toes in the world of Dark Moon.
We are excited to see what kind of stories will appear before our players and whether we will be able to see a happy ending at the end. Hopefully, we will.
A companion
During our Announcement Trailer you might have seen a tiny little robot circling the astronaut when the Mechaplex was in full view. That was not something exclusive for the trailer, that little robot is your companion that will be your guide and moral support during your adventures. Allow us to introduce Gary, your loyal Dark Moon friend.
Just to clarify, Gary's design may be a bit different in the game as the image above was one of many concepts we ran for him. We believe that he has to be mobile and fast, so we ran through a couple of ideas and hopefully we will be able to show you the final look of our little fella quite soon. His role in the game is to, as we mentioned, provide moral support, but we've added something interesting to his repertoire. But, that is for another time.
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And that's about it for the very first Dark Moon Developer Blog and thank you for reading!
We know that this issue didn't have a lot of fancy materials, but we are just getting started - there is more to come. Yes! Expect more Dev Blogs in the future as we love sharing our development journey with the community.
We also encourage everyone to join the Dark Moon HQ on Discord (exclusive content available in the future!)
Don't forget to wishlist Dark Moon on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1105330/Dark_Moon/
Oh, and social media stuff so you can stay up to date:
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Instagram
Until next time,
Jujubee Team