Summary
Moonlight Peaksis an adorable little farming sim that puts a spooky twist on the genre tropes we all know and love. Players take on the role of a vampire, the grandchild of Dracula no less, and settle down in Moonlight Peaks, a town filled with magic, weirdness, and wonders. At Gamescom, I spoke with art director Mia Boas and game director Yannis Bolman about how the idea for Moonlight Peaks came about.
“We knew we wanted to make a life sim, but theme-wise we didn’t really settle on something,” Bolman says, while Boas reveals their initial concept was for a surfing life sim game. “Obviously, we had a surfing mechanic in there, and it was more about travelling in a van and going from town to town.” They tell me the game would have focused on multiplayer and been set in the 1980s, while still retaining life and farming sim elements.
“We wanted to be sure, so we put out a survey asking about the themes that the game should be about,” Bolman says. “We asked about vampires, magic, hiking, surfing because that was the original concept, witches, and mermaids. The things that scored highest were magic and vampires.”
Apparently both multiplayer and the surfing theme scored rather low, and that put the surfing idea to bed, at least for now. The team doesn’t rule out the possibility of it resurfacing as a future title, but as far as Moonlight Peaks is concerned, they’re sticking with the new concept. Boas says, “When you do something supernatural, anything goes. You’re going to add all these crazy ideas. The surfing theme felt a bit more restrictive.”
“We try to do a bit of a supernatural twist on everything,” Boas tells me. “Everything from game mechanics, the visuals in the game, even the little things. One thing we always mention is farm automation. Instead of having sprinklers, we have magical spells. You also see it in all the creature designs. It’s always something that’s a bit spooky, but cute at the same time.
“We’re very aware of our audience and we really try to cater to our community. We have a lot of feedback going back and forth on our Discord and we really try to listen to everyone. We’re trying to make a game that appeals to a very large female audience, and I think there aren’t enough games doing that.”
Bolman doubles down on the team going “all in” on the supernatural theme, explaining, “We try to do that from creatures to trash cans so everything gets a bit of a magic sprinkle or supernatural sprinkle. I think that really keeps people looking for more surprises.”
While the team were aware that other life and farming sims have magical elements, they felt that focusing on vampires with a little bit of magic would help them make their own unique mark on the genre. They decided to make “one giant mix of everything” including werewolves and witches, and then zero in on what they felt stood out and worked best for the world they were creating.
To help create their own spin on vampires and the supernatural, the team researched vampiric lore from different cultures and then used what they wanted to flesh out Moonlight Peaks. For example, instead of going to bed, you sleep in a coffin, you can turn into a bat, and other mechanics they cherry-picked from established vampire mythology.
“We started with a whole list of all the vampire lore, and we read through it and then worked upon that to do our own world building,” Bolman says. “Some things you can see from other vampire lore or other vampire stories, but there’s definitely a spin on most of it. It has to have a bit of a spin because our story is that you’re the kid of Dracula. After fighting your dad for the millionth time, you run away from home, because you want to prove that you can live life differently without hurting others.”
Because the team chose a pacifist vampire for their protagonist, a fighting mechanic was immediately a no-go. However, they did consider the idea of biting others. “We had it as a mechanic early on, but it just disappeared, because we’re trying to befriend everyone and be cosy, and then you bite everyone and they just want to die,” Bolman laughs. “It didn’t work, so we switched that around. You still do the biting, but all you have to do is befriend them, marry them, and they ask for it.” Bonus points for consensual biting.
There are currently 27 romanceable characters in the game, with no restrictions on gender or sexuality. However, the team tells me some characters can’t to be wooed. “Like the ghosts in town, they’re not really interested in dating,” Boas says before I quickly tell her that will become one of the things the community asks for most. If you tell us we can’t romance someone, then we just want them even more, corporeal form or not.
There are also “outcast” characters, who don’t fall under the normal umbrella of supernatural citizens, but are deities like the Sun God or Moon Goddess, or Medusa, who lives in the catacombs under the town. There’s also a love demon who the team tells me is a play on Cupid, Death, and, of course, there’s at least one ‘I can fix him character’ in the form of Orlok, the head of the vampire family.
When it comes to writing the world, the team tells me it would have been odd to have “a town just full of single people” for the player to romance, and so they created families with full backstories. For example, some characters may have dated each other before. Additionally, once you choose your marriage partner, some of those other characters may then pursue their own relationships with one another.
Moonlight Peaks does its fair share of inviting players to optimise their farm and create an efficient workplace with quality crops and layout, adding that extra depth many farm sim fans love within the genre. However, the team placed a particular emphasis on the decorating element for Moonlight Peaks, adding extra depth where most farm sims tend to fall short.
“I think our strongest point is the decorating,” Bolman says. “We really went beyond what a lot of games offer there, really more granular. [There are] a lot of options to make your own decorations with various mini-games to tie into the decorating, stacking and interactive decorations. That’s really our strong point.”
The team is ensuring there is something for everyone when it comes to decorations with themed items as well as a host of colourways for each individual furnishing. Some furniture sets are tied to different families, but fortunately, you can divorce your spouse to shack up with your next love interest, so there’s nothing stopping you from joining every family and unlocking every item by going on a massive marriage spree.
The team are always happy to receive feedback through Discord and social media, and aside from the initial survey that helped shape the direction of the game, they’ve taken on feedback to change other aspects too. A while back they decided to change the character design to something a bit more chibi-like and flat-shaded.
“Everyone hated it,” Bolman laughs about the chibi design. “Mostly because it was a different proportion. It looked like the Snapchat characters. It was like, ‘Oh my god, it’s horrible.’ So the day after we posted, ‘Okay, we’re going to change the design [again]. We heard you.’ And people loved that even more.”
Moonlight Peaks is set to launch in 2026 andcan be wishlisted on Steam here. You can stay up to date with the game and its news, as well as give your own feedback (such as making ghosts romanceable) viaDiscordandTwitter.
