Black Mermaid and Humble Games have scored an indie hit with Moonscars. It’s trending well on Steam, and we wanted to know more about the minds behind Moonscars and the game’s development and vision. The team was happy to oblige, resulting in this, our latest interview. Dive into gameplay mechanics, and lore, and learn more about the developers in our exclusive Moonscars interview.
Gamespace: Was it an exciting process to work on the development of the game?
Black Mermaid: The real answer is complicated, because game development is super hard. It involves a lot of monotonous routine work, and occasionally – bright moments, full of enormous creative excitement. It would be fair to say that this game devastated us and made us happy at the same time.
Gamespace: What was the most memorable moment for you?
Andriy Moroz: Designing pillars of the game story, the system of relationship between characters, shaping important ideas behind the lore. It felt like a powerful trip somewhere deep into my imagination. Story-wise this game is everything I wanted to share as a human being at some point.
Stefan: Probably when we first participated with our Moonscars demo in the Steam Next Fest. The reception was amazing and it just felt great to see for the first time people having fun playing it.
Gamespace: The game features a gorgeous art style with that muted palette. Can you tell us about your inspirations?
Stefan: We were inspired by the Dutch old masters’ oil paintings. Being a small team, we had to find efficient ways to create visuals. The dark palette and big brush strokes resulted in an interesting style that some call painterly pixel art, which people enjoy and it also favored us in the production.
Gamespace: Will players get a chance to explore various regions of the game’s world? How deep would you say the game’s lore is?
Andriy: We want to believe that it’s deep enough to inspire a fan wiki. We’ve done a lot of work to come up with something special and fitting for the genre at the same time.
Our lore is more about ideas behind the mysteries of human existence than about generic fantasy worldbuilding with a plethora of regions and nations. Every region of our game says something about the story of Grey Irma and all clayborn golemic races at the same time, and that is what really matters.
Gamespace: Would Moonscars players have to hunt down secrets to find answers about the Sculptor and Grey Irma’s past?
Andriy: It seems our story feels puzzling enough for many players, so we dare say – yes, you will have to hunt down secrets! But only if you really, really need to reveal them. Any secret in the world beneath the Hungry Moon knows how to protect himself from unwanted attention.
Gamespace: Are there multiple endings to this dark story? And, speaking of secrets, can the most hawk-eyed players challenge fate by unlocking extra bosses, unique weapons, secret endings, etc.?
Andriy: We have a single ending because it felt right to finish the story in a very specific way. But we have plenty of side quests, some of them are mutually exclusive, some of them – fairly hard to find and trigger. Completing some questlines will grant players unique rewards – gemstones, for instance. But we don’t want to reveal everything, it’s better if players discover it themselves.
Gamespace: Tell us a bit about your approach to the players’ deaths in Moonscars. Have you attempted to make failure fun or would you say it is a part of the overall gameplay curve?
Andriy: Clearly we intended to make death dreadful enough – with the mechanics of Moonhunger, or losing your hard-earned currency, like in most souls-like games. In our opinion, anxiety of the sudden death is what makes souls-likes so appealing for many players. Also, it makes you reflect upon your experience and look for better solutions, more efficient usage of in-game tools.
Gamespace: Are the playstyles connected to various weapons really different from each other? Does Moonscars encourage experimentation with equipment and builds?
Andriy: For the last few days we have been reading quite a few Moonscars player guides, or just active discussions, where the players shared their opinions on most fitting sets of gemstones, special weapons, and witchery spells. So the answer is yes – Moonscars does encourage the player to experiment with equipment and builds.
Gamespace: We appreciate the opportunity for this interview. Is there anything you’d like to add for our readers?
Andriy: Please, donate, help Ukraine and help Ukrainians.
Our Moonscars game designer, Andriy Moroz, from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, in March had to work on the game being just 2km from the frontline. Ukraine is the shield of the western world, protecting it from real atrocities being committed by the Russian invasion right now, in the center of Europe. Now Ukraine needs your support more than ever. Please support if you can by making a donation to https://www.razomforukraine.org/
Be sure to check out our recent Moonscars review where we handed it an impressive 8.5/10 score. We wrote, “The developers of Moonscars have taken the old Metroidvania techniques and Souls-like game mechanics and managed to mix them in a unique way, creating a wild fusion of visual style, emotional storytelling and gameplay.”
