We're coming up to the end of the Next Fest demo, but don't worry – Moonstone Island will be out this Summer, so you won't have long to wait for the full game (and we won't boot you out after two weeks, either!)
Today, we wanted to show off some of the cards in our game. We're really influenced by games like Slay the Spire, where individual cards can make or break a deck, but you can also create decks that center around one particular mechanic.
Turns out deckbuilding is really hard! You have to focus on balance and creating mechanics and systems that tie into each other in a really satisfying way. We like it a lot, though, and we're really proud of the cards we've created. We know that not all cozy gamers are versed at card-games, so let's break down our cards:
Title: The name of the card! If it has a little + next to it, it's the upgraded version. Type: Skill or Attack. Pretty self-explanatory! Element: This matches the type of the Spirit it belongs to. If the enemy Spirits are weak to it, it does extra damage and removes their Armor! Cost: How many of your Energy points the card costs. Some are free, others cost all your Energy! Rarity: This rating tells you how rare and also how powerful a card is. The rarity scale goes up to 9! Description: Tells you what the card does.
So, this card is called Calm Spirit, and it's not very rare at all. It costs 1 Energy, as you can see in the top-left corner, and it has three effects: it draws one card, removes one Armor, and inflicts Calm on the Spirit, which stops it from playing Attack cards for one turn.
Here, you can see three Tackle cards, each doing different damage based on the Spirit's Attack stat, and whether or not the card is upgraded. Tackle cards are the basic cards that all Spirits have, along with Bash cards, which reduce Armor. You can get rid of these cards if you want, but we hear there are cards out there that work well with a Tackle-filled deck...
Here's a slightly rarer card – it's Burgloon's 'Flip Switch', which costs 2 Energy, and deals 8 Electric damage, three times. Combine this with the Attack-boosting Charge buff, and take the Armor off the enemy, and you could be doing massive amounts of damage, because Charge increases the damage of each attack. Instead of hitting for 8 damage, you could be hitting for 15 damage... three times.
We can't wait to hear what kind of decks and strategies you've figured out! The exciting part of making a deck builder is that the power is in the player's hands – there are combos out there that we don't even know about!
~ Kate, community Manager, and Card Shark
Let's Talk Love and Friendship!
Good day, Alchemists!
Let's an adorable element of Moonstone Island for today:
❤ Romance! ❤
When you're not farming, fishing, fighting, or flying around the islands, we're really hoping you take the opportunity to get flirting as well. We have 11 characters in total, and you can date every single one of them. Each one has a whopping 16 dates to go on – yes, it was a lot of writing – with a unique story on every single date.
For example, if you date our resident historian, Cleo, you'll get some deep insight into the lore of the game as you get to know her better, but if you date our resident grumpy-boots, Gaiana, you'll instead get a story about how someone can put up walls to protect their feelings, and how love can help them learn to trust again. Tobin the fisherman has a sad story about moving on after loss. Quill the artist will teach you not to judge a book by its cover. And Ofelia and Paolo will reveal a secret-that's-not-that-secret about the background of Moonstone Island's citizens!
We really hope you discover more about the game, the story, and our loveable characters by going on dates with whichever cutie you find the cutest. And remember: Don't get too disheartened if someone says no to a date! Some of our characters are a little more guarded than others, and take longer to warm up to you!
Again, thank you all so much for playing and loving our game. We're thrilled and honored to have brought so much joy to so many people, and seeing you all wishlist Moonstone Island fills us with the warmest of warm fuzzies. We'll see you very soon to announce more about the launch of the full game!
~ Kate, Community Manager, and Burgeoning Cupid
Let's Talk Crafting!
Hello, Alchemists!
Our topic of the day today is:
🛠 Crafting! 🛠
We have a lot of crafting systems on Moonstone Island. If you're the type of person who loves baking your own bread and sewing your own clothes, you're going to have a great time. And if you're not? You'll have a great time too! Everybody wins!!!
Alchemy Table Make concoctions! You are an Alchemist, after all. At your Alchemy Table, you can combine ingredients to brew up special elixirs that combine the effects of two crops for extra-efficient Stamina restoration, Spirit taming, and more!
Just make sure you have enough ash to power the alchemy. We won't tell you how you get ash, but let's just say that you need to set wood on fire somehow...
Cauldron The Cauldron lets you live out your witchy fantasies as you brew potions that can help you see in the dark, run faster, and even slow down time. Experiment to find new combinations!
Decoration Station Give our carpenter Paolo a run for his money by making your very own furniture! Chairs, sofas, bookshelves, and even cute little kitchens are within reach, as long as you have the materials to make 'em.
Loom Do your walls look boring? Design your own wallpaper and flooring with the Loom! You can draw out cute pixel designs and then plaster them all over your house to make it suuuuper cute and totally custom.
Moonstone Enchanter Some things need just a little more magic, and that's where the Moonstone Enchanted comes in. Anything you need that requires arcane power can be found on this crafting table, whether it's a barn for your Spirits, a house that's secretly a pocket dimension, or a glider that can get you around the skies much faster than your broom.
You'll need a lot of Moonstones for these crafting recipes, so seek them out at night!
Furnace & Anvil Ferra won't let you borrow her blacksmithery (it's too expensive to run!) so you'll have to build your own. Smelt down metal ore in the furnace, and then hammer it into special protective charms that can shield you from electric, poison, and dark damage when you're out exploring on the more dangerous islands!
~ Kate, Community Manager, and Crafting Curator
New collab: Ooblets!
Surprise!
We're doing another amazing collaboration with our friends over at Glumberland to bring Rad Lad from Ooblets over to Moonstone Island! This capricious fellow will be joining the line-up of adorable Spirits that you can tame, befriend, and choose to join your Spirit squad when we launch this year!
Honestly, this video says it all ;)
Be sure to check out Ooblets right here on Steam, and while you're there, be sure to throw Moonstone Island on your wishlist! <3
Until next time!
~ Kate, Community Manager, and Pal
Let's Talk Spirits!
Good day to you all, Alchemists!
Today, we're showing off another feature of the game:
🔮 Spirits! 🔮
You may have heard Moonstone Island referred to as a "Pokémon-meets-Stardew game", and it's the creature-collecting aspect that we're talking about today. Our creatures are called Spirits, and they form the backbone of Moonstone Island's card-combat system. There's a lot to say about Spirits, so let's get stuck in!
Each one of our Spirits is a completely unique design, and our ideas for the Spirits can come from just about anywhere. Some of them are simple combinations, like a beach ball with sunglasses, while others are inspired by our favorite things, like Ghibli movies (seriously, we've got a lot of Ghibli references).
They're all matched up to an elemental type, too, and we have eight elements in total: Earth, Water, Poison, Electric, Fire, Dark, Psychic, and Ice. They also have weaknesses, one that is based on their type (so, Fire is weak to Water) and one that is randomly chosen, just to keep things a little unpredictable!
Every single Spirit also has its own ability, some of which affect the battle, but some of which affect other things, like your walk speed, your likelihood of finding treasure, or your success rate with flirting. It's quite fun to figure out which Spirits do what to really get the ball rolling! You can have up to three Spirits in your Medallion – the team that's out in the field with you – and you can have up to three Spirits follow you around, too.
Finally, every Spirit will drop special elemental Spirit resources. We hear that someone in town might be researching these resources, and might even pay you for filling up your Spirit encyclopedia. But that's all we know...
Our aim is 100 spirits for the launch, so follow us along on our journey as we unveil new little guys for you to collect!
~ Kate, Community Manager, and Spirit Wrangler
Steam Top 50 Next Fest Demo?? :D
Hello, Alchemists!
Incredible news: We were in the TOP 50 MOST PLAYED DEMOS from the Steam Next Fest! In fact, we were the 23rd most-played game from the event :O
Thank you all so much for playing, streaming, and sharing Moonstone Island – we couldn't have done it without you. We're thanking you all for your support by putting up the demo for a few more days. It'll be live from today (Monday 10th July) to Wednesday (12th July).
Who would have thought our little game about leaving home and finding your place (with the help of some kind and not-so-kindly spirits) would resonate with so many people? We're just a tiny development team, so your excitement to start your journey means the world to us.
If you want to know about the launch date, well... you won't have long to wait. If you put Moonstone Island on your wishlist, you'll be among the first to know when we have more news to share!
Enjoy :)
– Kate, Community Manager, and List Enthusiast
Let's Talk Adventuring!
Welcome back, Alchemists!
We're going to be highlighting an important aspect of the game for you!
Today, it's all about...
🧹 Adventuring! 🧹
With over 100 procedurally-generated islands to explore, there is LOTS to discover on the Moonstone Island archipelago. Each island has a unique shape – some are even cheeky references if you can spot them – and there are multiple biomes to discover, too.
You can find the perilous, static islands of the Electric biome, or the noxious gases of the Poison biome, or make your home-away-from-home on the beachy Water Biome. You can even craft protective charms to make the dangers of the Fire biome and the scary Dark biome a breeze!
You'll need some gear before you step out of your comfort zone, though. You'll start the game with a broom, and then get downgraded to a balloon because of your bad flying... but you can build yourself a new broom if you find the balloon too tedious! Eventually, you may even want to upgrade to something a bit fancier.
You'll also need provisions! Crops can restore your Stamina, heal your Spirits, and tame your opponents, too, so you can build up a team that's suited to the particular biome you're in. After all, every Spirit has its elemental strengths and weaknesses, so do your research to give yourself a fighting chance!
And while you're at it, why not pick up some new crops and materials? Every island and biome has its unique crops, which you can take back to the main island to propagate and get more seeds. You can find wood and stone pretty much anywhere, but the fish you'll find in the rivers and ponds are indigenous to specific biomes, just like the crops, so make sure to fish whenever and wherever you can!
We also hear rumors that some islands have dungeons, mines, and hidden treasure chests that can provide you with super-rare and super-helpful new items and plants... But we'll say no more about that!
Until next time, brew on!
~ Kate, Community Manager, and Treasure Hunter
Watch the developer play Moonstone Island!
Watch Sandy and Kate, our director and Community Manager respectively, play Moonstone today right here on Steam!
Next Fest, Day One - Let's Talk Farming!
Hello, Neighbours! <3
The demo for Moonstone Island is now live!!!!!! That means you can play fourteen days of in-game time, with a new look at a different season: Fall! Everyone's favorite season is Fall, right? You've got beautiful autumnal colors, hot chocolates, and marshmallows, pumpkin pie, cozying up by the fire with a steaming cup of chai... It's just the best. Or maybe I'm just hungry.
In honor of the Next Fest demo, we'll be showing off one of the features of Moonstone Island every day this week. For the first day, we're focusing on:
🌱 Farming! 🌱
Moonstone Island might have a blacksmith, a botanist, a herbalist, a historian, a tavern keeper, a carpenter, a shopkeeper, an artist, a fisherman, and a scientist, but what it doesn't have is a farmer – someone who actually grows crops to eat. That's where you come in! You can collect seeds, hoe the land, plant crops, and grow them, just like a real farmer, except with way less manure!
When your crops are fully grown, you can harvest them to find out more about what they do. Each season has 14 unique crops, which works out to two crops of each elemental type, and they all have special effects and buffs that they can provide, from helping you tame Spirits to restoring your own Stamina.
But the crop doesn't stop there! You're also an Alchemist, after all – why not build an Alchemy Lab and experiment with creating potions out of your freshly-grown crops? You might stumble upon something game-changing 👀
The crops are also just very cute. Moonstone Island doesn't have booooring crops like turnips and carrots, oh no! Instead, you'll be growing Grumpkins, Sweater Plants, Umbrellashrooms, and Pinwheel Flowers, all of which will make your gardens look sweeter than apple pie.
Oh no. I think that the last pie reference means I'm really hungry. I'm going to go find myself a pie. You see how many of the Fall crops you can find!
~ Kate, Community Manager, and Crop Cultivator
Steam Next Fest Demo Reminder
Good afternoon, Alchemists!
Did you catch the next from last weekend that we're going to have a new demo in Steam Next Fest? It's true! Don't forget to check Steam on Monday when it goes live and you'll be able to hop right back onto the Island(s) of your dreams! <3
