Moth Lake [iPhone]

Synopsis:

This is the story of Moth Lake,
a small town that, behind its peaceful facade, hides a terrible secret.
Only a group of teenagers, with a difficult life, will reveil what has been hidden for generations.

Mysterious events will intensify starting from the eve of a solar eclipse,
and our young friends will start a journey into the shadow and into their own soul.

What to expect from this game:
In short:
•2.5D pixel art (Frame to frame animations, as if we are still in '90s)
• Simple controls (Supporting touch screen, mouse, keyboard and controllers)
• Unconventional puzzles (Don't worry, there's a free walkthrough if you need help!)
• Stealth-action
• Choices that will change the bonds between the characters as well as the spirit of the experience (Just like in life, a choice can make the difference between friendship, love, hate, life or death)
• Thrills, suspense and horror (Not a survival game, but it can be creepy or scary at times)
• Bad humor and strong language (They are teenagers, don't judge them)
• At some point this experience might even move you to tear (I'm not crying, I just got a pixel in my eye)
• 6 different endings

In detail:

Moth Lake is a story-driven experience, with a lot of textual contents (more than 20k words), and hundreds of different scenes (more than 300 scenarios).

The script is a long journey through a mystery, through horrors and through the characters hearts.
It contains dark topics and very sad stuff, but also a lot of non-sense jokes and weird conversations, so it's hard to say whether it is a horror game or not.

The main characters move around a 2.5D world, interacting with many hotspots and NPCs.
They can pull objects and perform a set of specific actions to solve very different puzzles.

The artwork is a modern pixel art, with a big colour palette and a lot of frame-to-frame animations.
There's a very large set of animations, including talking, walking, running, crouching, crawling, pushing, climbing, sneaking, punching, throwing... and much more.

Scenarios have some modern lighting/shading work, with particles effects and a constant use of parallax, to simulate a 3D environment.

There are 6 main characters and more than 50 NPCs, with their own look and personality. You can control 7 characters through the main story and more in the additional chapters.
They all move their eyes, they change facial expressions, and they have some peculiar behaviours.

As the story proceeds, the player has to take some choices, affecting the characters mood and sometimes even the plot.

Characters with a good mood are always smiling, they perform funny idle animations and they help each other.
On the other hand, characters with a bad mood show an angry face, they insult their friends and they are generally edgy and selfish.
The general mood can even unlock hidden scenes, and personally I would play this game multiple times just to see these little details.

You can see the Mood indicators in the character selection menu, and right above, you can see the energy indicators.

As in survival games, the energy level goes down if a character gets attacked.
The energy level must be above 0, or the game will be interrupted by the game-over screen.

The game-over itself is not a big deal, because there is an automatic save on each scene, but a low energy level makes it harder to progress.
To restore the energy level, you need to find energy drinks, (sometimes hard to find).

There is an inventory where you can store energy drinks and other items to be used later on some hotspots.

For most of the time the player controls a character surrounded by his/her friends.
Each one has some kind of skill to be used at the right moment, and sometimes even their personality will be important to solve a puzzle.

Some puzzles can be solved by a single character, while other must be solved using the whole squad cooperation.

This game contains close-ups of character faces, often appearing during conversations.

Watching their faces should give more rhythm to conversations, helping you growing fond of the main characters, and provide you with a deeper experience.

Every character has a background story that will show up with flashbacks and shattered memories, emerging as part of the story and as first person perspective puzzles.
Solving these puzzles is crucial for them to move on and leave the pain behind.

As I said, the game aims to give psychological horror vibes.
So keep in mind that this game is not for everyone! Some scenes are disturbing, some scenes may give you anxiety, and some other scenes are extremely sad.

Characters are constantly called to face their difficult past, and to go through their scary present.
They need to hide, to take terrible decisions and sometimes even to fight for their lives.

...But after all, your choices can lead you to the best possible ending, and if you fail, you can always try again.

Moth Lake