At Sony’s September 2024 State of Play, developers Moonhood announced their upcoming VR title, The Midnight Walk. After their hiatus from Lost in Random, Moonhood returns with a mesmerizing world fully made of clay. In a world where night conquers, unseen terrors await the Burnt One’s demise.
Moonhood’s Hiatus and Spark
The Midnight Walk will be the planned return of Swedish indie studio, Moonhood. The last project the team worked on was EA’s Lost in Random Released in 2021, the game follows the story of Even in the Kingdom of Random. She and the living dice, Dicey are on a mission to rescue her sister, Odd. Lost in Random received praise for its creative theme of card combat and whimsical dark fantasy elements.
After their success, Moonhood went on a creative slump, unsure what their next project would be. Moonhood’s lead director, Olav Redmalm revealed in PlayStation.Blog how the team came up with The Midnight Walk. Creative director Klaus Lyngeled suggested experimenting with claymation as Lost in Random’s aesthetics was inspired by stop-motion films.
“Lyngeled came to me with a little creature made out of clay,” told Redmalm, “It had a flame coming out of his head. Immediately, we discussed a game where you have to protect this creature from monsters who consume fire.” This creature would be known as the Small Flame becoming the spark for The Midnight Walk.
Transferring Claymation to Game Animation
Redmalm revealed photos of the game’s models being fully constructed by clay on Moonhood’s official blog page. While he was searching for a new venture in comics, Lyngeled was experimenting with the methods of transferring stop-motion animation to a game file.
With each movement made with a creature’s clay model, he takes a 3D scanner to transfer their image into an animation program. This technique was also used for Laika’s Hugh Jackman film, The Missing Link. After rendering animation cycles, they were imported into game coding to be rigged and programmed with player or computer AI controls.
Lyngeled demonstrated a mock demo of the Small Flame to Redmalm, reviving their creativity for their new fairytale. For the past three years, Moonhood’s art team has been focused on executing the animation to give The Midnight Walk a natural stop-motion film visual. Combining film and 3D game modeling techniques has shown to be fruitful as seen in its trailer.
Using VR For First-Person Storytelling
It’s a rare occurrence for an indie developer to produce a game for VR due to its control capabilities. Since the start of 2020, more developers have been exploring how to use VR for storytelling that translates well with gameplay. Otherworld Interactive’s Hello Puppets cleverly came up with a story of puppets needing a human host to keep themselves alive. By becoming the host for the hand puppet Scout, one of your hands is used to control her.
In The Midnight Walk, the player’s view is solely focused on their surroundings to be wary of the dangers that will eat the Small Flame. They play the role of the Burnt One who will protect them while using stealth and wits against the monsters. The trailer presents a phenomenal job showing off the gameplay the Burnt One will need to learn and improvise based on enemy behavior. Small Flame will assist them on their journey using fire to light burnable objects.
A Passionate Indie Company
The Midnight Walk is set to release in the upcoming year of 2025 for PVR2. Moonhood’s trailer for their next dark fantasy project shows they are more than developers-they are artists and storytellers. Inspired to write after seeing the potential of an adorable clay figurine with fire on its head takes determination to follow Lost in Random’s success. It’s a beautiful story of creators challenging themselves to explore and rekindle their stride.
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