Moon Child

It’s not unusual to find some poetic adventures amidst the freeware games developed by talented indie studios, using their imagination to serve the game design. Titles such as Douse or Ruins are beautiful but very different tales and Moon Child is another good example of the talent that some students hold. Developed by four students of the Vancouver Film School using Unity, here is a game that marries stunning imagery with dreamlike music to create a tale that ends up somewhat short of brilliant, due to some minor flaws.

In Moon Child you play as a young boy who has the strange habit of carrying his dog on top of his head. The duo wants to go to the moon to find the whereabouts of the boy’s mother. From the farm where he lived with his father begins an adventure set inside the boy’s imagination.

This is a free third-person 3D game that will remind you of Crash Bandicoot in the first level and Trailblazer in the second. It’s a nice change of pace that manages to offer two completely different gameplay styles, while keeping the dreamlike quality of the storyline and visuals. The exquisite moon in the background is an amazing sight to behold and truly one of the most impressive sceneries we’ve seen in a while. The creatures that you cross on your journey, however, are way darker and nightmarish, like they came out of a Tim Burton movie.

The dog isn’t there just to look pretty, you have to use his bark to activate some platforms and he will be of major importance in the second level. You can also collect stars to destroy some creatures and heal our character.

The gameplay isn’t perfect and the main character has a bit of inertia to him that doesn’t feel just right. Adding to this there are some collision problems and playing with a keyboard isn’t the best choice, since some jumps seem to fail due to this control method and bring some frustration to the table – diagonals, particularly, are hard to do. Luckily you can play with a gamepad.

Moon Child is beautiful to look at and hear, not as wonderful to play but it’s also quite good and it never outstays its welcome. It’s a lovely tale, one that should be developed into a full game given the time and resources, since we loved the fable look of it. Moon Child is absolutely recommended for fans of cute, colorful platformers.

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