Ode to a Moon

• Title — Ode to a Moon • Developer — Colorfiction • Platforms — Windows • Released — 4 July 2019 (demo) • Modes — Single-player

• Illustration — Screenshot The player is a photojournalist for a tabloid magazine in the 1980s who is tasked with covering a fall festival in a remote rural town during a lunar eclipse. The game is played as a conventional first-person exploration adventure game, with only minor interface additions such as descriptive dialog when inspecting items with the cursor. The player starts in their apartment and takes a train to explore the town, with the game's environment becoming more surreal from the perception of the player as they venture further within. The game features heavy use of visual filters to distort the perspective and colors in the game.

In an interview with OnlySP, Arocena stated that development of Ode to a Moon was inspired by the desire to create a game that was more linear "explore a narrative grounded on reality for some time". Arocena stated "I want to take inspiration from cinema and explore how narrative shapes space and in turn affects the player as they transverse it,” citing the desire to create an experience of "pure delirium where the protagonist loses touch with reality" as a "continuous juxtaposition of the real and the abstract." An initial demo of Ode to a Moon was released by Arocena in July 2019, with an unannounced released date. The game purports to be "inspired by actual events and the general belief that truth is stranger than fiction," with Arocena posting unusual and surrealistic sites in the New England area on his Twitter account to support the release. Development of the full game is intended to have a stronger emphasis on horror, although without "monsters or enacted violence." A trailer for the game was released December 2019 featuring additional features, including spikes emerging from the town's walls and shadowy figures appearing. Development of Ode to a Moon is currently on hiatus, with Arocena stating that work on the game is currently discontinued whilst funding is secured for another project.