Moonlight Peaks Will Let Us Finally Build the Vampire Farm of Our Dreams

Okay, maybe that “finally” above is tongue-in-cheek, since until I heard of Moonlight Peaks, it never crossed my mind to blend vampires and other supernatural creatures with the farming sim genre. Maybe it’s because vampires prefer blood over fresh produce, or if they can/do eat regular food without being re-ensouled. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because crops need sunlight and vampires have a decidedly different reaction. (No, I don’t mean that.)

Moonlight Peaks puts you in the shoes (boots, maybe?) of Dracula’s child, who wants to prove that even the undead can live a life of compassion while running a farm and making friends with the locals. As you may guess, the game’s daily cycle is exactly opposite of typical farm sims, so you’ll socialize, explore, and run your farm late into the night. This is a great twist on the expected, and Moonlight Peaks’ rich color palette of dark purples, blues, and pinks really accentuate the nighttime and gothic atmosphere. And if you’re wondering, yes, your character does sleep in a coffin and start each night by rising from it dramatically.

While Moonlight Peaks’ Steam page talks about the mysteries of the seven families and shows off many of the local werewolves, mermaids, witches, and weirdest of all… humans, I didn’t get to see any of the town and social components during my demo time at PAX East. But I enjoyed what I saw with my tour guide, the always excellent Derek Heemsbergen, Senior Localization Editor on the game — and former powerhouse RPGFan editor and podcast host — and can share what I saw, anyway!

The demo area started and ended on the farm, but it was enough to showcase the great ideas that Amsterdam-based developer Little Chicken has in store. I quickly learned how free you are to redecorate by picking up and placing furniture, even hedges and similar elements, at will. Looking at some of the in-game furniture catalogs, the sheer variety and quantity of options was impressive, especially for what seems to be a fairly early build of Moonlight Peaks. It doesn’t look like players will be wanting for options in decorating.

Farming and crops can work as you’d expect, with a host of tools selectable from a radial menu to till the land so you can plant seeds and water. But hey, your character is a vampire witch with some magic spells up their sleeve. Or in their pocket. Look, I don’t know where they keep the magic, just that they have it. Equipping the magic wand gave me access to a few spells to make farming easier, quicker, and not to sound too obvious, but more magical. To cast a spell, a round glyph appears on-screen with markers around the edges and in the center, and moving the mouse in different patterns casts different spells. It reminded me of some of the touchscreen spells in some of the DS Castlevania titles, which may not be everyone’s favorite, but I always thought it was a fun use of the hardware.

I used two spells during my time with Moonlight Peaks. The first was a far-reaching water spell, which hydrated most of my seeds in one go. A more potent spell made many crops around me instantly transition from seeds to fully grown crops. Both of these are enormous time-savers, and I look forward to seeing what other abilities there are. Weirdly, neither spell had an indicator of which tiles it would affect, so I was not sure what would be in range. But hopefully that is in the works. As cool as those spells were, hands-down the best magic ability I used was the power to become a bat. Beyond drastically increased movement speed, being a bat lets you fly over fences, hedges, and other elements that would be obstacles in your earthbound form. There will be different forms to shift into as well down the line.

Beyond the color palette and night-themed crops, your farm can have other inhabitants that all have a silly-spooky vibe, like your three-eyed hellcat, goat-sheep-cyclops hybrid, and my favorite, a golem that is a weird tower of rocks covered in eyes with tiny legs that shuffles around. What do they all do besides amuse me? No idea! But between them and the living shipping box that eats up your products for sale, the devs seem to have a clear vision for the atmosphere in Moonlight Peaks.

While it was a very compact demo area, I’m hopeful about Moonlight Peaks. I hope we get to see the town and other characters soon to have a more well-rounded view of all that the game will offer. The character art is great, the presentation and UI are cute, and the premise is just weird enough that I want it to succeed. While the game isn’t due until sometime in 2026, you can wishlist or download the demo on Steam (Windows or macOS). Look for more coverage of Moonlight Peaks on RPGFan in the future!