Today is the first day of Steam Next Fest and Midnight Moments is part of it! With all the prep’ work for this moment we wanted to mark the occasion with our first proper dev log.
This game has been in development for about three months. Three months ago it didn't exist! It started as a quiet conversation about what kind of game we actually wanted to make, something small, something focused, something that felt like a genuine passion project rather than a roadmap item. What came out of that conversation was the idea of a cyberpunk diorama builder. A game about making a corner of a city feel real.
We're a tiny team within Happy Volcano, which itself is made of eight core developers. Two developers, one intern, and a creative director. That's it. So every decision has to count.
What we set out to build
Thomas, our lead developer and tech artist on Midnight Moments, describes what he was most determined to get right from the beginning: "We really wanted to create a space where you can just chill out and build something beautiful in a very specific environment. We love including modular designs in our games and we set out to build something where all the building blocks always fit and where every piece looks good, no matter how you assemble it. It needed to absorb you by being so easy to interact with until you reach that point where you can take a step back and enjoy looking at what you built."
That last part, taking a step back and just looking, is something we keep coming back to as a team. It sounds simple. It turns out to be quite hard to design for.
The feeling we're chasing
David, our creative director, describes the feeling at the heart of the game like this: "The feeling of looking out your cozy apartment window, feeling warm, being in your safe space and looking out into the rainy, moody city. Musing on the life that sprawls beneath you, but from a bird's eye perspective. As being part of it, but also not being part of it."
The atmosphere in Midnight Moments is a focus for us. The team drew direct inspiration from the lofi girl aesthetic, that specific feeling of a safe, warm space existing right at the edge of something moody and vast. There's something about neon in the rain that just works. It's cinematic without trying to be. It pulls you in.
The hardest technical challenge has been one of balance. As Thomas puts it: "Striking a good balance between giving creative freedom, free placement, free rotation, ignoring object collision, and having something that just always looks good no matter what." Most diorama games solve this with constraints. We wanted to give players as much creative freedom as possible while still making sure whatever they build looks beautiful. That's a harder problem than it sounds. It's why you can currently place windows on the ground if you want to.
What players did that surprised us
We opened up a playtest last weekend and watched people play. That's always the moment of truth with a game like this.
Thomas: "As always when you give players a big box of building blocks, you're gonna be surprised by what they build with it. I saw people building train stations, voxel art, and much more. And that was just with a minimum of assets. It was amazing to see how creative players already got with a limited list of assets. We can't wait to see what they build with all the content in it."
The rain keeps coming up as the first thing people mention when they describe the game. Before they mention the building, before they mention the props, the rain. We'll take that.
Shout out to the player who built an actual train.
What the game is really about
We want Midnight Moments to be a place where you tell little stories without writing a single word. David describes it: "A bouncer guarding the back entrance of a nightclub. People gathering around an accident. Two strangers having a blind date in the park. We want you to be the architect of the stories that could unfold in the city."
And what does he want players to feel in the first five minutes? "I don't want them to think. I want them to place down a block, then another, and just vibe build based on what's on their screen already. We're looking for that zen state of creating something from scratch and being totally immersed in the little world you're crafting."
What we're building toward
Right now, heading into Next Fest, Thomas is working on NPCs, randomising their idle-animations and looks so every citizen feels like their own person. He's also implementing the most-requested feedback from the playtest, including experimenting with scroll-to-cycle asset variations and a light painting tool.
What does he consider the proudest hidden detail in the current build? People wanted animals in the game, and whilst we are still looking into the possibility of adding one or two, for now at least there is a cat decoration in the graffiti section.
As for what David hopes for a year from now? "I hope they still have a screenshot of a diorama they built as their desktop wallpaper."
That's the version of success we're building toward. Something small, something yours, something worth keeping.
The demo is live now as part of Steam Next Fest. We'd love to see what you build.
Don’t forget to wishlist and follow the game here on Steam. It helps small studios like ours get our game seen by more players and makes more of a difference than we can say.
Whilst you’re there why not try the demo too?
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We’ll catch you again soon builders.
Team Happy Volcano
