I am discovering the comparatively current development of supposedly calming diorama builders in video games to be an attention-grabbing one in that there is a clear need amongst creatively inclined people to be crafting one thing in digital environments, simply not essentially at scale. Simply this week I wrote about Sandcastle, a literal sandbox sport the place you construct sandcastles, and naturally there’s Tiny Glade too which good ole Christian Donlan loved. And now there’s Midnight Moments, a cyberpunk diorama builder that has me excited about the operate of those video games.
For starters, a bit about how Midnight Moments, out now, seems to work. It isn’t simply so simple as plonking down prefab buildings and calling it a day, it will get much more granular than that. You’re offered with a grid-based area upon which you’ll be able to place blocks of buildings and different ornamental items similar to streetlamps, individuals, bushes, vehicles each flying and never, graffiti, and naturally a cyberpunk staple, glowing neon lights.
Like many of the cyberpunk scenes we envision in our minds’ eyes, it is set at nighttime, a gradual drizzle of rain hitting the tiny part of a metropolis you have constructed at each second. There’s a consolation to be discovered right here, I am simply unsure of the sort of consolation that is being placed on show. An all too widespread concern inside the cyberpunk style is the eradication of the second a part of the phrase, the punk aspect, the marginally extra revolutionary half.
This is not a whole knock on the sport, as there is definitely an attention-grabbing friction to be discovered there. And provided that it is a constructing sport, I ponder in case you can lean into that pressure by carving out a cyberpunk metropolis that’s considerably hostile to its setting, that beneath the neon-soaked streets is one thing a bit grimier. Is it attainable to bump heads with Midnight Moments and transfer away from the comfy ambiance it describes itself with, and into one thing a tad extra confrontational? I do not know! I might want a bit extra time to determine that out, however even with my reservations it is an attention-grabbing little sport.
You possibly can pick up Midnight Moments on Steam right now (for lower than a cup of espresso, I ought to add).
