Eye of the Moon
Recovering from the consequences of a divine war, the pantheon of Kaluwalhatian adjusts to the shared rule of Mayari, the peacekeeping goddess of the moon, and Apolaki, the trailblazing god of the sun.
As the deity of lost things, you occupy yourself with discovery and exploration, using your gifts to guide the mortals that pray to you and to find forgotten treasures. But when the truce between the rulers of Kaluwalhatian begins to splinter, deity and mortal alike call on you to restore the balance.
Will you make your greatest discovery yet, or will you succumb to the forces threatening to tear the heavens apart?
Eye of the Moon is an adventure and romance story inspired by Filipino mythology. Written by a Filipino woman, this interactive fiction game is a labor of love about protecting your home, complicated families, and relying on each other.
Features:
- an immersive world exploring the Philippines and its rich indigenous mythologies
- in depth character customization including appearance and personality
- romances that are integral to the story, with two bisexual love interests and a poly route
- choices that influence the story and your relationships, with multiple possible endings
Eye of the Moon is a work in progress and will be released chapter by chapter. Follow the game blog for the latest updates and extra content. If you're enjoying the game, you can send me a tip either here on itch.io or on Ko-fi!
Update status: Chapter 2 released on April 10, 2022.
Total word count: 38.9k
Official art by borgdraws.
Note: This game is rated M for language, violence, and sexual content. It will eventually include optional explicit content.
Eye of the Moon is set in Kaluwalhatian, the realm of the deities in Filipino mythology. As the deity of lost things you will travel all over the heavens, exploring the Philippines' most majestic landscapes and visiting the mortals on earth when your adventures require.
The story is immersed in pre-colonial Filipino culture and history; it purposefully sheds Western concepts around gender, sexuality, and religion.
Within the game, you'll set your pronouns and choose your love interest(s) but gender and sexuality are completely up to your headcanon! You'll also be able to customize your Moonfinder's appearance and personality.
There are three main personality archetypes in Eye of the Moon; these affect the Moonfinder’s overall demeanor.
Blue: charitable and sympathetic
Purple: playful and mischievous
Red: aloof and exacting
There are also two other variable traits. These have more to do with how the Moonfinder handles social situations and conflict resolution.
Proactive/reactive
Diplomat/fighter
The proactive/reactive trait also affects how the Moonfinder approaches romance.
Please note, the Moonfinder is not a blank slate MC! You can find an MC guide including clothing references and setting appropriate names here.
Eye of the Moon features two love interests: Tala, goddess of the stars and navigation and Dumakulem, god of the mountains and hunting. You can pursue them individually or simultaneously through the poly route!
Tala pierces stars through the night sky, turning them into brilliant jewels that guide mortals through the dark. It is said that every time a new deity is born, Tala creates a new constellation in the ocean above to welcome them to Kaluwalhatian. Mortals worship her because without the stars as their map they would be lost in the seas.
Duma resides in the mountains on earth, teaching and protecting the mortals within his domain. He is one of the most revered amongst the pantheon because of his reputation as a provider: of sustenance, of guidance, of endurance. Whether hunters are still learning to notch their bows or are tracking down the most elusive of prey, Duma is the recipient of their prayers.
Status | In development |
Platforms | HTML5 |
Rating | Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars (259 total ratings) |
Author | atemaarte |
Genre | Interactive Fiction, Adventure |
Tags | LGBT, Meaningful Choices, mythology, Romance, Story Rich, Text based, Twine |
Development log
- progress update: december 1, 2022Dec 01, 2022
- progress update: august 18, 2022Aug 18, 2022
- progress update: july 22, 2022Jul 22, 2022
- progress update: june 5, 2022Jun 05, 2022
- eye of the moon: chapter twoApr 10, 2022
- progress update: april 2, 2022Apr 02, 2022
- progress update: march 8, 2022Mar 08, 2022
- Changelog: Oct. 7, 2021Oct 07, 2021
Comments
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I haven't played yet because I just found this game. But as a Filipino, I am so excited to play this!
Really love this game, hooked on the characterizations on Tala and Duma, especially how they interact with each other and with MC. The story is intriguing and would like to know what happens next after chapter 2.
Hope you're doing well po!
PINOY PRIDE??? 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭
A fabulous start! Was hooked on the unveiling plot and overall cultural influences on the story. So cool learning about this particular pantheon.
Also - Tala: I love Tala. She’s Everything and I’m here for it (and her). Duma’s great as well, and some of the options make me wonder if there’s an intended poly route? Because—Yes, please. 😋 I understand well Life(TM) happens, but I do really hope to see more of this one day. Thank you so much for sharing!! ❤️
Hi, ate. I hope you're doing well. I really liked the game and hopefully one day we'll get to see this continued.
I'd really like to play more of this but it seems like the save feature is bugged on mac? Definitely plan on revisiting in the future, though. :)
Is there any intent to facilitate siding with the aswang against the diwata?
um will this be updated or is this going to join my collection of games on permanent hiatus TwT i hope it updates
I checked the authors tumblr, but the last update was from 5 months ago. Apparently, per their last update, life was being hectic, so I'm pretty sure the game is on hiatus!
glad I found this! filipino mythology and me being a lesbian hyped for Tala. though Duma is also interesting and technically canon so I'm going to probably prepare two more OCs for his route and the polyroute. the writing is excellent! Got hooked on the plot right away and I'm hyped because its based on part of filipino mythology too and just the characters are also fascinating. hopefully you'll have more time to still come back and finish this. sana okay ka lang ate. kung makaipon na ako I'll definitely support it!
Wowie, holy shit, its not everday I see a filipino game out here in the wild and im SO happy i tried this one out. Kapit lang ate, i hope you come back and update when you can
Really enjoyed this game and am wondering when the next chapter comes out. :)
Overall this is a really good game I decided to play it because I love romance games and I’m really interested in mythology as a whole I’ve never really delved into the Filipino myths but this game got me really interested in it :] this is really interesting and I recommended it to my friends lol.
Really enjoyed this story so far, looking forward to future updates. Playful MC and Tala is a really fun dynamic!
Sucks were some boring "finding stuff" god
just finished reading ch2 and WHEW THAT WAS BEAUTIFUL
i really enjoyed learning more about filipino culture ,the characters have just been introduced and im already in love and the story is soo interesting!!eotm just became one of my fav ifs ever <3 also thank v much for the poly route bc tala and duma relationship is so fun to read i love them sm (rivals to lovers enjoyer here)
Is this dropped?
NOOO OMG WAIT IS THERE A CHANCE YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THIS
OMGGG IM SO HAPPYY THERES FINALLY LIKE A FILIPINO DATING SIM AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
sa wakasssss omg (┬┬﹏┬┬) antagal ko na gusto ng filipino dating sim!! maraming salamat dev team! sana malamig yung mga unan niyo dahil tag-init na hehe
It bugs when I try to start it.
hi there! what device/browser are you trying to play it on?
Google Chrome on Windows* 10.
Javascript is enabled.
...Could it be adblock's fault?
ayos ito salamat. nawa'y sumikat kayong may akda nito.
ahhhh salamat!! nasasaya ako na talagang gusto mo 💗
IM SO GAY, TALA MY BELOVED
thank you so much for making this game! I love everything so far, I can't wait to see how this goes!! I adore how well written the story and the characters are, and I'm very happy to learn about our mythos and culture from waaaay back in pre-colonial pinas!!
thank you so much! i'm so glad you've enjoyed reading. our mythology is such a fun space to play in. such a great opportunity to tell new stories!
Everything is so cool! I am incredibly hooked and am very excited to see how this story will progress! And the love interests got me feeling some type of way 😳😳
glad to hear i'm doing my job right 😌
as someone who knows next to nothing about filipino culture this is so cool??? im learning AND having fun! the culture is so rich and i cant wait to see more.
thank you so much!
Hello I haven't played this yet but I was immediately interested since I'm a Filipino myself, It makes me so happy when I see things related to my culture :).
i hope you get the chance to start reading soon! thanks so much for your kind comment.
I finished it a while ago and I really enjoyed the story. the writing was very immersive and I could imagine the details in my head. One of the parts that made me smile (there was many buttttt) was when we prepared the food or when they would mano. These details were so cool to see, I look forward to the upcoming chapters :).
i'm so glad you enjoyed and appreciated those details!! they were really important to me to include—no matter how mc feels about their parents they have to mano! thank you so much for leaving a review (:
Hi there! I’m super excited for this game as I’m a big fan of A Tale of Crowns, but I just wanted to ask if it would be possible to add a dark mode or something to tweak the colors? I’m visually impaired and while I’d really like to dive into this gorgeous setting, reading as it is now unfortunately gives me a headache after a very short time because the current color scheme is just too intense even while using an extension like DarkReader. I’d appreciate any options to make our experience more comfortable and thank you so much for the work you’ve done so far! Have a great day!
hi there! i am always happy to accomodate accessibility to the best of my coding abilities. i know there's a way to build in a dark mode but since i didn't incorporate that into my initial code i'll have to figure out how to do it without breaking the rest of the formatting. that's a pretty big task, so not really something i'll be able to incorporate in between updates but i'll try my best and see if i can get it in there for the ch 3 update!
Thanks so much, looking forward to keeping an eye on where development goes from here!
hii!! ive literally just started this game and im so excoted11<3 anyway, i encountered a bug!! i thought i should let the developer know, anyway it was when the mc's parents asked them how they've been, when i chose the answer that tells them whats been happening and stuff, it processed it as if ive chosen to just hum and stay silent, thanks for readinnng i'll elaborate further if u need im so terrible at explaining
hello! i didn't come across that bug in my tests but i went ahead and streamlined the coding. hopefully it works now!
tysm<3
I love mythology and learning about other cultures, and when I found this game I was so happy, and it has amazing writing too! Oh and the art of the characters are so beautiful!
as someone whos half filo and loves mythology and IFs this is super exciting to see !!!!!! ur writing is so good and its also really exciting that theres a poly route !!!!!!!!!!!!!! also ik other ppl have said it in the comments but this is def pretty similar and just as good as atoc :] hella excited to see more !!!!!
the highest of compliments!! thank you so much 💞
I am so excited that you are promoting Filipino language, culture, pre-colonial religeons, and history! This story is really well-written, and I am so impressed with how you have consciously introduced readers to different aspects of Filipino culture (mano-po, "kumain ka na" culture, etc). I can't wait to read more and sing your praises to others!
thank you! illustrating the established culture and showing how we deepen connections between ourselves through our customs was really important to me and i'm happy it resonated with you.
i really enjoyed this!! the writing was great and super immersive :D
I see you everywhere- XD
my if obsession is going strong
thanks for reading and for your kind words!
This is such a wonderful game, and it's so beautifully written! It completely sucks you in and the flow of it is so natural! I can't wait to read more :-)
thank you so much! i'm so glad you enjoyed
Help I love them- But seriously this was a fantastic update! I was looking forward to doing some flirting with both the LI's (my pansexual poly baby brain is very indecisive) and boy did you deliver. Looking forward to the next one!
we're definitely just getting started! thanks so much for reading.
ateee, i just finished the update and i feel like cat paws are scratching my heart! i'm so curious to death and really want to know what's gonna happen next, especially with what's going on with the aswangs!
i'm very much looking forward to the next update already ngl QAQ (also, AAAAAAA i like tala a lot!)
the aswang are up to some shit 👀 the chase is on!
i'm glad you like tala, i def wrote her to be a dream girl 😌
I'm so freakin ready! I've been waiting here since the demo first dropped and its finally being updated today! Let's goooo!
your patience has paid off! it's out (:
This is really cool! I can't wait forthe update to release today! ^^
i hope you enjoy the update!
I LOVED it! Really good writing, and love the choices on this! I love how you describe things, so well thought out! ^^
thank you so much!! i had a lot of fun writing this chapter hehe
I'm so glad I came across this, as a Filipino person myself it makes me happy to see a game related to my culture. I'm looking forward to future updates, good luck! :)
thank you so much! i'll be updating the game this weekend (:
Yey! I haven't played the game yet but I'm so happy to find a game based on the Philippines!
i hope you enjoy it!
This is really good so far, I have a question though, will we be able to specify our body type in our profile in future, as well as if we have any tattoos or piercings, and where our strengths lie in terms of physical/mental capabilities?
Oh, also, could we get some sort of pronunciation primer to help us pronounce all of the names and native words used in the game, it would be really nice to have.
i can definitely consider adding body types in future updates!
regarding tattoos, i've decided not to add any canon options because i'm honestly not comfortable with non-filipino players creating tattoos for the moonfinder. they're culturally symbolic and are individualized for each person to represent their character and history. i'm leaving the tattoos to player headcanons with the hope that people will commission filipino artists if they want custom designs. with piercings, that's just honestly not a level of detail i want to go into coding so i'm leaving that up to headcanons as well. though of course super modern piercings would not necessarily be appropriate so i would encourage some research in that regard.
your strengths are already implied based on your proactive/reactive and fighter/diplomat traits. there's four different variations on how mc best handles conflict. i'll consider coding strengths more deeply in the future, but honestly i've intentionally designed my coding system to be feasible for me since i'm writing, coding, and designing pretty much by myself. this is my first IF project and i want to finish it eventually, which means editing down some of the nice to have frills when it comes to customization and coding.
names of people and places have pronunciation guides in the codex entries so i would refer to those. if you aren't already familiar with the tagalog words that are used in eotm, you can find definitions and pronunciations on tagalog.com.
thanks for reading!