To the Moon

To the Moon is an adventure game developed and published by Freebird Games. It was originally released for Microsoft Windows in November 2011, with ports later being released for Mac OS X, Linux, Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch. The story follows two doctors who offer to fulfill a dying man's last wish using artificial memories. The game features relatively few gameplay mechanics, with the player controlling the two doctors, exploring the narrative and solving puzzles as they try to reconstruct the dying man's memories in order to fulfill his wish.
The game was designed by Kan Gao using the RPG Maker XP toolkit. Development started in 2010, when Gao was struck by questions of mortality following his grandfather's life-threatening condition. "To the Moon" would become Freebird Games' first commercial product, following smaller, experimental games released for free on the studio website. The game was updated later to include free downloadable content called "minisodes" to give more context to the main characters, such as 2014's "A Bird Story".
While criticized for lacking much gameplay, "To the Moon" received praise for its narrative and music, thematic material and emotional power, with some considering it a leading example of artistic expression in video games, and was nominated for several awards. An animated film adaptation is in development, partially scripted and supervised by Gao.
Gameplay.
"To the Moon" is built on the RPG Maker XP engine, which is used to create 16-bit 2D role-playing games, in the style of "Dragon Quest" or "Final Fantasy". However, unlike a typical RPG, "To the Moon" has no battle system (aside from a joke battle near the beginning), inventory system, nor party system. The game's focus, being a more story-driven game, is around puzzle solving, interpreting information from the subject's (Johnny's) life, and finding ways to get deeper into his memories.
Gameplay is primarily about exploring Johnny's memories to find significant objects and collect energy from them to strengthen the memory and connect to a more distant one, from Johnny's old age leading back to his childhood. Occasionally, the player will have to explore Johnny's house and the surrounding area for certain clues, if they cannot gather enough energy from a certain memory, or don't know how to proceed to a further one.
Once the items are all gathered and the player has seen all the memories, they can connect certain objects that exist across two different memories to move freely between them. At this point, the player can begin manipulating the memories, by changing around characters, objects and events, to make Johnny believe he had achieved his dream of going to the Moon.
Plot.
Sigmund Corp. uses a technology that can create artificial memories. They offer this as a "wish fulfillment" service to people on their death beds. Since these artificial memories conflict with the patient's real memories, the procedure is only legal to do on people without much time left to live.
Sigmund Corp. employees Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts are contracted with fulfilling the lifelong dream of the dying Johnny Wyles. Johnny wants to go to the Moon, although he doesn't know why. The doctors insert themselves into an interactive compilation of his memories and traverse backwards through his life via 'mementos', items of great personal significance to Johnny that act as a link between his various memories. With each leap to an important moment in Johnny's memories, they learn more about him and what brought him to his current position in life, including his largely unhappy marriage to his teenage sweetheart, River. Despite this, the doctors remain unable to find out exactly why Johnny wishes to go to the moon. The doctors also encounter an unusual gap in Johnny's memories, preventing them from accessing his earliest childhood memories. Nevertheless, the doctors insert his desire to go to the Moon into his earliest accessible memories of his teenage years. In theory, Johnny's mind would create new memories based on that desire, and Johnny would die believing he lived without any regrets.
Johnny's mind does not create the new memories as planned. The doctors must solve this problem to fulfill Johnny's dying wish of going to the Moon. Eventually, the doctors gain access to his earliest childhood memories, where it is revealed that Johnny and River met as young children at a carnival years ago. They looked at the night sky and made up a constellation: a rabbit with the Moon as its belly. The two agreed to meet at the same place the following year, with Johnny promising that should he forget or get lost, the two would "regroup on the Moon". That night, Johnny gives River a toy platypus which River treasures for the rest of her life. Shortly after, Johnny's twin brother Joey was killed in an accident. Johnny's mother gave him beta blockers to induce memory loss of the tragic event, also causing him to forget his first encounter with River and initially preventing the doctors from accessing those memories. He later happened to meet her again and eventually marry her. River later realized that he had forgotten their meeting at the carnival, after Johnny confessed that he approached her in school because she was different, and that he thought "that" was their first meeting. River, who is strongly implied to have Asperger syndrome, does not tell Johnny directly about their first meeting; instead, she tries to indirectly jostle his memories by cutting her hair (as she had short hair during their initial encounter) and crafting paper bunnies, including a dual-colored one representing the constellation they made up during their first encounter, combined with the blue-and-yellow dress she wore on their wedding. River was unable to make Johnny remember before she died, leaving Johnny with a lingering guilt and an inexplicable desire to go to the Moon, caused by his subconscious recollection of having promised to regroup with River on the moon as a child should they ever become separated.
In the present, Rosalene and Watts eventually implant a memory sequence in which Joey did not die, and lived on to become a popular author, and Johnny did not meet River again until they started working together at NASA. As the comatose real-life Johnny begins to die, he imagines going on a Moon mission with River. During the launch, River holds out a hand to him. The Moon appears through a window on the ship, and Johnny takes her hand as his heart monitor flatlines. In the epilogue, Johnny and River eventually get married, and build and retire to the same house where the real-life Johnny and River lived. Also, in the new memories Joey was part of Johnny's life, being at his wedding, meetings with friends and even in the construction of the house. Rosalene and Watts, now back in the real world, look to Johnny's grave, which is placed adjacent to River's. They reveal to the audience that Johnny willed the house to his caregiver, Lily. Rosalene receives a phone call, and the two move on to their next patient. While Watts is leaving, he stops and the screen briefly flashes red, the same way it did when Johnny felt pain. Watts takes some painkillers, then follows Rosalene to their next adventure.
Development and release.
"To the Moon" was developed and published by Freebird Games, the independent game studio of Canadian designer Kan Gao as their first commercial production. Made using the RPG Maker XP engine, the development started in 2010 after Gao's grandfather became seriously ill, an event that made Gao question mortality and death. His thoughts on regret before one's death eventually inspired the concept for the story of the game.
"To the Moon" was originally released on the author's website and various digital download portals. It was made later also available via major digital distribution sites like Steam (November 2011) or GOG.com (June 2012). Originally available only for Microsoft Windows, it was later released for OS X and Linux with the Humble Bundle X in January 2014. Jonas Kulla ported the game with the open-source and cross platform "RPG Maker XP" game engine recreation "MKXP". Later this engine was also used for ports to other systems like the OpenPandora handheld. In May 2017, "To the Moon" was also released on Android and iOS by X.D. Network Inc. with the cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies. The game was localized in Chinese, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Polish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Vietnamese, Dutch, Korean, and Turkish. The score of the game was composed by Gao, with a theme song titled "Everything's Alright" being written and performed by Laura Shigihara. The soundtrack was released on Bandcamp on November 4, 2011.
A downloadable minisode was released on December 31, 2013, which centers on Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts during a holiday party at their local Sigmund Corp. office. A second minisode was released on February 18, 2015.
Reception.
"To the Moon" received critical positive reception, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Critics, while noting that the gameplay itself was lacking, praised the story and music.
Legacy.
In August 2016, Gao announced that a mobile remake of the game was being developed by X.D. Network Inc. After about a year, the remake released for Android and iOS on May 12, 2017. The remake features high-definition graphics, as opposed to the 16-bit graphics of the original PC release. The game released for Nintendo Switch on January 16, 2020 and released for China Nintendo eShop on February 8, 2021, remade using the Unity engine.
A game set in the same universe, titled "A Bird Story" was released in November 2014. While not a direct continuation of the story, it serves as a bridge between "To the Moon" and "Finding Paradise", a sequel which was released in December 2017. An animated film adaptation is in development. The film will be a collaborative project, with it being partially scripted and supervised by Gao with Japanese companies leading production and Chinese company Ultron Event Horizon funding it.
Awards.
In GameSpot's 2011 Game of the Year awards, "To the Moon" was given the "Best Story" award, which was won against "Catherine", "", "Portal 2", and "Xenoblade Chronicles". which were also voted in the same category. The game was also nominated in the categories of "Best Music", "Most Memorable Moment", "Best Writing/Dialogue", "Best Ending", and "Song of the Year". In 2015, it was included on "GamesRadar" top 100 games of all time list. In 2018, the mobile version was nominated for the "Game, Original Adventure" and "Original Light Mix Score, New IP" categories at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards.