Daniel Benmergui

I wish I were the Moon

3 September 2008

(click on the screenshot to play)

I haven’t been posting anything lately for two reasons: I didn’t feel like doing so, and I was busy working on my prototypes to submit for the Tokyo Game Show Sense of Wonder Nights.

During these last weeks, I came up with three prototypes that I think are interesting enough, though I’m not 100% satisfied with the results.

This is the first one, called “I wish I were the Moon“. It’s inspired on The Distance of the Moon by Italo Calvino, and it’s about a weird love triangle.

I tried to make it about the exploration of an emotional situation instead of a physical space, without using any text. I tacked in the goal of finding the endings at the last minute, but it’s just a gimmick.

My conclusion on this prototype is that the camera mechanic is underused, the situation is a bit complex to understand if you didn’t read The Distance of the Moon, and ultimately the exploration experience is not very enjoyable. Maybe it’s because the options are not emergent, but pretty much hardcoded, and there’s only a few of them.

This prototype is the precursor point of the other two:
Storyteller
The Trials

Credits:
Italo Calvino as inspiration
Harp Sample: Lamento di Tristano and La Rotta by Cheryl Ann Fulton.

Update: lightsun13 made a YouTube walkthrough.
Update2: Updated to the new version!

58 Comments so far
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Interesting game! And I love that story from Cosmicomics. It took me a little while to find all the endings… but was a little disappointed that a few of the activities I had expected to find weren’t there, such as climbing up the ladder to get the moon milk, which could be a great game mechanic, and might play into the manipulation of the relationships as well. I do think it’s a great start though!

Heh, are all your games going to be about love triangles from now on?

I really liked this one, actually. I enjoyed the exploration of the space, and while it definitely has a puzzle mechanic feel to it, I think that the emotions still play.

I’m working on a small game right now too. Hopefully it’ll be ready soon…

I like this game. I really like the games with this kind of graphics. (Maybe is a nostalgic impression about oldies games, but the games without great “pixel shader” graphics needs more ingenious).
Nice game, very nice UI.

ja ja, muy bueno Dani.
No lei el libro pero pude descubrir todos los endings. Me encanto el pixel art y la idea.

@darius: well… I guess we make games about stuff we know about…

I forgot to mention this… but the camera mechanic concept was born while I read you article about using a camera as gameplay… not that it is properly used here, though. It makes a little more sense on the next prototype.

Thanks to everybody who took the time to comment for your support!

can you post some spoilers please?
I just discovered 2 “good” finals…

SPOILERS:

“Tragedy”: Drop any of them into the water
“Bring me the Moon”: Get the “Lost Love Ending”, then give the small moon to the boy
“Lost Love Ending”: Sit the boy in the boat and wait until the moon is gone
“I am your Moon Ending”: Sit the boy in the boat and the girl in the moon
“Seagull Trip Ending”: Sit both the boy and the girl over the gull. Be sure to put both of them. One will not suffice.

ah dude;

I hadn’t seen you about tigsource in ages. I really like this game. (I also really like Calvino ). Exploring all the different endings was a lot of fun.

Hey Increpare!

Yeah, I’m still lurking TIGSource, but hadn’t felt like joining conversations. I might once the demakes compo starts voting…

Thanks for trying this proto! In a couple of days I will post the next one, and the third one later. I hope you try those too!

Of course I will I showed this prototype to one friend, who really fell in love with it.

Will just have to subscribe to your blog so I don’t loose forget about you again

Ah, cool! I’m happy to have somewhat influenced the creation of this game!

Moon Stories is beautiful!

[...] sort of follows I Wish I Were the Moon in both aesthetics and camera interface, but the mechanics are slightly different: instead of [...]

I really like this game. I loved the “bring me the moon ending”, really funny. And as one guy says, i really like the pixel art.

Good luck in the compo.

Wow! Amazing game, dude! I’ve found all the endings. All of them are really great. But it happened something insteresting. The last ending I found was the “I’m your moon” one, which I think (to myself) is the best of all (or is the kindda the “true” ending). And I think that the fact of being found last, gives you some more satisfaction, ’cause you, after much effort, found the best that you can do.
I give you a 10 points evaluation. This is the kind of sensations that a game must generate in the player.

This is fucking awesome. Probably your best game to date.

I remember you told me once about the idea you had about a gameplay like this, but seeing it and playing it is way more surprising. I loved it.

Cheers!

[...] can play the experiments here: Storyteller I wish I were the Moon The [...]

[...] is that he deals with themes that are underexplored in most digital games: namely, love. “I Wish I Were the Moon” is based on a story by Italo Calvino, and relies on the player shifting elements around to [...]

Yay! Got all the endings! Now what?!

Very neat game. Another cool ending would have been lining up all the stars on top of each other and having it turn into something.

Your stuff reminds of the work Jason Rohrer is doing. Like it! Now I need to find your referenced story so I can find the two endings I’m missing.

this is beautiful, it really touched me in an amazing way. I don’t know if it’s just me, because I am awfully in love, but “I am your moon” is just the cutest thing you could say to someone.

[...] Club, but they are, after all, free, so we hope you won’t be too bothered by the inclusion of I Wish I Were the Moon, a precious little experimental gem by Daniel [...]

[...] by the inclusion of I Wish I Were the Moon, a precious little [...]

[...] Club, but they are, after all, free, so we hope you won’t be too bothered by the inclusion of I Wish I Were the Moon, a precious little experimental gem by Daniel [...]

[...] This little game made me happy. And a little bit sad too. I don’t fully understand why, but I liked it. It seems to be about trying to make the characters involved happy, but at the same time I get the feeling there’s no one “true” or “happy” ending. Maybe the bird feels left out at the end? Whether this is true or not, it made it look effortless to get me to think on a deeper level about what I’d experienced. I’ve played some games for hundreds of hours and felt nothing but boredom(and self-loathing, why else would I play something that sucks that much?). It took 2 minutes for this game to reach me on a deeper level than I usually reserve for games, for which I am grateful. [...]

I loved it. I just loved it. I agree with HALF-MASKED about the game reaching you in such a short amount of time. It’s just impressive, really it is. Thanks for the game!

Best ending: Boy on boat, girl on moon, boy on seagull, girl on seagull, small moon to boy on seagull, everybody’s happy. Except maybe the seagull.

[...] which promises to be a shape-recognition game played with phone cameras; Daniel Benmergui’s Moon Stories, a love story with multiple narrative outcomes and an ingenious Polaroid-snapshot gameplay [...]

[...] Moon Stories (Daniel Benmergui, Argentina) (Flash game available online) [...]

I love this game, after I found I am your moon ending, which was the last one I found, it got some tears out of my eyes… it’s lovely =)

[...] Una cámara de fotos, cuatro elementos y cinco posibles finales en esta brevísima joya jugable inspirada en un relato de Italo Calvino. Tags: flash, I wish I were the moon, [...]

[...] revista electrónica de videojuegos Gamasutra seleccionó a I Wish I Were The Moon como mejor juego indie del [...]

[...] there is a video walkthrough available on the original posting page, if you want to find all the [...]

What I really like is getting the “I am your Moon” ending, then dragging and dropping the girl onto the seagull, into the boat… etc. It doesn’t trigger another ending but it’s adorable.

[...] is a concise overview of some recent projects by Daniel Benmergui. Benmergui is the author of I wish I were the Moon (pictured above) – probably the only game directly inspired by an Italo Calvino [...]

i love the ‘i am your moon’ ending, its so sweet =]

[...] I Wish I Were the Moon [...]

[...] games’ we’ve been seeing in the last year or so, from Daniel Bernmergui’s I Wish I Were the Moon to Gregory Weir’s The Majesty of Colors, and even Tales of Tales’ pair Auriea and [...]

[...] I Wish I Were The Moon / PC / 2008 / Designer: Daniel Benmergui [...]

[...] Benmergui opened by showing his trilogy of work I Wish I Were the Moon, Trials and [...]

[...] EB: Yeah, with the moon. [...]

[...] I Die (Hoje eu morro) é um jogo de quebra-cabeças criado por Daniel Benmergui, parecido com I wish I were the Moon (Eu queria que fosse a lua), um curto jogo de aventura, super curto. Em Today I Die, você estará [...]

More more more love!!!

[...] just about everybody in my world is talking about it. Benmergui took some of the basic ideas of his I Wish I Were The Moon (which you should also play) and built something better. This gaming amuse-bouche shines in story, [...]

[...] I Wish I Were The Moon – an earlier effort by Daniel [...]

[...] pagina del tuo sito dedicata a I Wish I Were The Moon citi Italo Calvino come fonte di ispirazione. Come hai incontrato questo scrittore italiano? Penso [...]

Brilliant, brilliant work. Thank you for this.

[...] Thematically and structurally, it bears a deep resemblance to his previous games Storyteller and I Wish I Were the Moon. Unlike the previous games, however, Today I Die prominently features a textual element–a [...]

[...] vänster till höger: I wish I were the Moon, Passage, Fez, DINO RUN, Don’t Look Back och Cave Story. 2009-05-22 / Design, Trend, Tv-spel [...]

I really like the games with this kind of graphics. Maybe is a nostalgic impression about oldies games!

Thanks!

[...] games are and what they can be. Work that breaks similar ground include Daniel Benmergui’s I Wish I Were the Moon, Adam Saltsman’s Fathom, and most famously, Jason Rohrer’s Passage. Clearly, [...]

This game is beautiful! Please, you must release this for PSP, or even PS3! You must, you must, you must!!

I haven’t read anything by Italo Calvino (though, now i may) and this is still one of the most amazing games ever!!!!!

Thank you, and warm regards!

[...] am very happy with the repercussions of the publication of Today I Die… as with I Wish I Were the Moon, I had no idea how would everyone react to the game [...]

[...] are probably unintelligible without context. And of course loads of indie games, from Passage to I Wish I Were the Moon, use low-fidelity graphics out of the NES era — which, whether by necessity or as an [...]

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