"Who took the sun away?"
A game by the developers of Lost in Random with a unique claymation style.
Tropes:
- Abstract Eater: The Moonbird feeds on stories.
- After the End: The sun has gone out in this world, although it is still inhabited. Fire and matches are a precious resource because of this. It's eventually revealed that the Sun is the Craftsman's daughter, who left because her father wasn't letting her make her own choices in life. And subverted because it's implied that the world could possibly go on even without the sun.
- Creepy Good: Most of the characters are unsettling due to the art style, even the neutral or helpful ones.
- Disney Death: Housey gets accidentally set on fire by Potboy, but ends up returning at the end of the game to life Potboy up so he can reignite the sun - although if you choose to tell Potboy to keep going it probably dies for real along with you.
- Escort Game: The main mission is The Burnt One escorting Potboy to Moon Mountain. Thankfully, he's usually not affected by monsters and is very helpful in solving puzzles.
- Eye Motifs: Eyes are used to represent the Dark watching you, and interacting with eyes in the environment by opening and closing your own eyes is a mechanic used in many of the puzzles.
- Ghostly Goals: The little thief girl just wants to have her body whole again, and then wants you to light a match for her so she can see her "stars" one last time. Helping her also lets all the undead residents of the town finally rest in peace.
- Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: Fire and Darkness are major forces in this world, although not necessarily opposed.
- Losing Your Head: An entire town is full of living heads who banished their bodies after blaming them for a terrible war.
- The Maker: Literally The Maker, who created the buildings and towns of this world and then its inhabitants. The Craftsman is an imitation of him with his own flawed creations.
- Medium Blending: The movie about the Craftsman is done with live action puppetry and sets.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: The Molgrim looks like a terrible monster, but it's really an ancient and noble keeper of fire mourning its people. The Dark Itself turns out to be this as well, helping you and Potboy on your journey.
- Open the Iris: The Dark's irises tend grow and shrink as it stares creepily at you.
- Playing with Fire: Fire is a precious resource in this world, and Potboy is unique in that he can carry and create it. Also The Burnt One gets a "gun" fueled by matches that shoots fire to help solve puzzles.
- Rebellious Princess: The Craftsman wanted his daughter to rule over the land he created. She just wanted to dance. She was the Sun, and the reason the world is dark is because he drove her away.
- The Sacred Darkness: The Dark Itself, while it might seem terrifying, is not actually malevolent. Many inhabitants of the world end up causing suffering fighting over fire and matches because they fear being in the dark, but those who face their fears and accept the dark end up being better off for it.
- Shout-Out: "Fire's back on the menu, crows." is a nod to The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy's similar "Looks like meats back on the menu, boys"
- Stop Motion: The entire game is animated in a claymation style, with the creators having literally created everything out of clay and scanning them in.
- Story Breadcrumbs: Many of the stories are pieced together through talking to NPCs and listening to recorded voices on shellphones. The collectable records you find and view in your house also provide additional worldbuilding.
