Steam's latest free download is Stardew Valley with a Halloween twist

Life is hard. Especially when you long to be a moon-worshipping, blood-thirsty creature of the night but instead have to exist as a measly human. If the calls of a cosy yet spooky life have been dogging you night and day, Steam’s latest free download, which promises all the joy of Stardew Valley but with a Halloween twist, could be for you.

Moonlight Peaks takes the story of Dracula and inverts it with a life sim twist – dear ol’ toothy dad isn’t convinced that compassion and the undead go hand-in-hand, a misconception your character is all too eager to challenge. So naturally, starting a farm filled with cursed crops is the ideal way to prove your point.

Need a new cosy game to play? Then check out the Fae Farm trailer!

Filled with romanceable NPCs, harvestable crops, farm customisation, and a diverse mix of mermaids, werewolves, and other creatures that go bump in the night, Moonlight Peaks is attempting to fill the void that is the spoopy genre, currently widely underutilised in video games. We’ve had cosy horror, but we’ve yet to experience that same cosy glow minus any real scares or spine-tingling thrills.

Currently, you can download Moonlight Peaks demo for free, though Steam users with macOS 10.15 Catalina or above will have to be inventive if they want to access the game. As for a release date, the devs, Little Chicken, haven’t provided a firm date yet, though it looks like the launch will happen in early 2024. Sadly, this means it’ll easily miss the Halloween window, but the spooks shouldn’t stop just because October has come and gone.

I’ve yet to play this game, yet I already feel it taking a spot on my GOTY 2024 contenders list, and I’ve not even finished compiling this year’s list! If Moonlight Peaks is anywhere near as charming as Fae Farm, or as rustically beguiling as Moonstone Island, constantly comparing every farming sim to Stardew Valley could become a thing of the past. However, let’s not forget that Steam is also offering another life sim very soon in the form of Spirittea, a Studio Ghibli-esque game I’ll be reviewing for GAMINGbible in the coming weeks.

Moonlight Peaks’ demo is free to download and play now, with the game intended to be released on Steam first and then later on the Nintendo Switch. Launch date TBA.