Before the Green Moon

Before the Green Moon is a post-apocalyptic life simulation game where players navigate a decaying rural town, struggling to earn enough scrip to buy a ticket to the moon. Set in a dystopian future, the game blends farming mechanics with emotional storytelling, as players befriend depressed locals while managing scarce resources like water during a harsh dry season. Unlike traditional farming sims, it critiques capitalism and survival, offering a poignant narrative about perseverance and farewell.

Before the Green Moon: A Masterclass in Subversive Farming Simulation

Introduction

Before the Green Moon is not just another farming simulator—it is a poignant, melancholic, and deeply introspective experience that subverts the expectations of its genre. Developed by the two-person indie studio Turnfollow, this game takes the familiar mechanics of Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley and twists them into a narrative about survival, exploitation, and the fleeting nature of human connection. Set in a decaying, post-apocalyptic town at the base of a space elevator, the game challenges players to scrape together enough money to escape Earth for the promise of a better life on the moon. Yet, as relationships deepen and the town’s inhabitants reveal their struggles, the game forces players to confront uncomfortable questions: Is escape truly the answer? And what are we leaving behind?

This review will dissect Before the Green Moon in exhaustive detail, exploring its development history, narrative depth, gameplay mechanics, world-building, and lasting impact on the farming sim genre. By the end, it will be clear why this game stands as one of the most emotionally resonant and thematically ambitious titles of 2023.

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Development History & Context

The Studio: Turnfollow’s Evolution

Turnfollow, comprised of Carter Lodwick and Ian Endsley, is a small indie studio known for its narrative-driven games like Wide Ocean Big Jacket and Little Party. Before Before the Green Moon, their work leaned heavily into linear storytelling, often exploring themes of intimacy, memory, and human connection. However, Before the Green Moon marked a significant departure—a foray into the systems-driven world of farming simulators.

In interviews, Lodwick and Endsley revealed that the decision to tackle a farming sim was born from a combination of nostalgia and ambition. Endsley, in particular, had long harbored a desire to create a farming sim, inspired by childhood memories of Harvest Moon 64 and Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. The duo saw the genre as an opportunity to explore the passage of time and the idea of a “living place” in a way that their previous, more linear games could not.

Technological and Design Constraints

Developing a farming sim as a two-person team presented immense challenges. Unlike larger studios with dedicated programmers, artists, and designers, Turnfollow had to handle every aspect of development themselves. This constraint influenced the game’s scope and design philosophy. For instance, the decision to omit a sprint mechanic—a staple in many farming sims—was not just a creative choice but a practical one. Early prototypes experimented with bicycles, hoverboards, and even a time-scaling sprint, but each introduced animation, collision, and system design complications that were ultimately deemed too resource-intensive.

The game’s visual style, reminiscent of early 2000s console games (particularly the PlayStation 2 and GameCube eras), was another deliberate choice. Lodwick and Endsley sought to evoke the tactile, physical feel of games from that era, where models were handcrafted and textures were naturalistic. This aesthetic not only paid homage to their inspirations but also allowed them to work within the limitations of a small team, avoiding the pitfalls of procedurally generated assets or overly complex shaders.

The Gaming Landscape at Release

Before the Green Moon launched in March 2023, entering a gaming landscape dominated by both AAA blockbusters and an ever-growing indie scene. The farming sim genre, while niche, had seen a resurgence in popularity thanks to games like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. However, most entries in the genre adhered to a formula of cozy escapism—bright, cheerful worlds where players could build their dream farms and forge idyllic relationships.

Turnfollow’s game, by contrast, was a deliberate antithesis to this trend. It embraced the “anti-farm sim” label, offering a gritty, grounded, and often bleak take on rural life. This subversive approach resonated with players and critics alike, carving out a unique space in a crowded genre.

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Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Plot Overview: A Ticket to the Moon

Before the Green Moon places players in the role of a newcomer to a decaying rural town, where the ultimate goal is to earn enough “company scrip” to buy a one-way ticket to the moon. The moon, in this universe, is not a place of wonder but a symbol of corporate exploitation—a last resort for those desperate to escape Earth’s ruins. The game’s central tension lies in this premise: the player is constantly reminded that their presence in the town is temporary, and every interaction is tinged with the knowledge that they will eventually leave.

The narrative unfolds over the course of an in-game year, with the moon elevator departing only once a month. This creates a sense of urgency, as players must decide whether to prioritize their escape or linger to deepen relationships with the town’s inhabitants. The game’s ending is deliberately ambiguous, offering no grand resolution or happy ending. Instead, it forces players to grapple with the consequences of their choices, leaving many with a bittersweet sense of loss.

Characters and Relationships

The town’s inhabitants are a cast of flawed, struggling individuals, each grappling with their own demons. Unlike the archetypal NPCs of traditional farming sims, these characters are opaque, withholding, and often indifferent to the player’s presence. This deliberate design choice forces players to invest time and effort into uncovering their stories, making each relationship feel earned rather than handed to them.

One of the game’s most striking mechanics is its hidden relationship system. Unlike Stardew Valley, where affection meters and gift preferences are clearly outlined, Before the Green Moon offers no such guidance. Players must intuitively deduce what each character values, often through subtle hints in dialogue or environmental storytelling. This opacity makes relationships feel more organic and less like a checklist, reinforcing the game’s themes of human connection as something fragile and uncertain.

Themes: Exploitation, Escape, and Impermanence

At its core, Before the Green Moon is a meditation on exploitation and the illusion of escape. The moon ticket, with its ever-increasing price, serves as a metaphor for the false promises of capitalism and the idea that happiness lies just beyond the next milestone. The game’s world is one of scarcity—water is limited, resources are finite, and even the player’s labor is a constant struggle. This scarcity extends to relationships, where players must make difficult choices about who to prioritize, often at the expense of others.

The game also explores the theme of impermanence. The town itself is a transient place, flooded with tourists who come and go without ever truly engaging with the locals. The player, too, is ultimately just another tourist, and the game’s ending drives this point home with brutal honesty. When the player boards the moon elevator, they are left alone in a cramped cabin, with no grand adventure awaiting them—just the cold reality of their choices.

Dialogue and Writing

The writing in Before the Green Moon is sparse but impactful. Dialogue is often understated, with characters speaking in fragmented, realistic ways that reflect their emotional states. The game’s most powerful moments come not from grand speeches but from quiet, unspoken interactions—a character’s silence, a lingering glance, or a sudden outburst of emotion.

The game’s tone is one of melancholy and introspection, with a touch of dark humor. It avoids sentimentality, instead opting for a grounded, almost cynical view of human nature. This tone is reinforced by the game’s setting, which feels like a relic of a bygone era—a place left behind by progress, where people are just trying to get by.

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Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Core Gameplay Loop: Scarcity and Struggle

Before the Green Moon deconstructs the traditional farming sim loop, replacing the cozy, repetitive joy of Stardew Valley with a sense of constant struggle. Farming is not a picturesque pastime but a necessity, and every action feels like a chore. Tilling soil, planting seeds, and watering crops are deliberately tedious, reinforcing the game’s themes of labor and exploitation.

The game’s most innovative mechanic is its water scarcity system. The second half of the in-game year is a “dry season,” where rain is rare, and players must manually transport water from a lake to their farm. This adds an extra layer of difficulty, forcing players to make strategic decisions about crop selection and resource management. Fast-growing crops require more water and maintenance, while slower-growing trees are more sustainable but less profitable. The game’s tutorial does not hold the player’s hand, leaving them to discover these mechanics through trial and error.

Chicken Farming: A Study in Resource Management

One of the game’s most compelling emergent systems is its chicken farming mechanic. Players can find chickens in the wild and raise them for eggs, which can be sold for profit. However, chickens require apples to eat, and apples become scarce during the dry season. This creates a brutal calculus: players must decide which chickens to keep and which to release back into the wild, often leading to emotional attachments and difficult choices.

This mechanic is a microcosm of the game’s larger themes. It forces players to confront the reality of scarcity and the moral weight of their decisions. Unlike Stardew Valley, where animals are a low-maintenance source of income, Before the Green Moon makes animal husbandry a constant struggle, reinforcing the game’s bleak worldview.

Exploration and Gifting: Hidden Systems

The game’s exploration and gifting systems are deliberately opaque. There is no map, no quest log, and no clear indication of what NPCs might want as gifts. Players must explore the town and its surroundings, talking to characters and observing their behaviors to uncover hidden interactions. This lack of guidance can be frustrating, but it also makes discovery feel more organic and rewarding.

Gifting, in particular, is a secret mechanic that the game never explicitly explains. Players must infer that certain items hold value for specific characters, often through subtle hints in dialogue or cutscenes. This opacity makes relationships feel more realistic, as players must invest time and attention to understand what each character truly values.

Pacing and Urgency

The game’s pacing is one of its strongest elements. Unlike many farming sims, which are designed to be played indefinitely, Before the Green Moon is structured around a single in-game year. The moon elevator’s monthly departures create a sense of urgency, forcing players to make meaningful choices about how to spend their time. This urgency is compounded by the game’s relationship system, which encourages players to engage with characters before their dialogue and interactions are exhausted.

The game’s ending is deliberately abrupt, with no grand finale or infinite endgame. Once the player boards the moon elevator, the game ends, leaving them with a sense of finality and loss. This design choice reinforces the game’s themes of impermanence and the fleeting nature of human connection.

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World-Building, Art & Sound

Setting: A Decaying Truckstop Town

The town in Before the Green Moon is a masterclass in environmental storytelling. It feels like a relic of a bygone era, bathed in the sickly yellow hues of early 2000s console games. The town is small, with a handful of key locations—a café, a general store, a sewer, and a lake—each filled with details that hint at the town’s history and the lives of its inhabitants.

The town’s most striking feature is its transience. It exists primarily to serve the moon elevator, and its population fluctuates with the arrival and departure of tourists. These tourists are indifferent to the player, treating them as just another NPC in their own stories. This dynamic reinforces the game’s themes of impermanence and the player’s role as an outsider.

Visual Design: A Love Letter to the PS2 Era

The game’s visual style is a deliberate homage to the PlayStation 2 and GameCube eras. Character models are blocky and low-poly, textures are naturalistic and slightly grimy, and the game’s isometric perspective gives it the feel of a miniature diorama. This aesthetic choice is not just nostalgic—it also serves a thematic purpose, reinforcing the game’s themes of decay and obsolescence.

The game’s use of lighting and color is particularly effective. The town is often bathed in a sickly yellow glow, evoking the feel of a poison swamp or a forgotten industrial zone. This color palette, combined with the game’s low-poly models, creates a sense of melancholy and nostalgia, as if the town is a relic of a time long past.

Sound Design: A Melancholic Soundtrack

The game’s soundtrack, composed by Carter Lodwick with contributions from Scott Archer and Marissa Deitz, is a perfect complement to its visuals and themes. The music is sparse and atmospheric, often consisting of soft synth melodies and ambient textures. It avoids the upbeat, cheerful tunes of traditional farming sims, instead opting for a more introspective and melancholic tone.

One of the soundtrack’s most effective techniques is its use of diegetic music. During cutscenes, the music continues to play as the camera pulls back, creating a sense of emotional afterglow. This technique reinforces the game’s themes of memory and impermanence, as if the player is left with the lingering echoes of their interactions.

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Reception & Legacy

Critical Reception: A Divisive but Respected Entry

Before the Green Moon received a mixed but generally positive reception from critics. Edge magazine gave the game a 7/10, praising its emotional storytelling and subversive take on the farming sim genre while noting its deliberate tedium and opacity. The game’s lack of hand-holding and its bleak tone divided players, with some finding it refreshing and others frustrating.

Despite its divisive nature, the game quickly garnered a cult following. Players who connected with its themes and mechanics praised it as one of the most emotionally resonant farming sims ever made. Its subversive approach to the genre earned it comparisons to other “anti-games” like The Stanley Parable and Papers, Please, which similarly deconstruct and critique their respective genres.

Influence on the Genre

Before the Green Moon’s impact on the farming sim genre is still unfolding, but it has already inspired discussions about the potential for more narrative-driven, thematically ambitious entries in the space. Its success proves that there is an audience for farming sims that challenge the cozy, escapist norms of the genre, and it has paved the way for other indie developers to experiment with darker, more introspective takes on rural life.

The game’s influence extends beyond its genre. Its opaque mechanics and hidden systems have inspired discussions about player agency and discovery in games, while its themes of exploitation and impermanence resonate with broader cultural conversations about labor, capitalism, and the illusion of escape.

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Conclusion: A Landmark in Narrative-Driven Simulation

Before the Green Moon is a landmark achievement in narrative-driven simulation. It takes the familiar mechanics of the farming sim genre and twists them into a deeply personal and thematically ambitious experience. Its bleak tone, opaque systems, and emotional storytelling make it a challenging but rewarding game, one that lingers in the player’s mind long after the credits roll.

The game’s greatest strength is its willingness to subvert expectations. It refuses to offer easy answers or happy endings, instead forcing players to confront uncomfortable truths about labor, exploitation, and the fleeting nature of human connection. In doing so, it elevates the farming sim genre beyond mere escapism, proving that even the most mundane of activities can be a vehicle for profound storytelling.

For players willing to embrace its challenges, Before the Green Moon is an unforgettable experience—one that redefines what a farming sim can be. It is not just a game about farming; it is a game about life, struggle, and the choices we make in the face of impermanence. In the pantheon of indie games, it stands as a testament to the power of subversion, introspection, and emotional honesty.

Final Verdict: 9/10 – A Masterpiece of Subversive Game Design