Twilight Moonflower, a cooperative horror game developed by the Japanese two-person indie development team Connected Shadow Games, will be officially released on Steam on January 30, 2026. The game is a Japanese horror adventure game that supports up to four-player cooperative play. Set in a randomly generated residential area, the goal is to seal away supernatural phenomena and escape.
60,000 gamers’ names appear in the actual ending credits.
What makes this game particularly noteworthy is that over 60,000 players’ names will be permanently included in the game’s end credits. The development team invited users to have their names included in the credits via X (formerly Twitter) earlier this year, and while they initially expected around 100 people to sign up, a whopping 64,901 people signed up—far exceeding expectations.
While a typical developer would have reasonably limited the number of players, Connected Shadow Games decided to stick to their promise. “This isn’t just a promotional stunt,” explains Takuma, the team’s head. “The ending actually scrolls through the names of tens of thousands of players, making the community an inseparable part of the game itself.”
According to AUTOMATON WEST, the development team initially lightly requested “only about 100 more people” because they were small and worried the staffing would seem too sparse. However, the nature of social media led to an explosion of requests. As a result, Twilight Moonflower’s ending credits are several times longer than those of Hollywood blockbusters or AAA games.
A horror game with a 1980s Japanese countryside feel.
After graduating from college, the protagonist, Souta, is working as an independent game developer. One day, he decides to create a game set in his hometown and returns to his rural hometown after years away. There, memories of a frail girl he often played with as a child come to mind, and the thought, “Where is she now, and what is she doing?” draws him to an alley filled with childhood memories.
But something about that alley was “different.” Unbeknownst to him, Sota was mysteriously transported to a different world, a twisted version of his childhood neighborhood. This was just the beginning of an irreversible chain of events. The game cleverly blends nostalgia and fear, delivering a deeply emotional horror experience.
Twilight Moonflower is a first-person Japanese horror game set in a rural Japanese residential area in the 1980s. Playable solo or in online co-op for up to four players, players must navigate and contain supernatural phenomena in the dark, armed only with a flashlight.
According to its Steam tags, the game contains elements of ‘1980s’, ‘Emotional’, ‘stealth’, ‘hidden object’, and ‘mystery dungeon’, and some gamers have even asked in the Steam community whether it is influenced by classic Japanese horror games like ‘Twilight Syndrome’.
Key gameplay elements
Observation-Based Survival: Finding Anomalies
The core of the game revolves around carefully observing and uncovering the subtle and strange changes occurring throughout the otherworld. Supernatural phenomena lurk throughout seemingly ordinary residential areas, and uncovering and sealing them is the key to escape. The player’s keen observation skills become crucial to survival, constantly tested in a tense atmosphere where the next attack can strike at any moment.
Hide and Seek with Yokai
A variety of Yokai roam this world. Armed with only a flashlight, players must navigate a randomly generated Japanese countryside, moving cautiously to avoid detection. Stealth is crucial, and mastering Yokai’s movements and evading them effectively is key to survival.
A unique horror story that unfolds randomly every time
Map structure, item placement, and supernatural events are randomly generated and change with each playthrough. This creates a unique experience every time, ensuring replayability and replayability. The Mystery Dungeon-style random generation heightens unpredictability, maximizing the tension.
Multiplayer of cooperation and betrayal
Up to four players can play online cooperatively, with the goal of exploring and escaping this alternate world with their friends. The game describes itself as “sometimes cooperating, sometimes hindering each other,” hinting at elements of psychological warfare and betrayal between players. This creates a unique multiplayer experience that blends cooperation and competition.
Multiple endings depending on your choices
The ending varies depending on the player’s choices and the party’s progress, and there are three possible endings. The story’s conclusion will change depending on which supernatural phenomenon is sealed, who is saved, and what decisions are made.
Various play modes
In addition to the main story mode, Time Attack and Custom modes are available. Time Attack mode aims to escape as quickly as possible, while Custom Mode allows you to customize the game’s parameters, creating your own difficulty and ruleset. The expected playtime is approximately three hours based on the main story.
The debut game from Connected Shadow Games, a two-person indie game development team.
Connected Shadow Games is a two-person indie development team based in Japan, and Twilight Moonflower is their debut game. The team actively engages with the community, sharing their development process through various social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and Instagram.
Japan’s indie game scene has traditionally been overshadowed by major AAA studios. However, thanks to indie game exhibitions like BitSummit, which launched in Kyoto in 2013, and government support programs, it has experienced rapid growth in recent years. According to Game Developer, while Japan previously had a distinct culture between “doujin software,” created by individuals as a hobby, and “indie games,” which generate revenue, more developers are now seeking publishers and commercialization.
Connected Shadow Games is attracting attention as a game targeting the global market amidst this trend. Its close communication with the community and its commitment to delivering on its promises have generated considerable buzz even before its release.
A user-created ending that will be remembered as an unprecedented example.
Twilight Moonflower will be available for a low price of 860 yen (about $6) and will support five languages: English, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese. Only Japanese will feature full audio, while the other languages will feature interface support and subtitles.
Connected Shadow Games’ Twilight Moonflower generated significant buzz even before its release, not only for the game’s overall quality, but also for the development team’s sincerity in keeping its promise to the community. The fact that over 60,000 gamers actually appear in the ending credits is likely to go down in history as an unprecedented event.
Steam Store Page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3752230/Twilight_Moonflower/
