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Luna Game
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This article contains spoilers! |
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Luna Game is a downloadable game created and posted by Ceremi to "Equestria Daily" on April 3rd, 2011. From the name of the game to the sprites used, the game is clearly based on the popular show "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" (also known as G4 MLP:FiM). While the game looks simple and easy to understand, Luna Game spawned a series of games and even fanmade games with the last official installment being Luna Game End on February 19th, 2012. Yet, a common aspect of all the games is that the protagonist, Princess Luna, goes through a series of obstacles and platforms that ends in a screamer. Said screamers are images depicting characters such as Apple Bloom with a screaming audio clip relayed as a result.
Luna Game 1
Released on April 3rd, 2011, the game starts with a custom made Princess Luna model that slightly drops on a platform. The terrain remains the same as it is brown with green triangles looking downwards to signify grass accompanied by a navy blue background with white dots that are supposed to be stars. Meanwhile, an instrumental is played which are referred to as "Upbeat Pony Beats" in the application. With no introduction or instructions, the player is tasked with only progressing to the right using the arrow keys to either move left, right, and jump.
However, little does the player know that unlike in most scary games where it is a linear "Point A to Point B" type of goal that ends in a jumpscare, the screamers in Luna Game are triggered by a time limit (not shown in-game) that starts ticking the moment the application runs. To make it even more confusing, the time limit itself is randomly assigned, though it is usually between 10-20 seconds or, on rare occasions, 30 seconds. For example, one player may end up getting 10 seconds while another may end up with 16 seconds, making the screamers almost unpredictable though most players see them around the point in which they are close to a T-shaped platform on the ground. With that said, it is also possible for the screamer to appear even if the player did not move Luna at all.
Once the timer hits zero, 1 of 2 edited pictures will be shown to startle the player:
- A picture of Pinkie pie smiling with black eyes and white pupils while distorted, feminine voices can be heard.
- An image of Apple bloom grimacing against a light that only shows her eyes, teeth, and part of her yellow skin including her mane. Unlike the first image, the audio played is an eerie ambience.
Aftermath
The images shown will not close until the player does it manually either through Task Manager or simply powering off their device. Yet, that is not all as the user's desktop is now filled with pictures that were either the jumpscares themselves, screenshots of where the player was by the time the jumpscare happened, and text files that says "The end is neigh." It should be noted that the images and screenshots may also be labeled with "The end is neigh."
Luna Game 2
Released on May 30th, 2011, this version has slightly improved graphics with Luna herself being noticeably smaller compared to her previous model. As usual, the player must move to the right, except this time they are told by black text that they can run by holding the shift key. In terms of the layout of the game, it is less platform-based unlike the 1st game.
The further Luna moves to the right, the more cracked the ground beneath her appears up until a point in which a picture of a zalgofied Pinkie Pie appears briefly with static noises. The world suddenly changes into a dark, red version of itself with what appears to be the sounds of a deep cave being played in the background. Additionally, the player's movement is now significantly reduced and they are no longer able to sprint. After a couple seconds of walking, the player will encounter a dead end as there is a wall preventing any progress to the right. Yet, there is one visible peculiarity at the end, a big chasm on the ground. With no other option left but to descend into the abyss, Luna slowly falls as the background fades to black including herself, revealing a game over screen with fanart of Luna falling while some disturbing music plays with bloody text saying " YOU DIED."
After a couple seconds on the game over screen, the game will close by itself and, unlike the 1st game, will not add any files, screenshots, etc. into the PC.
Luna Game 3
Released on June 11th, 2011, it follows the same format with some slight differences. Aside from the forest setting and a catchy song that plays, the terrain is much more flat with small hills to jump on and no floating platforms. After running to the right for a certain amount of time, the background music starts to slow down followed by static sounds, cutting off the music. Simultaneously, the world starts to darken as the player approaches a huge pit on the ground like the one in the 2nd game.
However, there is no wall blocking the right side, allowing the player to jump over the hole and continue walking right. Unfortunately, the level loops and leads to the same pit again, forcing the player to fall down into the gap. Of interesting note, the player will notice that Luna disappears for a quick second after crossing a threshold in which the looping begins. This is a bug and only signifies that the player has been looped back to the same hole.
Whereas the 2nd game was a slow decent with no ending jumpscare, this one ends abruptly with the same image of zalgofied Pinkie pie used from the 1st game. If the player were to fall down the hole for a second time after opening up the game again, the screen will flash with several images of zalgofied ponies. When the screen changes back to normal, it cuts back to Luna's dismembered corpse where she opens her eyes and a close-up image of her is presented, closing the game after this.
Luna Game 4
Released on July 9th, 2011, it starts with Luna on a flat platform above the ground with a light blue sky in the background. As the player moves to the right with cheerful music playing, the walking ends at a cliff where they must fall, resulting in a squish sound effect and an abrupt cut to black to signal Luna's death. The black screen will then have a series of text above a blue dot that reads "You've met with a terrible fate, Haven't you...", "It didn't have to turn out like this...", "You didn't have to die...", and then the final text has blood on the screen which reads "BUT NOW YOU'RE IN MY WORLD." After the threatening message, Luna is seen being thrown down from the sky and into a bloody world.
At that point, the game is now more reminiscent of the 1st game with the layout being platform-based. However, there is a catch, the player must run through the obstacles quickly before the darkness from the left side engulfs them. Yet, this is impossible to do as the player will reach a point in which they must perform a jump that is intentionally difficult to do, leading them to fall to their doom and allowing the darkness to catch up with Luna.
After this, the screen goes back to the blue square part with a zalgofied version of the "You have met a terrible fate Haven't you..." text. But this is not the end, as for a short second, a messed up 8-bit song starts to play while some glitchy blocks start to appear on the screen, forming a path that Luna must follow. To the surprise of the player, the darkness comes back almost immediately behind the player again, forcing them to only move right and never stop running. Eventually, Luna will come across what appears to be a wall that as soon as she goes closer towards it, Pinkie Pie appears with a maniacal smile and disappears alongside Luna. After the encounter, a sound of a heartbeat can be heard with an image of Pinkamena Pie from an episode of MLP titled "Party of One." As the heartbeat gets louder and the image gets lighter, a windows message pops up saying "Luna Game 4.exe has stopped working" to which the player must close the program, ending the 4th Luna Game from there.
On an important note, trying to reopen the game again regardless of the ending the player got will lead to a black screen with a caption that says "Your fate is already sealed...", meaning that the only way to play it again is to either install a Replay Program made for the game, or to delete the game file and reinstall it.
Luna Game 0
Released on August 15th, 2011, it begins with Luna spawning in Princess Celestia's castle. Some dialogue exchanges related to friendship are given to the player along with a new mechanic not present in the other Luna Games; they can interact with the other ponies by pressing the spacebar key when Luna is in front of them. After exiting the castle to the right, the player moves into a grassy area with a melodic tune playing. Aside from the slight texture changes such as better grass and even clouds in the background, the player will also notice that this installment has quests, all of which has to do with the Mane Six having problems.
As such, the player can play one of six different levels, each with a different item to collect such as books for Twilight and candy for Pinkie Pie. For each quest accomplished, the respective pony whose items have been fully collected will thank the player and ask them to collect more, totaling up to 49 items that the player must collect. However, as seen on the top left, there is a 50th item that must be collected which is a black and white version of Twilight's book. When the player touches it, the music halts to a loud boom. After this, all that can be done is to press on, jumping over a platform towards solid ground in which it suddenly disappears. As Luna falls to her doom, some dramatic music starts playing as the screen fades to black.
The screen flashes white and an image of Luna in her "Nightmare Moon" form appears followed by her eyes glowing and flashing. The screen returns back to where the player last stopped before the falling, but everything now has a reddish tint. When the player continues back to the previous area, some foreboding ambience plays as the ponies talk to Luna about how Pinkie Pie is looking for her. By the time the player reaches up to Pinkie Pie, she welcomes Luna and tells her how "you can never have too many parties!" As she continues to talk about parties, Luna is told by an ominous whisper that she must kill her to which it gets aggravated and tells her to "KILL HER NOW!" Following the voice, Luna slashes Pinkie from her back to her chest where, in a state of shock, she goes "B... But... Why...?" After a short second, the top half of her body begins sliding off and the game closes. To the player's dismay, the game opens again and displays a disturbing image of Pinkamena saying "This Isn't Over" which stops the game shortly after.
Like in the 4th game, trying to reopen the game again is pointless since it now displays more text and only this text saying "The past cannot be changed...", though it can be played again using the method stated above to play Luna Game 4 again.
Luna Game End (A.K.A Luna Game 5)
The official Luna Game 5, officially known as "Luna Game End", was later released on August 22nd, 2012. What is interesting is that this game was considered as more of a "project" than all the others by Ceremi due to not only length, but the fact that this was saved up to be the conclusion to the series for a whole year. At the time, users questioned as to why "Unknown project; unknown completion time" appeared on the official Luna Game website (see Trivia below). By the time that the game came out on the date stated prior, the text was replaced with a link to a video that featured a black and red test signal, which becomes garbled by static before fading to a title simply saying "5" then fading out (5 meaning that this is the 5th and final installment in the series of course).
The player starts off on a flat strip of grass at night with happy music playing in the background. After a short amount of walking, the player encounters a familiar cliff. Though this time when the player falls down, they will safely land on the ground. After some walking, Luna's movement starts to slow down, and eventually the text bubble “I’m really tired” appears over her head. She collapses a moment later, along with another text bubble saying “I’ll just rest for a moment…” to which the screen slowly fades to black.
After the music stops, Luna is now in a white void with only a single black line as the ground below the player. When walking to the right, she encounters the 8-bit limbo sprites from Luna Game 4 where, if touched, it leads to the ground below them to vanish coupled with some strange noises that sounds like muffled electrical sparks. Simultaneously, the sky and ground blocks randomly appear which gradually generates. After another few moments, a strange screech can be heard that causes the floor to disappear again, except this time the player falls and the blue sky turns into an empty, dark red sky.
When the player hits the ground again, they are greeted by ground blocks with familiar line designs from Luna Game 4. Continuing to walk right will reveal a smaller cliff where jumping on it again will trigger the ground blocks to randomly start turning into the same 8-bit limbo blocks along with the second soundtrack in the 8-bit limbo world "Incoming Darkness" starting to play and what appears to be a dark shadow eating up the screen to the left like the one in Luna Game 4. If the player does not escape from the darkness, it will lead back to the next map. Yet, should the player manage to outrun it, several obstacles will appear to make it more difficult to run, thus leading to the same outcome if the player attempts to go to the end.
Once caught, the player is shown Luna lying back down on the ground from the first scene where she took a nap, implying that it was a nightmare of sorts. After a moment, she stands up and starts to see some shadow ponies. For some of the ponies, dialogue can appear which are typically vague such as "From Ashes to Shadows..." while others simply pace back and forth. After some static flashes, the text above the ponies heads will change along with their original sprites. Fortunately, the player is now able to sprint, but it leads them to approach towards a shadowy Nightmare Moon. With Luna moving closer to Nightmare Moon, another creepy song starts to play accompanied by a heartbeat. From there, more static appears and the screen changes into black.
However, that is not all, for the aforementioned ending is 1 of 2 endings that the player can get. In this case, it is the bad ending as it insinuates that Luna either died or never woke up. In the good ending, the screen cuts to black like before, except this time text appears reading "Princess Luna?" Luna is then shown surrounded by the Mane Six, as a happy melody plays in the background. Twilight claims that Luna had passed out after helping Pinkie Pie out with getting her candies, and Luna says that she had some nightmares. Pinkie proposes for them to throw a party to make her feel better, and Luna agrees with such an idea, but notes that something still feels off. Twilight questions Luna's words, and she quickly replies that it is "nothing..." in an ominous way. Right before the game closes, during a few frames, Pinkie Pie's sprite changes into Pinkamena as a loud boom noise plays in the background, suggesting that Luna's ending may not be so "happily ever after" after all.
Reactions and Popularity
In spite of the Luna Games having a simple design and appearing like an average indie horror game, the series has garnered a large following from individuals within and even outside the MLP fandom. Yet, with such high attention, the perception towards these games are generally mixed with some who liked it and others that felt otherwise about the games.
On one hand, people praised the series for being a nice addition into the horror genre within their fanbase. To show their enjoyment of the series, some have made fanart and even fangames (see the below examples) which varies from sincerity to being satirical. There were even fanfictions made based on the series with some examples being "Stay Awake Little Fillies" and "Lost History of Equestria." For these people, they usually look past the rudimentary design and compliment certain aspects such as the fact that the Luna model was custom made or how the games created an illusion of sentience within the PC such as how the 1st game added files after each subsequent replay of it. The Equestria Daily website also had a thread in which some bronies discussed about if they recalled the series and their overall thoughts on it.
Yet, on the other hand, some felt that Luna Game is just like any other free horror game that could be found on sites like Itch.io: A cheap horror experience that ends with unsurprising jumpscares and nothing more than that. In other words, the presentation and execution was criticized especially considering the rudimentary designs of the games, story, and being poked fun of for trying to take itself seriously. Aside from the gameplay itself, there was also a concern that spawned having to do with the possibility that the 1st game could harm computers. For instance, Sethisto, founder of Equestria Daily and a moderator of Fur Affinity, was worried about Luna Game because he was notified that it duplicated text files and screamer images, leading him to believe that it was some form of virus. As such, he banned any games posted to Equestria Daily that included Luna Game. However, he would later apologize and write a statement that rescinded the ban after finding out that what he was concerned about was not true (see Trivia and Virus Information below).
Fanmade Luna Games
Luna Game 5 (Fanmade version)
Like all the other games in the series, the player will start as Princess Luna who is immediately told to hold shift to run. The song "Call Upon the Seaponies" will play until the player encounters Angel the Bunny. If the player gets close to him, he will run off while the exclamation sound effect from Metal Gear Solid plays. The player is teleported to another area where it is nighttime, with a slower version of "Luna's Anthem" playing. The player has to collect nine bunnies, but while doing so, the player will come across a pit. Luckily, it is covered so the player can not fall in it. But when the 8th bunny is collected, the pit opens and the player has to jump into it.
When Luna jumps into the pit, the final bunny is found, but it is red instead of white. When Luna collects it, the music stops and a passage will open with Pinkie Pie's silhouette seen at the doorway. When Luna enters, Shadow ponies will roam around and the sky turns red. A witch's cry can be heard and static flickers as creepy music plays in the background. Upon the static appearing, the shadow ponies will be revealed. They are revealed as Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Noteworthy, Derpy Hooves and Lyra Heartstrings.
The audio will begin to shift to sounds of rabid eating and the camera begins to scroll after Luna has proceeded for a little bit. The player will have to make Luna run so she can keep up with the camera. A Pinkie Pie screamer will appear and is similar to the Luna Game 3 screamer, prompting the game to close.
When the player reopens the game and goes right, they will teleport to a room with a massive Pinkie Pie who will slowly become more decrepit. Platforms will appear and the player will have to jump into her mouth and the sound of Pinkie Pie eating and swallowing Luna will be heard. In a weird turn of events, Luna will for some reason appear in the Devil's Machine from EarthBound and Pinkie Pie clones will appear and disappear. Suddenly, Nightmare Moon's head will appear and words saying "YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO" will appear with her. When the player goes down until the screen goes black, Luna will be seen lying on the ground dead and bloodied. A black screen will appear with text saying "YOU'RE NEXT" superseded by a zalgofied Pinkie Pie popping up for a split second. As the game closes, if the player has a CD tray, it will open up by itself.
Friday the 13th Easter Egg (Luna Game 5)
If the player changes their system date to Friday the 13th, the player gets a special cutscene in which Pinkamena will face Nightmare Moon. Nightmare moon asks why she killed Pinkie Pie, claiming that "a party doesn't make up for 1000 years of suffering", scaring Pinkamena and causing her to talk some sense into the princess. Shockingly, Nightmare Moon breaks the fourth wall by saying "SHH! Someone is listening" and then a screamer of Scootaloo appears screaming "Leave This Place!"
The Lunar Game
The player controls Luna using the arrow keys to move and space to jump. Once the player goes down a pit on the ground, the player assumes they are stuck. However, they can get out though the only way to do so is to try moving and jumping around until the wall disappears. Afterwards, a message pops up reading "And Luna lived happily ever after And nothing scary happened, ever", closing the parody game.
Lona's Gohem 48
When the game finishes loading, the player appears on a poorly drawn grass field. If the player gets far enough, the same screamer appears, but a poorly drawn version of it. After a few seconds, the game closes, leaving the player to realize that this is more of a parody game.
On YouTube
The Luna Games has quite the prominence on YouTube. YouTubers big and small have played through the series and sometimes provide their thoughts on the game. Some examples includes youtuber LaurenzSide (one who has over a million subscribers) and WhiteHawke which have made full Let's Plays on all the games including some of the fan games. The series was especially given attention by youtubers who are solely dedicated to playing horror games such as LuigiKid and RiskRim. Even one of the biggest youtubers, PewDiePie, played through the series in his typical style of comedy when it comes to scary games.
Yet, the Luna Games are not just known by Let's Players as it has also branched out into the attention of channels that do "Top 10" lists. For example, youtuber Top 10 Gaming made a video that is mainly focused on Luna Game titled "Scariest Gaming Creepypastas - Luna Game." In another instance, a youtuber called Tats TopVideos, who is now more focused towards content related to the SCP Foundation fandom, included Luna Game as the 18th scariest gaming creepypasta on his "Top 22 Gaming Creepypastas" list (starts at 4:42).
Trivia
- As mentioned earlier, the creator of the series was revealed to be Ceremi, which was first discussed on a 4chan thread, which can be found here.
- Although the series was initially posted on the aforementioned Equestria Daily website, it had its own website called "lunagame.net" which was launched on July 18, 2012. Although it is now defunct as of 2015, it contained information on current updates related to the creator and the series.
- With the series gaining much attention from the MLP fanbase, a rumor was spread about the application being malware that could supposedly ruin a user's RAM on their PC. However, this was disconfirmed as the game is safe based on viral scans.
- The creepy ambiance that plays during the creepy Apple Bloom image in the first game is actually a heavily edited version of 3 MLP songs: "Hush Now Quiet Now", "Evil Enchantress", and "Giggle At The Ghosties."
- The original image that was used for the game over screen in Luna Game 2 was created by a user called PterosaurPony, and it can be found on DeviantArt.
- The text that appears in Luna Game 4 such as "You've met with a terrible fate, Haven't you..." is clearly based on the "BEN Drowned" creepypasta which was about a haunted Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask game cartridge.
- Pinkamena Pie, as used in the 4th Luna Game, has been a popular "alter-ego" character as seen in multiple horror works of the MLP fandom. Aside from the zalgo images in the Luna Games, she had her own creepypasta simply titled "Cupcakes" which has been the most infamous work since then (although, ironically, the original author came out claiming that it was nothing but a fanfiction written as a joke).
- The infamous screaming used in the later games such as Luna Game 3 and 4, which has even been used in other horror games such as Uchakip, is actually a distorted audio clip from a scene in MLP where Fluttershy goes "You're going to love me!"
- In spite of how short Luna Game 0 was especially considering the average playtime of the series, there was an actual demo for it that was released on July 15th, 2011. In it, Luna talks to a bunch of ponies from the Mane Six where she reminds them that she "will never forget any of you... Not even now." After a transition, Luna punctuates her dialogue with "I miss you all..." to which the game ends with the words "Luna Game 0" in a bloody, creepy font, and then it closes.
Links
- creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/Luna_Game - Creepypasta Wiki, Special Thanks to them for information.
- mlpfanart.fandom.com/wiki/Luna_Game - Luna Games article on the MLP Fandom Wiki
NOTE: The following games contain screamers!
- The zip file with all Luna Games included: host.screamer.wiki/Luna.zip
Showcase videos
NOTE: The following videos contain disturbing imagery!
- First game: youtube.com/watch?v=5_JRu060KnI
- Second game: youtube.com/watch?v=6_cZD8MZDcU
- Third game: youtube.com/watch?v=55OmBVoXbUc
- Fourth game: youtube.com/watch?v=KsNe0sSGvlQ
- Luna Game 0: youtube.com/watch?v=wDTi4g3_T-s
- Fifth game: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGoinh0OVOE
Fanmade Games
- Luna Game 5: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jloSbEfsbA
- Lunar Game: browse.deviantart.com/?order=9&q=The+Lunar+Game&offset=24#/d4h75z1
- Lonas Gohem 48: mediafire.com/file/k9fd302e0yym8jt/LONA%27S+GOEM+48.zip
Virus Information
- https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/e451f0aa2bc1936755dbb6738c25dd0b90f031622f60049bf4af5db4bb024611/detection
- https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/714fd09e2146fb0c6847dfc3524164ffbc687e94b665f857a857db029acc562c/detection
