Dev Diary: The Olunari Temple is changing 🌿

Hi Frost Hunters 💜,

We hope you’ve been doing well! Over here, the Moonfrost team has been busy wandering through old ruins, placing far too many plants, and trying not to get distracted every time a mysterious tile starts glowing.

We’ve been spending more time in the Olunari Temple, and it’s slowly becoming a truly magical place packed with secrets waiting to be discovered.

The temple has always been one of the most mysterious parts of our world, but until recently, it was still missing some of the atmosphere and interaction we wanted it to have. So we’ve been focusing on bringing more life, depth, and secrets into this strange space.

Bringing nature back into the temple 🌿

One of the biggest visual updates is the addition of moss and overgrown details.

In earlier versions, parts of the temple could feel a little too clean for a place that’s been abandoned for centuries, while some of the green areas looked slightly slimy without the proper lighting effects in place. With the updated moss, plants, and environmental details, we hope the temple feels like a genuine forgotten ruin that nature has slowly reclaimed.

Mysterious symbol tiles ✨

We’ve also been working on new symbol tiles for the temple.

The Olunari Temple is filled with all sorts of mysteries and puzzles for you to solve. So far, we’ve added six different symbol tiles. If you can figure out how to activate them, you just might see them glow!

We don’t want to give away exactly how everything works just yet, but we hope they make the temple a lot of fun to explore. 😉

Moving between temple levels 🛗

Another new addition is the teleporter.

As you explore, you’ll discover these teleporters, which will allow you to fast-travel between them to make exploration more manageable.

We don’t want you to waste too much time retreading your steps in this labyrinthian space, so along with these teleporters, you’ll also be unlocking special shortcuts. You’re gonna want to keep an eye on your map and plan your route when delving deeper into this place.

Waterfalls in the ruins 💧

We’ve also been experimenting with adding waterfalls into the temple.

Water brings a very different feeling to the ruins. This temple may have be abandoned for a very long time, but it’s very much brimming with life — and most of it isn’t friendly…

Because Moonfrost is pixel art, even a small waterfall takes a lot of care. The animation needs to feel natural, the colours need to sit well with the surrounding plants and stones, and the whole thing needs to feel like it belongs there.

We’ll be sharing more of the process behind this soon on our socials too, from the early animation work to the final details that help the waterfall sit naturally within the temple. So stay tuned! 😉

A temple full of secrets

There are still many things we’re polishing, but the Olunari Temple is starting to feel much closer to what we imagined: an old, overgrown place filled with traps, puzzles, hidden paths and countless secrets.

We’re excited for you to explore it, wonder what everything means, and figure out ways of unlocking its many doors.

Thank you, as always, for following the development of Moonfrost.

With love, Moonfrost Team 🫶