Echo Weaver, a knowledge based metroidvania from Moonlight Kids and published by Akupara Games, is out now on Xbox Series X|S and PC as a Day One Xbox Game Pass title. The game drops players into the colony of Provenance, where every cycle gives them only minutes to live before time resets.
A Metroidbrainia built on knowledge
Moonlight Kids describes Echo Weaver as a cross between Outer Wilds, Edge of Tomorrow, and Celeste. The studio calls the structure a Metroidbrainia, because the only thing you ever need to acquire is knowledge.
Players are stuck in Provenance, a futuristic space colony suffering after an event called the Collapse. Each cycle has a timer at the top of the screen, and when it runs out the loop starts over. Every element is hand authored, with nothing random or procedurally generated. The result is a clockwork time loop puzzle, and each reset is a chance to return faster and smarter with what was learned last time.
The studio behind the loop
Moonlight Kids is a three person studio spread across three states and fully remote since 2018. The team’s 2021 debut drew from Pikmin and Luigi’s Mansion and picked up a Day of the Devs slot and an IGF nomination. The design philosophy behind Echo Weaver moves from being totally lost to discovery and then mastery.
The game took about five times as much work as a normal game because the whole world streams with no loading screens, so the state of everything has to be saved constantly. The knowledge gating is deliberate. Moonlight Kids explains that if you looked up every answer ahead of time you could boot the game and finish it in five minutes, because every ability is available from the start and progress comes from uncovering layers of secrets. The endgame is called the Golden Path, and it changed almost entirely from the original plan as the pieces came together. The game originally started much darker, as a mature rated game with brutal finishers, but the team pulled back because the tone did not match the art style.
Launch details and price
Echo Weaver is available now on Xbox Series X|S and PC for $19.99. As one of Xbox’s indie releases this October, it lands alongside this month’s Game Pass additions. Players wield an alien glaive with reality bending powers, which they learn to use across repeated loops.
