Greenlight time for Midnight at the Celestial Palace

Written by Jack Allin — March 17, 2016 at 13:16

Musicals are few and far between when it comes to video games, but perhaps the tide is turning. Hot on the heels of the cast numbers in Deponia Doomsday comes a brand new episodic "point-and-click musical" called Midnight at the Celestial Palace, which is set to debut later this year.

The game stars a 37-year-old "manchild and professional underachiever" named Greg, who suddenly finds himself "whisked away to a magical dreamland hidden beyond the stars." There he befriends the honourable anthropomorphic otter Sir Squiggles and together "the two embark on a harrowing journey through the whimsical realm of Dreamania in a quest to reach the wondrous Celestial Palace." As our heroes soon discover, "a great peril" is lurking in the shadows around them, but one thing's for sure: they plan to meet their challenges with a song in their hearts.  

As the early screenshots and trailers display, Midnight at the Celestial Palace is a classic-styled fantasy adventure with "storybook-like art and animations in a cozy retro style", full voice-overs, and a humorous story filled with entertaining but "non-I-wanna-break-things-because-its-so-dang-frustrating" puzzles. The game's real standout feature, however, is the interactive musical element, in which players themselves get to direct the content of the songs.

Planned as a series of three parts by indie developers Orrery Games and BlipHaus Design, the first chapter of Midnight at the Celestial Palace is currently on schedule for PC release sometime later this year. While you wait, if you'd like to see it released on Steam, you can now vote for the game on Greenlight or drop by the official website to learn more.