Is Moonstone Island a Multiplayer Game?

Given that Moonstone Island involves creature collecting and deck building, calling to mind games like Pokemon, you may wonder if multiplayer is also involved. Or, well, if it could ever be an option. You’re going to be flying around the islands alone, to be honest.

Can I play Moonstone Island with other people?

Moonstone Island is a completely solo, single-player experience with no multiplayer opportunities. So if you head to the islands in the sky, your only companions will be the villagers you befriend (and maybe date) and the Spirits you tame along the way. 

The team has discussed the possibility of multiplayer and PvP for Moonstone Island on the game’s official Discord. Kate Gray brought this up multiple times on the server. For example, in the Ask-the-Team channel during a question called “Any plans for PVP,” the following statement came up:

We don’t have plans for PVP — I realise [sic] that’s a little different from multiplayer, because it could be a separate mode, but the gist is that we don’t have the budget or the manpower to make something as complicated as multiplayer, which includes PVP!

Also, I imagine the PVP would involve rebalancing the cards and the decks pretty significantly, so I don’t know what that would look like! 

The FAQs channel for Moonstone Island also addressed the possibility of multiplayer. Gray also handled the response there and said the following:

Networking (which is what games use to sync up over the internet with other copies of the game) is a complicated thing that is really hard and expensive to add after launch. We’d also have to set up and run servers (expensive, time-consuming), hire more people to maintain said servers, and potentially require all players to sign in to an account, so we’d have to have a database of players’ details which we’d have to take care of, too (security is important). 

We also designed this game as a single-player experience. The code is optimised [sic] for a single player, the dungeons etc. are balanced for a single player, and the story is based on a single player. That’s something that was, and is, important to us! 

We know Stardew Valley managed it, but Stardew Valley has a lot more money than us, and it still took them years to add it.

So there you have it. If you keep checking for mods, perhaps fans will one day find a way. However, you’ll go it alone as an alchemist for now.

Moonstone Island is available on the Nintendo Switch and PC.