The Moonlight Circus

The Moonlight Circus

Crooked Creep Creators · May 5, 2022 · VR, Horror, Singleplayer, Immersive Sim, Atmospheric

The Moonlight Circus is free to play — no purchase needed. We track it so you know if that ever changes.

PC
Mixed63% · 43
This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →

The Moonlight Circus price

The Moonlight Circus is free to play — there is no purchase price, on Steam or anywhere else we track. We keep watching it, so if it ever stops being free the price history on this page will show when that happened and what it changed to.

About The Moonlight Circus

In the Moonlight Circus , you wake up in the middle of an empty circus arena, with a syringe in your arm and the feeling of being watched.
Who are you? What happened? And how do you get out of here?


Take on the role of the protagonist and escape the Moonlight Circus. Unravel the mystery of the circus and its artists and get out alive.

Features

  • Explore three circus areas
  • Movement through Arm Swinging
  • Physics based gameplay

Team


The Crooked Creep Creators, a team of four students realized The Moonlight Circus with the help of one Sound student and two voice actors in three months as part of their studies at the h_da.

Ben Wührer - Programmer, Game Designer, Sound Manager
Lara Meyer - Vision Keeper, Character Artist, 2D/3D Artist
Lea Wagner - Production Manager, 3D Artist, Animator
Max Rupp - Tech / 3D Artist, Lighting Artist, Shading Artist

Awesome Sound & Music from:
Fabjén Rauch

And the voices behind our characters:
Andrew Latheron
Will Edmisten

The Moonlight Circus was made using Unity and FMOD.

HTC Vive Users:
If you use a vive you have to change the controller mappings, for example switch the menu button on both sides to left primary and right primary in the SteamVR settings. Example image is in the folder with the game files.

The Moonlight Circus — game info

Platforms
Windows
Steam Deck
Unsupported
Player modes
Single-player
PC Game Pass
Not included

What Steam players say

Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.

✦ AI summary

The Moonlight Circus is a VR-exclusive tech demo with an atmospheric spooky circus setting and decent graphics that shows promise in its story and animations. However, players consistently criticize severe technical issues including poor visibility, clunky movement controls, unresponsive hand tracking, lack of menus or customization options, and unclear objectives, making the overall experience frustrating despite its potential as a short horror experience.

Recommended Apr 6, 2024
⠀
7 found this helpful
Not recommended Dec 16, 2024
"The Moonlight Circus" is a simple student project/tech demo for VR. You're in a spooky circus. You look around, etc etc, in amazing VR... yep, VR support is all this has going for it. The graphics in this game are passable, but could be better. And while it's vital for any game to have impressive visuals (gaming is a visual medium, after all), there's more to a game than just the graphics. To be worth a gamers time, the game must match top tier visuals with top tier gameplay, and that's not happening here. It looks a bit like they "borrowed" some stock assets for this one... if so, that's something instructors should not be encouraging that students do. It's VR exclusive, and that shows the developer failed to understand the most basic axiom of VR game design... if the only cool thing about your product is VR support, your product is not cool. Not every "free" game really is. There's often MTX, or content locked behind DLC, or donations being requested, or any other number of things that could mislead gamers, but in this case I'm glad to say this really does appear to be a fully free game. Nothing demonstrates a developers belief in themselves and their work than giving…
1 found this helpful
Not recommended Apr 27, 2025
ass
Not recommended Sep 11, 2024
Probably the worst game I have ever played in my life. So dark you can barely see anything, The movement controls are terrible. You have to swing your arms & you move at a snail's pace. Sometimes the hands won't even move where you want them to. Once I got stuck in the open & couldn't move anywhere. The sound is terrible. You have no idea where to go. There is no menu. There is no way to save anything or change the controls. Climbing the ladder it was almost impossible to get off it. I only played this game for about 30 mins then had to quit in frustration. No wonder it's free. Nobody would pay for this garbage.
Recommended Jun 12, 2024
This is a really good short story game that is really good for a few scares, however there are a few parts of the game that are hard to understand and the gameplay may be a little bit weird. Overall this game has a pretty decent story for being so short as well a decent graphics and smooth animations on the killer and all of that. It just needs a few things to be fixed and polished A good 7/10 game
Not recommended Jun 9, 2024
bugy

Community reviews

—

0 reviews

Sign in to write a review.

No reviews yet. Be the first to review this game.

More like The Moonlight Circus

News

All news →
Minecraft Dungeons 2 Deluxe Edition: skip it, play on Game PassXbox

Minecraft Dungeons 2 Deluxe Edition: skip it, play on Game Pass

The Minecraft Dungeons 2 Deluxe Edition asks you to pre-order two unannounced DLC packs for a game Game Pass already gives you. What it contains, and why the upgrade can wait.

Sep 30, 2026
Is DayZ worth it? A straight answer before you buyPC

Is DayZ worth it? A straight answer before you buy

Is DayZ worth it? Twelve years on it is still the genre's least forgiving game. What you are buying, who it suits, and what our 97-day price record says about the timing.

Sep 30, 2026
Transport Fever 3 price: which edition to buy on launch dayPC

Transport Fever 3 price: which edition to buy on launch day

Transport Fever 3 is out today. The Transport Fever 3 price splits three ways, the loyalty discount has a fortnight-long fuse, and our record shows what the older game really costs.

Sep 29, 2026
No Man's Sky price: how low it gets and when to buyPC

No Man's Sky price: how low it gets and when to buy

The No Man's Sky price has come a long way down since 2016, and the game is on PC Game Pass too. Our tracked 12-month low, the regional key gap, and what to actually pay.

Sep 29, 2026
Sekiro cheap: what our price record shows, and what to avoidDeals

Sekiro cheap: what our price record shows, and what to avoid

Search Sekiro cheap and the results are keyshop listings, not a store discount. Our three-month price record explains the gap, and why so few live offers changes the advice.

Sep 28, 2026
System Shock 2 Remaster free on Epic from 1 OctoberFreebies

System Shock 2 Remaster free on Epic from 1 October

System Shock 2 Remaster free on Epic from 1 to 8 October, alongside BURIED STARS. Our price record shows why its floor has not moved in three months, and why waiting beats buying this week.

Sep 28, 2026
Dead Island 2 cheap: which edition, and what the price doesPC

Dead Island 2 cheap: which edition, and what the price does

Dead Island 2 cheap used to mean under a dollar. Our price record shows the floor has roughly doubled since September - here is which edition to buy, and the one that is a trap.

Sep 27, 2026
Steam Autumn Sale 2026: the games that cannot be discountedDeals

Steam Autumn Sale 2026: the games that cannot be discounted

The Steam Autumn Sale 2026 runs 1-8 October, but Valve's own rules bar every September release from it. Which games are locked out, and what our record says about the two biggest.

Sep 27, 2026

Top games right now

All rankings →
  1. 1Counter-Strike 2Free
  2. 2Dota 2Free
  3. 3PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDSFree
  4. 4Grand Theft Auto V Legacy—
  5. 5Terraria$2.20
  6. 6Rust$25.98
  7. 7Team Fortress 2Free
  8. 8Black Myth: Wukong$35.70
  9. 9HELLDIVERS™ 2$30.92
  10. 10ELDEN RING$52.89
  11. 11Apex Legends™Free
  12. 12Left 4 Dead 2$9.99
  13. 13Stardew Valley$14.74
  14. 14Wallpaper Engine$3.99
  15. 15Euro Truck Simulator 2$4.99
  16. 16Dead by Daylight$10.40
  17. 17Red Dead Redemption 2$12.60
  18. 18Baldur's Gate 3$41.99
  19. 19Phasmophobia$18.24
  20. 20War ThunderFree
  21. 21Call of Duty®—
  22. 22ARK: Survival Evolved$14.20
  23. 23Among Us$3.03
  24. 24The Forest$19.99