On August 24, 2026, Moon Studios announced two new initiatives simultaneously: a survival mode project based on the world of No Rest for the Wicked, and a city-building simulation game titled Luma, which has now launched with a 10-hour demo.
The developer behind the Ori series is preparing to move its ARPG title, No Rest for the Wicked, out of Early Access while experimenting with entirely different gameplay types for the game. Thomas Mahler, co-founder and creative director of the studio, stated that the team has recently restarted experiments on a survival mode for No Rest for the Wicked. This mode aims to let players complete the game with a full survival experience, including all the mechanics expected in survival gameplay.
Mahler emphasized that this is not new information; he had previously mentioned related experiments but has recently delved deeper into them, becoming convinced of their significant potential. In a forum post, he stated: "I previously confirmed that we were experimenting with a survival mode that allows players to experience No Rest for the Wicked as a survival game. Recently, I revisited this direction, and I am now quite confident that we can create the best survival game on the market—simply by leveraging the excellent work we've accumulated over the past decade."
Mahler's confidence is not empty talk. He has long referred to No Rest for the Wicked as his "Lord of the Rings" and plans to continue developing it for five to ten years. The existing combat system and underlying architecture allow the studio to layer on new modes without starting from scratch—whether it's Hades-like Roguelike gameplay or survival mode. Another important backdrop is that in 2025, after Private Division shut down, Moon Studios repurchased the game's rights from Take-Two, achieving full operational independence.
Meanwhile, the studio established a subsidiary called Moonities as an independent brand for small experimental projects. Its first title, Luma, is a city-building simulation game where players must raise floating islands from a bottomless ocean and develop them into dazzling sky cities. The game runs directly in browsers and is also supported on iPhone and iPad. Mahler stated: "Luma is my attempt to create a new simulation genre: I've taken some of the best elements from Minecraft, SimCity, and Civilization to craft something fundamentally new."
However, this announcement also sparked controversy. Players quickly pointed out that background images and some game assets on the Luma official website appeared to be AI-generated, with related prompts left in the page source code. As of now, neither Mahler nor the studio has responded to these claims.
Regarding their main project, No Rest for the Wicked entered Early Access in April 2024, with the full release planned for October 2026 on PC and PlayStation 5. Xbox and Nintendo Switch 2 versions will follow later due to optimization work. As for the Ori series, Mahler recently denied rumors of a third installment being in development and publicly proposed that Microsoft return the IP to him, though industry insiders have offered differing accounts.