*** Made for 7dfps 2025 Jam and Z-fighting Jam !!! ***

Please note: You may have to wait a moment for the moss-world to fully render before exploring.

Controls:

W, A, S, D to navigate.

Objective:

Can you find 10 unique mosses, the moss gardener, the opossum, and the "moss eater master" t-shirt? Send screenshots of all discovered items to tyler@outgrabe.io for an exclusive digital gift reserved only for the most masterful of moss eaters!

Moss Eater 3D is the sequel to Moss Eater, a Môsi engine classic!

Summary:

In the first title you commandeered an apprentice moss eater who faced the monumental task of obtaining 10 mosses in order to become a moss eater master. Along the way you met a few strange personages: the old man at the gate, the gardener of the moss eater forest, and the moss eater fan (perhaps the weirdest of them all).

Moss Eater 3D has you returning to the forest, only this time from a slightly different angle--and not just from 2D to 3D. You're the moss eater masters' number-one fan! It's tough work roughing it out in the woods day after day, waiting for that next brave soul. You never know when they'll show up, and you've got to be ready to cheer 'em on!

You're not much of a moss eater yourself, but you enjoy watching apprentices put on a show as they scramble about the forest glen gathering different specimens, identified by their Linnaean genera, for consumption. These rabid connoisseurs are the main attraction and their devotion to the art of moss eating is what gets you going.

The only trouble is that moss eating gradually fell out of favor and all of your moss eater heroes moved on to feasting upon barnacles (of all things!), leaving you alone with your memories... how tragic. You saw it firsthand, the dwindling numbers of professional moss eaters. One year it was seven, and the next it was only a mere three. And then there was that one final moss eater superstar that met you at the checkered flag (featured in Moss Eater). You belted out your congratulatory message as though it might be your last... and sadly it was.

You were left all alone with the gardener of the moss and that pesky opossum who reared his ugly head every so often. The old man at the gate croaked and it was pretty much over for the moss eating simulation and centuries-old traditions, gone in a blink.

"I guess it's time for me to find another hobby..." you managed from your vocal cords strained by the prior night's weeping. You tossed your fan t-shirt to the ground and stamped your way out of the forest, returning back to a society with which you never quite fit in.

***

It's been twenty-three years since you gave up moss eater cheerleading. You have a wife and kids now and they are nearly grown. Your dreams of the moss eaters' return have been flooding into your twilight consciousness. That part of you long since abandoned and shunned in favor of more practical matters is now coming back to life with true zeal and fervor!

It's decided now--you are going to head on back to that moss eater arena, reclaim your fan t-shirt, and take a look at the place. Desolate or not, you're excited to revisit your old stomping grounds.

Special Thanks:

NETIK: Creator of the original Moss Eater.

sg: Creator of the Bitsy-inspired tiny game engine Môsi which gave rise to the original Moss Eater game by NETIK.

plirof: This game was made with plirof's A.G.E. Ascii Game Engine 3D first-person template. To my knowledge, this is the first game which made use of A.G.E. boilerplate code. I love it for its lo-fi, lightweight, Vaporwave feel.

A Note on Images:

Most of the images are photographs of moss taken by me in various locations (Missouri and Central America). There are a few public domain images:

• moss illustration: Bryum Glaucum (1788) from Plantarum indigenarum et exoticarum icones
• opossum photograph: Opossum (2014) by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region
• Japanese lichen gatherers illustration: Kishū kumano iwatake tori (Iwatake mushroom gathering at Kumano in Kishu) from Hiroshige II's Shokoku meisho hyakkei ("100 famous views of Japan" or "100 famous views of the provinces") (1826-1869)