Free-to-play indie game Moirai shut down after database attack

The makers of a completely free quirky indie mystery title have been forced to abandon the title following ongoing malicious attempts to breach its database.

Moirai was released in 2013 and used a clever mechanic.

[Spoilers] At one stage players would encounter a certain character. After a bit of dialogue, they could then chose to either kill or spare them. Later in the game players would find themselves assuming this role, and would only discover subsequently via email whether they were slain or saved by the player that followed them.

We’re a small team consisting of an artist, composer and programmer,” the developers said. We all work full time jobs outside of games and have many additional commitments beyond our jobs. It’s a project that we haven’t financially gained from. We are also personally paying regular monthly costs to maintain the game. We do this because it’s important for us that these different experiences exist out in the world.

Since launching on Steam our database has received several attacks. We’ve worked hard (and sometimes with supportive community members) to update our system to a more manageable state and minimise the likelihood of attacks.

However recently our database was under a repeatable attack that ruined the game experience for a few players and resulted in it going offline. We’re not a large studio and we don’t have the resources to properly prevent against these attacks so we’re going to pull the game from the store.”

The game remains listed on Steam but will not pass the title screen either for existing owners or new players. It should be noted that no player data was compromised in the attacks.