Moai.games

Indie developer Matt Sephton has a passion for Spotting monolithic human figures in videogames

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Matt Sephton has a passion for video games – indeed, he’s recently developed a handful for the Playdate handheld console. He also loves the massive megalith Moai statues at Easter Island and he adores lists. So forgive him for indulging all three interests with a website that lists the 671 videogames (and counting) that include Moai in some way. We spoke to him to find out more.

What do you like about Moai?

I've always been fascinated with the world’s ancient wonders such as the Pyramids Of Giza, the Hanging Gardens Of Babylon, and of course Moai. Around 2010, I’d just moved house and saw a relatively small Moai for sale in a garden center. I thought it would look cool on display at home!

When did you first start noticing Moai appearing in video games?

For as long as I've been playing games, back to my formative years on Atari ST and SNES. I distinctly remember spotting Moai in the final stage of Pang, one of my all-time favorite games. I used to have the backgrounds from that game appear as postcards on my computer screensaver.

Why did you create Moai. games? 

I’ve been contributing to the Video Game Soda Machine Project (vgsmproject.com) since 2016 and I’d spoken to prof Jess Morrissette about doing something similar with my list of Moai in videogames. It took me almost a year to get around to it but procrastination on a rainy weekend tipped the balance and made me buy a domain name and put the site live.