Gameplay is primarily about exploring Johnny's memories to find significant objects and collect energy from them to strengthen the memory and connect to a more distant one, from Johnny's old age leading back to his childhood. The game's focus, being a more story-driven game, is around puzzle solving, interpreting information from the subject's (Johnny's) life, and finding ways to get deeper into his memories. However, unlike a typical RPG, To the Moon has no battle system (aside from a joke battle near the beginning), inventory system, nor party system. To the Moon is built on the RPG Maker XP engine, which is used to create 16-bit 2D role-playing games in the style of Suikoden 1 and 2. An animated film adaptation is in development, partially scripted and supervised by Gao. The game was nominated for several awards and considered by many to be a leading example of artistic expression in video games. To the Moon received praise for its narrative, music, thematic material, and emotional power. A sequel, titled Finding Paradise, was eventually released in 2017. The game was updated later to include free downloadable content called 'minisodes' to give more context to the main characters.

To the Moon would become Freebird Games' first commercial product, following smaller, experimental games released for free on the studio website. Development started in 2010, when Gao was struck by questions of mortality following his grandfather's life-threatening condition.

The game was designed by Kan Gao using the RPG Maker XP toolkit. The game features relatively few gameplay mechanics, with the player controlling the two doctors, exploring the narrative and solving puzzles as they try to reconstruct the dying man's memories in order to fulfill his wish. The story follows two doctors who offer to fulfill a dying man's last wish using artificial memories. It was originally released for Windows in November 2011, with ports later being released for Mac OS X, Linux, Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch. To the Moon is a psychological drama adventure game developed and published by Freebird Games.

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