Inspired by classics like Harvest Moon with deep social sim aspects of a Persona game. Sunnyside is the next chapter in farming sims.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
July Update
almost 3 years ago
– Sat, Jul 24, 2021 at 01:40:29 AM
Hello to all our SunnySide friends across the world!
It has been an absolutely crazy couple of weeks, and we have some really exciting things to share with you all! But first, we just want to say thank you for sticking with us, believing in us, and continuing to motivate us as we push to create an incredible game for you all!
First thing to discuss: our Team! It's continuing to grow and grow, and we are so incredibly proud of everyone involved!
Producer/Narrative Director: Sydney Stockdale (Fem/Shay)
Composer: Matt Thompson
Systems Designer/ Lead Writer: Kitty Hart
Lead Artist: Kaori Mitsuse
Character Modeler: Allan Mitsuse
Modeling Generalist: Ken Hes
Game Generalist: René Simard
Animal Concept Artist: Lily
Volunteer Linguist: Dante
Volunteer Modeler: Cherry
We will be updating the website soon to reflect the changes!
Nextly, we need to take some time out to say a huge thank you to DoctorDDub for his incredible video that he put out about SunnySide. With over 130k views, it has really helped us get the word out there about the game, as well as help create some supplemental income while we are in talks with publishers. If you haven't checked it out yet, definitely do so. Toss him a like, a follow, and show him some love.
Devstream Highlights
We have had two devstreams on Twitch since the last update, #10 and #11. You can find their highlights below. In #10 we showcased the new demo, and in #11 we went over everything that had been added to the game since. Our Next livestream won't be for a little while, but if you're interested in catching it, definitely follow us on YouTube, Twitch, and Discord for the announcements. Links to all of those, if you don't have them, will be at the end of this update.
#10
#11
Music
Additionally, Matt has been super hard at work putting out new music for the game! We have a new summer theme, which has a music video below, as well as an accompanying Summer Night theme, and a whole host of "HangOut" Themes. You can find them all on SoundCloud now, as well!
Summer Days
Summer Nights
Downtime
Starlit Bridge
Gameplay Mechanics and World Building
Lore Building
It's a bit of a difficult thing to show off in an update, but we still wanted to let everyone know that our writers have been really hard at work behind the scenes outlining the stories and quests in SunnySide. We are making sure that absolutely everything that takes place is part of the story and has a reason, and we really hope that this creates a fun and immersive game for everyone.
SunnySeed
We hinted at this a bit in the last update, but now it's fully functioning part of the game that we want to point out. Unlike lots of other farm sim games where there is mysteriously a shop in town to sell seeds to you, the only farmer for miles, instead we wanted to touch on something that is very realistic to the modern home gardener/farmer: Online Seed Stores. Now when you need seeds, rather than going down to the local general store, you will be able to purchase seeds "online" through your in-game phone.
Speaking of buying things, we've started working hard to balance out the economy of the game. The first step in this process was deciding what we would be calling our in-game currency. We decided to call them cupules.
Cupules, as it turns out, are what botanists call the tops of acorns. Seemed fitting.
New Camera and Save System
Rainy has been hard at work implementing a new camera to the game. Making it work properly also meant cleaning up the save system, so now both are fully operational!
We are constantly adding more items to the build mode, with the most recent items being vertical item placements (Lamps on walls!) and storage solutions like cardboard and plastic boxes.
Additionally, we realized in the last update that we had grown so used to the presence of the drone in the game, that we completely forgot to share it with everyone! The drone is a large mechanic in the game, acting as a means to access build mode as well as another in-game camera (All the photos!). Later, we will be adding a lot more mechanics that we are sure everyone is going to love.
This is one of those things that has been in the works for quite awhile, and we are so incredibly thrilled to finally be able to share them with you. Our artist Lily and modeler Ren have been hard at work creating new custom animals to replace the "place holders" we have been using up until now. We are happy to say that all animals from here on out will be completely unique to the world of SunnySide!
SunnySide's Character Creator is the main focus of most of our team right now, as we want to be certain that it is going to be absolutely perfect. We are completely overhauling the character model and trying something that we aren't sure has been done before. Rather than having you, the player, choose from a preset feminine or masculine figure, you will instead start with a gender neutral model and slide a bar left towards feminine or right towards masculine. From this center point, the body will morph slowly from one gender to the next and everything in between, giving full control over the shape of your character's body.
In order to make this happen, our Character Modeler, Allan, has created three models; a feminine, a neutral, and a masculine. From there, the engine will do the work of morphing them.
This whole process is still under work, and all of the clothing is being remade to suit this new system. With this rework, all clothes will now fit all models. Yay!
There is still a ton more to be done on the back end, but the whole thing is coming together quite nicely, and we are excited to show it off in the Streamer Demo.
NPCs
In the last update, we teased a new character without talking about her. Additionally, 4 more character concepts have been drawn up!
Lucy Reed
Lucy is Gabe's (only) daughter. She is 19, autistic, an avid photographer, and loves nature and animals. She wasn't born in SunnySide, but has lived there for most of her life, and likes to spend her days wandering around town or the surrounding natural areas while taking photographs of whatever inspires her.
Sebastian Nakamura
Sebastian runs his mother's restaurant in town, and dreams of one day turning it into a cafe. He is 20 years old, loves poetry, and always has a notebook and pencil on hand in case inspiration hits. You can usually find him at the restaurant or milling about town and having conversations with the residents of SunnySide.
Natalie Takahashi
Natalie is the older of the two Takahashi sisters, and they couldn't be more different from each other. Where Katherine is fun and outgoing, Natalie is more reserved and quiet. Where Kat likes to talk and try new things, Natalie is more responsible and feels the full pressure of her parents traditional values. She is also attending the local university and studying journalism.
Zander Wyatt
Zander is a former member of the US Navy and hasn't been in SunnySide for long. He moved to Japan shortly after the end of his contract, and spends his time working at the local mill with Yumma while he figures out what to do with the rest of his life. Zander is 26, likes to scuba dive, and enjoys making cakes and other baked goods... but he doesn't like to talk about it and will deny it if asked.
Fuyukaze Obeng
Fuyukaze, or Fuyu for short, is our first Citizen Character! You may recall that 5 lucky people were given the option to purchase their own character in the game, and we are super excited to show off the first one! Fuyu is 21 and in his final years at the local university, studying music and video game design. He moved to SunnySide with his family when his grandparents passed away, which was about 10 years ago. He hates being out in the sun and often spends his free time sitting around town on his laptop.
Sparky
Everyone knows and loves Sparky by now, as he has been SunnySide's mascot since the beginning. However, we wanted to announce that Sparky's design has gotten a major overhaul! As your constant companion in the game, it was important to us that he not only look awesome, but adequately fit the theme and setting of SunnySide's story.
Thank you!
That's it for this month's update! From here on, we will be focusing on creating our Streamer Demo which is going to be sent out in waves to streamers and content creators in the end of August. We have decided that we are going to prioritize small streamers first for this roll out, because Indies need to support other Indies!If you are a content creator and are interested in this process, please send an email to [email protected] to be considered, and include your backer number.
A big huge sunny thank you to everyone who has supported us so far, and a bunch of hugs and kisses (with your permission, of course) for those who continue to do so. If not for you guys, there is no way we would have made it this far. It is because of all of you that we continue to be inspired by this project, and we are really counting on you all moving forward! Your impressions, feedback, perspectives, and ideas mean the world to us, so please don't hesitate to comment and let us know what you think!
Better yet, join the Discord!
That's it from me! Thank you again, and please don't hesitate to comment below! We love interacting with you all! <3
Cheers!
-Shay-
A Quick Update
almost 3 years ago
– Wed, Jul 07, 2021 at 04:18:43 AM
Hello to all our lovely backers!! We hope everyone had a lovely 4th of July Weekend (for our friends in the US) and a super lovely Canada Day to our Canadian pals!
This Update is not going to include all the normal game development updates (that one will be a little later this month) but instead, I felt it would be good to update everyone on some major developments.
Firstly, it seems that SunnySide has gotten some attention lately, and we are incredibly excited about it. DoctorDDub, a lovely backer and YouTube/Twitch content creator, made a wonderful video about SunnySide, and it has really taken off. At the time of this writing, the video is at 30k views! From there, it was also picked up by a TikTok content creator named Cozy.Games, and her video has received over 25k likes!
So we wanted to give a little shout out to these two incredible creators, specially to Doc for taking the time to piece together footage and music to make something that really highlights SunnySide's development thus far. Here are some links to their content, so please show them some love!
Nextly, there is another KickStarter Campaign that we think could really use some love right now. It is a game called CloudScape, an action adventure survival game with an open world map that seems to be coming to PC and major consoles. It has some adorable top down 2d art and animation and a ton of farm sim elements, and we are just in love with it. They've reached some stretch goals and have raised a little over 100k so far, so let's give them a boost and show them some support!
That's all for now. Another update will come in a couple weeks to show off all the new content that has been added to the game as we gear up for our Streamer Demo in August.
Cheers!
-Sydney
A finished Demo and a long road ahead
almost 3 years ago
– Sat, Jun 19, 2021 at 11:30:21 PM
A Big hello to all our SunnySide friends across the world!
Let's start off by saying this: it's been a wild two months. When I first joined the SunnySide team, my role was originally to step in and help coordinate the SunnySide community, both on Discord and on social media. You all were incredibly welcoming, and I appreciate you all for it!
However, it quickly became apparent that Community Manager wasn't going to be enough. With Lauren returning to school, we were suddenly down a writer, and so I was asked to step in and fill that role. Since then we have taken on another team member: Miss Kitty Hart. She has been acting as concept writer, researcher, and systems designer (and doing an INCREDIBLE job at that!). We've also, sadly, lost a member. Austin regrettably left the team due to time constraints.
With all those crazy changes, here is what the team looks like now:
Our Current Team
Creative Director/ Lead Developer: Siavash Shahlaei (AKA Rainy)
Narrative Director/ Lead Writer: Sydney Stockdale (AKA FemChef / Shay)
Composer: Matt Thompson (AKA The literal best composer ever)
Systems Designer/ Writer/ Researcher: Kitty Hart (AKA Hot Little Boss)
Character Artist: Kaori Mitsuse (AKA Mewtsuse AKA the character queen)
Character Modeler: Allan Mitsuse (AKA the most patient man alive)
We will be updating the website soon to reflect these changes, as well as many other things. We would also like to give a big shout out to Kyle, AKA D3stiny, who has been helping us with networking, Perforce connections, and QA. <3
With that out of the way, let’s get on to the updates, because there are a LOT of them. This is gonna be a long one folks, so buckle up. :)
Business Things
Social Media
Social media is the most valuable tool available for indie developers, so we have been working our butts of to increase our presence through these medium. We now have accounts on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Twitch, Youtube, and Discord, and it would mean the absolute world to us if you could help us grow on those platforms. Please toss us a like, a share, a follow, and help us spread the word far and wide about SunnySide. Often it isn't about collecting likes, but having enough engagement on our posts to be picked up by platform algorithms. Every little bit helps, and I love and appreciate you all for your continued support and dedication. You can find us @RainyGamesUK on most platforms, but here is a handy list:LinkInBio
Updated Release Schedule
When we found out that publishers might be interested in SunnySide, it changed the whole game for us. What was going to be a fun and simple farming game sort of took on a personality of it's own, and before we knew it there were concepts for very meaningful stories and a huge cast of characters. With the backing of a publisher, we will be definitely be able to reach these grander goals, but it does alter the timeline just a bit:
June 20, 2021 – Publisher Demo -This is the milestone we just hit.
Mid July, 2021 - Steam Page - Might seem like a silly milestone, but getting our Steam page up and running is a huge step that we are looking forward to and really working hard towards.
Mid August, 2021 - Streamer Demo - This is a slightly expanded version of the demo that will go out to streamers and YouTube content creators interested in testing the game and helping us with a little marketing. If you are a backer and fall into this category, please contact us so we can get you on the list of Creators for this demo.
Mid to late December, 2021 - KickStarter Beta - This is the beta you are all excited for. For all those who backed at beta tiers, this is when the party will start! It’s been delayed a bit from the original plan, and we hope that is alright with everyone. <3 At this point, BackerKit will close.
Early February, 2022 - BackerKit Beta - This is for everyone who purchased beta early access through the BackerKit AFTER the KickStarter ended. This is to help preserve the fun for those who got in early on the KS, while still giving plenty of love to those who might have joined a little late.
Mid March, 2022 - Steam Early Access - By Early Access, we hope to have the game about 70% complete, and would like to begin QA at this point. We want EA to be an awesome experience for everyone who wasn’t able to back earlier, and we want it to be about what Early Access is supposed to be about: a great experience for the players and a little feedback for us, the developers.
Mid June, 2022 - PC Release - This is the planned full release for PC.
Mid November, 2022 - Switch Release - The Switch port is going to take a little time. This date is only planned for now, and may change in the future depending on what publisher we sign, access to a Switch Dev Kit, and a few other factors. We do plan to prioritize a Switch release over other consoles.
Mid March, 2023 - PlayStation + XBox Release - This is the planned date for the PlayStation and XBox ports, and is also subject to change depending on the same variables that the Switch is subject to.
Devstream Highlights
There have been quite a few streams since our last update. If you missed them, you can find the highlights for streams #7, #8, and #9 below. #10 is Sunday, June 20th @6:00 pm BST. We will be showcasing the demo that was just finished, so you DEFINITELY won’t want to miss this one.
#7
#8
#9
In addition, we have also put out two music videos for the new versions of both the Spring Day theme and the Spring Night theme from Matt Thompson, the literal best composer ever. These videos were put together by Rainy, and they're BANGIN'.
Spring Day
Spring Night
Nuclino
In the last update, we talked about a new project management tool we had started using called Asana. It worked for awhile, but is designed more for business related projects rather than creative ones. After a little digging, we found an incredible interactive Game Design Document program called Nuclino where we can not only manage the project, but also input every single piece of information that game development will need into one easy to access place. A small update to you guys, but a HUGE improvement for us.
Now for the stuff you all really care about: the GAME
Gameplay Mechanics and World Building
A new Map
The original map, while very lovely, didn’t have the right “real world” feel that we were going for. The landscape didn’t match what might actually be found in Japan, and in general it was just causing us headaches. It has now been replaced with a temporary “Demo” version of the map that is slightly smaller than what the final map will look like.
It is an Island for now, but more land will be added later to make it more of a peninsula.
Don't worry, the images taken on this map are just as gorgeous as the old one:
A New Farm
A new map means a new farm for your character! We decided to extend the land quite a bit, giving you, the player, a lot more room to expand and have fun. We've also started planning out where the other purchasable lots will be. Here is your starter Farm:
We feel like this two tier set up not only calls back to the tiered farm lands of Japan, but also allows for more fun possibilities and customization for the players.
Mechanics
Honestly, there has been so much added to the game at this point that it would take a whole lot of text to tell you what's been added as far as mechanics go, and I don't want you to have to read any more than necessary. Instead, here is a simple list of all the mechanics that are now fully functional in SunnySide, and all of them will be showcased in the upcoming Devstream as well as the highlights video on Youtube later.
Cell Phone Apps - Your cellphone now includes apps for accessing the settings of the game, your inventory, a weather app, save files, text messages from NPCs (updated from the original version), a farm companion for monitoring animals, SunnySeed (the online seed store), and a building drone for placing building blueprints on the map.
Natural Resource Collection - You can now chop down trees, mine rocks for ore, use solar panels to convert solar rays into energy, and collect and store water with both a hand pump and an electric pump.
Farming - This mechanic has been about 90% implemented into the game, and is only missing a couple more complicated growth stages. You can now dig (and fill in, if you're unhappy with placement) both small and large plant spaces, as well as water and harvest them. The watering system is something that we are incredibly proud of, as we have finally done away with the "classic" and annoyingly inefficient system that nearly all farming sims share: watering cans. Instead, you now have a handy hose to water your plants from, and a water tank to store collected water.
Cooking - So far only the first level of the grill has been implemented, and there is still a long way to go, but it's functional, pretty, and makes baked potatoes.
Farm Animals - So far, only (the old) chickens have been added back to the game, but they are fully functional with growth cycles, self preservation, and they even lay eggs! We have 8 more farm animals planned, each with a few varieties, as well as 6 different pets (each with different varieties available and with different benefits to your farm), and 5 different kinds of wildlife that will... well... NOT benefit your farm. We decided to scrap the old animal models, so these will all be custom to SunnySide. Once the pet and wildlife mechanics are worked in, it will be as simple as dropping in new models once they are completed, and we are super excited about it.
Crafting - So far, only one half of crafting is implemented, and this is the player Workbench. Here, the player will be able to construct various building pieces needed to build on the farm. As of now, there are about 10 different blueprints available to craft, and a TON more planned. The part of crafting that has not been implemented yet is food crafting. That's a big beast that will be tackled down the road.
Foraging - As of right now there are only 3 items that can be foraged: junk, sand, and mushrooms. However, the mechanics have been implemented and are fully functional.
The Building Drone - There are about 10 building blueprints currently operational in the demo, and they can all be accessed through the building drone that can be activated either through a phone app or via a hotkey on the keyboard. Once placed, blueprints can be deleted if desired, and the player will receive all their resources back. They also visibly upgrade every time new materials are added. It's honestly pretty awesome.
Dialogue & Pathing - The characters placed in the game are now fully functional. They walk around town, can be interacted with, and spoken to.
Player Income - Three stores have been added to the game, which means that you can now purchased necessary game play items as well as sell your goods in town.
Shops and Vendors
Speaking of player income, these shops have now been implemented, modeled, and are fully functional.
Gabe at The Riverside Barn - This is where the player will be able to purchase anything they need to raise happy and healthy animals. This includes hay, some food items, bird feed, and even the chickens themselves!
Hiro at Tech Hero - At his shop in town, Hiro's frugal nature has led him to develop recycling machines capable of dealing with the metal and plastic rubbish the player may find around SunnySide. He then resells various plastic and metal bits that the player can use in crafting, as well as apps for your phone that he developed himself.
Sako at The Oak Tree - Sako's General Store carries a wide variety of items the player may need, and she is also the best location for selling goods and making monies!
We decided to also take a slighty different approach with the sleep screen in SunnySide, and it's a nice mixture of classic Stardew Valley with new age Persona vibes ideas. Because there is no "sell box" in SunnySide, there is no need to tally up your income at the end of every night. Instead, you will be shown a calendar for what day it is (that includes any upcoming events), as well as a weather graphic to show you what the weather is looking like that morning.
One of the tasks we have been dreading most is making the character creator. This is often a point of contention in games, and we knew that it would be a huge and important step in development. Well, we're really proud to say that it's been made. It is not in any way complete, and there is still a lot missing from it, but this is just a small taste:
Since the last update, four more characters have been conceptualized, drawn, and been given portraits. Two of these have models in the Publisher Demo, and the other two will be available in the Streamer Demo.
You already know Katherine and Gabriel, so let's introduce Hiro, Sako, and Kazuki just in case you missed them in previous streams.
Hiro Iwasaki
Hiro comes from a large, and rather poor, family in the city. This as given him a fairly frugal nature, and he sends most of his earnings back to his older parents to continue supporting his younger siblings. He's a bit of tech genius, and always seems to be tinkering with or inventing something.
Sako Uchida
As mentioned, Sako runs the General Store in town. The store has been in her family for generations, and she took over running it sometime in the 70's. She has no children, and her husband passed away recently. In fact, he was the one who left the tech shop to Hiro!
Kazuki Ishikawa
Kazuki is the town blacksmith, is married, and has two children who have since moved away, as well as a granddaughter that now lives with him while pursuing her medical career in SunnySide. Blacksmithing has been in his family about as long as the general store has been in Sako's, and he is incredibly proud of that history. This traditional mentality often puts him at odds with Hiro's desire to modernize.
Yes. There is another character. But you'll have to tune into the Devstream to learn more about her. Let's also take a moment to shout out Kaori and her incredible ability to bring these characters to life.
Music
We've already shown off the music videos for Matt's new take on the seasonal themes, but we just wanted to reiterate how incredibly thankful we are to have him on the project. He's working on the summer track right now. It's not finished, but we will be playing a little bit of it at the beginning of the dev stream, so be sure to get there early!
Thank you!
Now that the demo is completed, we will be able to hit a more natural pace towards our next goals. We are more cohesive and in sync than ever before, and are also hoping that a publisher will allow us to hire more incredibly talented people very soon! From here on out, we will commit to providing monthly updates, but this will be the last in-depth one for awhile. If you want more of the fine details about new characters, story updates, and other development landmarks, be sure to join all our socials and keep tabs there.
A big huge sunny thank you to everyone who has supported us this far, and a bunch of hugs and kisses (with your permission, of course) for those who continue to do so. If not for you guys, there is no way we would have made it this far, and we are really counting on you all moving forward. Your impressions, feedback, perspectives, and ideas mean the world to us, so please don't hesitate to comment and let us know what you think!
Better yet, join the Discord!
Thanks again! We hope to see you all at the live Devstream tomorrow, Sunday, June 20th @6:00 pm BST on Twitch.
Cheers!
-Shay-
Devstream Highlights #5 and #6, and some Major Updates...
about 3 years ago
– Sat, Apr 17, 2021 at 01:37:59 AM
A big hello to all our SunnySide friends across the world!
Firstly, we would like to apologize for going a whole month without any updates. It's not that there wasn't anything to give, but that so much has been in the works. It took some time to pull everything together in a way where we felt comfortable shining the big spotlight on it.
There is a lot to cover, so let's jump right into it!
A New Team Member
The first thing you may notice is that someone completely different is posting this update. That's because our first big announcement is that we've brought a new member onto the team! My name is FemChef, or Shay if you're feeling friendly, and I've been brought on as the Community Manager for the SunnySide project! This means you're going to be seeing a lot more of my silly name all over the place, as I will be handling all the forward facing aspects of development so that Rainy and all our other awesome devs, musicians, and artists can focus on what's really important: making you an awesome game! So the more you hear from me, the more you can feel assured that there is an equal amount of work happening behind the scenes (with lots of sneak peaks on the Discord because Rainy can't help himself).
A New Logo
The next big piece of news (that you may have already noticed if you've got a keen eye) is that the logo has been redesigned! If you've been keeping track of the updates so far, you'll remember that Rainy and our artists have been working really hard to smooth out the graphics of SunnySide. New portraits, new models, and now a new logo! This is currently the spring logo. (yes, any assumptions you make from that statement are probably accurate ;)
If you're on the Discord, this was premiered earlier this week.
Now, it currently looks pretty high resolution and super rendered, but this is just one of many versions. You'll be seeing variations of all kinds to suit all different situations. Stay tuned!
Devstream Highlights
Most everything that will be discussed from here on has been mentioned in some way or another in the last two Devstreams on Twitch. If you missed them or would like a refresher, there are some links to the highlight reels below. If you're not following Rainy on Twitch to catch the devstreams live... well... you should be!
The second video has a couple corrections around the 10:23 and 23:25 marks, so you may want to check them out, even if you were with us for the live streams.
Asana
Some of you may or may not be familiar with the fact that we were previously using a program called Trello to keep everyone up to date and on task. Trello, sadly, wasn't able to offer us everything we needed to really organize the development process, so we decided to move to a new system called Asana. This might not seem like an important update, but what this means for all of you lovely backers is that we will be able to streamline our process and communicate with each other much more effectively. Better communication = faster development. Sadly, however, Asana does not currently have an option to share projects with the public, so it will no longer serve as a resource for our backers and fans. This means we (I, your lovely community manager) will have the extra task of communicating development early and often!
Game Mechanics and World Building
Time and Save System Improvements
Time is now a huge factor in SunnySide! It has been linked to plant development as well as how the save system works and interacts with the map. This save system is now linked to your in game cellphone, where you can view and reload saves, access autosaves (3 a day), or your quicksave (good ol' F5)!
Mini Map
The minimap has been updated with a new (and sort of expensive, but so worth it) plug-in! There will be more to come about this later, but it features some pretty neat in game tools for you, the player!
Inventory, Crafting, and Resource Gathering
All of these systems have been updated and are functioning. The only thing they are really missing right now is assets, which is fancy dev speak for stuff to hoard, craft, and gather!
Specifically, the inventory UI has received a really cool and immersive update (shown in the video below), crafting has been given an upgradeable table to work from with an awesome "Crafting Companion" programmed laptop from which all buildable items and blueprints will be accessible (also below), and tree-cutting now includes tree-felling, producing one long trunk to be broken down further (totally Valheim inspired, not gonna lie... and also below).
One of the most important drivers in creating SunnySide has been delivering as immersive a world as possible, and there are now a bunch of mechanics that reflect this. First is the wind system, to which everything physical in the game now reacts. This includes clouds, trees, falling leaves, the grass, and even hair. In exchange, the environment now reacts to physical items such as trees or your foot prints. Falling trees will now imprint on grass, sand, and snow, as will anything else that touches the ground (feet, boxes, fire, etc.) Oh! And there are also planes in the sky!
Vendor Menus
This was a fairly late edition, but it gives the overall world more depth and meaning. Shopping and vendor menus will now be individually designed with graphics, characters, and animations that make sense and are unique to the store. Below is still a work in progress, but is a great indication of what's to come.
Kaori has been hard at work creating some adorable outfits for your characters to wear in game. Below is some of what she has created thus far. A couple have been added to the game already, and a few others are still a work in progress.
New Hairstyles
A bunch of new hair styles for your player character have been added! The colors below were just tossed on by Rainy to add a little more interest, but they will all be color customizable. There will not, however, be any sliders (for now?). In exchange, you'll get lots of options instead! Shout out to our artist Allan for all his hard work!
Seven (for now) gorgeous hairstyles to choose from!
Hair Physics
In line with the new hairstyles comes something super fun and immersive: hair physics. This means that your character's hair will not only blow in the wind, but also move and flow as they run around and move their head. It's a small detail, but sometimes it's the small details that have the biggest impact on the gaming experience.
Dialogue
The dialogue system has received a small, but impactful, update. PC relationships with NPCs will be reflected in the dialogue box with each character, and that dialogue box will feature 2D high definition drawn portraits (rather than 3D models that were being used before). This is a throw back to other farming and RPG games, and the whole team is super excited about it. Huge shout out to our Artist, Kaori, and her amazing work!
In the realm of the new character dialogue system, there is now a whole host of 2D portraits to represent the characters through the seasons and reflect their various moods. Kaori once again smashed it out of the park on this one, and we are happy to announce that all of Kat's portraits have been finished, as well as all the portraits for Gabriel in the spring. There is another character in development at the moment, and we are excited to share them as well when they're finished.
Kat's portraits reflecting various emotions through the seasons.
All of Kat's outfits
Gabe's various emotions in the Spring.
All of Gabriel's outfits
Models
Gabriel and Katherine have now been fully modeled and rigged. This is a fancy dev way of saying: They're in the game, and they move around! We don't have any video of this yet because they are still being given AI programs to make them move on their own, but they sure are dang adorable!
Animations
With models comes the possibility for facial expressions! For immersion it's really important to us that the emotions on the model match the emotions on the portrait. This hasn't been fully fleshed out for each character yet, but just getting the mechanic set has been a pretty big milestone!
Music
Honestly, I think I saved the best for last.
After lots of chats with our composer, Matt, a decision has been made to sort of "scrap" some of the songs that have been written for the game and drastically rework them. If you have been a big fan of the music thus far, please don't panic! These reworks have been huge improvements, and will not span across all songs.
Namely, this rework has included the addition of more musicians playing real instruments in the songs: drums, strings, and best yet, the saxophone! But you don't need me explaining it! Have a listen for yourself!
Here is the cave theme (just for reference, not sure if this will change yet)
And here are our three newest songs! The current idea is that they will be used in menus, but those details are being worked on.
So far for certain, the music for each of the four seasons will be upgraded to match this new style. If you've been paying attention to the Soundcloud, you will have noticed that the originals have already been removed, and this is why. The Spring theme will be reworked first (and highlighted on the next Devstream, so don't miss that!) and then Summer, Fall, and Winter.
Thank You!
I think that's everything. It's a huge update, I know, but we wanted to give you a full overview of everything that has been worked on up to this point. The main goal right now is creating a demo for publishers to check out. Once that is finished, we can start fleshing out all these systems a lot more. We want to send a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us thus far and for continuing to do so. Your impressions, feedback, perspectives, and ideas mean the world to us, so please don't hesitate to comment and let us know what you think!
Better yet, join the Discord!
If you have any issues getting into the Discord or getting your KickStarter role assigned, feel free to send a message to FemChefSR1#9591 and she will get you squared away.
Thanks again! We will see you all on the Discord, in the Devstreams, and in the next update!
Devstream Highlights #4, Feminine Character Model, Concepts and First Model of Katherine
about 3 years ago
– Wed, Mar 17, 2021 at 11:48:43 PM
Hey there SunnySide friends!
What a busy week it has been. As you all might know we had to cancel our devstream last week so that we can focus more on finishing a lot of the tasks at hand! But, with that out of the way, this update is full of exciting news and updates!
Devstream Highlights
Before anything, as always, everything mentioned in this update is also included on our latest devstream. We've just trimmed the boring bits and uploaded it to YouTube for your convenience:
Feminine Player Character
SunnySide now has a feminine body type for the main player character! Her model is finally done, although we are changing our modeling direction (more on this in a bit) you can see what she looks like in the game! She's wearing a sample set of clothes and as always don't forget that SunnySide is an RPG and you can put on whatever you like in the game!
In addition here are the three hairstyles we made for the time being.
One thing that still sticks out like a sore thumb is the animations, but we're actually speaking to a few candidate animators to finally breathe some life into these nice models!
New and Improved Crops
One thing that didn't get upgraded when we switched our development direction and decided to make SunnySide a PC & console game instead of a mobile one, are the crop models. And since we forgot about them, we decided to give them extra love by remaking them as Skeletal Meshes. This means that the models now interact with physical objects (including you!).
Left: Old polygonal model - Right: New smoother models
Here you can see how the leaves of the turnips bend and sway as the player runs through them:
We have a new concept artist!! Hurray!! And she is fantastic. In fact, I'm not going to leave it to just words, we have the concept art of Kat's year around clothes right below:
In addition to concept art, we are actually finalizing her 3D in-game model as well! As I mentioned earlier, we are changing the direction in which we are modeling our characters. We are going for smoother, higher-quality models, which look fantastic in comparison.
Here you can see a before and after on Kat's Model:
Core-Gameplay and Roadmap
It's crazy that SunnySide already has a few publishers interested and excited about the project, but they all want to try it for themselves and see what the core gameplay loop is all about. This is why from this week, we are working full steam to give them a playable demo in a month. It seems like a lot to do, but with good coordination, we can have a big publisher on our side to most importantly help us with our console releases and our marketing efforts.
Thank you
We sent the surveys your way last week and I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for completing it, buying bonus items, and supporting us in general. We are so grateful to have such an amazing community by our side. <3
If you have any issues with the surveys, please ask away in our Discord server down below. We run lots of community polls and events and on top of that you will get the latest updates on the game, as they roll out:
And that's all from me! See you all in the next update ~
