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:
Devstream Highlights #5 and #6, and some Major Updates...
almost 4 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
almost 4 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 ~
Devstream Highlights #3 + New UI Design Direction
almost 4 years ago
– Sat, Feb 20, 2021 at 09:52:33 PM
Hey there lovely SunnySide friends!
Over the last week, we've been hard at work fixing our character model and actually adding him to the game so that Unreal's default mannequin can finally take a break from running and jumping around the map! We've also improved our UI and have taken a new approach to our entire UI design structure. So let's go over all of these updates!
If you like to check all of these features in a video, we had a Devstream yesterday on Friday the 19th, going over everything that's mentioned in this update. And we just finished trimming it and tidying it up as a highlights video! You can watch it just below:
Character Model Adjustments and Implementation
Allan, our talented character modeller has been hard at work improving the base model and adjusting him. After adding the model we showcased in the last update to the game, we realised there were some issues with how thin his body was, especially his neck.
We've also adjusted his face further to make him look even better!
The new and improved face on the right
The new model works better with our animation framework, but the lack of custom animations are still felt throughout the project. We are planning to get a mo-cap suit so we have the freedom of making as many custom animations as we need!
In addition to the new improvements, we've also added 3 new short hairstyles to the game. We'll continue making new hairstyles and clothes as the development progresses!
The three new hairstyles can be used on either the feminine or masculine body types.
UI Design Direction
If you're a member of our Discord community, you already know that we had a community poll over there to decide the new UI design direction of the game! (psst, you should join if you haven't :P)
We decided to go for a more out there and unique style of UI. One that is much more stylish and less bland and generic. Below you can see the difference in the clock design:
But this new design direction doesn't end with just a new clock! We've been revamping a lot of our menus and UI elements, including the inventory. We thought since SunnySide has this big emphasis on having a smartphone and how you can interact with the world using it, why not turn everything into a mobile app. Of course, for apps that require a lot more space, your phone will simply turn horizontal and go full screen. But they still inherit an app-like look. Below you can see the new Inventory menu:
Just like the icing on a cake, SunnySide won't be the same without its funky and jazzy tracks! This one was revealed yesterday on our Devstream and called Neon Nights. We currently planning to use this track for the town's night theme.
Kinder World is an amazing little mobile game that helps you with self-care and spreading love and kindness while taking care of a cute little plant! In their own words:
"Kinder World is a mobile game of houseplants, healing and practising kindness. Take care of your plants and yourself in a relaxing and lush atmosphere of your own design, completing daily acts of self-love that make the world a kinder place."
I absolutely love the idea of this game and adore its art style. I think with Covid and everything that's been going on around the world, this game is something we all need. The devs are really really lovely people too, say hi to them from me 😜
If you haven't joined the Discord do it now! 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 form me! See you all in the next update ~
Original Character Models + Latest Updates
almost 4 years ago
– Sun, Feb 14, 2021 at 11:59:46 PM
Hey there lovely SunnySide friends!
It's crazy to think it was only one week ago when we finished the campaign and reached double our goal! No matter how many times we say it, it's not enough, so thank you again for giving us this opportunity to bring you an amazing and memorable experience.
Latest on Devving
While we've been celebrating the success of the campaign, we've been hard at work cleaning, polishing and decluttering our code for a cleaner and more expandable foundation for the game. We've been optimising the hell out of it so that it can especially run smoothly on consoles like Nintendo Switch!
But one thing I'm most excited to share with you guys is that our character modeller has designed the base model of our masculine main character!! Here are some shots:
This should give you all a good sense of the art direction we're taking with the characters and how much they're inspired by Persona 5 in particular. While most farming games go with the more chibi style, we decided this would be the best style choice. It will fit the game perfectly both story-wise and thematically.
We're planning to send the surveys to you guys between the 20th and 25th of this month. As mentioned before you will have the chance to upgrade your pledge for one last time, or add additional game keys for a much lower price.
We are working on launching the Pre-order store on our own domain but for now, you can use our BackerKit store to pre-order the game. So if you or anyone you know wanted to get the game missed your opportunity of pledging, this would be the perfect place to pre-order the game for a lower price. You can pre-order on any console and even get yourself early access if you like! The sale will run for a limited time so get your copy before the price goes up back to normal!
We will also gradually add new items to the store as the development progresses. And for all of you mega fans, we're working on launching a merch store very soon!!
Our Ko-fi page
Now if you've already pledged or just looking for a way to directly support the team further you can do so via our Ko-fi page. Some of you awesome people already donated to us and we're so close to reaching that goal over there! So check it our if you want to fuel the development, and give us a lil boost.
Devstreams
I know a lot of you've been looking forward to seeing more of the game, so I'm excited to announce that we're going to be live every Friday at 9:00 PM GMT with live devving and weekly updates on everything we've been working on.
I'm sure plenty of you have already seen this amazing game on Kickstarter, I mean how could you miss it with their AWESOME ART-STYLE?!
"Beacon Pines is a cute and creepy adventure game within a magical storybook. You play as both the reader of the book and its main character, Luka. Explore the world to find word charms. Use your charms to change the course of fate!"
We're so excited to show you the main character in-game and looking forward to seeing you all in the next stream. In the meantime, if you haven't joined the Discord do it now! And get the latest updates on the game, as they roll out:
See you all in the next update!
🎉 It's a wrap! 🎉
about 4 years ago
– Fri, Feb 05, 2021 at 10:42:12 PM
Hey SunnySide friends!
It's been the craziest 30 days of our lives and we managed to raise 211% of our goal, reaching both of our stretch goals! I know I've said it a million times but it's never enough so here it goes again. Thank you so much for making this happen. We are now well equipped to deliver you the best version of SunnySide and it's just a matter of time!
With our Kickstarter campaign finished we can retarget our focus on development and further building SunnySide!
But, this doesn't mean you don't have the opportunity to pre-order the game or even get yourself early access! The prices will be different from our campaign and you cannot get some of the rewards anymore to honour our backers, but we're going to be launching some extra goodies over on our BackerKit Store very soon.
As for the surveys, you will receive them by the end of this month. You'll have the chance to up your pledge and even add additional goodies like Digital Guidebook/Artbook to your order!
I wanted to sweeten this victory by releasing another track from our Original Soundtrack! This one is my personal favourite. So have a listen and let us know what you think! Matt, our composer is eager to know your feedback on the music of SunnySide.
I'm sure most of you if not backed already know about this awesome game, it's not often when you find a campaign that not only features a great game but also has an awesome dev behind it! If you haven't checked Ova Magica yet, I personally recommend it! It's cute, It's awesome and their pledge rewards make me jealous 😜 So check them out!!
