To coincide with our new Character Creator Demo, the third episode of our Let's Play SunnySide series is out now, brought to you by the team at Merge Games!
The series follows Community Manager Ben, along with a new guest each month, exploring the world of SunnySide.
In this special episode, Ben is joined by an ensemble cast RainyGames team members:
Siavash - aka Rainy, game director and developer Sydney - studio lead, producer, narrative director Kyle - IT and QA Liz - artist Jade - writer Charles - aka PrismaticaDev, programming and generalist
We play through a brand new build of SunnySide, taking a look at the new character creator - available to try out in our Character Creator Demo - and may other cool things!
The Let's Play series runs alongside the RainyGames Developer streams, and will give viewers the chance to watch the growth and development of the game, along with some gameplay tips and tricks, month by month!
We've also been asking our Discord community to pitch forward questions to ask our new guests, so for a chance to be a part of this make sure to join our server.
Watch Episode 3 down below, and have a great week and a Merry Christmas!
SunnySide Character Creator Demo
Hey everyone!
First off, with it being so close to that big day, we'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays!
And boy do we have a gift for you...
The new SunnySide Character Creator Demo is available now!
This demo includes the Character Creator from the start of the game. With a bunch of options, you can now design your very own SunnySide resident however you wish!
We'll be adding plenty more to this in the coming months too, so don't worry.
Once you've finished making your character, you can save this character to your PC. The demo will provide you with a 'Character ID Card' which you can share with the wider community on our Discord (we have made a specific channel for this called 'Show-Your-SunnySide').
You can also share this image across social media - make sure to use the hashtag #ShowYourSunnySide in these posts for us and the community to see!
In the demo game file, a save file will be provided which you can hold onto and load up when the full game releases. You can even share these with the community, where people will be able to import them into their own game and make tweaks themelves.
We hope you all have a lovely holiday filed with festive cheer, and we can't wait to see the amazing SunnySide residents you create!
Let's Play SunnySide - Episode 2
Hey everyone!
The second episode of our Let's Play SunnySide series is out now, brought to you by the team at Merge Games!
The series follows Community Manager Ben, along with a new guest each month, exploring the world of SunnySide as a new resident starting their first farm.
In this episode, Ben is joined by RainyGames' game director and programmer Rainy!
The Let's Play series runs alongside the RainyGames Developer streams, and will give viewers the chance to watch the growth and development of the game, along with some gameplay tips and tricks, month by month!
We've also been asking our Discord community to pitch forward questions to ask our new guests, so for a chance to be a part of this make sure to join our server.
Watch Episode 2 down below, and have a great week!
Let's Play SunnySide - Episode 1
Hey everyone!
Check out the first episode of the new Let's Play SunnySide series, brought to you by the team at Merge Games!
The series will follow Community Manager Ben, along with a new guest each month, exploring the world of SunnySide as a new resident starting their first farm.
The Let's Play series will run alongside the RainyGames Developer streams, and will give viewers the chance to watch the growth and development of the game, along with some gameplay tips and tricks, month by month!
We'll also be asking our Discord community for questions they'd like us to ask our new guests, so for a chance to be a part of this make sure to join our server.
You can watch Episode 1 down below:
SunnySide | Official Gameplay Trailer
Hey folks,
We had an absolute blast at Razercon 2022, unveiling our brand new trailer and platform announcement!
We've been so excited to show you all this, so let us know what you think and what platform you'll be playing on!
We're at Razercon Live 2022 - with a brand new trailer!
We've got exciting news! 📢
SunnySide will be showcasing a brand new trailer at RazerCon 2022! We've been sitting on this one for a while, and we can't wait for you all to finally see it.
The team up with Epic Gardening is an absolute dream come true for us here at RainyGames, and something we've been working on for a long time now. The hard work and dedication by Kevin and his team inspire us every day, and their continued mission to combine old ideas and traditions with new technology is a constant influence on how we develop SunnySide.
From watering systems to growing techniques. from seed types to tools, if we have a question about how to approach SunnySide's design, there is never a doubt that Epic Gardening will have the answers we need. We hope that partnering with us on SunnySide will not only help grow both our communities, but also help Kevin on his personal mission to teach 10,000,000+ people how to grow their own food.
And who knows, you might even see some Epic Gardening content in SunnySide too......
Alongside this, it's time for The World of SunnySide: Episode 3 - and this time the stars of the show are the animals!
In this episode, we look at how the building and construction works in SunnySide, how resources are managed in your inventory, and how simple it is to customize and design your homestead just the way you like it.
Farming is great, but what is a homestead without buildings? You won’t just need to house all those adorable animals you plan on raising, but you need a home too! Your delightful neighbor may have been kind enough to pitch your starter tent your first night in SunnySide, but you’re going to need 4 walls and some power if you plan on cooking any meals in the future.
Planning your homestead, and making sure you have enough resources to build the home of your dreams, can be quite the daunting task! But lucky for you, there is another single bachelor in town who loves all things technology!
With the help of Hiro’s proprietary Aerial Building Assistant drone, or ABA, you can plan your homestead to your heart’s content, all before chopping down a single tree!
Using ABA, you can place chicken coops, barns, animal beds, feeders, planters, fences, and even decide where your first home will go! Once you’ve placed your blueprints, pin the materials to your phone’s home screen, and you’ll never have to wonder how much wood or metal you’ll need to complete your dream home.
Already have the materials? No problem! Simply check “Build from inventory”, and every blueprint you place will be built in the blink of an eye. Need to move something? Go for it! Every buildable object can be picked up and moved in ABA’s build mode so you never need to worry about placing things by accident.
Ready for an upgrade? Congratulations on all your hard work! Now all you need to do is delete your old building, and any leftover resources will be automatically placed in your farm’s build station inventory. Now that you’ve got the main bits built, it’s time to decorate! Chairs, tables, lights, decorations, pathways, and more are all available, either through your build menu, crafting station, or even the appliance store in town.
The World of SunnySide - Episode 1: Farming
Hey everyone,
We've been hard at work on a brand new video series for you: The World of SunnySide. With so many different systems and areas to focus on in the game, we wanted to show off each mechanic in as much depth as we could, so we've partnered with Nintendo Life to exclusively reveal 2 episode's on their site every month!
First up, everything farming.
Looking for a fresh start, you’ve just purchased your first plot of land in the heart of the Japanese countryside. If you’re going to succeed in this aging post town, it’ll be up to you to create a homestead you can be proud of.
Just because you start with potatoes doesn’t mean that’s all you can grow!
Create a spudtastic empire, grow vast swaths of produce for large scale food production, or diversify your crop with other fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, teas, and even trees! Afterall, the Japanese countryside isn’t complete without some beautiful cherry blossoms, am I right?
All these plants and more are available from the SunnySeed app on your phone, or your local garden center if your timing is right.
Choose next day delivery, or pay less if you’re willing to wait a few days. Be sure to keep an eye out for sales, too!
Don’t want to spend tons of money on seeds? That’s fine, you can grow and harvest your own, and even create a seed empire to rival the biggest heirloom providers!
If farming isn’t quite your thing, no worries! You’re welcome to simply decorate your farm with potted flowers and herbs for cooking, and use up all that space for your adorable animals!
Whichever method and plants you choose, just be sure to build a nice fence to protect them. Don’t want those pesky critters eating your prized tomatoes…
In SunnySide, your future will be whatever you make of it. Reign over your potato dominion, focus on selling seeds for profit, decorate with planters, become a soy sauce magnate, or simply lovingly cultivate fresh produce to cook delicious meals for your friends… or maybe for that romantic interest down the road…
Follow your dreams in any way you like! Chase your happy. Your homestead is waiting.
News Update
Hey everyone,
Things have been quiet around here lately - but only because we've been so hard at work behind the scenes. We wanted to update you all to see what we've been getting up to at the studio; what we're working on, whats coming up soon and some exciting plans for the future.
Development Progress
Farming System
We've been working hard on programming the farming system to allow players to build/farm/plant a lot of stuff. Like, a lot. We truely believe nobody has done it to this scale in a 3D farm-sim before. Obviously there's going to be lots of tweaks and balances, and we need to make sure it works, but we're super excited about this.
Social System
The social system is at the core of the game and drives your friendships, relationships and quests with all your neighbours and residents. We've made some exciting strides with this system in the past few months - from how you acquire friendship and relationship points, hangouts with your friends and loved ones, as well as how these interactions differ from NPC to NPC, which are now fully designed and being implemented with cutscenes. Check out the last cute 'lil coffee date we went on:
Art
We're currently working on a few things on the art side: winter outfits, in-game portraits, insect and bug drawings to name a few! The character creator metrics have also been tweaked - using a formant axis - giving for greater freedom over how you design your character.
Press Demo
Our other big development focus has been creating a demo that we can showcase exclusively to press. We want to make this slice of the game the best it can be. We know how good SunnySide is - so we're trying really hard to show press this too! We're hoping to attend events around the globe later on in the year - so getting this press demo right is crucial.
MVP Test Group
A reminder in case you missed it - our publisher Merge Games have opened up their pool of playtesters to everyone! Signing up to the Merge MVP program puts you in a pool of potential testers for their upcoming releases - including SunnySide. While this won't grant you a test spot automatically - it does put you in with a chance of testing the game when we open those doors. So if you wanted to go hands on but missed the alpha backer - make sure and sign up at the link below!
And to all those Alpha backers - don't worry - you're guranteed entry to all of our future tests.
The #FlySunnySide competition is well under way! ICYMI: your design can get featured in the game! For all details on how to enter - check out our previous post.
The Battle of the NPC's rages on!
Over on our Twitter the SunnySide residents have been pitted against each other - and we're down to the final 3! Gabe, Kat and Sebastian. Make sure to head over to the Twitter today, tomorrow and Thursday to cast your all important final votes and crown a true winner!
We have some exciting news to share about the winner this Friday, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled....
And that's about it for today...
We have so many things coming up that we wish we could show and tell you, but there's not too long to wait now. Below, have some teases at some things to come in the future. And, as always, keep up to date with everything SunnySide on our socials. And perhaps next time, we'll fill you in on our little adventure to the big city...
