Sunny Side is a slice of life farming adventure game filled with side activities and many different townsfolk you can meet, chat up, and romance.
It’s no surprise that I love open world exploration slice of life style indie games. There are so few out there as well that I often find myself trying to seek them out. While attending The Mix at GDC, I came across Sunny Side, which is an open world exploration game about a young girl who has just moved to a new town.
Sunny Side also has a farming aspect, as you have a large homestead that you can develop, but you will need to be mindful of the impact that will have on the rest of the town – other people need to be able to have farms, so you cannot overpopulate your farm or have your farm grow to be too big. You can design areas, place down items, water plants, plant seeds, and pet your cows if you want.
There is exploration within the game as well, as you can run around your massive town and pick up anything you might find to either use or sell at the local shop. You can fish, too, in case you want to create some dishes to eat or sell items for a bit more coin. Though, most of this might sound like a normal type of farming exploration game, there is a lot of depth in Sunny Side’s characters.
With a bunch of different townsfolk, all done in a beautiful, anime-esque art style, you can find yourself romancing virtually anyone you meet if you can win them over. Conversations can be triggered by visiting where current people are hanging out. The townspeople have their own personalities and interests as well. I spoke to one person, Sebastian, who was running a little restaurant with his stubborn mother who never hired any help. The restaurant seems to be needing help if it is going to succeed, but I am unsure if that’s something we do get to help with!
In the small time I had with Sunny Side, I found myself playing a more serious version of The Good Life, with more direct goals and different activities that felt a lot like a real life I could live. Sunny Side is a game I am going to be keeping my eye on in the future!
Sunny Side is currently in development, but in the meantime, you can add it to your Steam Wishlist.
