Forgot to post the last updates here. Ooops! Don’t forget we also post updates on Kickstarter, and we have a mailing list on official website.

An anecdote: the traveling system is the first thing we ever programmed, before Selling Sunlight even had a name. And yet we keep tinkering with it, because story and gameplay intertwine in unforeseen ways.

Behold, a rare screen of Selling Sunlight’s proto-prototype made in Rpg Maker XP.

GAMEPLAY

You see, a game about merchants supposedly has to have some time management mechanics - goods to deliver on time, rotating stocks, seasonal events etc. But would people living in a tidally-locked world really care about dates? Would they even perceive the passing of time in the same way as we?
After much mumbling and reading (we especially liked this article about winter blues) we established the people of Selling Sunlight don’t have the notion of cyclic time. No repeating weeks, months or years: life for them is just a placid, never-ending afternoon.
We doubt people living in such conditions would be rigid about schedules. The time management elements will be there, but they won’t be too stressful - no rigid deadlines, but a simple “the faster you can deliver the goods, the better”.
With this concept in mind, we tweaked the map system to help you keep track of time and plan your journeys accordingly.
Now, instead of directly controlling the cart, you draw a path first. The cart will follow it automatically, stopping only once you reach a location or trigger a random event.

We’re carefully enthusiastic about this new system and can’t wait to get it tested. Our backers will get to try it in our Shiny New Demo (ETA: March 2018).

ART

Chiara painted some generic backgrounds to use during the random events, like a grassy field, a forest, a mountain etc. She also made scenario elements like trees, mushrooms and… Rocks.
Not very exciting, I know, but we need this stuff.

Meanwhile,Anita worked on the look of the Golden Saints - priests who devoted themselves to the Sun so completely they became beings of pure light.
(In case you’re wondering yes, one of them will be romanceable. Can you even smooch photons? Who knows?)

Anita’s initial design was very bubbly! She simplified it so it will be easier to animate.

Lucy worked on minor NPCs. They won’t have portraits nor storylines, but will simply hang around to make cities feel more lively.

Folks of the Green City.

STORY

We got the main storyline down - your Holy Pilgrimage to persuade some Very Important Priests that you are repentant and would like to get your mask off, pretty please.
What we’re doing now is a rather tedious work of skeleton-building: using placeholder dialogues, we program the quests so the steps will trigger correctly and there will be no ways of breaking sequence. As you can imagine, this involves testing, testing and more testing.
After making sure a quest flows correctly, we fill its skeleton with meaty words. But for now, it’s mostly bones and suffering.
Bye for now!