Narrative RPG Selling Sunlight offers players many options on what they can do with their time in this world of eternal twilight, allowing them to spend time selling goods for the best prices, make friends (or more) with the other merchants and characters, or kill the sun itself for daring to steal the protagonist’s face.
Selling Sunlight’s faceless protagonist is designed by the player when they begin, allowing them to tackle the adventure as whoever they wish to be. Not that this character does not have an established story of sorts, as they have upset the Golden Priests through an unknown action, which results in them wearing a mask that hides their face from the Sun, which no longer wishes to look upon them. It’s up to the player what they decide to do with thiscruel fate.
Once designed, the character can set out into the world as a merchant, bringing goods to various cities across the map. While journeying between cities, players will have to deal with random events, both good and bad. These can bring about broken wagon wheels and costs, or offer players new locations or merchants that are unique to their current playthrough. Players may wish to hurry on, though, as many in-game events and deliveries are timed, and every diversion creates a possibility to miss their window of opportunity.
Players will meet a variety of characters as they travel, from musicians to botanists to wanderers. They can form relationships with these people using the game’s dialogue system, which lets players choose from four general attitudes in their dealings with each character. These attitudes will be remembered by the people the player spoke with, slowly developing connections with them as they recall (and like or dislike) the way the player carried themselves with them. They may also alter whatever narrative the character reveals to the player based on these actions. A plot to kill the sun may only be unveiled to a close, trusted confidant with this system.
Bartering will use the same system, but also build upon them with a haggling system that lets players calm, seduce, or annoy other merchants. These can be used to build up a rapport that will be useful later on, or to get a quick discount that players may suffer for in the future. Also, while players may get goods for cheap, they will need to consider how well these items travel (glass breaks, food deteriorates) in their potential profits.
Selling Sunlight is currently raising development funding on Kickstarter, with a demo of the game available on Itch.io.
