Sunset

So now we are free. We don’t have to take advice from anybody anymore. We were wrong. Everybody whom we consulted with on Sunset was wrong.

We are happy and proud that we have tried to make a “game for gamers.” We really did our best with Sunset, our very best. And we failed. So that’s one thing we never need to do again. Creativity still burns wildly in our hearts but we don’t think we will be making videogames after this. And if we do, definitely not commercial ones.

ScumLord wrote:

It's the same with most things though. A film with an excellent involving storyline gets ignored because the turn your brain off summer blockbuster is out. It's always pretty surprising how often people in the films forum say they liked a film even though the story was terrible and they had to just accept the nonsense in front of them and focus entirely on the explosions.

People want light entertainment, something they can participate in without getting too involved. You don't hear too much Beethoven on 2fm.

Links234 wrote: »

I hadn't even heard of Sunset before the devs called it quits, now it seems to be quite a news item. Read a very interesting piece on it here: www.theastronauts.com/2015/06/what-really-happened-to-tale-of-tales-sunset/

"If we have to go to war, let's fight to re-establish the peace"

Games are constantly encouraging us to explore spaces. They offer us maps to explore, often with trinkets hidden in their most distant corners. But video game spaces have rarely felt as dynamic and worth exploring as the apartment in Sunset. It is, in a world where many games boast of their world being '31.5% larger than that other game', a relatively small place, a handful of rooms all in all. Yet over Sunset's modest running time it changes in ways both radical and subtle - changes that allow the game's narrative, characters and themes to germinate. It is worth exploring the apartment thoroughly afresh every time you leave the elevator, because it's the hidden details you'll only find if your paying attention that give this extraordinary game its depth. Book covers hint at characters' states of mind, the situation beyond the apartment walls or maybe just offer a neat little gag. Notes carefully placed out of the way allow the game's central relationship to develop, all without a word of dialogue being spoken. Eventually more radical changes fundamentally alter the mood and identity of a place that had become to feel familiar, safe... a home?

Repetition, too, is deeply ingrained in video game vocabulary, many games proudly demanding players to repeat the same tasks over and over again for typically arbitrary rewards. And repetition is key to Sunset too, but in a way that's not interested in wasting your time, but instead to use routine and passing time to expand the game's scope and depths. Every visit is the same yet different, the routine subtly varying over the course of the game. It quickly becomes apparent that the tasks assigned to Angela are of little concern to anybody involved, the 'excuse' to get this woman into an apartment for an hour a week. You'll be lulled into a comfortable rhythm, only to be legitimately surprised and excited when its disrupted - never in gaming history has a ringing phone felt so revelatory. There's an extended section in the middle of the game where very little happens for quite a while - yet it's possibly the bravest part of the game, that uses time in a way to create a sense of unease, dread, and impatience in the player and protagonist. 'Dead time' it most certainly is not, and a sharp riposte to games that artificially extended their running time for no reason at all.

Angela is an atypical video game character to say the very least. She is not defined by her race or gender, but they're an integral part to the rich thematic tapestry of Sunset. Her inner monologue, delivered in poetically brief snippets, reveal a character who develops in fascinating ways over the course of one year, her actions subtly guided by the player's decisions within the game. This is a game of binary - orange and blue - choices, but of impressively nuanced morality, aware that the subject matter being addressed here is rarely black & white.

Sunset is a game about art, about love, about freedom, about literature, about politics. It is, notably, a game about war, but addresses it from a perspective that feels unique within a wider cultural landscape, let alone video games (a medium in many ways that has developed over the years by trivialising war). Actual combat is only ever glimpsed or heard from a distance, yet it is as complete an exploration of the victims, contradictions and consequences of war has ever portrayed in an interactive medium. The characters decry the destruction and the death caused by the military, yet also find themselves conflicted by the 'necessity' of fighting. They fret over the impossibility of peace and freedom without more suffering. They reflect in horror at the consequences of their actions, while celebrating their victories. This is undoubtedly an anti-war game, but also one with a deep understanding that it's more complicated than 'war is bad'. Most importantly, nowhere does the game lecture - it asks us to ask ourselves questions to which there are no easy answers. Even Angela herself is an unreliable narrator, her point of view far from the definitive one. We can empathise without necessarily agreeing.

If we're talking about 'graphics', Sunset is imperfect - the frame rate is inconsistent, the animation occasionally wonky, and some of the assets uninspiring. Yet aesthetically it is a triumph. The more you play, the more it becomes evident that the hit to performance was a worthy compromise given the quality of the art. The impressionistic reflections, gorgeous shadows and dynamic lighting in the game make for many ravishing visual moments, many of which you will stumble across by chance. The game is presented as a perpetual magic hour, approaching twilight, complemented by the stylised light sources within the game itself (the surrealist neon yellow staircase impresses every time). The artfully applied soundtrack enhances the atmosphere, too - Austin Wintory's economically utilised compositions are fetching, while many of the game's most potent moments come from the times when you put on one of the records you find scattered about the place, and just go exploring.

Sunset is from an (almost) alternate dimension - one where video games are formally adventurous, thematically provocative, overflowing with nuance and intellect. It is a very rare breed indeed.