SunnySide 2.0 - Survey Results & The Road Ahead

Hello everyone,

First of all, we want to say a massive thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in our SunnySide survey.

We received 1,394 responses, which is honestly incredible. The amount of feedback, honesty, encouragement, criticism, and care you all put into your answers has been extremely helpful for us as we figure out where SunnySide goes from here.

In our previous post, we talked about the fact that SunnySide is finally back in our hands. We now fully have the rights to the game, and we’re able to work on it ourselves, directly, without the complications and limitations that existed before.

This post is going to be about two things:

1. What we learned from the survey.

2. What you can expect moving forward

And the short version is this:

We are rebuilding SunnySide.

Not from nothing. Not throwing away its heart, characters, music, world, or identity. But we are rebuilding the game’s foundations so that we can finally make it into the game we always wanted it to be.

Why We’re Taking This Approach

SunnySide is in a slightly unusual situation.

The original game was built in Unreal Engine 4.27, which is now very old by modern standards. Since then, Unreal Engine has received years of improvements, optimizations, new tools, and better workflows. On top of that, the version of the engine used for SunnySide also had source code edits made to support console development.

As many of you know, the console ports were handled by a different company and were not supervised by us as closely as they should have been. Now that SunnySide is back with us, we no longer have that overhead or those constraints. Our focus can be very simple:

Make the game fun. Keep its identity. Improve performance.

And yes, we hear you loud and clear: Optimization is one of the biggest priorities.

Over the past two months, we tried to convert SunnySide from Unreal Engine 4.27 to Unreal Engine 5.7. We explored it seriously, tested it, and spent a lot of time trying to make it work.

In the end, we reached the conclusion that it simply was not the right path.

Even if we managed to force the old project into the new engine, we would still be left with a messy collection of old systems, old decisions, old bugs, and technical debt. It would not give us the clean foundation SunnySide needs.

So we made the harder decision: We are starting again from a new foundation.

That does not mean everything is being thrown away. We will be keeping the characters, much of the writing, the music, the sound, the atmosphere, and the essence of SunnySide. But this gives us the chance to take a second look at almost every system in the game.

Farming. Inventory. UI. Time Managment.. Performance. Progression. Social systems. Mining. Exploration. The way the game feels moment to moment. All of it can be rebuilt with the knowledge we have now, and with the huge amount of feedback you have given us.

A More Stable, Better-Performing SunnySide

One major change is that we are now much more comfortable working in C++.

The original version of SunnySide relied heavily on Blueprint systems. Blueprints are fantastic, and we still love using them, but some of the heavier systems in SunnySide were simply not built in the most efficient way. Inventory handling, cleanup logic, repeated background checks, and other large systems could become slow and difficult to maintain.

For this new version, many of those core systems are being rebuilt in C++.

That means better performance, cleaner systems, more flexibility, and fewer situations where one slow piece of code drags the whole game down.

We have already created a prototype with several systems running in C++, including:

• A new inventory system

• A new day and night system

• A redesigned clock

• Early UI systems

• Foundational gameplay systems

We are not ready to show all of this just yet, but we will share more when it is in a good place.

This is a very big step for us. We are excited about it, but we are also very aware of the scale of what we are taking on. We are still a very small team, smaller than we were before, but we care deeply about SunnySide, and we want to bring out its full potential.

All we ask for is time.

We know how much many of you love the core of SunnySide. It genuinely saddens us to see how often that core experience gets buried under unfinished systems, bugs, performance issues, or mechanics that never quite landed the way they should have.

What about Current Players?

This new version of SunnySide is something we are currently referring to as SunnySide 2.0.

Our goal is to release it as a free update to the existing game on Steam.

If, for technical or platform reasons, this has to become a separate Steam app instead, then current owners of SunnySide will be granted access to it.(However we don’t currently foresee this happening)

The bottom line is simple: If you own SunnySide, you will always own SunnySide (as long as we have a say in it, anyway)

Whether you want to call it a 2.0 update, a remake, or a second iteration, we do not want existing players to ever feel left behind.

We will also keep the original version of SunnySide available on a legacy branch on Steam. That means if you prefer the original version, or if you simply want to revisit it, you will still be able to access it. We also encourage everyone who wants to play it now to go ahead and do so. Nothing that we do with SunnySide 2.0 will impact your current games, so please continue to have fun!

Because this new version is being rebuilt from the ground up in terms of code and systems, old save files will not be compatible between the 1.0 and 2.0 branches. We know that is not ideal, and we will do what we can to support the legacy version as much as possible, but the new version will effectively be a new game under the hood.

Let’s Talk About the Survey

The survey gave us a huge amount of useful information, and we want to go through some of the biggest themes that came up.

We will not be able to address every single response in this post, but we have read through them carefully, and they are already helping shape the direction of SunnySide 2.0.

The Caves

The caves were one of the clearest points of agreement in the survey.

A lot of you felt that the caves, combat system, and the story connected to the Ancients did not quite fit with the rest of SunnySide. Many of you described the combat as repetitive, confusing, buggy, or simply not enjoyable enough to justify how much space it took up in the game.

There was also a strong feeling that the caves pulled attention away from the parts of SunnySide that people connected with most: farming, relationships, the town, the atmosphere, and the day-to-day life sim experience.

At the same time, the feedback was also very clear on one important point: You do not want mining to disappear.

Many of you still want a way to gather stone, ores, gems, and other resources. Some players also enjoyed the caves as a unique part of the game, especially as an alternative way to make money or progress outside of farming. So our direction is not simply “remove the caves and move on.” Instead, we are rethinking what the caves should be.

In the survey, 77.8% of players agreed with removing the caves in their current form.

Based on that, our current plan is:

• Remove the battles from the caves

• Remove the enemies from the caves

• Remove the current cave storylines

• Remove the main Ancient storyline connected to the caves

• Keep mining as part of SunnySide

• Rebuild the caves into a more focused mining experience

We are currently exploring a version of the caves as a procedurally generated, dynamic mining area where you can visit, gather minerals and gems, and return again after the cave resets on a set interval.

We also want mining itself to feel better. Rather than only being a basic pickaxe interaction, we want to look at tool upgrades, different mining tools, and a more tactile, satisfying resource-gathering loop.

As for the Ancients, we still love many of those designs and ideas. We are looking into creative ways to bring parts of them back into SunnySide in a way that better fits the game, but we will share more on that when we are ready.

If you have more ideas or opinions about this new direction, we’d love to hear from you in the comments here or on our Discord!

Relationships and Social Systems

Another major theme in the survey was that many of you want relationships to feel deeper, more natural, and more rewarding.

A lot of players felt that relationships currently reach a point where they simply stop progressing in a meaningful way. Many of you asked for stronger “endgame” relationship content, including commitment, marriage, partners moving in, children, or other ways for relationships to feel like they continue after reaching a high bond level.

We also heard a lot of feedback about NPCs needing to feel more aware of the world around them.

You want characters to remember things. To react to your progress. To comment on what is happening in town. To acknowledge your farm, your relationships, your choices, and recent events.

You also want NPCs to interact more with each other, not just with the player. Friend groups, group hangouts, casual conversations, visits, texts, notes, and characters initiating contact with you were all common suggestions.

This is something we strongly agree with. In fact, a lot of these systems were originally planned for SunnySide but were cut for various reasons, most of which were related to word count issues. SunnySide was originally meant to be a 500k word game, but when we were forced to cut the word count in half, a lot of the supporting social systems went out the window as well.

For SunnySide 2.0, we want the social side of the game to feel less like a checklist and more like a living part of the world. That means looking at dialogue variety, friendship progression, hangouts, NPC schedules, social groups, and how characters behave outside of direct conversations.

We also received a lot of feedback about the romance and gender attraction system.

Many players found it frustrating that certain romance options could be locked off based on choices made during character creation, especially when those restrictions were not always clear upfront. We understand that this could lead to players feeling like they had to research romance options before playing, or even restart if they realized later that the character they liked was unavailable.

This is something we are going to take a serious look at.

We are not ready to confirm the exact changes to the system yet, but we hear the feedback clearly: relationships should feel more flexible, less punishing, and easier to understand.

Hangouts were another common topic. Many of you liked the idea of spending time with characters, but felt the activities could become repetitive or awkward, especially when NPCs invited the player to places or activities they disliked (This was a bug that we were just never able to fix). We want to make hangouts feel more natural, with better context, more variety, and more personality from both the NPC and the player character. We also want the friendships in SunnySide to take center stage like they were always meant to. The truth is: SunnySide was never meant to be a “Dating Sim”. Very much like the Persona series that inspired our game, the goal was always to focus on the people of the town and all of the different types of relationships that existed. We wanted you all, the players, to feel like you were a part of that community, and we’re sad that this focus was taken away from you. We plan to fix that.

Making the World Feel Alive

The survey also made it very clear that while many of you love the look and atmosphere of SunnySide, the world can often feel too empty. This came up a lot.

Many areas were described as beautiful, but lacking enough to do. Places like the beach, outer farms, campgrounds, hot springs, bathhouse, abandoned school, research lab, and the roads leading out toward the bus stop and city were all mentioned as locations that look interesting but do not currently offer enough activity, interaction, or reward.

The size of the map also came up often. Some of you felt that SunnySide’s world is simply too spread out for the amount of content and population currently inside it, which can make travel feel slow and unrewarding.

At the same time, there were specific moments where SunnySide did feel alive.

The Farmers Market and festivals were mentioned again and again as moments where the town felt more active. Seeing NPCs and background characters gathered together helped the world feel busier and more believable.

But even there, many of you felt those events could go further. More unique interactions, more things to buy, more NPC conversations, more activities, and more reasons to participate would make those moments feel much stronger.

This is a big part of what we want to improve.

For SunnySide 2.0, we want to look at the world not just as a large map, but as a place that needs rhythm, purpose, and life.

That means looking at things like:

• Scaling down the map

• More meaningful NPC schedules

• NPCs using more of the town’s spaces

• Characters interacting with each other more often

• More reasons to visit underused locations

• More activity in places like the city, beach, hot springs, and market areas

• More rewarding exploration

• Small discoveries, secrets, resources, or encounters that make wandering feel worthwhile

We also heard the feedback about Higashi, the city area.

Many of you felt that Higashi had the appearance of being busy, especially with background characters, but still lacked meaningful things to actually do. We want to look at ways to make the city feel more useful and connected to the rest of the game, whether through shops, customization, NPC visits, activities, or other reasons to spend time there.

On a Personal Note

We know that a lot of you are incredibly excited about SunnySide finally getting the updates that it deserves, but we also want to make sure that we do a better job of managing expectations this time. Previously, we didn’t have much agency around how we communicated with our fans, and that’s also something that we desperately want to fix. We’ve always promised you transparency, and we always tried to give you that within the limitations that were placed on us. But now that those limitations are gone, it’s time to share more. So much more.

Firstly, we had made a good amount of progress on the first steps toward rebuilding the game. UI, Farming, harvesting… lots of animation updates and we were starting on the new map (yes, we have to rebuild the map) and we were excited to start sharing more information and… well… Siavash’s SSD died. Full failure. It won’t take too long to rebuild, but that’s the main reason that nothing has been shared yet. We don’t want to make false promises. We do want you to see some of what was accomplished though, so here are some photos!

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Secondly, we want you to know why SunnySide felt so unfinished upon release. The truth is: we always wanted SunnySide to be an Early Access game. We wanted to make changes and additions based on feedback from fans because we wanted you all to have a farming sim that you could truly love because you had been a part of making it. We fought for years to push SunnySide into Early Access, but we were denied.

To be clear: We don’t blame Merge Games for the issues that we faced. They were also struggling with their relationship with their parent company, and all of the issues always came down to money flow. Instead, we blame the corporate machine that has poisoned Indie Gaming over the last 5-10 years. Corporate greed is the main reason that we were pushed into so many corners, and over time we’ll provide more insight into how and why various pieces of SunnySide were cut or changed or modified the way that they were.

We want to answer your questions more honestly, but we also don’t want our answers to sound like excuses. The truth is, we made some bad decisions, too, and we’ll own up to that. All we ask for is a little grace, a little empathy, and maybe a really big mug to pour that delicious tea into.

Something else we feel that everyone needs to know: No one is working at Aftabi Games full time anymore. After SunnySide released and it was made very clear that we weren’t going to be recouping the publisher’s investment any time soon, we were all forced to find other ways to pay the bills. Sydney got a job at a small law firm, Siavash is developing games with other studios, Ren went off to college (and just graduated, actually!),Kaori and Allan are… well doing other work that I actually can’t tell you about… and Matt is a music teacher now! (No one knows how Ken survives, he’s an enigma).

Yes, we are making money on the sales from SunnySide and Vending Dokan now, but it’s just enough to pay the studio’s bills (and the legal debt incurred from trying to wrestle back the publishing rights) and not much more.

The importance of that information is this: updating SunnySide is going to take time. We don’t know how long. But we plan to earn your trust back through proof and actions, not just words.

Where This Leaves SunnySide

SunnySide has always had a strong core.

A beautiful town. A modern farming life. A great cast of characters. A unique atmosphere. A soundtrack we are still incredibly proud of. A world that so many of you connected with, even through the bugs and rough edges. That is the part we want to protect.

But we also need to be honest about what did not work. Some systems were unfinished. Some were too ambitious for the time and resources we had. Some added complexity without making the game more fun. And some simply made the game harder to maintain, optimize, and improve.

SunnySide 2.0 is our chance to rebuild around what worked, remove or rethink what did not, and create a much stronger version of the game.

This will take time. Like a lot of time. Like possibly a couple of years. But we’re going to do our best to share progress along the way and make sure that your voices are heard this time around.

Thank you again to everyone who filled out the survey, left a review, sent us feedback, supported the game, or simply believed in what SunnySide could be.

We are very happy to be back working on SunnySide and we are going to do our best to make it shine.

• Aftabi Games 💛