Been awfully quiet here on Goldspire for the past few months, hasn’t it? No new exhibits to visit, UNISERVE witnessed less and less each day. Rumor is something has begun to lurk in dark corridors once filled with fluorescent light and machine chatter.

Is the space station finally collapsing into Saturn? Are we done?

I’ve switched from crafting illustrations and exhibit posts to working on a video game.

It’ll be an existential adventure set within an endlessly huge brutalist shopping complex, full of retrofuturistic delights and fascinating robotic characters.

You, the little guy with a little tie, are assigned to keeping your region of the mall clean. Even as the stores get flooded, as walls collapse giving way to alien life forms taking refuge, and the Voice infests your colleagues, you’ll find ways to remain efficient. Because you’re single-minded, focused, and simple.

But wait, did you notice that? Something’s missing. The noise, the chatter, the lights, they’re all gone now… where are the people that used to visit this place?

Maybe the strange whispers escaping from the sub-basement have something to do with it. Maybe they’re your last shot at some answers to an increasingly confusing, terrifying existence.

This will be in the style of a 2d platformer similar to the metroidvania or roguelite genres (not neatly falling into either category).

Running, slashing, and maybe even some hopping. The game is tremendously ugly at this stage, with focus being given mostly to the functional bits, but here's an early look at the character!

Why a video game?

If you’ve been around for a few years, you might already know that I’ve dabbled in game development before. In fact, Sunset System conceptually started with a uni project around 2020, and I spent some time building some stuff afterwards in Unity, up to around 2022 (to no real end).

Because the website has done what I set out for it to do.

I started working on the illustrations and the website in late 2022 to develop myself and the setting. To establish a wonderful, thematic foundation to the project, really lock in what I was going for. I was aiming…

• to create a central hub, repository, and introduction for the project,
• to become a better artist/illustrator,
• to create a design language for the machine world,
• to develop a number of consistent key concepts,
• to understand storytelling.

And now…

• The website exists, and even has a solar system map!
• I look upon my art from a year ago with satisfaction, rather than frustration and dread.
• Sunset System has a clear look and feel I feel proud of.
• The world is well-defined in key areas, and has potential for exploration and mystery everywhere.
• I have written a handful of passages and stories that convey the themes up to my personal standards.

It feels like those goals have been accomplished.

Because I’ve been inspired.

What other indie game makers have made in recent history has been jaw-dropping. Disco Elysium, Citizen Sleeper, Outer Wilds, Spiritfarer, and countless others have made me re-evaluate what is possible with the medium (maybe games don’t always have to focus around killing 🤯?!) Plus, the emerging maturity of the Godot game engine has made it realistic to switch off of Unity.

Because I’m aiming for something larger.

As much as I love working on this website, creating stories and art for a growing community of fans, I am ultimately aiming for something a bit grander. Something multimedia: visual, interactive, audio driven experience, something that strikes deeper at a larger audience, something more than what drawings and short stories can do alone.

I’d consider doing the video route, but as a software engineer, I feel like a game aligns most with my skillset.

Are you abandoning the website and illustrations?

This was a really tough decision to make. Especially since Sunset System and its art actually has some eyes on it now, and people seem to really enjoy it. Honestly, I would say it’s at its peak.

But, looking at it in a different way, that seems to confirm that it’s ready enough to try something with it.

For the time being, I am “abandoning” the website and illustration. While I am building out the foundation of this game right now, hopefully, it will become the place I channel creative energies that I once channeled into this.

But I doubt I will have the stamina to work on it non-stop for months and years, so I’m sure I will return to this, especially after I get to some comfortable prototype stage. I still have a dozen half-started story/illustration concepts itching to be developed! Space robots and SRI robots anyone?

Why not just do both?

I’m one person already working a full-time job. There’s only so much time and brainpower I can dedicate to a side project, a limit I run into almost every day. So I’m forced to do one thing at a time.

Thanks to all of you for the support over the years. Seeing all the love, the interest in the worldbuild, and the fan creations have been most of my motivation for doing any of this.

Here’s hoping something decent comes out the other end! See you on the Discord.