Spicy Interview with Sunrise Team, dev team behind Sunrise City

SPICY INTERVIEW: SUNRISE TEAM

This month we had an opportunity to talk to the dev(s) behind one of the greatest adult games on the market in terms of technical execution, style and game-play, Sunrise City. Sunrise is also our GOM for June 2022 and you can read more about it below. Now let's look how the french do it.

Sunrise City has been on the scene for quite some time now, and people say that the team behind it is making it look like an AAA production. I would agree, as soon as you start the game you immediately know and feel this is not just one of the many adult games that flood the market. So how do they do it, how many are there and what can we expect in the future for the team and Sunrise city.

1. How Long is Sunrise City in the development. How did it all start?

We started working on Sunrise at the end of 2018, so it's been about 3 and a half years.

The project began with a very small version with less than 20 minutes of playing time. It took us 7 months, the time needed to create the universe, the first characters/backgrounds and especially all the tools needed for development.

2. Can you speak more about the world where this game takes place?

Sunrise City is a fictional city in the US that is cutting-edge in many fields, such as technology, fashion or even research.
It is the place to be to make a fortune or become famous, and many people from all walks of life come here to try their luck.

But behind this image of success and luxury, Sunrise City has a darker side with several groups competing for control of the city and using people's dreams for their own gain.

3. Would you like to tell us about the influences various books/games have had on the game? Also, how long have you been a developer for?

Basically, we have 3 main inspirations: the manga Tenjho Tenge, the manhwa The Breaker and the Ace Attorney game series.

Tenjho Tenge and The Breaker inspire us a lot with their atmosphere, the dynamism of the fights and how they treat the sexy aspect of the characters. For Ace Attorney, it really represents what we are trying to do: a visual novel with gameplay.

Otherwise, in general, shonen/seinen mangas are also very good sources of inspiration for us, we like the themes approached as teamwork, self-improvement and touches of humor that do not break the rhythm of the story.

We have been developers for 8 years, Sunny is a 2D/3D graphic artist and Zack is a game designer. Originally, neither of us is a programmer, we had to learn on the fly to start our studio

4. Which aspect of Sunrise City do you think improved the most since when you started the development.

If we had to point out a specific aspect, it would be the battle mechanics that have evolved the most. They were not very user-friendly and the fighting itself was quite slow at the beginning.

But when you look back at our first versions or even the test versions that the players never saw, there's a lot of progress in all aspects. Because even with the development experiences we've had, the feedback from the players helps us a lot to improve the game.

5. What’s your favorite part of the game? What’s your least favorite part of it?

The end of episode 4 is clearly our favorite part. It took a lot of work and brought us to our knees. It was the first scene with as many illustrations, animations, and an original music by our composer OKH, specially made to fit the tension of the situation.

As for the part we like the least, it's the whole beginning of the first episode which looks very outdated compared to the rest of the content. We would like to rework it, but for the moment we are focusing on adding new content.

6. Are there any characters who manage to surprise you as the story has progressed? By that I mean you had one thing in mind when creating the character and they turned out to be something entirely different.

So far this is not the case. Characters follow the intentions for which they were created and if the story does not require it, we try not to change the personality of a character after they have been introduced to the community to not betray their expectations.

However, in response to the community feedback, some characters are more present, and their stories are coming sooner than planned, like Ellen, Zoey, and Holly. This changes our plans a bit, but we're very happy to see the enthusiasm of the community

7. Tell as more about onyx academy. Why is it important?

Onyx Academy is every student's dream school. It is a huge campus with an international reputation and a very strong influence on the decisions of Sunrise City. It teaches the talents of tomorrow in every field imaginable, such as economics, law, battle or even circus, and the professors are top experts who often work in important positions in the city.

With the mafia and a still-secret group, Onyx is one of the three great powers that rule Sunrise City. Since it is the most positive of them, we decided to make it the starting point of our trilogy.

8. I know story writing, especially that has sex as one of the primary focuses can result in falling into having too many clichéd scenes or recurrent plot devices, so how do you personally avoid that?

Writing sex scenes, or scenes that lead to sex, is something that is very difficult to do without it seeming to come out of nowhere, but with each new version we learn a little more about how to create and stage this type of content.

The good thing for us is that sex is not the main focus of the game, it allows us to treat several themes/stories without sex breaking the immersion. We can add it when it seems relevant in order to avoid clichés and recurrent plots.

This results in less sexual content compared to other games, but we do our best to make sure that the content has a good graphic quality and that the girls are interesting to discover via the writing and challenging to date via the gameplay.

9. There are mini-games in Sunrise City, how are you managing them in terms of not being to tedious or repetitive.

The only mini-game is the shop, which can be repetitive but is very simple and fast, knowing that in the future the player will be able to delegate its management to other characters.

We don't plan to add more mini-games because we are counting on the main features of Sunrise City: fight, date, and investigation to bring content rather than getting lost in a multitude of shallow mini-games. It seems more interesting to us to focus on a few gameplays that will gain in depth and in which the player will be able to specialize thanks to the ability tree.

Regarding the combat, each opponent has their own behavior and some specific skills. For dates, each girl has her own questions and favorite subjects. For investigations, it's the easiest because each intrigue is different.

Concerning the tediousness, we do our best to make the interface as user-friendly and fluid as possible, and the feedback from the community helps us a lot

10. How long does it usually take you to do an update of the game, can you tell us more about what the process is like do you have a system in place for a new version release?

Currently, we need about 3 months to develop a version, knowing that eventually we would like to be closer to 2 months to release more often but have time to do things properly.

For our process, we already have the end of the story and all the key moments that we want to tell. When we start a new version, we begin with the pre-production phase: we review the community's feedback on the previous version, we look at the current state of the story and what is the next point to reach. Then we define the new content and the different elements on which the community can have an impact (bonus scenes, skins...), and to finish this phase we make a provisional schedule of all this.

We then start the production, while keeping the community informed of our progress via weekly news. We usually finish with the translation, and then comes a testing phase where we take the necessary time to guarantee the most stable version possible.

11. How much do you pay attention to the feedback from the fans and How do you go about balancing on changes according to feedback and sticking to your original plans? Do player expectations play a huge role in your planning for the next updates?

Concerning the gameplay, the feedback from the community is extremely important to us. It's what helps us improve the gameplay and make this experience as enjoyable as possible.

When it comes to the scenario, we have a story to tell and we're sticking to it to ensure consistency and coherence. This seems to appeal to our community, who seem more interested in discovering the story than deciding on it.

However, we want to have an exchange with our community so they can be part of the great adventure of creating a game. That's why we include non-main story elements that can be changed based on community votes or feedback. This is already the case with votes that have led to the inclusion of characters like Zoey and Grace in the game instead of others, or Ellen, who has won all of our popularity contests, getting her first personal story much sooner than planned.

12. If you were to go back in time, what one thing would you change about the game?

We would have started making our characters and backgrounds in 3D from the beginning, it would have saved us a lot of time. We are now in the process of making the transition and even if it allows us to do more things and do them better, it takes a lot of time.

But we had to make choices and even though it's time consuming, we're happy to see that it's starting to pay off with the improvements we've been able to achieve for a background that's coming in the next version.

SUNRISE CITY CAN BE SUPPORTED DIRECTLY ON SPICYGAMING! TRY THE GAME FOR FREE  AND IF YOU LIKE IT, TOSS A SG TOKEN AND HELP IT EVOLVE

13. What does the process of creating new characters look like?

All the characters are first written by Zack, focusing on their role in the main story (if they have one), the themes they will bring and their personal story line, so that each character brings something to the game's universe. At this stage, there may be some graphic elements, but they are minimal.

Sunny then takes the character's sheet and proposes design ideas that are then refined through exchanges between the two of us.

Once the design is finished, it is shown to the community (or kept secret ) and depending on the time we have, Sunny does their dialogue poses in 2D (drawing the poses) or in 3D (modeling, UV unfolding, texturing, rigging, skinning, posing).

3D takes much more time but allows us a greater flexibility to offer customization of appearance later on.

14. The game has a combat system. Can you tell us more about it, how it affects the game and how do we win every fight :).

The battle system allows us to add gameplay that fits the story rather than just narrate the fights. We think it's better in terms of storytelling if the player is actually in control when they fight an opponent.

This is one of the main features that allows to progress in the story or to unlock side content. It works alongside the ability tree which lets you customize your fighting style and the deck system which will be added in the next version for even more customization.

Some fights can be more challenging than others so if you want some advice, don't hesitate to come to our Discord to ask questions to our champion: Bosco!

15. How many are you in the Sunrise Team?

The development team is composed of 2 people: Sunny and Zack.

For the music, OKH creates original compositions for some key moments.

We are helped for the test phase and the moderation of the Discord by Bosco.

16. Who is your favorite girl in Sunrise City, everybody has a favorite so don't try to trick us with I love all the same answer

Sunny: Kana. She's an energetic and cool character, and we have an important role planned for her in Sunrise that we unfortunately can't reveal yet

Zack: Holly! She's cool, badass and sexy. She was a phone-only character until now, so it was a real pleasure to finally show her in her flashback.

17. Can you talk more about the upcoming content. What can we expect in the future?

The next version will introduce the character of Samantha and conclude episode 6 so that we can start the final part of season 0 (the Prologue) which will bring a lot of fights and revelations.

Without going into too much detail to keep the mystery intact, we can say that the next season will continue to focus on the working-class district, its intrigues and its inhabitants, with more time to learn more about the girls. In terms of gameplay, the main feature of this season will be the "Tournament" system.

Then comes the long-awaited return to Onyx...

18. How long does it take for you to produce a scene, broadly speaking? Do you go over it multiple times?

For a scene without illustration, if we already have the necessary poses for the characters, it takes between 1 to 3 days. If it needs illustrations or other things, we can go up to 3 weeks depending on the complexity.

We go over the scenes several times to make sure they are consistent throughout the production and we often add content if we are convinced that it adds something interesting.

19. How has your experience been in the adult gaming industry so far? What are the biggest advantages and disadvantages you’ve come across so far?

It's going very well so far, we're very happy with our community, they're super understanding of the fact that doing a quality project with just two people takes time.

We've also met some very nice developers like Juicy Eliot and MIP who give us good advice.

For us the advantage is that many games in the adult game industry have no gameplay or are fan games, which leaves room for projects with an original universe and real game mechanics. We are pleasantly surprised that our project is making its little way even if there aren't sex scenes every 5 minutes and that having to be invested in the gameplay could have been discouraging since it's not the norm.

The problem of the industry seems to be general and it's the difficulty to promote your game without being censored or risking problems with payment platforms. That's why platforms like Spicygaming are vital

20. Do you play adult games often? If so, which ones are your favorites currently?

Concerning adult games centered on sex, we don't play them much, in general it's more to see what other developers are doing and avoid copying.

Regarding adult content in general, we are mostly attracted to seinen manga or series like the adaptation of The Boys or Invincible.

21. What is/are your advice(s) for the new developers that are just starting out with their games?

Don't underestimate the communication around your game, it's the key. You can have the best game in the world, if no one hears about it, you will get discouraged and give up.

And another one that is the hardest to apply: take care of yourself, rest, take care of your health. It's extremely hard to apply when you want your project to succeed, but if it's to ruin your health/mental health, it's not good. Until your project has taken off, try as much as possible to find a good balance between work and rest.

22. Do you tend to play Sunrise City often? Not for proofreading, just for having fun, that is. Any favorite moments you like to revisit?

Sunny: I never play the game in my free time, but in every testing phase (where I try dozens of possible combinations of choices), I love reliving the 2nd fight against Rollo and the scene against Taurus.

Zack: Like Sunny, I don't play the game, it allows me to take a break and have a fresh eye when I get back to work. However, I'm currently working on the first outdoor 3D background and it's quite nice and relaxing to let it run and see the wind in the trees, the clouds move and hear the ambient sounds. If we manage to set up multiplayer challenges one day, I'd love to play with other players.

23. Are there any particular fetishes that you're excited to introduce in the game? Do you focus a lot on trying to introduce any particular fetishes in the game?

On our side, we are already having a lot of fun with big-breasted characters as you can see with the cast of season 0 ^^

But otherwise, we are not waiting to introduce any particular fetish, it is rather those of the community that we are interested in integrating. We especially try to make sure that each girl has her "little thing".

24. Where are you from (can be a broad answer), What did you do before developing adult games?

We are in France, and we have always been in the video games industry after our studies.

25. What led you onto the path of creating adult games?

Before Sunrise City, we had created a game studio to work on games for all audiences with several people, but because we had to satisfy everyone, our project didn't really have an identity and we ended up stopping.

After that, the two of us decided to make a game that really suited us. As we wanted to deal with serious themes in the story, we looked at the adult games industry so we wouldn't have any limitations. We saw a lot of games that were mainly narrative and immersed the player in a story where they just go from one sex scene to another and so we thought that we could bring something more by offering an adult game with gameplay and challenge, and here we are!

26. When will you be able to buy or support sunrise city on spicygaming? No, but seriously

Soon if our bank wakes up...

More seriously, we are facing some unforeseen administrative changes due to a new law (French administration...), but you will soon be able to find Sunrise City on Spicygaming!

SUNRISE CITY

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