Sunkissed City: Everything We Know

Former Stardew Valley developer Arthur “Mr. Podunkian” Lee has teased the blueprint for a brand-new life simulation game called Sunkissed City, which will look to deliver an exciting new seaside locale and a vibrant roster of weird and wonderful characters. Similar to Stardew Valley—an award-winning, BAFTA-hogging farming sim, the upcoming IP will feature a cutesy retro-like art style, along with a slew of quests, hobbies, and extracurricular activities.

It isn't due out for a fair while yet, but we have managed to pique your interest with Mr. Podunkian's latest venture, then be sure to read on for all the latest updates. Here's everything we can tell you about Sunkissed City.

What Is Sunkissed City?

In a similar fashion to its counterpart, Stardew Valley, Sunkissed City will open up the floodgates for a hearty tale that's bursting at the seams with colorful biomes to explore, characters to befriend, and activities to participate in. In addition to featuring all the traditional bells and whistles of a typical life and farming simulation game, Sunkissed City will also accommodate a myriad of engaging story beats—episodic tales that you, the player, will have the opportunity to unravel as you establish a life for yourself in the sun-soaked metropolis of Apollo City.

Aside from its formula being pretty much one and the same as Stardew Valley, Sunkissed City will also feature an art style that’s essentially identical. So, if you’ve a second heart for anything connected to the world of Stardew Valley, then you’ll no doubt get a kick out of this one.

Story

It goes like this: you’ve been taken on to represent the “Peco Pioneer” program in a bustling seaside metropolis known as Apollo City. As the new hire, you must set out to befriend the community and, with the power of your company’s assets and initiatives, spread the word of its newly infused eco-focused innovations. In other words, you’ll have the monumental task of being the poster child for the company, which means you’ll need to scrub up well in order to establish a lifelong relationship with the folks of Apollo.

“As a fresh hire for the monolithic Pico corporation’s new “Peco Pioneer” pilot program, you’ve been tasked with fostering a relationship with Apollo’s vibrant community and putting in a good word for Pico’s new eco-focused initiatives,” the game's blurb reads in part. “But all is not well in these bustling streets. The local wildlife has begun to behave more aggressively, the waters are devoid of life, monsters are pouring out from the sewers, and that’s not to mention the constant migraines everyone’s been having lately.”

Gameplay

On the surface, it appears that Sunkissed City is, more or less, a traditional life simulation game; it’ll feature a wide variety of city-based activities and quests, and essentially allow for players to carve out their own stories. With that, we can also expect to see all of the typical trimmings, such as farming, cooking, and even a sliver of combat.

“Tend to do-it-yourself gardens set up by a local band of “plant-punks”, spend a quiet afternoon in the park soaking up a good book, or schmooze it up with the locals over coffee at the Weird Dog Cafe,” the game’s description reads in part. “Snap photos of the wildlife around the city and its surrounds. Try your hand at fishing up “the big one” at Marin Shores. Forage for delicious edibles on a hike at Pinnacle Peak. Or perhaps a daring dive into the city’s monster infested sewers is more your speed? You could always take up a gig sorting out shipments at the Pico warehouse for some extra cash.”

The good news is, Sunkissed City won’t be restricted to just an offline single-player mode; friends can also join in a split-screen multiplayer, apparently. According to the devs, this will allow the option to “customize your experience with per-player difficulty and accessibility options to tailor the experience to groups of any gaming ability!”

Development

In case you missed out on the initial announcement, Sunkissed City is being developed by Mr. Podunkian, a reputable developer who, prior to the conceptual stages of development, worked with ConcernedApe to create Stardew Valley. From the looks of Arthur Lee’s (or Mr. Podunkian, in this case) portfolio, Sunkissed City will serve as the developer’s first major IP.

At the time of writing, Mr. Podunkian has only confirmed the one platform: PC, which will receive the game at some stage in Q4 2024. Not to fret, though, as the team has also announced that they’ll be bringing Sunkissed City to a range of consoles at some point in the foreseeable future, too.

Trailer

It might've gone under the radar for most, but oddly enough, Mr. Podunkian did actually post a short teaser of Sunkissed City back in the beginning of 2023. Granted, it wasn't the most exclusive peak into the simulation project, but it did cough up a rather impressive overview of Apollo City and some of its local inhabitants. You can check it out for yourself in the video embedded above.

Release Date, Platforms & Editions

Sunkissed City will be launching on PC via Steam at some point in Q4 2024. In addition to its Steam debut, the game will also be arriving on all major consoles at some point in the aftermath of its initial arrival. As for which consoles it'll land on is still something of a mystery, though it's safe to say that it'll no doubt latch onto the likes of Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.

Edition-wise, there’ll only be the one available copy: standard. You can go ahead and add that to your wishlist on Steam here.

Interested in staying up to date with Sunkissed City? If so, then be sure to check in with the team over at Mr. Podunkian for all the latest developments via their official social handle here. If anything does pop up ahead of its release, then we'll be sure to fill you in on all the key details right here on gaming.net.

So, what's your take? Will you be picking up a copy of Sunkissed City when it arrives on its chosen platforms? Let us know your thoughts over on our socials here.