Summary
Children of the Sunis a single player 3D puzzle shooter game that is just days away from being released on April 9. Players will follow the story of a nameless main character who has one goal in mind: revenge. Equipped with one gun and one bullet, each level must be executed in a single shot, which players will control.
Children of the Sunsolo Berlin developer René Rother told Game Rant in a recent interview that the story is simple, as he instead chose to focus on its atmospheric storytelling through the game’s visuals and music to create a different kind of experience for players.
Enter The “Melancholic” World Of Children of the Sun
Children of the Sunleaves players on foot. The Girl, its unnamed protagonist, is rushing in the direction players send her, but she’s ultimately circling her targets—cultists from whom she escaped from—and setting up for the right moment to make her move. Glowing figures standout in the dark surroundings, who players can mark before taking their shot. Once the sniper shoots, the bullet flows almost in slow-motion, leaving a moment of suspense before striking the target and spurting blood over the screen, confirming the figure has been taken out. There’s no “big crate” waiting afterward like inFortniteorCall of Duty.The Girl moves onto the next cultistas part of her one-woman war. The music is dreading; the eerie tones are muffled, but the static of strange tunes immerses players into the dreary, infrared-colored world. Rother told Game Rant that he viewsChildren of the Sunmore as an “emotional war.”
I like melancholic music a lot, something which is a little bit more harsh, a little bit more noisy maybe, but it needs to have an atmosphere and the whole colors, the whole visual direction. I didn’t really plan to do it the way it is. It’s just like the natural residue of what I enjoy.
It was more about this personal feeling of repression, of being oppressed and being uncomfortable and breaking out of it, breaking out of the cycle of abuse in a way. But it is kind of a war. I never considered it like that to be honest… To me, it was more of an emotional war.
“Minimal and Ambiguous” Art Design Of The Girl
Players don’t learn much about The Girl. She’s light and quick on her feet, wearing a cover-up that resembles Jason Voorhees' hockey mask as her hair prevents any leak of her identity. She runs with a long jacket, sling across her chest and rifle in one hand; the only exposed part are her legs, making it seem like she’s wearing a skirt. Traveling with nothing but a sling and a weapon is a character design almost comparable toThe Last Of Us’Joel and Ellie, who had nothing but weapons and first aid in their backpacks, which can lead to one conclusion: she’s in survival mode. But the mystery behind who The Girl is and why she’s waging war is how Rother wanted it to be, although he didn’t initially plan to have a female protagonist.
I try to keep her design rather minimal and ambiguous. [The fact that] it’s a girl that happened a bit later, to be honest. It was not planned like that. I just wanted to make a character, which more through animation, kind of conveys a feeling. And it’s not just the design itself; I think a lot of it comes from the animation and that it’s a girl.
I originally wanted to keep it more open if it’s a girl or not. And then, at some point, I got people playing the game and lots of people referred to it as a girl. And then I just embraced it and went for it. And then, in the beginning, when the story started to take shape, it just felt like it completely made sense.
The Girl is trying to take down a cult, but ultimately is seeking revenge against their leader. Cutscenes sprinkled throughoutChildren of the Sunallow players to get more hints about The Girl’s past life: she was raised to kill and someone beloved to her was taken away. Rother said the cutscenes are meant to bring players back and visually explain what has been happening. They will revisit locations of the past and characters from past scenes will also reappear.But there’s no dialogue. Rother knew early on that he didn’t want to write because he’s not a good storyteller, and you can put one line in and “mess everything up.” Instead, he prefers to convey emotions through the atmosphere and visuals, noting that the cutscenes are meant to make you feel “uncomfortable.”
These things can be very easily conveyed through non-dialogue: the pose of the girl in these cut scenes, which makes you feel uncomfortable. And that’s like the discomfort of the girl in her situation.
I just knew very early on that I wanted to keep things more open for interpretation.
Though revenge isn’t always advised,Children of the Suntakes an interesting take on why people are pushed in that direction. Though there are other titleswhere protagonists take revenge, like Aiden Pearce inWatch Dogsor Venom Snake fromMetal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, those games don’t leave players with a sole weapon nor a single bullet. It’ll be interesting to see how supply scarcity forces players into tactical shooting and their response to the dialogue-free, eerie world ofChildren of the Sun.
Children of the Sunwill be released on PC on July 17, 2025.
