sunfluffs - the game that gets it

i played a game recently that i've had on my wishlist for a (long) while - sunfluffs! all i knew about the game going into it was that it's very queer and made by someone in my circles. also that the characters have belly nipples, which had no influence on my decision to play this game whatsoever. yep.

i admittedly wasn't expecting much going into it. from the pictures on the steam store page it kind of just looks like your average cutesy unity 3d platformer, and i've played enough games like that to know to tamper my expectations. don't get me wrong, i love those sorts of games, short indie games are genuinely like my favourite thing to play, but often times they tend to be pretty basic and rough around the edges. it genuinely took a total of one minute of playing the game to realize how wrong i was.

right off the bat, the game's menu is so charming and responsive. menu and ui design is one of my interests / fixations, and i really liked what sunfluffs was doing. starting the actual game, i was really surprised by how smooth and expressive the character animations were. animation is hard, and a really common thing i notice in games made by one person or a small team is that often times a lot of steps are taken to avoid having to animate characters a lot, like using 2d character portraits for speech bubbles, or avoiding showing moving characters as much as possible. sunfluffs does .. none of that. the world is full of different background characters moving around, doing their own little believable tasks, talking to each other. it makes the game feel alive. when you talk to them, both the player character and the ones you're talking to have expressive full body animations. their mouths move, they gesture in natural ways, they walk around, often in ways unique to the character. it feels wrong calling them npcs, because sunfluffs goes to such great lengths to make sure every character feels like a living being with their own unique personality and quirks.

another thing related to that that really stood out to me is the kinds of characters you'll meet in this game, their personalities and their ways of speaking. i'm so used to playing games written by and for straight neurotypical people. even if they try to be inclusive, they always tend to play it so safe. sure there's games with queer neurodivergent characters, but they so rarely actually feel like the queer neurodivergent people i know. it caught me so off guard how much talking to the characters in sunfluffs just felt like talking to my friends. i've gotten so used to having to look for the most distant hints of something relatable to latch onto in the games i play. games made by queer people often get close, but it's never quite there. then sunfluffs comes in with the most relatable and real queer creatures i've ever seen in, honestly, any piece of media. i think it might be the main reason i became so fixated on this game for a while. they just like me fr..

but like. even ignoring that completely, there's just so much about this game that's done so well. the movement and controls feel so smooth and responsive. the world is pretty, unique, and it feels alive. the writing is really well paced, sweet and charming, but never too over the top. it's funny, but not in a forced way. all the interactions feel natural and they're accompanied by animations i wouldn't expect from a small team, much less what's mostly a single person project. the music is really good, i ended up ripping some of it from the game files because it got stuck in my head and i needed to hear it again. there were so many little moments when i did something i'd never expect the game to account for, only to see a unique interaction specifically just for whatever weird random thing i just did.

for example, there's a clothing store in the game. on my first visit, i bought all kinds of clothes, but then i realized that the game doesn't force you to wear clothes. i ended up just dressing my character in striped socks and arm warmers, otherwise completely naked. as i was leaving, the shopkeeper asked why i bought all this stuff if i'm not gonna wear any of it. and my character responded with something like, "i'll wear it later, i just realized that i can just.. do this". it made me so happy to be called out like that.. and there's so many little interactions like this.

this game made me feel so seen. i'm so used to feeling like an alien in this world, to nothing being made for someone like me, to not being able to relate to most of the media others enjoy. this silly little game makes no excuses, it doesn't hide parts of itself to try to appeal to a wider audience - it's so unapologetically queer and weird. it knows how much joy there is to be found in being this way and finding others like you. it gets it in a way i don't think any other game i played does.

.. if you're wondering what the gameplay is like, it's like a mix of of platforming, walking around, exploring, talking to different characters, racing, taking pictures, dodging attacks, and it's also kind of a metroidvania at times. it's very varied, but there's a story you follow and goals to work towards. different chapters have different areas to explore.

some other things this game has that i didn't manage to fit into the blog post but thought were rly neat: unique base six numbering system, really interesting worldbuilding, amazing representation of different disabilities and plural folks, implied tf

thanks for reading my ramble <3 if the game sounds like something you'd enjoy, you can grab it on steam or itch.io

ps: azure, you mentioned at some point that i and the stuff i make inspired you. i want u to know that your little game and how much of yourself you put into it inspired me so much ;w; i was going through a rough time, feeling ashamed of the things i am, feeling like i should be hiding away parts of myself so i don't risk making others uncomfortable. i think playing through sunfluffs helped me with that a lot, along with the kind words you left on one of my blog posts. thank you so much for making this <3

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