Children of the Sun Preview: A lone dev, a lone bullet, and a whole lot of style

Children of the Sun, Devolver Digital’s forthcoming indie title for PC, is part Hitman-style shooter, part Giallo movie, and part ballistics-bending puzzle. We got a taste of the bloodbath in store ahead of its release later this year, as well as an opportunity to hear more about its morbid mystery and its murderous mechanics from the game’s solo developer, René Rothe.

Children of the Sun is a forthcoming single-player, third-person shooter from lone developer René Rothe. Published by indie specialists, Devolver Digital, it’s as dark as it is delightful.

With a seamless blending of elements from both horror survival, and puzzle games alike, along with some truly distinctive time manipulation mechanics, it offers a fresh and fierce gameplay experience.

Children of the Sun: A cerebral serve of blood and bullets

Players assume control of “The Girl”. A mostly silent protagonist on a vengeful rampage against the eponymous Children of the Sun, the cult who upended her life. Masked, and armed with just one bullet — and the mysterious, almost telekinetic ability to control its trajectory — she’s a one-woman assassin with a mind set on murder. 

While Rothe says he originally designed his protagonist as an androgynous figure, without really having any gender in mind, when others he showed the designs to referred to the character as “the girl”, he came to feel a female main character was the right fit for the story. “It was very lucky,” he says of the unexpected inspiration, “I’m very happy to have chosen [to use] a girl.”

The protagonist’s story draws on inspiration from the classic fiction trope where a young girl discovers strange and unexplainable powers when she reaches puberty. Riffing on this idea, Rothe designed a protagonist with a lust for revenge and the metaphysical means to achieve it.

While dialogue throughout the preview was sparse, the game’s gritty story is unveiled through a series of cut scenes with an art style both striking and surreal. The cut scenes were one of the areas Rothe received help with during the game’s creation. The other was the game’s music. The soundtrack is deeply immersive, atmospheric, and slick with ambient distortion that calls to mind Hotline Miami’s experimental, electronic vibes.

But as rich and menacing as the game’s story, visuals and music are, it’s the mechanics that really shine. And those were designed and developed by Rothe himself.

Originally, he started development of the game “quite a long time ago” while he was working other jobs. “I did it as a side thing, just sort of as fun,” Rothe explained, “even after Devolver became involved with it, I still did it on the side.”

All up, he estimates it took him around five years to make. After dabbling with development on the side for about two years, he estimates he spent three years of full-time work perfecting and polishing everything we see today.

Fresh, fun, and fatal: Children of the Sun’s unique take on time manipulation

One of the key features of Children of the Sun is its innovative and interactive combat. Although you won’t be going head-to-head with any of your opponents.

Instead, players control a single bullet. Each time a cultist gets taken down, players have the opportunity to re-aim. Allowing for a single bullet to curve its way around obstacles, accelerate its speed, and trigger environmental traps — all while cleaving its way through multiple enemies in each level.

Rothe said in the past he mainly worked on small, atmospheric-style projects, rather than fully-fledged games. Originally, the concept for Children of the Sun “was more like a small environment, a visual idea” in his mind. So that’s what he focused on. As Rothe explained it, weighing down the mechanics any further with “game-y game” features just for the sake of it “felt wrong.”

Children of the Sun’s environments are small, and the way players can interact with the environment heavily limited. But, it’s the challenge presented by these restrictions that help make each level so immersive.

Replayability is rife with this one. We’ve already gone back through the preview more than once to try and solve the riddles in each level. With multiple solutions for both clearing the stage and meeting the additional enigmatic objectives, Children of the Sun encourages players to experiment and get creative. Plus, the online leaderboard for the highest score in each level gives you some visible bragging rights over your friends and strangers, adding an almost retro, arcade-style feel — on top of all the other flavors.

As puzzling as the preview was, Rothe tells us players can expect even more challenges and tougher riddles to solve with the full game. “It will be really interesting to see how people react to the game,” he said.

We already know we’re looking forward to seeing how we stack up on that leaderboard at release.

Children of the Sun will be available on PC later this year.