About Actual Sunlight
“I know what you’re thinking: Why keep getting up, day in and day out, even though your life is going nowhere?”
Actual Sunlight is a short interactive story about love, depression and the corporation.
The game puts you in the role of Evan Winter, a young professional in Toronto, as he moves through three distinct periods of his life. The story is linear, unavoidable and (hopefully) thought-provoking. You experience his perceptions, fall under the consequences of his decisions, and meet everyone who didn’t change him.
Gameplay is minimal, and serves only to move from one part of the (admittedly) text-heavy story to the next. The game fiercely attempts to be worth it.
Actual Sunlight is not appropriate for children. It features mature themes and an adult-workplace amount of profanity. And it does so immediately.
Media Highlights
GameZebo: Review – Actual Sunlight
Press X to Win: Обратите внимание: Actual Sunlight
Gather Your Party: Actual Sunlight – Second Opinion
Polygon: Gaming’s New Frontier: Cancer, Depression, Suicide
Rivaltide: The Saddest Game You Will Ever Play
DailyDot: Battling depression through video games
The Indie Mine: What makes a game?
Kotaku: 4 Video Games That Help You Understand And Deal With Your Depression
VGU.tv: Actual Sunlight: Will O’Neill on Personal Experience, Age, and Art
PushSelect: Losing Control: Destiny, Determinism, and Depression
Macleans: In these video games, depression is the point
VG 24/7: Voiceless and Forgotten: Coping With Depression Through Play
Open Book Toronto: Interview: Video-Game / Fiction Hybrid Actual Sunlight
The Toronto Standard: Emotional Games – Actual Sunlight
The Penny Arcade Report: Depression, suicide, and a final choice that isn’t what you think: the power of Actual Sunlight
BeefJack: Actual Sunlight: shining a light on depression
Rock, Paper, Shotgun: “His hypocrisy makes him unlikeable, and yet his writing is absolutely compelling.”
Live Free, Play Hard (RPS): “Actual Sunlight is about the possibility that things can’t change, about reaching fatal inertia.”
Gamespot: “Light in the Darkness: Dealing With Depression in Games”
Kotaku: “The Biggest Challenge In This Game Is Preventing Your Character From Committing Suicide”
BuzzFeed: “Gaming’s First Depression Simulator”
Kill Screen: “Will O’Neill explores darkness with hope and honesty.”
Ataque Critico: Um estudo sobre a depressão em Actual Sunlight”
VideoGameGeek: Indie Developer Focus: Will O’Neill
Gather Your Party: Storytelling in Videogames: Actual Sunlight
Gather Your Party: An Interview with Will O’Neill
Indie Games: “Actual Sunlight: an excellent free game and a worthy IndieGoGo cause”
Plus 10 Damange: “It’s like Bioshock!”
Tamath Talks About Things: “A game boldly goes where entertainment fears to tread.”
IndieStatik: “Actual Sunlight is the hardest hitting game about depression I’ve ever played.”
TorontoThumbs.com: “It’s not often that a game makes me sit back and say ‘whoa’.”
TPReview: “It might be the most profound and personal game I’ve ever played.”
IndieGameMagazine: “Every so often a title like Actual Sunlight comes along, handling weighty topics with assured confidence and making us realize how impactful the gaming medium can be.”
Ocedic’s Review: “… Whether you feel pity, fear, anger, inspiration or apathy is up to you.”
Cheatmasters: “If you’re single, living alone, and trying to make it in life, then you will get what Actual Sunlight is trying to say.”
The Indie Developer: “Actual Sunlight really makes you think about people, and how they deal with life.”
Media – Radio
One Life Left: No Continues 010 – Love/
DRadio Wissen: Depressiv auf Probe
Art In Development
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Player Feedback
PushSelect: Losing Control: Destiny, Determinism, and Depression
Macleans: In these video games, depression is the point
VG 24/7: Voiceless and Forgotten: Coping With Depression Through Play
Open Book Toronto: Interview: Video-Game / Fiction Hybrid Actual Sunlight
The Toronto Standard: Emotional Games – Actual Sunlight
The Penny Arcade Report: Depression, suicide, and a final choice that isn’t what you think: the power of Actual Sunlight
BeefJack: Actual Sunlight: shining a light on depression
Rock, Paper, Shotgun: “His hypocrisy makes him unlikeable, and yet his writing is absolutely compelling.”
Live Free, Play Hard (RPS): “Actual Sunlight is about the possibility that things can’t change, about reaching fatal inertia.”
Gamespot: “Light in the Darkness: Dealing With Depression in Games”
Kotaku: “The Biggest Challenge In This Game Is Preventing Your Character From Committing Suicide”
BuzzFeed: “Gaming’s First Depression Simulator”
Kill Screen: “Will O’Neill explores darkness with hope and honesty.”
Ataque Critico: Um estudo sobre a depressão em Actual Sunlight”
VideoGameGeek: Indie Developer Focus: Will O’Neill
Gather Your Party: Storytelling in Videogames: Actual Sunlight
Gather Your Party: An Interview with Will O’Neill
Indie Games: “Actual Sunlight: an excellent free game and a worthy IndieGoGo cause”
Plus 10 Damange: “It’s like Bioshock!”
Tamath Talks About Things: “A game boldly goes where entertainment fears to tread.”
IndieStatik: “Actual Sunlight is the hardest hitting game about depression I’ve ever played.”
TorontoThumbs.com: “It’s not often that a game makes me sit back and say ‘whoa’.”
TPReview: “It might be the most profound and personal game I’ve ever played.”
IndieGameMagazine: “Every so often a title like Actual Sunlight comes along, handling weighty topics with assured confidence and making us realize how impactful the gaming medium can be.”
Ocedic’s Review: “… Whether you feel pity, fear, anger, inspiration or apathy is up to you.”
Cheatmasters: “If you’re single, living alone, and trying to make it in life, then you will get what Actual Sunlight is trying to say.”
The Indie Developer: “Actual Sunlight really makes you think about people, and how they deal with life.”
Media – Radio
One Life Left: No Continues 010 – Love/
DRadio Wissen: Depressiv auf Probe
Art In Development
Player Feedback
“It’s brilliant. Congratulations on making something that’s brilliant. Hardly anyone does that.”
“The writing is frank, funny and raw, but in a polished way. You’ve made something of real consequence.”
“It’s a story that really couldn’t have existed except for today… The voice is still very small, but not any less profound.”
“I just finished this, and damn. It’s a very powerful experience; I’d put it in the Utsuge category actually. I encourage everyone here to play it. When I opened it, I was expecting something fairly half-baked with meh writing (something the VN afficionados on the OELVN scene keep complaining about, really.) It’s not quite a traditional visual novel, but to be honest, it definitely fits in here more than everywhere else. And it’s got great writing.”
“I started and I managed to log almost 20 minutes in the apartment alone, just reading all the stuff you’ve written for Evan, that Something Awful review… It was epic.”
“The story moved me at points. Certain situations and pieces of story or dialogue, I could identify with. That’s a powerful position to be in as a writer, and when the game resonates with the player, on any level, you know the writing is well done and effective.”
“Do you have any other games?”