Tale of Tales' revolutionary housekeeping adventure Sunset succeeds Kickstarter goal

Tale of Tales has never been a conventional developer with such experimental titles as Luxuria Superbia, Bientôt l'été's, Salome, and The Path under its belt, but that hasn't stopped over a thousand backers from funding its upcoming noir adventure Sunset on Kickstarter.

Previously announced in a cryptic viral ad campaign teasing its fictitious tropical setting of San Bavón, Anchuria, Sunset was touted as a first-person exploratory adventure, and now we know how its wildly imaginative premise works.

Set in 1972, you play as a housekeeper named Angela Burnes who's in charge of cleaning the penthouse of a swanky revolutionary named Gabriel Ortega. Every day you'll have a set amount of time to finish your chores before Mr. Ortega returns at sunset. Finish early - or slack off - and you can snoop around his flat.

Your mysterious employer's got all sorts of fascinating information on the revolutionaries tucked away in his pad, along with nifty 1970s era high-tech gadgets. Who can resist tinkering with that? Plus Ortega will respond to your actions and your relationship will change based on how you personalise your housekeeping style.

"For each task in the apartment there is more than one way of performing it: a neutral way or a naughty, funny way or flirty way," the developer explained. "Gabriel will respond through small notes and other actions. It is up to you to decide how intimate or antagonistic this relationship becomes."

Tale of Tales said it was inspired by military shooters, even if the gameplay in Sunset will contain no combat or puzzles whatsoever. "We always wondered what life would be like for the extras in such games, the people who are not the heroes, the ones on the sidelines - like most of us," the developer pondered. "How does it feel to be one of the many victims of war, instead of the hero? How does it feel when war is the backdrop for your day-to-day life?"

Even though the entire game will be set in one apartment, it sounds like it'll be plenty moody with the dynamic day/night cycle lending a sense of panicked dread colliding with serene beauty as you navigate this dangerous revolution from the sidelines. It sounds a bit like Papers, Please with its tiny, claustrophobic setting, revolutionary backdrop, and time-sensitive challenges that naturally blend in with your moral choices. Only this will ostensibly have chores like scrubbing toilets. It will also have Journey composer Austin Wintory handling the soundtrack.

Tale of Tales was looking for $25K to fund Sunset and it's already surpassed that with $32,761 in its first week and it's still got 23 days to go before its 17th July deadline.

Backers can secure a digital copy of Sunset for PC, Mac and Linux upon its estimated March 2015 release for $15. At $25 they can get a digital soundtrack, too, and at $35 they'll also receive a Kickstarter-exclusive digital art book.

When asked if Sunset might come to consoles, Tale of Tales told Eurogamer, "We'd love to see Sunset on a console, but at the moment we want to concentrate on the PC version to make the game as good as it can be, without worrying about cross-platform complications."