Please the game is not ment to be total darkness, please go to world options and click reset on sky settings, then it should save with correct settings, also you might want to change graphics in advanced settings too...
I will try to work on a fix, but its because there is no save so it sets all sliders to the left... sorry about this
edit!
Sorry to anyone who said its total darkness and i didn't know what you ment untill I saw a guys video and he played in total darkness all way though, but you are ment to start at 4pm with sunlight and grass...
When you first start game it will auto save, but for some reason it was not setting sliders to defaults and then saving which is how its ment to be. Untill you make a edit to the sky settings (by moving sliders) it wont save and will always load your last settings you made...
Hopefully a fix is on its way for new people, but if you have already made a autosave please, go to world options, and click reset sky, also you might want to go to graphic settings and click advanced tab :D
(Please let me know if this next update fixes for new people)
Also image effcts could be disabled at start, when u see a white circle it means its on! Hope this helps!