Hello Sunshine is a desert survival sandbox where you live in the literal shadow of the colossus

How do you follow up a nordic noir mystery, followed by an anti-fascist pop-punk road trip? With a game about hiking through a post-apocalyptic desert and dodging sunburn in the shadow of your giant war-bot buddy, of course. Hello Sunshine is the next game from Norwegian indie outfit Red Thread Games (led by Longest Journey and Dreamfall director Ragnar Tørnquist) and looks to be an interestingly different take on the survival sandbox.

Looking vaguely similar (if you squint a bit) to other linear journey survival games like Raft or Voidtrain, Hello Sunshine has you following a giant robot as it trudges through the desert by day, and shuts down to recharge and repair at night, with the elements being a direct threat to life and limb. Being caught directly in the desert sun isn’t good for your health, forcing you to stay in the shadow of the upgradeable and customizable mech, and then huddling closer to the sun-baked bot for warmth when nightfall comes.

The game is billed as a “survival mystery” too, seemingly asking players to put together the puzzle pieces explaining just how the world became a barren wreck filled with corporate mega-weapons. Now, perhaps I’m a bit jaded, but I’m putting my money on ‘capitalism’.

Given Red Thread’s earlier games leaning more on the adventure side of things, I’d assume that the game isn’t going to have you scurrying around for water every two minutes like some survival games. I know I’d rather it leave me reasonable time to explore, scavenge and figure out all that plot stuff, but that’s just a hunch.

One thing that is confirmed is that the game is almost certainly going to tug on the heartstrings, with the announcement mentioning that while at first the colossus mostly ignores your presence, “over time, your bond strengthens”, which means that horrible things are undoubtedly going to happen to your robot pal. I’ve seen a Pixar movie; I know how this goes!

And there will be threats, as the announcement mentions hostile drones and giant mecha-crab monsters roaming the wastes, but also friendly drones that you can repair and program to help out on your scavenging runs.

What catches my eye the most is the mention of a co-op mode. While the text is irritatingly vague, talk of a chance to ‘experience the journey from different perspectives’ and a ‘peculiar partnership’ suggests that the second player will be taking on the role of the giant robot, potentially making for a very different experience than singleplayer. Pure speculation on my part, but I’d be down for a deeply asymmetric co-op story.

There’s no release date yet for Hello Sunshine, beyond a vague ‘coming soon’, but you can wishlist the game on Steam now