When it was announced back in March 2025, Hello Sunshine captivated gamers with its weird and bold trailer. Now, Red Thread Games is showing off more details for their upcoming game.
CGM was invited to a digital preview in which the Creative Director at Redthread Games, Ragnar Tørnquist and the Game Director on Hello Sunshine, Jonathan Nielssen, detailed the basic gameplay and world of the game. It was somewhat of a departure from what they’re used to making, as Tørnquist explained, “We’ve been making mostly narrative games now for over a decade, starting with Dreamfall Chapters.” He continued, “None of them are RPGs or survival games, so this is a first for us, but you know we come at this from definitely a narrative angle…”
The world of Hello Sunshine looks to be an intense one, as players will literally roast in the sunlight if they stand in it for too long. Thankfully, they are given a giant robot to follow, which not only provides shade but can lead players to points of interest or useful materials if they dare to venture out from the robot’s shadow. “At the start…the robot does not care about us at all. We’re like an ant to this thing,” Tørnquist said, adding, “but the point of the game is also as you’re on this journey towards the rising sun, you’re also building a relationship with this giant robot.”
But what Tørnquist and Nielssen really wanted to stress was the pace of how Hello Sunshine plays. As Nielssen says, “You need to think quite quickly. You don’t really have that much time often to take a good look at everything and read all the text and see what you can do.” He continued, “We find that this really makes for a really good momentum and for the players to really play this game on the edge of their seats during the daytime.”
The way they described it is, players are effectively “tethered” to the giant robot. They need to follow it in order to move across the map and stay out of the sun, but they’ll also need to explore and gather as quickly as they can without losing sight of it. At night, they’ll need to stay close to the robot as the desert becomes freezing cold. But it isn’t just running and scavenging, players might need to engage in combat as well against… relatively smaller robots.
And while combat is going to be part of the experience, Nielssen wants to stress, “It’s important for us that you know this is not a hack-and-slash game. This is not really like a big on fighter…But, we want the players to strategize around combat.” There’s a certain degree of risk vs. reward being built into the game, combined with different ways players can build their character to adopt different playstyles that will change their experience.
No release date has been set for Hello Sunshine, but players are able to wishlist the game on Steam as well as register for an upcoming playtest.
