Gamescom 2026 has been and gone, and during it, I got to chat to Jonathan Nielssen, the Game Director behind Hello Sunshine, the surprise reveal of 2025, and with it, showed some actual gameplay as well. I have to say, the trailers don’t do it justice, and there’s a lot more to do than you might think.
You likely know the basics of Hello Sunshine by now. A giant robot that you’re tasked with protecting, seemingly aimlessly walks throughout the desert towards an unknown location, all the while you have to run alongside it, avoiding record temperatures that’ll damage you if you’re in the direct sunlight too long, and fight enemies and NPCs from all manner of places and settlements. That’s the basics. The deeper story is that you’re one of a few remaining employees for the conglomerate that has taken over the planet in a capitalistic sweep and monopoly, and your task of getting the giant robot across the land to a mysterious location is in fact something much more important than it may seem, although Nielssen stopped short of explaining exactly what that would be.
During my short time with Nielssen and the game, I got to see some of the gameplay mechanics at play. It’s a survival game at its core, with you needing to manage your exposure to the elements, primarily the sun, as well as your food and water levels. You’ll be able to scavenge various items, tools and resources from the buildings you encounter along your way, with enemies coming in various shapes and sizes of a robot variety. The only thing they share is that they all want to kill you.
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While resource finding and managing is incumbent to your success in Hello Sunshine, combat is not as much, with it being avoidable the majority of the time. You’ll also need to explore quickly, meaning avoiding fights is paramount, because while you’re looking around the next building, the giant has continued his massive, lumbering steps towards your final destination, and away from you. This will leave you a large run exposed to he sun, sapping your energy and water levels and putting you at risk. Be quick, get back to the robot, and get in its shade.
The game is also playable in co-op, which considering the unique aspects of the game, may make your time with it much harder, or much easier, but I’m sure Nielssen and Co have all the balancing in hand. Puzzle solving will surely be easier, which brings me to the game’s subtle humour. During one building search, we came to an inner building that was locked away, with no obvious way to get to the greenhouse goods inside. As food as so important, it was obvious we needed to get to it. With a simple press of a conveyor belt button, the food started coming out towards us, and the robot we saw holding onto the goods? Well that got ‘processed’ and sent through as a box of technical items, which we of course also pillaged. Simple puzzles, little bits of fun and lots of satisfaction.
And this brings me to my favourite part of the whole adventure. You start off relatively nonplussed by your robotic steel cargo, but Nielssen assures me that your fondness will grow, and you’ll develop a relationship with your massive friend. As each day ends, you’ll stop at a camp and tend to both your own needs, and that of the robot’s. You’ll have to cook your own meals using the items you scavenged earlier that day, and recipes you can find in the wilderness will affect you and your rest in different ways. As well as that, you need to keep your robot in tip top shape, and you do that by upgrading and fixing his broken items. As time goes on and you look after him more, you will become closer, and he’ll become more useful than that of a walking umbrella during your day excursions.
The night brings its own worries though, with freezing cold temperatures cutting into you, and the chance of random NPCs turning up at your evening fires. Some will bring food and nothing but good chats, others will attempt to steal from you and hurt you. It’s a bit of randomness that’ll keep you on your toes even during the supposed ‘safe’ times of your adventure.
Even with less than an hour with it, it looks to be a game with real soul, and as anyone that has seen the Iron Giant will attest to, it’s likely to end up in some sort of heartwrenching tears.
Hello Sunshine is in development for PC, and the release date is unknown.
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Luke Addison is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Thumb Wars. Having previously been a part of multiple outlets over the years, including building an entire gaming team from nothing to something, he thought it best to forge his own path and answer only to himself. As likely to be found playing the latest game as he is in the kitchen relaxing (by cooking), he always brings the same bold and brash attitude to everything he does, with a heavy leaning on sarcasm and dry wit!
