Camp Sunshine

About Camp Sunshine

Camp Sunshine is a top-down pixel-art horror game made by Fossil Games and published by Hound Picked Games. It came out on Steam for Windows and Mac in October 2016, and in October 2024 it was released on PlayStation 4 and 5 and on Xbox One and Series X|S; it is also sold on the Nintendo Switch eShop. Its makers call it a 16-bit blood-soaked horror RPG and a tribute to 1980s horror films, and its developer has said its core was built in RPG Maker MV with many custom scripts on top.

You play Jez, a boy dropped off at summer camp. He wakes in the middle of the night to find blood everywhere and a rampaging killer dressed in a mascot costume, and the screenshots show that killer: a grinning brown bear in a red shirt waiting at the end of a lamplit corridor or standing on the path right beside you. From there it is a game of cat and mouse across the whole camp: its cabins and halls, a washroom, an arcade and the dark paths between them.

The camp is dark, and you see only what your torch lights, so you have to keep its batteries topped up. A PS5 review at VG-Reloaded adds that the torch can draw the mascot's attention if you are careless, that a map of the camp helps you find your way, and that you can save only at certain spots. The killer can turn up anywhere, and two hits from him end the game, so you avoid him rather than fight. Along the way you find diary pages that tell the history of Isaac Illerman and the summer camp slasher, and you run errands and solve the puzzles the camp puts in your way to put a stop to the night.

The pixel art is bright where the light falls and black everywhere else, and the screens show a girl lying in a pool of blood on a washroom floor and the words There Are More written in blood on a cabin wall. The makers warn of pixelated gore and violence and promise scares and nods to famous horror franchises; the console stores rate it ESRB Mature for blood and gore, strong language and violence. VG-Reloaded found that the small circle of light keeps you expecting the bear at every door, and that he sometimes catches you in a room with no way out.

HowLongToBeat puts the main story at about 3 hours, and reviewers report three to four. Camp Sunshine suits players who like slasher films and top-down pixel horror and want a short night of hiding from a killer more than a fight.

How to play Camp Sunshine

1. Start a new game: Jez wakes at night in his cabin at the summer camp.
2. Use the camp map to find your way between cabins and buildings.
3. Explore with your torch, and pick up batteries so the light does not go out.
4. Watch for the killer in the mascot costume and keep away from him, since two hits end the game.
5. Save at the save spots whenever you pass one.
6. Collect diary pages to learn the history of Isaac Illerman and the camp.
7. Run the errands and solve the puzzles you meet to open the way and end the night of terror.

Tips

• Keep spare batteries; the torch is your only way to see the camp.
• Use the torch with care: a reviewer found it can draw the mascot's attention.
• Save at every save spot you reach, since you cannot save anywhere you like.
• Before you walk into a room, think about how you would get out if the bear came in behind you.
• Read every diary page you find, since the story of the camp is told through them.

Questions