Sunburnt Santa Play free

Media and press

Everything you need to write about, review or make videos of Sunburnt Santa.

Fact sheet

NameSunburnt Santa
Developer and publishervibe_dm (Ben Cooney), Yungaburra, Far North Queensland, Australia
PlatformsiPhone, Android, web browser (sunburntsanta.com/play)
ReleaseNovember 2026 (apps in store review; the web game is live now)
PriceFree. The phone apps show ads between rounds; Remove Ads is a one-off A$3.99. The web game has no ads.
Content24 mini-games (one per advent-calendar door) plus 6 bonus games, two of them for two players on one phone
CalendarOne door a day from the day you start; on 1-24 December every door up to the date is open
LeaderboardsTop Santas, Today's Door and Elf Recruiters; every leaderboard round is replayed on the server
LanguageEnglish
Websitesunburntsanta.com
Press contact[email protected] (we reply within one business day, AEST)

Boilerplate (50 words)

Sunburnt Santa is a free advent-calendar game from vibe_dm, a one-person studio in Far North Queensland. Santa swaps the sleigh for a ute for 24 Aussie Christmas mini-games, one door a day, from dodging roos to puddings versus bin chickens. Play on iPhone, Android or at sunburntsanta.com.

Story angles

  1. Christmas in summer, explained by a game. What Christmas looks like when it's 40 degrees: prawns, pav, beach cricket and bin chickens. Why Christmas is in summer in Australia.
  2. The real Sunburnt Santa. Alf Harris played Father Christmas for remote Nullarbor communities on the Tea and Sugar train. His story.
  3. One person, one small town, a worldwide Christmas game. Made in Yungaburra on the Atherton Tablelands. About.
  4. How the game stops fake scores. Every leaderboard round is re-run on the server from the player's inputs, so only replayed scores count.
  5. Wildlife-friendly Christmas. Cockatoos and the Christmas lights, and cassowary road safety in the far north.

Downloads

The one-click press kit ZIP is coming. Every file is downloadable individually below.

Key art

Sunburnt Santa in sunglasses, hat and zinc cream waving from a red ute with a Christmas tree in the tray as a kangaroo bounds alongside.
sunburnt-santa-key-art-santa-ute-outback-1920x1080.jpg
Portrait key art of Sunburnt Santa waving from his red ute in the outback, with a Christmas tree and presents in the tray.
sunburnt-santa-key-art-santa-ute-outback-1080x1920.jpg

Logos

App icon (1024 × 1024 PNG)

Screenshots

Phone screenshots (780 × 1688 WebP; tap to open full size).

Santa drives the red ute through the red-dirt outback at sunset, jumping fence posts and grabbing floating presents.
Day 1, Ute Run: gameplay
Santa flings Christmas puddings from a slingshot at bin chickens landing in a backyard gum tree at sunset.
Day 2, Bin Chicken Blitz: gameplay
A tall pavlova of meringue layers stacked on a cake stand by the pool while Nan watches from her chair.
Day 5, Stack the Pav: gameplay
Santa and Cousin Kylie grit their teeth pulling a Christmas bon bon across the lunch table in Bon Bon Snap.
Day 10, Bon Bon Snap: gameplay
Top-down view of the red ute on a rainforest road, dodging a tractor and collecting coins in Cassowary Crossing.
Day 13, Cassowary Crossing: gameplay
Santa flings gum nuts at cockatoos and galahs on a tiled roof strung with Christmas lights at dusk.
Day 14, Cocky Chaos: gameplay
Families on picnic rugs at a carols by candlelight concert while mozzies buzz in to land on them.
Day 16, Mozzie Mayhem: gameplay
Christmas lunch stacked on a plate on a long decorated table as Nan watches in Christmas Lunch Stack.
Day 22, Christmas Lunch Stack: gameplay
Santa Pinball's Backyard Barbie table: flippers, pop bumpers, a water-slide ramp, with Santa and a kangaroo below.
Santa Pinball: gameplay
The advent calendar screen on a phone: Today's Door at the top and a grid of 24 painted doors, the first one open.
The Sunburnt Santa advent calendar
Results screen for Day 2, Bin Chicken Blitz, with the score, stars, Play again and the share buttons.
Day 2, Bin Chicken Blitz: results
The advent calendar in a desktop browser: Today's Door card above rows of painted doors, Ute Run open.
The advent calendar in a browser

Every level's intro, gameplay and results screenshots are on its game page.

Characters

Transparent 1024 × 1024 PNG cut-outs with a sticker rim.

Uncle Bazza with a long face after losing the bon bon pull again.
Uncle Bazza loses
Uncle Bazza grinning smugly after snapping the bon bon his way.
Uncle Bazza, told you so
Uncle Bazza straining with all his might on a Christmas bon bon.
Uncle Bazza pulling
A red-tailed black cockatoo, the rare bonus bird in Cocky Chaos.
Black cockatoo
A warty brown cane toad sitting on the road, the uninvited Christmas guest.
The cane toad
A southern cassowary with its blue neck, red wattles and tall casque, standing by the road.
The cassowary
A sulphur-crested cockatoo with its yellow crest up, looking for Christmas lights to chew.
Sulphur-crested cockatoo
A white corella with a pale pink face, one of the cockatoo gang.
The corella
A mud crab with big claws scuttling across the hot sand.
The mud crab
Dad with his hands up in horror as a snag misses the hotplate.
Dad, oh no
Dad cheering with his tongs in the air after a snag lands right on the hotplate.
Dad cheering a bullseye
Dad flipping a sausage on the barbecue with his tongs, dinner nearly ready.
Dad flipping a snag
Dad in his Hawaiian shirt and hat holding up the barbecue tongs, ready for snags.
Dad at the barbie
Digger the blue heeler mid-sprint with his ears back, off to grab whatever has been left alone.
Digger on the run
Digger the blue heeler sitting up straight like a good boy, waiting for his turn.
Digger sitting nicely
Digger the blue heeler sitting with a smug grin, ears up, looking very pleased with himself.
Digger the blue heeler
A tall shaggy emu standing in the road, unimpressed by the ute.
The emu
A pink and grey galah perched and ready to cause trouble on the roof.
The galah
A silver gull with a red beak and legs, eyeing off the hot chips.
The seagull
An Australian white ibis, the bin chicken, standing tall with its long curved black beak.
The bin chicken
A dazed Australian white ibis seeing stars after a pudding hit, about to fly off unhurt.
A dazed bin chicken
An Australian white ibis flying with its white wings spread and black-tipped feathers.
Bin chicken in flight
A grey koala with big fluffy ears and a round black nose.
The koala
Cousin Kylie looking stunned after losing a bon bon pull for once.
Cousin Kylie loses one
Cousin Kylie with her brown ponytail and green star T-shirt, smirking after another bon bon win.
Cousin Kylie, bon bon champion
Cousin Kylie gritting her teeth and pulling a Christmas bon bon with both hands.
Cousin Kylie pulling hard
A rainbow lorikeet with a blue head, orange chest and green wings.
Rainbow lorikeet
An Australian magpie in black and white with a sharp grey beak.
The magpie
Nan in red glasses with her mouth open in horror at a sloppy bit of pavlova stacking.
Nan is not impressed
Nan in her floral dress and cardigan cheering from her cane chair.
Nan cheering
Nan in red glasses and pearls, sitting in her cane chair and wagging a finger with an opinion.
Nan has an opinion
Nan with lilac curls and red glasses looking smug after winning the bon bon pull.
Nan wins again
An Australian pelican with its huge pink bill, waiting on the jetty.
The pelican
A cheeky brushtail possum with big eyes, up to no good with the presents.
The cheeky possum
A red kangaroo mid-hop with its tail out behind it, bounding across the road.
Kangaroo hopping
Sunburnt Santa in sunglasses and shorts punching the air with a wooden slingshot in his other hand.
Santa cheering with his slingshot
Sunburnt Santa in sunglasses and a Santa hat grinning at the wheel, ready to drive the ute.
Santa at the wheel
Sunburnt Santa pulling back a slingshot with a Christmas pudding, one eye on the target.
Santa aiming a slingshot
Sunburnt Santa in sunglasses, Santa hat and short sleeves, with white zinc cream on his nose, waving hello.
Sunburnt Santa with zinc cream
Dad's red kelpie chomping a sausage that landed on the grass instead of the barbecue.
The kelpie with a snag
The red Australian ute with a decorated Christmas tree and presents in the tray.
The red ute
A round brown wombat trundling across the outback road.
The wombat

Stickers and GIFs

98 stickers and 28 GIFs so far: browse and download them.

Launch posts

Banners and profile images

Trailer

The 20 and 45 second trailers (vertical and landscape) arrive in early November, on the trailer page.

Usage

Free to use for editorial coverage, reviews and creator videos about Sunburnt Santa. Please credit "Sunburnt Santa / vibe_dm". Not for use to advertise or build other products.

The art is AI-assisted: painted with AI image tools, then cut out, outlined, composed and animated by us. The image files carry this in their embedded metadata.

Contact and review access

Email [email protected]. We can send Remove Ads codes for review, and TestFlight or Google Play testing invites before launch. Making videos? See the creator kit.