Echograph Turns a Camera Into Your Only Weapon Against the Dead

Capture or die: Echograph's camera is your only weapon#

The smartest idea in Echograph is also its scariest. When a vengeful spirit comes at you, your only real defense is to raise a camera and capture it on film. That single mechanic, pulled straight from the spiritual lineage of Fatal Frame, anchors a survival horror throwback that solo developer Sach, working under the studio name Pappy's Pipe Dream, gave a fresh gameplay trailer at The MIX Summer Game Showcase 2026, the indie event that opened Summer Game Fest week on June 1.

A lone survivor, a rotting manor#

You play as Layla, the sole survivor of a night that wiped out her entire family. Years later she returns to the decaying family manor to uncover what actually happened, and why she alone walked away. Echograph splits its perspective to match the mood. Exploration plays out in a tense isometric view as you pick through the rotting estate, then snaps into first-person the moment the dead come calling, and you have to line up a shot through Layla's lens. There's a wrinkle to the combat, too: the closer a spirit gets before you take the photo, the more damage you land, so the game rewards holding your nerve instead of backing off.

Classic-era discomfort by design#

The studio is leaning hard into classic-era discomfort. Expect environmental puzzles, genuinely scarce resources, and unforgiving difficulty, all wrapped in crunchy retro pixel art and a grief-soaked, cinematic atmosphere that owes as much to Resident Evil and Silent Hill as it does to Fatal Frame.

When can you play it?#

Echograph is confirmed for PC via Steam, where you can wishlist it now. There's still no release date, but the showcase did surface one new detail worth flagging: a demo is slated to land sometime in 2026.