Hello Scavengers!
With the Closed and Open Playtests and announcement of SAND launching into Early Access on April 3rd, February was a pretty crazy month for all of us here at tinyBuild and Hologryph and there's no signs of slowing down any time soon!
As the Early Access launch approaches, and with all the feedback, suggestions and reports from the recent beta still fresh in everyones minds, we wanted to give you all an update on what we're working on behind the scenes and what to expect from SAND when you all arrive back on Sophie in April.
So let's jump into it...
Optimization:
While we made a lot of major improvements in this field between the Steam Next Fest demo last year and the recent open playtest, we still saw a lot of reports of performance issues and general disappointment at the current levels of optimization, but rest assured we hear you and we are doing everything we can to address these complaints ahead of the launch into Early Access.
Here are some of the key areas we're working on right now
Inventory System Overhaul:
We're reworking how inventory functions to reduce the number of client-server requests, which should help with responsiveness and performance.
Occlusion & Object Unloading:
Objects that players aren't actively seeing will now be unloaded more efficiently, reducing unnecessary rendering.
Raycast Improvements:
Various enhancements to how the game handles raycasts for better performance.
Optimization is a continuous process, we appreciate all the feedback we've received on this and you can be certain that we are going to continue improving it in the lead up to and throughout Early Access.
Quality of Life (QOL):
We saw a lot of feedback from players who found it challenging to understand certain elements of SAND, so we're putting an increased focus on improving the UI/UX for easier and more intuitive navigation while also working to make the trampler editor easier to understand and more accessible for players.
We're also working on new systems to help newer players understand the goals of the game, how to play and what to do. This will act as a precursor to a full tutorial we have planned and hope to introduce further down the line.
In addition, we'll be making some refinements for the general in game user experience to ensure a more enjoyable, immersive and rewarding experience:
- Improving the shooting mechanics for better combat responsiveness.
- Players will be able to consume food to recover health
- Adding more details on the extraction process, ensuring that players are aware of what needs to be done to properly extract their loot safely.
- A ton of general balancing adjustments for mounted weapons and explosives
- Reworking the start of expeditions with an improved dropship sequence.
New Features:
We're also working away on implementing some popular community requests that we saw during recent playtests, which we hope to have at least early iterations of available upon the Early Access launch:
Progression Tree & Unlockable Compartments: Players will be able to unlock new compartments, opening up more customization and progression options.
Buried Treasure: Keen eyed players will be able to locate and uncover buried loot in several locations around the map with the aid of a good old shovel
Crafting System: Crafting will play a larger role in gameplay, introducing more survival and resource management mechanics.
Beyond Early Access Launch:
Of course, this is just a fraction of what's going on behind the scenes and we have a ton more plans for how we plan to grow, improve and expand the game over the course of Early Access. Obviously we'll have a comprehensive roadmap on launch, but for a brief insight into some of our planned additions:
- More trampler compartments (crafting station, medical station, searchlight)
- New weapons and combat options (melee weapons, rocket launcher)
- Expanded crafting and industry systems
- New islands and biomes (desert anomalies, more diverse environments)
- Character improvements (customization, armor visualization, female characters)
- Enhanced multiplayer and communication systems (emotion-ping system, lobby system rework)
- Technical improvements (optimization, bug fixes, controller support, expanded localization)
- World and immersion upgrades (Sandstorms, companions system, achievements, expedition start cinematic)
Keep an eye out for the comprehensive roadmap closer to launch for more details on where we're planning on taking SAND!
What's most important right now is that you're all aware that your feedback has been heard, and that we're doing everything we can to ensure that SAND not only meets, but exceeds all of your expectations on launch and beyond. And of course, we're extremely grateful for all of your feedback, support and participation in our betas these last few months.
Wishlist SAND on Steam now to be notified when it launches into Early Access on April 3rd
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1431300/Sand/
Come and join us on our social media pages to keep yourself up to date with all the news and updates for SAND or join the discussion over on Discord now!
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- Hologryph & tinyBuild Games