Sand is an indie game that is currently in its Alpha testing stages. The game was created by Voided Pixels Studio, and it can be downloaded on itch.io. The game is downloadable only for Windows at this time.
I chose to play and review this game because it looked simple, cute, and fun! To be completely honest the short gameplay video they have on their itch.io page that shows the player riding a llama is what really sold it for me. I love animals, even pixelated ones! Now, as a disclaimer, this is not a full review, as I was unable to play through the whole game within the time period of this project. It is a fun game to play though, so I plan to finish it at some point!
The photo on the left is the main menu of the game. Under "Options" the only settings are to reset the quests, reset the map, or reset the entire game. Under "Prefab Designer" it takes you into a different version of the game which may be for the creators to test things in (I'm not completely sure). So other than the reset options and the volume sliders on the bottom, there are no settings for this game. The picture on the right is of the starter house, I took this right after completing the first quest. In the picture you can see the player (the white haired character) and the dog companion you get. Using the little doghouse on the side, you are able to cycle through two options for the apperance of your dog, and you can give it a custom name. I named mine Sandy because the game is set in a desert (creative, I know). There is not much of a tutorial, the litle bit you get is from talking to the main quest giver, and NPC robot/alien named E.D.I.E. It isn't too hard to figure out how to do things without a thorough tutorial, and I liked how the creator tried to put most of the tutorial into the quests.
So the world in sand is pretty simple, the whole thing is just sand other than occasionally you'll run into buildings/ruins or some areas of stone. The world is split into a grid, its not fully open where you can travel wherever, you have to travel across/through the different boxes in the grid. I didn't get to check out every area, but I did discover a single place that has grass. Anchor Rage is a city that was one of the last sets of quests I was able to start, and it is far more advanced from any other part of the game. They have electricity and stores and villagers existing freely. The area of grass is fenced off so you cannot access it. I believe it just functions as a little joke put there by the coder.
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There are a lot of NPCs in Sand. A lot of them give you quests, some are purely cosmetic, and some can help you out. The image on the left shows the player talking to an NPC named Duke. Duke is your first (maybe only) hireable NPC. Pictured you can also see the dog, and two other NPCs hanging around the building. These two characters are both stationary quest-giving characters. Also in the picture you can see that Duke talks about "He Who Codes." This becomes a trend through the game to the point where I'd actually consider the coder a character. He is mentioned by several characters and in one area there is even a shrine with offerings built for him.
You are also able to place new beds down at your camp, which allows villagers to live there. Using an item called the job board, you can assign these villagers jobs and keep an eye on their health stats. As for cosmetic villagers, the main ones are children. They just run around looking cute and occasionally say a random line of text.
There are enemies as well, which is one of the issues I had with the game. Not with the existence of "bad guys," that's totally expected of a game of this nature. My issue was that they are not very easy to kill. Yes, I know enemies are meant to be challenging, but it was to the point where I was stuck on a "kill skellies" quest for HOURS because they were too hard to kill with basic tools, I had to save up to create some stronger weapons to be able to even leave a mark on them. Killing them becomes slightly better when Duke starts following you around and protecting you, but it is still ridiculous that crabs and ants even can kill you with a few measly hits.
In the picture on the right the player character is standing at a dresser in an abandoned house. You can use dressers to customize an outfit for your character, and can use mirrors to customize the hair style and color as well. This is the only customization in the game though, and it is a little frustrating to have to cycle through all of the options to find the one you want if you accidentally passed it.
There are a TON of items in this game. Ranging from building materials, survival resources, management items, weapons, armor, and even vehicles. You can unlock these items via a "shop" interface built into the NPC E.D.I.E. who is a stationary character residing at your base. You have to buy these items using XP, which you get when completing actions (such as gathering water, collecting materials, and farming). The rest of the economic part of the game centers solely around buy and sell booths. These are items you have to make pretty early on for a quest, as they are the only methods of making money and buying rare materials. The image above is of the job board item you have to create when you want villagers. This item is interactive and allows you to check the health of your villagers and assign their camp roles. A few more interactive items are in my kumu.io graph below if you are interested in a few more examples.
I used the kumu.io website to create a map connecting differnt characters, places, and objects together. It is pretty interesting to look at and using the embedded version of it below you are able to move the items around and click on them for descriptions of what they are. If for some reason the embedded version does not work, please access the graph by clicking here.
My personal opinion is that this game is pretty fun and interesting despite its seemingly simple nature. There are a lot more aspects to it that aren't really conveyed in the promo materials, which I suppose may be intentional, but was definitely unexpected. There are of course a few things that need work, but thats understandable for an unreleased game still in Alpha testing stage. I'd say if you have time, you should definitely check it out and form your own opinions on it!