Sand: A Superfluous Game

KEY FEATURES:

• Crafting: Craft weapons and gear to help you survive the harsh wasteland.

• Base Building: Build a base of operations to research, craft, and exploit the desert’s finite resources.

• Exploration: Explore a world via an overworld map filled with interesting places and random encounters.

• Story: Enjoy a story filled with mystery and humor

• Growth: Get stronger naturally by crafting, hunting, building, and shooting your way through the wasteland.

• Sand Power: Unlock the powers of the desert EX: Sand Wall, Rock Throw, Sand Decoy, and Glass Blast.

GAMEPLAY:

The game will take place in a top-down format. There will be a base that the player can build and upgrade. The base will be essential to the story and tied to upgrading the player’s skills, gear, and stats. The player will control one person but can team up with several AI-controlled teammates to tackle harder missions. Traveling in the world will be done via a map (think of Fallout 1 and 2). The player can explore the map and find locations and towns to trade and get missions from. Controls will include mouse and keyboard (later will add controller support). The player will also have the ability to unlock different powers for his exo-suit EX: stealth, mass fear, and sand-related powers (sand/fireball, sand wall, sand trap, etc.). The player will also be able to breed llamas to ride (and possibly race them) and eventually unlock cars to travel further into the Alaskan wasteland. Traveling is restricted to the amount of water the player carries. You’ll be able to upgrade the amount of water carried and the travel speed to allow the player to explore further from their base. Beware, though, the further you go out, the more dangerous it becomes. Player death will not be perma-death, although as a game designer, I do believe in some sort of punishment for death. The idea of loss makes the game more exciting and fun.

STORY:

999 years following the events of The UWN Superfluous’ mission to save the earth, the pieces of the asteroid in which the fabled ship was destroyed crashed into Earth, causing massive destruction and loss of life. Many years later, the remainder of humanity clings to life in the dry arid lands once known as Alaska. Radiation has caused mutations and mass extinctions. The large bipedal rhinos known as the Karkadann and the frog-like carnivore known as the Anura are both products of this mass mutation. A very tenuous peace between the three races is kept in check only by the limited resources each side controls. Humans have most of the knowledge to build and maintain the tools and machines to help extract water and energy. The Karkadann protect the only large known source of water and use it to produce the large quantities of vegetables their size requires (they are herbivores). The Anura have monopolized the salvage market; if you need anything, ask an Anura. Being amphibious, they can dive into the toxic oceans and bring back material and technology once thought lost.

More mysteries unravel as the land is plagued by a new threat. The dead are rising and seem to be controlled by the once recluse Inks (ink-like creatures that take the form of humans and wear bones for decoration). Why have the Inks turned aggressive? Will the three tribes band together to face a new threat or slowly be swallowed by it because they can’t trust each other? Is llama racing really in the game?

AI USE:

The only AI-generated content used is the sepia-toned art story cards. All other assets are created by humans (mostly me). I have limited art skills and will replace them if/when I make enough money to cover the cost. Trust me, you’d rather AI art than my art 🙂