Developers Hologrpyh and TowerHaus and Publisher tinyBuild have announced that a public demo for upcoming multiplayer FPS SAND will release on Friday, October 11, ahead of Steam Next Fest. You will be able to join up with up to five other players in teams of six and face off against other players in moving fortresses. These mechs are fully customizable, allowing you to determine how your team decides to ride into battle.
SAND is set in a diesel-punk alternate history where the Austro-Hungarian Empire is the leader of space colonization. Humanity has traveled across the stars, and Sophie, a once prosperous planet, sits in ruins after the oceans evaporated. Now, only those who aim to claim treasure scavenge the surface, fighting one another in massive fortress mechs.
The new demo will allow players to customize their Trampler mech, explore the open world, and take down any hostile enemies in their path. You can choose to ride on top of your Trampler or hit the dunes and cover the ground on foot.
An overview of the game can be found below via Steam:
In SAND players are thrust into desolate deserts of the fallen planet Sophie, embarking on a quest to uncover resources and treasures. To navigate this harsh terrain efficiently, players are provided with the ability to design and modify their own Trampler, a walking mech capable of traversing the islands that were once submerged beneath a vast sea. Your Trampler is your base.
THE TRAMPLERS
The Trampler serves as the player’s main base, both as a means of exploration and loot storage. Players are able to customize their tramplers – from interior design, to upgrading its power, armor, and weapons. Team up with other players to pool your resources together to create the ultimate movable base in a large open world.
STORY
In an alternate history version of 1910, humanity had made significant advancements in space exploration thanks to the discovery of new energy sources. The Austro-Hungarian Empire led the way in conquering other planets, but a mysterious ecological disaster struck planet Sophie, forcing its settlers to hastily leave behind a once-resource-rich world. Motivated by desperation, the bravest and most impoverished individuals from the empire now journey to planet Sophie, seeking to test their fate, uncover hidden riches in the barren wastelands, and profoundly change their lives.
CHARACTERS
The game’s characters originate from Galicia, a region within the Austro-Hungarian Empire predominantly inhabited by Ukrainians and Poles. During the early stages of colonization, the Kaiser promised the Galicians a significant portion of the planet Sophie, enticing them to volunteer as the primary labor force for constructing the cities that would eventually belong to them. Despite the ecological disaster, the allure of owning their own space territories proves difficult to abandon. The most resilient and desperate Galicians, who have little to lose, resort to semi-legal means of reaching the planet, driven by their determination to rectify historical injustices and claim what they believe is rightfully theirs.
