Hi Everyone - Andrew here from AIRFRAME. 

The idea for SHIFTING SANDS has been around for a while, some character assets and storybeats have been in suspense for a couple of years. As an actual project, the game was originally conceived as a testing ground for a unique Open-world , 3rd Person, VR mechanic. This aspect is still in development and testing, but during a recent visit to the project to capture some portfolio images, I realized that there was too much substance here to just let the project languish and the basic story and gameplay should be advanced into at least a working prototype. 

I originally imagined SHIFTING SANDS as "a dungeon crawler in which the dungeons were massive crashed spaceships on an alien planet" -- and while this aspect (occupiable interiors of buildings and the ships from which The Wanderer harvests his parts) is currently the least developed aspect of the game, I still imagine that this is where it is going.  Currently, except for the vehicle hangar in Stormaway spaceport, all of the building and spaceship assets are simply exteriors in the environment. That will all change with planned upgrades. 

The lookdev of the project is also an area of focus -- currently the project uses a camera shader to create the retro-pixel effect. There is a nice old-school simplicity to this look that works well with the current simplicity of the game, but there are downsides like some flicker and instability/legibility of the preliminary UI elements. It's possible that the pixel-art aspect of the game is just one exploration of the lookdev and that this will change over time.

Planned areas of development are listed in the main page. A much larger open-map is possible, with many more characters, weapons, vehicles and upgrades. The lack of ranged weapons and ship/building interiors is probably the most important area that needs attention. 

Thanks for your interest and please enjoy!

- AIRFRAME