Developer diary,not press releases.
Reports from inside Project Sand: decisions, experiments, release milestones, and the visible features that move this project forward.
Added flat platforms and destructive demolition
Concrete now levels into one platform, and engineers tear structures and rock down with a timed demolition instead of reusing the build animation.
Added terraforming concrete and power arcs
Poured slabs now grade the dune underneath them, and a new cable announces itself with a ten-second electrical arc.
Added the Developer Database
Units, items, weapons, voices, sounds, and effects now live in one pause-screen catalog, and each of them can be previewed through the real game.
Added a field medic and scavenged weapons
A researchable medic can reach wounded infantry, and any soldier can pick up a dropped weapon into the free hand.
Added service ranks and the unit console
Kills now promote individual soldiers, and the selected unit shows rank, weapons, and passengers in one footer instead of a spreadsheet.
Added Jeep passengers and vehicle repair
The Dustrunner carries two infantry who can fire from the seats, and engineers can repair the hull underneath them.
Expanded the desert and added a rival compound
The map grew about five times over, with finite Emburrn fields and a defensive enemy base at the far end.
Added the Valkyrie Trooper
A long-range marksman joins the barracks after rocket research, with her own voice and a gauss rifle.
Added wind generators and a power station
Bases now run from a wind trap and a four-pad power station, with live load and visible links between them.
Added Emburrn gathering for a lone hero
The surviving hero can pull Emburrn straight from a field and fund a new Command Core without a single building.
Added direct control for infantry and vehicles
One selected soldier or vehicle can be driven from the mouse and keyboard, with the guns aimed separately from the hull.
Added research branches and an advisor
A Systems Laboratory opens four research paths, and each completed study unlocks a building or a unit instead of a hidden percentage.
Added salvage and sandworm combat
The hero can tear a building down for half its cost, and a sandworm can be shot, enraged, and killed.
Added a lone hero and Command Core construction
An expedition now starts with one equipped hero, who lays concrete and builds the Command Core by hand.
Added bases, vehicles, aircraft, and fog of war
The skirmish grew from two infantry squads into a base with heavy infantry, tanks, walkers, aircraft, and a map that remembers what you have seen.
Added harvesters, unit radio, and sandworms
A crawler hauls resources home, troopers answer on a helmet radio, and something under the sand can take the crawler.
Added crouch, prone, and squad formations
Infantry can drop to a knee or the ground for less damage, and a squad can be ordered into a line, a loose group, or a tight one.
Built the first desert skirmish
Sand began as one playable map: rifle and rocket squads, a buildable base, and orbital fire over a procedural dune.