Following the massive success of their idle mining game Deep Town since its release back in 2017, developer Rockbite Games has been hard at work on a follow-up title called Sandship. In it you play as the titular Sandship which is basically an AI-run mega-factory on tank treads that can roam the land and create whatever kinds of goods people may need. The Sandships were a staple in the highly advanced society of Noranti One, but due to an accident your particular Sandship was put into hibernation mode. When your Sandship is finally able to wake from that hibernating state, you find that the world is in complete ruins, and so you set out into the endless desert wastelands to “rediscover forgotten technologies, forge a better tomorrow through crafting and trade, and fight a vicious cult hellbent on your destruction." If you’re familiar with the cult hit Factorio on desktop, that was a big inspiration for Rockbite Games and Sandship. Here is the initial teaser trailer they released last summer.

We last talked about Sandship in February just prior to PAX East where it was on display as part of the 2020 Indie Showcase. Boy, doesn’t it feel like a lifetime ago that we could have conferences that people attended? Anyway, at that time Rockbite weren’t quite sure when Sandship would be finished up and released, but it turns out that the virus lockdown has been quite fruitful for the team, and they note in a new blog post on their website that they’ve “fixed countless issues, added a ton of new features, and even opened up pre-beta to 150 players" all while working remotely from home. It’s been a couple of weeks since they opened up that limited beta and based on the feedback they’ve received from testers they’ve made tweaks and fixes and finally feel like they are extremely close to the light at the end of the Sandship tunnel. As of today Sandship is available for pre-order on the iOS App Store, and available for pre-registration on the Google Play Store for Android, with an expected release date of May 7th. They’re also doing a soft launch in New Zealand ahead of then, though it is Android only. Do check it out if you’re an Android-using Kiwi though! Otherwise look for the very promising looking Sandship to arrive worldwide early next month.