There is something wonderfully excessive about a factory builder that treats a grain of sand as a resource. Sandustry has now arrived in Game Preview on Game Pass and PC through the Xbox Store, giving players the chance to start building sprawling automated production lines on a fully destructible planet.
It is a work in progress rather than a finished release, but for those happy to jump into an evolving factory sim, there is already plenty to get stuck into.
Priced at £12.99, Sandustry is available day one with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Importantly, while the game is listed through the Xbox Store, it is currently playable on PC only and cannot be played on Xbox consoles.
At A Glance
- Game: Sandustry
- Developer: Lantto Games
- Publisher: Hooded Horse
- Platforms: PC
- Price: £12.99 / Game Pass
Build An Industrial Empire From Almost Nothing
Sandustry drops players onto an unexplored planet where industry is the answer to just about every problem. What starts with simple resource gathering can quickly develop into a complicated network of conveyors, pipes, pumps, filters, drones and other machinery.
The world itself is central to the experience. Rather than simply mining predefined deposits, virtually everything can be interacted with, mined, processed or destroyed. Players can explore different biomes, gather materials and gradually expand their factory as new technologies and production chains become available.
There are different ways to approach that growth, too. You might concentrate on increasingly sophisticated logistics, make use of the planet’s wildlife or divert resources towards investigating the mysterious artifacts hidden beneath the surface.
A Factory Built From Pixels
One of Sandustry’s more unusual ideas is that its resources aren’t abstract icons simply waiting to be collected. Individual grains of sand, snowflakes, seeds, spores and pieces of ice are physical entities with their own properties.
That allows materials to react with one another and with the environment. Ice can melt into water, water can become steam and eventually return as rain, while sand can absorb water from nearby reservoirs. It means building an efficient factory isn’t simply about connecting one machine to another. Players need to understand how the materials behave and find ways to turn those reactions into useful production chains.
And, of course, there is always the option to make things considerably more chaotic.
Dig For Ancient Secrets
Factory expansion isn’t the only reason to head underground. Sandustry’s procedurally generated planet contains the remains of an ancient civilisation, with buried structures and vaults waiting to be uncovered.
Reaching them won’t always be straightforward. Players can experiment with machinery and resources to overcome environmental obstacles, whether that means melting through ice or finding another inventive route into a previously inaccessible area.
Those discoveries can provide powerful benefits, giving players another reason to venture beyond the comfort of their increasingly complicated industrial operation.
A Work In Progress With Room To Grow
Sandustry is launching in Game Preview, so this isn’t being presented as the finished version of the game. The developers are clear that the experience may change as development continues, meaning anyone purchasing it should be comfortable with its current unfinished state.
That approach could be particularly interesting for a game built around experimentation. As Sandustry develops, its combination of destructible environments, physical resources and elaborate production chains has plenty of scope to expand.
For now, though, the foundations are being laid in Game Preview. Sandustry is available for £12.99 on PC via the Xbox Store, or as part of Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Just don’t mistake its Xbox Store listing for an Xbox console release – Xbox players will need to wait, as the current version is PC-only.
