My Time At Sandrock

Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Genre: RPG/Action
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Developer: Pathea Games
Release Date: Nov. 2, 2023

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'My Time At Sandrock' (ALL) Early Access Launch Delayed Until Further Notice

by Rainier on March 5, 2021 @ 11:29 a.m. PST

My Time at Sandrock is a sandbox simulation RPG set in the My Time at Portia world; inspired by Dark Cloud 2, Harvest Moon, and the works of Miyazaki.

Welcome back to the Alliance of Free Cities, and to the rugged mining town of Sandrock in My Time at Sandrock!

Follow-up to Pathea Games' simulation RPG, My Time at Portia, you will build up a brand new workshop and help out a struggling town in the most epic and legendary ways imaginable!

You'll take the role of a fledgling Builder to Sandrock. It’s up to you and your trusty toolset to gather resources, construct machines, and fix up your workshop into a well-oiled production machine, and save the town from the jaws of economic ruin, as well as a few other unexpected complications.

Sandrock is a city-state located in the Eufaula Desert within the Alliance of Free Cities. It was founded beside Martle’s Oasis on top of an ancient metropolis. At first, the city attracted many prospectors interested in an extensive supply of relics hidden beneath the desert, but, as time went on, the oasis dried up, leaving the city unable to sustain a large population. Many people left, leaving the place in its vagarious state found today.

Start a new life in the enchanting town of Portia! Restore your Pa's neglected workshop to its former glory by fulfilling commissions, growing crops, raising animals, and befriending the quirky inhabitants of this charming post-apocalyptic land!

Originally planned to launch on Steam Early Access in March 2021, Pathea Games announced that My Time at Sandrock is being delayed until further notice.

Pathea Games is facing issues with obtaining necessary local ratings certifications required to publish the game in certain regions. As the process is dragging out, the Studio has announced that they currently cannot estimate when the certification process can be finalized, and the game’s Early Access release is thus delayed until further notice.

“It is not sure how long it will take for us to get the license, but we are hoping for the best and we are preparing for the launch so that when we get it, the game can be released at short notice,” said Morten Andersen, Brand Manager for My Time at Sandrock, assuring players that as soon as the paperwork is finished, the game should be ready to go out.

In the meanwhile, the developing team is seeing this as an opportunity to use the extra time to keep developing the game together with the closed beta testers, pouring more love and creativity into new content and features, and ultimately giving a better experience for everyone.

Sandrock is a city-state located in the Eufaula Desert within the Alliance of Free Cities. It was founded beside Martle’s Oasis on top of an ancient metropolis. At first, the city attracted many prospectors interested in an extensive supply of relics hidden beneath the desert, but, as time went on, the oasis dried up, leaving the city unable to sustain a large population. Many people left, leaving the place in its vagarious state found today.

There are numerous unique characters for you to discover in Sandrock, all with complex personalities and intricate backstories. Many of them can be romanced, and almost all of them can be befriended to unlock quests that will reveal their hopes, dreams, and personal goals, or maybe just a fun storyline to achieve something together with that character. We’ve written a new AI system for this game so that the characters will behave more “alive” than in My Time at Portia. For example, we’re planning to have the NPCs interact with each other more instead of keep to themselves like they do in Portia.

Speaking of Portia! Being that Sandrock and Portia are neighboring cities, it seems more than likely a few familiar faces will be stopping in, though we can’t exactly confirm who that will be yet…

Key Features:

  • Storyline – Just as in Portia, Sandrock will offer a deep and open narrative. There will be villains and heroes, comedy and tragedy. We also try to expand upon the lore first explored in My Time at Portia to give players deeper insight as to what the world of the Free Cities is like. The themes of the new storyline are similar to Portia’s: that people can overcome any adversity when they work together.
  • Multiplayer – We’ve heard you, and we are aiming to have a specific game mode for multiplayer, without interfering with our development of single-player. Much is still on the drawing board or in the design phase, but the aim is to support at least 4 players in an open world map, separate from the single-player map. Players will be able to work, fight, and dungeon dive together. We’re also looking to create multiplayer specific missions and storylines. Much of this is dependent on your support!
  • Workshop – You’re still in the role of a Builder in Sandrock, so the workshop is still the central focus of gameplay. You’ll need to gather materials and relics from all over the map to support your workshop and finish commissions from local townspeople and government. There will be lots of new upgrades for the machines in the workshop, as well as some customization features involving the homestead and furniture, i.e., drawing your own designs for things. Being the #1 workshop in the region will still be something for players to shoot for, but it may be hard to pull off without first attracting some industry to the town.
  • Farming – You’ll still be using planter boxes for farming in Sandrock, but with some new elements. We realize that in Portia we had a problem where almost the only thing players could get out of farming was a little extra money through selling crops. We’ll try to remedy that in Sandrock by making sure that there are multiple ways to utilize the harvest.
  • Relationships – All characters in the game will be more interactive than before: almost all of them will have character-specific questlines and have much more dialogue. Initially, fewer NPCs will be romanceable, but we are working to make each romanceable character unique and memorable with several personalized quests for each, in addition to giving them their own unique behaviors. The relationships are, once again, more than just something extra to do in the game; they’re tied together with the overall game loop: if you have a good relationship with a specific character, you’ll unlock perks such as new missions, stat boosts, cheaper goods, or a more willing hand to help out when you need it. Going the romance route will allow you to go on dates with the NPC, and eventually you’ll be able to marry the character and have kids.
  • Battle – The battle system is still relatively simple, but it feels and plays much better than in Portia. We’re looking to add more depth to this battle system before release, as well. You will fight an assortment of enemies: monsters, robots, bandits, and more. Enemies will behave more intelligently, and their attacks will be more coordinated, allowing for better counterplay. Larger enemies can collide with the player, and even send you flying with a strong enough hit!
  • Skills - There is leveling in the game, like most RPGs, but rather than gaining flat experience points for completing tasks, specific skill points will be earned by doing those activities (i.e. mining gives you points for mining skills, fighting gives you points for combat skills, etc.). These points can be distributed to give custom enhancements to your abilities.
  • Dungeons – There will be three types of dungeons in Sandrock. The Abandoned Ruins are dungeons without enemies, and you can dig safely through voxel terrain to find minerals and relics. The Hazardous Ruins are dungeons that are still classified as dangerous;  they’re filled with enemies leftover from an earlier age, as well as some platforming challenges. Finally, we have the all-new Half-Explored Ruins, where there are spots to dig through as well as enemies to fight.
  • Mini-games - We’re trying to add in as many different mini-games as possible. They will include sand racing, sand fishing, sparring, gun fighting, and more.
  • Holidays - There are several holidays and events that happen throughout the year in the game, some returning from Portia with a fresh take, some all new and unique to Sandrock! From the Day of the Bright Sun, which is celebrated all over; to the Day of Warmth, where people dance around a bonfire; to First Rain, where people celebrate the first rainfall of the year; each holiday will make for a fun and immersive experience that keeps the passage of time meaningful.
  • Weather - The game has four seasons as well as a full day-night cycle. Rain doesn’t come very often; but do watch out for the sandstorms!
  • Cooking - The game will have an elaborate setup for cooking. The player will be able to make many different recipes found throughout the world. The food can be sold, given as gifts, or eaten by the player to gain stats.
  • Animals - There are many different animals in the game world. Depending on the time of day, weather, and season, different animals will appear. Some of them can be captured and domesticated. We will have animal husbandry involving a multitude of farm and ranch animals with a fuzzy cow creature unique to Sandrock, the Yakmel, being the most prominent.

My Time at Sandrock will release on Steam Early Access, followed by PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and next-gen console versions at a later time.


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