Sandustry Early Access Roadmap

Early Access is a starting line, not a finish. Sandustry entered EA on 2026-08-13 with the core pixel-factory loop proven in the free Steam demo: Sand, Water, Shakers, Gold, Slag, burn, press, Research. This roadmap page summarizes themes Lantto Games and Hooded Horse have signaled plus sensible community expectations — always defer to official Steam news and sandustry.com when they conflict. Unofficial wiki; not a legal roadmap commitment.

Launch pillar — Playable factory vertical slice

Goal: Ship a coherent single-player progression from surface mining to automated refinery with slag recovery.

Wiki alignment:

• How to Play loop complete in EA
• Research Priority branches available beyond demo caps
• Buildings and Materials reference updated at launch

Player-facing success metric: You can automate Wet Sand → Gold without constant babysitting after unlocking Logistics, Filters, and Pipes as needed.

Sandustry simulation rewrite comparison before Early Access

Post-launch theme — Depth and discovery

Goal: Expand underground biomes, artifacts, and environmental puzzles that reward Dig Deeper and Artifacts and Puzzles.

Expected additions: More hazard variety (ice, lava, steam), tools to counter them (Tools Priority), gated rewards that change mining strategy.

Wiki action: Update guides when new artifacts or biomes ship; run verify:facts if multiplayer or features change (currently none).

Post-launch theme — Automation breadth

Goal: Mature Drones, advanced logistics, and planter side systems without replacing manual creativity early game.

Community expectation: Drones remain late-tier on Research Checklist — not day-one crutches.

Balance risk: Patch notes may rebalance drone costs; watch Demo Patches pattern continuing into EA.

Post-launch theme — Mod ecosystem

Goal: Keep Fluxloader and map tools viable across updates (Fluxloader Install, Custom Maps).

Developer stance: Mod-friendly single-player sandboxes extend longevity; EA patches should communicate breaking changes early.

Player tip: Maintain a vanilla save slot when testing mods.

Post-launch theme — Quality of life and polish

Goal: UI clarity, performance on minimum spec (4 GB RAM, GTX 550 Ti), save stability, controller rebinding if requested by community.

Specs reference: Release Date and Platforms.

Controls baseline: Keyboard Shortcuts documented defaults unless patch notes add remapping.

What is unlikely during Early Access

• Online multiplayer — not in current official scope
• Console ports — PC-first storefronts only announced
• Complete 1.0 narrative — EA is iterative by definition

How to track roadmap delivery

1. Steam news and patch notes
2. Official Discord announcements
3. Wiki Updates Hub summaries
4. Community wiki.gg Sandustry page
5. This page updated after major milestones

Milestone checklist (fan projection)

Phase	Focus	Wiki pages to refresh
EA launch	Core loop + research tree	Guides, Tier List, Buildings
EA +1–3 months	Balance patches	Production Ratio Helper, Demo Patches style log
EA mid	Depth / artifacts	Dig Deeper, Artifacts guides
EA late	Automation polish	Drones, Automation Basics
Pre-1.0	Performance + UX	Controls, Review

Dates for post-launch phases are not official — placeholders for wiki maintenance planning.

Community expectations vs developer silence

When official posts go quiet between patches, players still infer roadmap progress from demo scope and EA store feature lists. Treat silence as uncertainty—not confirmation that drones, artifacts, or mod APIs are delayed. Fan summaries here track themes Hooded Horse and Lantto have mentioned publicly; they are not leak compilations. If a rumored feature never ships, wiki pages like Dig Deeper update when patch notes prove it.

Official Steam Early Access FAQ (launch week)

Steam’s EA questionnaire is the closest thing to an official roadmap. Fan summary, not a contract:

• Why EA: Lantto wants player ideas in the loop — Discord and Steam forums are the feedback channels.
• How long: about one year, subject to design and feedback.
• Full version vs EA: more granular procedural generation, plus additional buildings, resources, production chains, quests, biomes, and technologies as you go deeper.
• Current state: the EA build is fully playable with the features listed on the store page.
• Community: suggestions, bugs, and reports go to Discord and Steam forums.

Dev notes before launch also covered a full simulation rewrite (comparison video above) and a movement rewrite — faster traversal, hover, less fighting every pixel. Those are already in the live EA build; they are not later teasers.

Play Early Access now

• Play demo — Demo Review
• Learn controls — Controls Hub
• Plan factories — Tools
• Buy or subscribe — Release Date and Platforms

Roadmaps change; the refinery loop fundamentals documented across Guides should remain the spine of Sandustry updates.

Communication channels to watch

Follow Lantto Games and Hooded Horse on Steam curator feeds, Discord announcements, and social posts linked from sandustry.com. Wiki editors mirror milestone language here within 48 hours of major posts when possible — smaller hotfixes may only appear on Demo Patches until consolidated.

Player expectations

Early Access is not a promise of feature-complete drones, artifacts, or biomes on day one — it is permission for the factory loop to grow in public. Adjust Review expectations accordingly.