Across the Sands

Across the Sands is a short, minimalistic, textless game about crossing a great desert.

Trade your tea with other travelers and earn enough to build a new home at the distant edge of the desert.

Gameplay Hints

Sand Skiffs will automatically appear over time and order 1-3 ingredients depending on their color.

Add ingredients to your kettle by clicking on them. You can prepare up to three ingredients this way. At any time you can click the kettle to empty it out if you made a mistake.

You can start each stage by clicking your Sand Skiff. The Sand Skiff will automatically travel to your next destination but will wait for you to click on it before starting the level proper.

In each run of Across the Sands, the ingredients you earn will be randomly assigned a symbol. Before starting a stage you can refresh your memory of what symbols are assigned to which ingredients by clicking on each ingredient.

Skiffs give 3, 1, or 0 coins depending on how correct your order is. The ending of the game changes depending on how many coins you earned.

Game Jam Info

This is a submission to the RPG Maker 2025 Game Jam and the theme of "Beyond Expectations" is both embodied in the great distance you must travel and the lack of "expected" elements such as text and dialogue.

I hope you enjoy this meditative (and sometimes hectic) journey. Try and reach a score of 600 or more coins for the best possible ending!

Credits

• Plugins: Yanfly, Caethyril, Yami, SumRndmDde
• SFX: freesound_community (Pixabay)
• Music: ArtSlop_Flodur (Pixabay), Nature's Eye/Leigh Robinson (Pixabay)

Usage of AI

Game Jam Rules: "Using ChatGPT to help with debugging or to create code templates that you then build on yourself is fine. The restriction is mainly aimed at generating final game content (like art, music, or text) that’s directly used in the game without significant user input."

As per the regulations of the game jam seen here, Across the Sands has used ChatGPT to help with debugging and creating code templates that were then built upon. No AI was used for the creation of art assets (art, music, text.)