Final Developments Before Full Release

🏁 Final Updates Before Full Release

With the last major update of the Early Access phase, Qume: Echoes of Sand is now one step closer to its full release. This update brings new systems, enemies, optimizations, and additions that add greater depth to the gameplay.

🚀 New Features

• Jetpack added! Take off with Space and dash short distances with Shift. Fuel is limited for long flights, but overall mobility has greatly improved.

• Jetpack crafting and materials can now be found across the world.

• New enemy camps and faction conflicts — certain AI groups now fight each other, making the world feel more dynamic. Steam post image

• New Bosses:

• Juggernaut: Armored and highly durable; hard to kill.

• Blastborn: Uses gas, smoke, and flash grenades.

• Dustfang: A lone sniper that can spawn in camps or on hills — more dangerous and powerful than standard snipers. Steam post image

• Loot and interactive corpses — you can now loot enemies, bosses, and even creatures like scorpions (which are edible).

• New surface loot — added half-buried scrap vehicles, boxes, and lootable objects that don’t require digging.

🧠 Gameplay & System Improvements

• Crafting, Printing, and Shred menus redesigned — selected items are now clearly highlighted, and locked content or item levels are easier to identify.

• Hallucination system added — hallucinations appear and fade as hunger or thirst increases.

• Survived Days counter and Global Leaderboard activated.

• Survival Assessment — evaluates your overall performance.

• Starting character traits can now be selected, granting either backpack or weapon gear at the start.

• Weapon/Van showcase menu added — designed to build an emotional connection between the player and their current equipment.

• Quest system (after Tutorial) — once you complete the tutorial, the game starts with a few short missions that act as the foundation of the story system. Steam post image

🎓 Tutorial Updates

• Camp assault training (example: a small camp behind a large rock) — not mandatory; skip if you lack ammo.

• Fuel refilling training (vehicle’s left side — don’t forget to close the door).

• Trader introduction added.

• Tutorial is now optional — includes a “Do you want to play it?” choice.

⚙️ Quality & Usability

• Added"Bug Sender"button to the ESC menu — report recent issues easily.

• Improved screen shake and weapon recoil effects.

• Reworked difficulty settings and added several improvements.

• Temporarily removed ultrawide support.

• Added FallRecovery system (temporary fix for falling out of the world).

• Craft item pinning added.

🪲 Fixes

• Fixed loot refresh issue when dropping looted items.

• Fixed bug allowing items in locked inventory slots.

• Improved Eye text readability.

• Fixed bug when opening inventory while filling water.

• Fixed armor texture issue.

• Fixed time/day counter.

• Camp indicators now only show active camps; disappear once all enemies are cleared.

• Temporarily disabled arm dismember escape animation due to conflicts.

• Removed “Early Access” label.

• “Data will be deleted” warning now only appears if a save file exists.

🧩 Final Words

This update represents the final major step before full release. Thanks to your feedback, Qume has evolved into a richer, more dangerous, and atmospheric world. This may be the last major content update before launch — next comes the full release announcement and story-driven content expansions.