Under a Desert Sun: Seekers of the Cursed Vessel - Small dev update

Small development update

I’m currently doing a cleanup pass on the area maps in Under a Desert Sun. Until now, many of them were still temporary maps based on literal top-down screenshots from the editor, with a shader applied on top. That worked fine while building and testing, but it never really looked like a proper part of the game.

Steam post image Thats better!

The goal now is to bring those maps to a usable state and make them better resemble both the actual areas and the visual style of the game. It’s one of those improvements that may sound small on paper, but it really helps the game feel more polished and complete.

Alongside this, I’ve also added new map tech for larger areas. These maps will now have a fog-of-war style system, so instead of revealing everything immediately, they gradually uncover as you explore. I’ve also added a small “you are roughly here” indicator for larger maps. It is not meant to be a perfect one-to-one coordinate marker, but more of a general estimate to help players understand which part of the area they are currently in.

Smaller dungeons will still show the full layout immediately, while larger areas will lean more into exploration and gradual discovery.

In parallel, the prologue and trailer work are also moving forward. The 2D artist I’ve been working with will help visualise the optional prologue shown at the start of the game, while the trailer artist I’ve hired will be handling production of the trailer mentioned earlier.

So, lots of presentation work is happening right now: better maps, a cleaner exploration layer, prologue visuals, and trailer production.

As always, this is still a small indie project, but it’s great to see more and more of the game slowly move from “functional” to “presentable.”

You can wishlist the game on Steam here:

Under a Desert Sun Seekers of the Cursed Vessel

You can also join the Discord here:

https://discord.gg/g5fK7Df