TECHMASH

Tag: #SandboxGames

  • Wing It or Sling It: French Indie Dev Maarti Games swoops onto the Beach with Chaotic New Trailer for ‘Goeland: Seagull Adventure’

    Wing It or Sling It: French Indie Dev Maarti Games swoops onto the Beach with Chaotic New Trailer for ‘Goeland: Seagull Adventure’

    Beachgoers, lock down your seaside snacks! Independent French developer Maarti Games has officially swooped in with a delightfully chaotic trailer for its upcoming sandbox title, Goeland: Seagull Adventure.

    If you’ve ever sat on a breezy pier eating fish and chips, only to have a relentless, wide-eyed feathered menace drop out of the sky and snatch your food right out of your hands, this game is giving you the chance to step—or rather, fly—into those very feathers.

    Currently in development for PC (Steam and Epic Games Store) and aiming for a Q4 release, Goeland: Seagull Adventure promises a hilarious, physics-driven playground where you can choose to be the ultimate winged hero or an absolute feathered terror.

    Feathers, Physics, and Total Sandbox Freedom

    At its heart, Goeland: Seagull Adventure drops you onto a vibrant, open-world island packed with reactive NPCs, hidden secrets, and endless opportunities for mischief. Drawing inspiration from emergent, physics-heavy sandbox classics like Untitled Goose Game and Goat Simulator, Goeland amplifies the absurdity while giving players complete freedom over their playstyle.

    The latest trailer gives gamers a glorious look at the sheer breadth of seaside shenanigans on offer:

    • Systemic Chaos: The island’s citizens don’t just walk in scripted loops—a dynamic, reactive crowd system means townsfolk will react, panic, and chase you down depending on how badly you push their buttons.
    • Goofy Mechanics: Prepare to engage in intense tug-of-war battles to rip sandwiches straight out of unsuspecting hands, hijack hang gliders, mess with paint, and even lead tactical “poop strikes” alongside a recruited goose squadron.
    • Helpful or Horrible: You aren’t forced to be a total pest! While stealing food and causing havoc is half the fun, you can also lend a helping wing—rescuing stranded animals, uncovering buried treasure via mysterious maps, and investigating a strange environmental pollution threat hovering over the island.
    • Play at Your Own Pace: Prefer a relaxed, zen bird-watching experience over high-stakes chases? Maarti Games has built in customizable settings that allow you to tone down the tension, so you can explore rooftops, solve environmental puzzles, and soak in the sun without constant pursuit.

    Built for Gamers and Streamers Alike

    Developer Bryan Martinet (the mind behind Maarti Games) is ensuring Goeland isn’t just fun to play solo—it’s tailor-made for community chaos too. The game features native Twitch integration, allowing viewers to literally spawn directly into a streamer’s world as island citizens, either helping out or becoming prime targets for targeted seagull strikes.

    With its charming, stylised visuals, adaptive soundtrack, and a rich narrative thread hiding beneath its goofy exterior, Goeland: Seagull Adventure is rapidly shaping up to be one of the most entertaining indie titles of the year.

    Wishlist and Try the Free Demo Today!

    Can’t wait until launch to unleash your inner bird of prey? A free playable demo is available right now on Steam, giving players an early taste of the island’s flight physics, updated storylines, and initial sandbox mechanics.

    Be sure to add Goeland: Seagull Adventure to your wishlist on Steam to support the dev team and stay updated on the official release date!

    What’s your go-to seagull tactic—noble island guardian or sandwich thief? Let us know in the comments below!

    Find out more here

    #Goeland #GoelandSeagullAdventure #MaartiGames #IndieGames #PCGaming #Steam #GamingNews #SandboxGames #IndieDev #Techmash

  • Drive, Automate & Detonate: Space Engineers 2 Drops Massive VS2.3 Alpha Update

    Drive, Automate & Detonate: Space Engineers 2 Drops Massive VS2.3 Alpha Update

    If you’ve been tracking the evolution of the Space Engineers 2 Alpha, it’s time to strap back into your cockpit. Keen Software House has officially deployed its latest milestone update, VS2.3: “Drive, Automate & Detonate.” Living up to its explosive name, this update injects a massive dose of mechanical freedom, advanced automation, expanded planetary warfare, and gruelling survival overhauls into the VRAGE3-powered sandbox.

    Here is everything you need to know about how VS2.3 is changing the engineering landscape.

    Drive: The Mechanical Toolkit is Complete

    For ground-pounders and planet explorers, the days of being restricted to thruster-based movement are over. VS2.3 introduces Wheel blocks, allowing players to engineer everything from nimble scout rovers to towering, resource-hauling mobile bases and trailers.

    To complement the existing pistons and rotors, Keen has finally introduced Hinges. This completes the core mechanical toolkit, giving you the power to craft intricate cargo ramps, variable-sweep wings, and complex robotic arms. Even better, newly introduced limits for rotors and pistons make these moving subgrids far easier to tune and control without triggering accidental, physics-defying catastrophes.

    Automate: Complex Grids Without the Coding

    If you love building self-sustaining industrial loops or reactive defence grids, the automation overhaul in VS2.3 is a game-changer. The update adds three core components to your terminal:

    • The Event Controller: A powerful block capable of tracking real-time grid parameters—such as speed, altitude, power levels, inventory capacity, and weapon ammo—and triggering specific actions based on those conditions.
    • Timer Blocks: Designed to queue up and sequence automated actions, either instantly or after custom-defined delays.
    • Sensors: Allowing your ships and stations to seamlessly detect approaching physical objects, players, or threats.

    Whether you want hangar doors that automatically close when your ship leaves, or emergency batteries that kick in when primary power drops below 10%, you can now build deeply logic-driven grids entirely through the game’s native blocks.

    Detonate: Combat and Total Destruction

    Space and planetary warfare just got significantly more lethal. Keen Software House has added Warheads (in both small and large grid formats), which can be detonated manually or triggered via your new automation systems.

    Furthermore, combat realism has taken a major leap forward:

    • Chain Reactions: Damaged O2/H2 tanks, active reactors, and packed ammo containers will now violently explode if compromised.
    • Heavy Payload Defences: New automated Rocket Turrets and rapid-fire Rocket Launchers have arrived to protect your territory.
    • Character Combat: If you prefer boots-on-the-ground skirmishes, character weapons now feature proper iron sights, complete with projectile impact decals and manual turret controls.

    Survival Reworks and Environmental Threats

    Surviving on the planets of the Almagest System is no longer a walk in the park. VS2.3 introduces a dedicated Classic Survival Start, dialling up the challenge to mimic a traditional, harsher survival loop. This brings voxel-based resource yields from terrain, restrictive backpack building limits, adjusted ore distribution, and rebalanced crafting recipes.

    Adding to the planetary pressure is the introduction of Wind Physics. Atmospheric weather events, like sandstorms, are no longer purely cosmetic. Strong winds will physically push airborne characters, loose debris, floating objects, and dynamic grids. To help you harness this chaos, the update adds Wind Turbines, allowing you to generate scalable green energy based entirely on local wind speeds.

    Behind the Scenes: Optimisation & What’s Next

    Alongside 46 brand-new building blocks and the exclusive Pioneer Suit for Pioneer Edition owners, Keen has delivered substantial engine optimisations under the hood. Vegetation culling, shadow rendering, and voxel processing have all been upgraded to keep performance smooth, even in dense forests or during chaotic, high-fracture explosions.

    For those tracking the long-term Space Engineers 2 Roadmap, Keen also dropped an exciting development update: the team is prioritising Co-op Multiplayer & NPCs (VS4) ahead of the highly anticipated Water Update (VS3), aiming for a release window around November/December 2026.

    The Verdict

    The “Drive, Automate & Detonate” update successfully bridges the gap between raw creativity and practical survival. With robust physics, deep automation logic, and high-stakes combat, the Space Engineers 2 Alpha is quickly shaping up to be a worthy, next-generation successor to the original masterpiece.

    Space Engineers 2 is currently available in Playable Alpha on Steam.

    Find out more here

    #SpaceEngineers2 #KeenSoftwareHouse #GamingNews #SciFiGaming #SandboxGames #PCGaming #SpaceEngineers #IndieDev #TechMash

  • The Apocalypse Is Open for Business: Zombuds Launches First Public Playtest on Steam

    The Apocalypse Is Open for Business: Zombuds Launches First Public Playtest on Steam

    If you’ve ever looked at a zombie apocalypse and thought, “You know what this wasteland needs? A thriving black-market pharmaceutical empire,” then Gamecraft Studios has the perfect game for you.

    The indie developers behind Vampire Hunters have officially opened the gates to their next delightfully unhinged project. Zombuds has officially launched its very first public playtest on Steam, giving players an early, chaotic look at an open-world co-op sandbox where survival takes a backseat to pure entrepreneurial hustle.

    Turning Brain-Eaters into Brainless Workers

    Zombuds takes place 15 years after the collapse of civilisation, but instead of the usual grimdark, ammunition-scarcity depression, Gamecraft Studios is serving up a colourful, lighthearted comedy fantasy.

    In this sandbox simulator, you and up to three friends play as “Doompreneurs.” Your mission? Scavenge dangerous, abandoned locations, manufacture bizarre post-apocalyptic substances, and build an unstoppable underground enterprise.

    But a massive corporate empire needs a workforce. That’s where the local population comes in. In Zombuds, you can hire human survivors—or, better yet, brainwash the zombies to automate your production lines and keep operations running smoothly while you’re out dealing with rivals. If manual labour isn’t your vibe, you can always just blow them up in spectacularly cartoonish, bloody ways.

    “While others scramble to survive, you hustle to build your black market empire.”

    Built from Scratch for Maximum Chaos

    What makes Zombuds even more impressive is its development story. Built on a custom engine created completely from scratch by a dedicated two-man team, the game balances an incredibly heavy workload of complex mechanics, including full automation systems, an expansive open world, sandbox physics, and seamless 4-player co-op.

    The game’s stylised, low-poly aesthetic isn’t just a stylistic choice either; it allows the developers to focus squarely on delivering tight, chaotic gameplay, massive zombie counts, and deep management loops without sacrificing performance.

    How to Join the Playtest Right Now

    Gamecraft Studios plans to use this public playtest to gather crucial feedback on everything from economy balancing and co-op pacing to zombie pressure. Following this playtest, the game is headed toward a Steam Early Access launch, where it will remain for at least six months to add more quests, weapons, and automation items.

    Ready to get your hustle on? Getting into the action is incredibly simple:

    1. Head over to the Zombuds Steam Page.
    2. Click the “Request Access” button under the playtest banner (everyone who applies is automatically accepted!).
    3. Gather your crew, download the client, and start building your empire.

    Make sure to jump into their official Discord to drop your feedback, report bugs, and help the team fine-tune the apocalypse.

    TechMash Verdict

    Zombuds is a refreshingly wacky spin on a tired genre. Blending the management mechanics of a tycoon simulator with the chaotic fun of a co-op zombie shooter makes for an addictive formula. Go grab your friends, request instant access, and see if you have what it takes to corner the post-apocalyptic market!

    Find out more here

    #Zombuds #GamecraftStudios #SteamPlaytest #CoOpGaming #IndieGames #PCGaming #ZombieApocalypse #SandboxGames #GamingNews #TechMash