SEEDS: Echoes Beneath the Sands

SEEDS: Echoes Beneath the Sands is an unreleased terraforming and sandbox game from the independent team Against All Odds Limited. It is set on a barren planet whose landscape and ecosystem players can reshape to their own liking. That ranges from moving terrain and creating bodies of water to building machines meant to create a habitable atmosphere.

Unlike a classic building game, at the planned Early Access start no completed mission path is the focus: the developers first want to offer a freely playable sandbox and develop the overarching story step by step.

SEEDS has no confirmed release date yet on Steam. The first public launch is to be as Early Access, and a finished version is not yet dated. The developers estimate roughly an eight-month Early Access phase in the store, but cannot give a binding timeframe themselves. This estimate is not an announced release window.

The studio names the free sandbox mode as the initial content, including terraforming, resource mining, building tools, exploration and environment design. A full story, more planets and multiplayer, on the other hand, are part of the planned later expansion. The scope of the finished version is not yet final.

The official Steam listing names native versions for Windows and Linux. Both count as the PC version. A release for PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 is not yet confirmed and is therefore not listed as a planned native version.

The game mode currently listed is Single player. According to the studio, it is already internally testing a co-op mode, but on the store page it only mentions this as a likely feature of a later version. English is so far listed as the UI and subtitle language, but full voice acting is not.

At the start, SEEDS is meant to give you the freedom to gradually change a planet without rigid missions. Players collect resources, develop blueprints, build machines and watch as new plants, bodies of water or animals change their surroundings. The planned story is to add to these actions later through a voyage of discovery, including traces of a lost civilization.

Hazards are not necessarily part of every game. Players looking for extra challenges can, according to the studio, turn on asteroid impacts as well as attacks by drones and aliens. A peaceful playstyle is also planned. A hoverboard and a spaceship open up different ways of moving, all the way to the asteroid belt.

The Steam listing names, for Windows, at least Windows 10 22H2, a Ryzen 5 1600 or Core i5-8400, 16 GB RAM and a graphics card with 12 GB VRAM, such as Radeon RX 6700 XT, GeForce RTX 3060 or Intel Arc B580. Vulkan 1.3 or newer is planned. For Linux, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or a comparable 64-bit distribution is listed, with similar hardware requirements.

The recommended graphics tier is currently set particularly high: the studio names Radeon RX 9070 XT or GeForce RTX 5070 Ti with 16 GB VRAM. It itself emphasizes that the early version has high GPU requirements and that further improvements will follow. The details therefore reflect the current development state and are not a guarantee of final optimization.

The planet is meant to react to changes in terrain, water and atmosphere. The studio mentions changeable mountain ranges, new rivers and ponds, and technical installations for supplying the environment and vegetation. Planted flowers, trees and other plants form the basis for an ecosystem in which animals are also meant to move later.

How complex the simulation of these interactions turns out to be in the first Early Access version will only become clear once the playable version is out. The store description promises diverse design options, but does not guarantee a specific level of scientific accuracy or an automatically emerging complete food chain.

An unusual technical feature goes beyond the terraforming itself: according to the developer, the built-in computers use an emulated 64-bit RISC-V CPU and a virtual machine running an adapted Linux. This runs things like maps, statistics and control interfaces for the planet's machines.

The system is also meant to allow your own programs and small games. The developers cite chess, a block-stacking game and retro arcade projects as examples. Those who want to can even program their own tools for the virtual computer. This feature is therefore more than just a futuristic user interface – it is meant to serve as a standalone playground for tinkerers.

Against All Odds Limited develops and publishes SEEDS. The team, which describes itself as three people, handles code, graphics, story, music and sound itself. The in-house engine PasVulkan and the RISC-V emulator PasRISCV are also made in-house and shared as free open-source projects.

The studio justifies the planned Early Access not only with work on the story and mechanics, but also with optimizations for the still high GPU requirements. Community feedback is meant to feed into further development. This goal does not guarantee a specific scope or launch date for further modes.

Steam lists, among other things, the ability to save at any time, adjust the volume separately, and play at your own pace without quick-time events. Partial controller support is currently listed. These store details reflect the current planning stage and do not yet replace a test of the finished controls or performance.