by theygamesMixing the open-world exploration of Terraria and Astroneer with the base-building and automation elements of Factorio and Satisfactory, Prospector is a promising new sandbox game made by a solo developer that’s currently set to launch later this year. You won’t have to wait until then to try it, however, as a free Steam demo is out now, letting you go through the early hours for yourself and see what it has to offer.
Created by Jacob Farny of Loonworks Games, Prospector is all about gathering resources on dangerous planets, processing them, and shipping them off-world to various colonies across the stars. It marries elements of the best sandbox survival games with a beautiful, brightly colored pixel art style that really captures the vibrant sense of adventure you want when exploring other planets.
Much like Astroneer, you’ll need to run out supply lines from your base in order to safely explore these hostile, oxygen-less environments. You’re joined by OPHELIA, a loyal robot companion that helps you complete tasks and will protect you from dangers. Once you find resources, you can gather them and begin building out your outpost. What begins as a small hub will quickly grow into a bustling network of machines, allowing you to automate much of the production lines and gradually scale up into a buzzing hive of activity.
The prologue chapter Prospector: The First Contract has just launched, and is effectively a demo that’s available as a standalone free Steam game. It gives you access to the beginning chapter: land on a new planet, set down supply lines as you explore, gather resources, build an outpost, and start trading your collected samples with other colonies. You’ll also be able to get a good sense of the building and automation systems, making use of helper bots to manage the logistics of crafting and shipping goods.
Prospector: The First Contract is out now as a free game on Steam, acting as a prologue chapter to the full version of Prospector. You can download it now and start playing. Prospector is set to launch in 2024; in the meantime, just add it to your wishlist if you want to stay up to date with when it becomes available.
If that’s not enough, there are lots more of the best sandbox games that are perfect to stretch your creative legs in. You might also want to browse through the best indie games in 2024, just to ensure you haven’t missed any potential favorites.
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