Under a Desert Sun: Seekers of the Cursed Vessel News

[p]Hello Seekers,[/p][p]I thought it was a good moment to highlight some fresh progress! Development continues at full speed, starting with new environments and further work on the main quest. As some of you in the Discord already know, I use the main quest as a way to push myself to build new systems. I'm now at the point where everything leading up to the final moments of the main quest is functional—both tech-wise and, for the most part, art-wise.[/p][p]That means it was time to move the story forward again, which in turn forced me to create new areas, enemies, and gameplay features. One such feature is an improved day and night system, with smoother lighting transitions and smarter particle effects that fade out instead of abruptly disappearing. Below you'll find a quick idea of the new day/night features and a few in-editor screenshots showing the early stages of these new zones.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]Creating these new areas also meant designing new enemy types—specifically ones that shoot projectiles! From Nazis who fire bullets to arcane mummies casting magical bolts, I needed to build the underlying tech. To get that going, I set up a test using our trusty mummy as a prototype. This allowed me to develop the full system: bullets, shooting and casting animations, and proper hit detection.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Naturally, new areas also bring more destructibles. And let’s be honest—breaking stuff in an ARPG is just fun. (As you can see from me thrashing around... purely professional testing, of course 😏)[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]On the technical side, Steam Deck optimization remains a major goal. The game currently runs at a stable 45 FPS on Deck without any upscaling like FSR—so you get a clean image and native visuals. To get there, I’ve upgraded several systems under the hood. Particle systems now fade naturally, enemy spawning uses pooled and distance-aware logic, and we've improved object occlusion and visibility handling to keep things smooth when off-screen. These changes help across all platforms but especially make the Deck experience strong.[/p][hr][/hr][p]Join the Discord for daily development discussions and behind-the-scenes previews.
And if you like what you see—wishlist the game on Steam to support the journey![/p]

[p]🌞 A little behind-the-scenes look at the day-night system I’m building for Under a Desert Sun: Seekers of the Cursed Vessel.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]What makes it interesting? It’s quite efficient—each object simply registers to a central “sun” and gets updated on the time of day. Lights switch on and off with slight randomness, so environments feel natural rather than mechanical.[/p][p]Particles also don’t just snap off—they’re given soft transitions so they fade or “burn out” naturally, keeping the immersion intact.[/p][p]Always fun finding small touches that make the world feel more alive![/p]

[p]Progress is going fast. And since it is I thought it wise to make a short new trailer![/p][p][/p][p]Enjoy![/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

I've been working on various UI menus today, and the new game class/character select screen finally got the polish it needed. It always felt a bit unfinished—so I made some key improvements.

Two new additions were made to the screen, along with updated lighting that now also gives you a sneak peek at upcoming classes like Rafic and The Brute, both of which will be released later this year after the Early Access launch this summer.

My main goal was to make things clearer for players:

You can now easily see what each class does, thanks to the added class description.

It's immediately obvious which class each player has selected. In the video, Player 1 switches from Adventurer to Soldier, and the updated UI reflects that change clearly.

See it in action for yourself:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Hello Seekers!

As I’ve been working on all the class skills — both the Skillcard system and the special weapon skill tree — I realized it was time to overhaul the player UI as well.

Thanks to the wide variety of available skills, your characters can already differ quite a bit from each other, even if you pick the same class. I wanted to create a system where you can immediately see what you’re running:
– Which passive skill is active?
– Which active skill is currently slotted?
– Which elemental effect is applied to your bullets?

To solve this, I designed a set of small, elegant icons that integrate smoothly into the existing player UI. I deliberately avoided the typical bulky skill boxes you see in so many ARPGs — instead, I aimed for something more fluid and natural that fits seamlessly into the interface.

I hope you all like it! Let me know your thoughts.

Old player UI vs New:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]