It's hard to escape the law of unintended consequences.  Everything was good and the world was saved after the events of 2017's roguelike action-platformer The Superfluous, until it wasn't saved any more.  One thousand years after mission success the shattered remains of the asteroid where the action took place bombarded Earth and turned it into a wasteland, although to be fair to the crew of The Superfluous, that was more than enough time for humanity to identify and fix the problem.  Whoever gets the blame is irrelevant, though, because the survivors are too busy scraping a life from the unforgiving remains of the Earth to care.

A lone wanderer in the blasted desert wasteland of Alaska is doing his best to get by when he sees a light fall from the sky.  Tracking it down he finds a decrepit settlement with a hole in its roof, and inside is a satellite and the remains of the homeowner.  The satellite AI is clearly not going to be a benevolent force returned from the heavens to bring peace and prosperity to Earth but even so, it's got a good knowledge of tech and the now-vacant homestead is better than wandering aimlessly.  Maybe it's time to stay in one place for a bit and see how that works out, gathering resources to turn the run-down hovel into the heart of a thriving settlement while exploring the area and beating back any mutants, skeletons or giant cockroaches that may wander by.

Sand: A Superfluous Game is a base-building adventure through a Mad Max future, where settling into a home is just the first step in the story.  The house is a mess to start with, what with a giant hole in the roof from an amoral and politely sinister AI having crashed through, but it's on a good-sized chunk of land and has decent amenities already in place.  The AI has a few quests to get the place back on its feet, plus a sizeable catalog of tech to make working the desert easier, purchasable with the experience earned from scavenging and combat.  Weapons and armor help with survival while exploring the map, but there are plenty of options for turning a run-down outpost into a thriving community.

Trees don't last long but they do grow quickly enough to be harvested for a steady supply of wood.  Various plants provide differing amounts of vegetables, wells and cacti supply water, windmills and eventually solar panels generate power, etc.  There's a lot to build and a cost in materials for construction, and while you can set up a spot to buy and sell resources from wandering traders, it can be quicker to go out foraging.  Plastics and circuitry cost a small fortune to accumulate enough to build something, but there's a decent amount out in the wastelands if a scavenger can survive long enough to bring it home.

The world map is initially dark, barring the one spot of light that's the homestead.  Clicking on a point on the map grants safe travel there, with the dangers kicking in when you decide to explore a point of interest.  The world map changes to a large, randomized area of land, usually with at least one point of interest on there somewhere that's guarded by a handful of enemies.  Crabs and giant cockroaches are relatively harmless once you've got a decent weapon, while bandits can take you down quickly if you don't prioritize handling the archers first.  Combat is simple, just a click for an attack in the direction of the mouse cursor, but when there are spearmen and archers chasing you down things can get tense.  Death sees you wake up back at home base, all equipment intact but scavenged resources gone, and that can be especially painful when you were carrying a load of stone, metal, plastic and a couple of circuit boards.

As the story progresses you'll slowly get the knowledge to build up the settlement into a base that can handle itself during a good expedition out into the world. Drop down a four by four set of flooring tiles, throw up some walls and a roof, toss in a couple of beds and new people should move in.  Assign them jobs like farmer, water-gatherer or lumberjack to kill the grind of resource management and it becomes much more practical to wander farther afield and go on bigger quests, eventually even finding a couple of companions to provide back-up in the field.

The Sand demo (on Steam or itch.io) is a huge thing, containing the first of four planned chapters and all the gameplay systems that have been completed so far.  It's also currently running on Kickstarter and honestly, while I get that the game doesn't look like much on the surface, it still should be doing much better than its current take.  I'll grant there are issues to be ironed out, such as Sand's absolute love of having the player relentlessly hammer the E key to harvest resources, but there's a full-featured action-RPG that slowly reveals itself as Sand's world gets bigger and more toys get added to its toybox.  There's even an entire power-management system with batteries, voltage meters and electric poles available for late-game upgrades, not to mention livestock with a rideable llama.  Sand: A Superfluous Game is a wonderfully-playful adventure through the post-apocalyptic deserts of Alaska, and well worth several hours exploring its world while being guided by a not-particularly-subtle AI's plans for world domination.

https://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/3607085/type/dlg/sid/UUhgUeUpU9114/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtFcbPGDYIM