The desert of Steam Early Access games can be difficult to navigate but sometimes a title will stand out like an oasis among sandy terrain. The Saudi Arabian developer Semaphore have had their survival game Badiya out in alpha form since early November; They recently updated the game with a third patch as they continue to push towards a full release.

This adventure is set in the Arabian desert in the time of the Great Wars. Across mostly desolate land you’ll find merchants, villas, ruins, wild animals, drivable vehicles, water deposits, and much more. You’ll be able to take your fully customizable character and loot, craft, trade, fight, and shoot your way to survival. And if you think the desert will be a boring vacation of sand, the weather system will have you seeing rain and snow in Sahara-like locales.

While a lot is planned for the final build of Badiya, there seems to be a lot in the Early Access build currently. The unique location mixed in with the usual suspects of a open-world sim makes this alpha stand out. The timely updates seem to point to a sunny future as well. The $19.99 USD price tag might be a bit high for some however.

The notes from patch 1.3 for Badiya can be found below:

* General:

  • Game executable was not working in some cases. This had to do with saving data location. Now it's fixed.
  • Add version number to the top right corner of in-game all the time
  • Performance Optimization in villages.
  • Fixed Camera occlusion issues (Collision with the environment).
  • Overall balancing of item values and crafting components
  • Oasis used to play water footstep sounds before you reach the actual water surface.
  • Fixed issues with dying while sleeping
  • Oil field is now animated, has industrial props and utility loot surrounding it, and plays proper machinery sounds.
  • Reduced the foot SFX of the horse/camel walking/running on rain/snow to half the current value
  • Sand accumulation was happening during snow. Now fixed.
  • Temperatures now are accurate throughout the year. Temperature will increase during day and decrease at night.
  • Replace "Y" for interaction 2 with "Q". Closer to the left hand.
  • Allow horse and camel to go over tiles in the air strip.
  • Made "Cloud Shadows" an optional feature that should be turned off on "Low" preset only

* Menus:

  • You can now see the value of each slider in the menus (FOV slider, audio sliders, etc...)
  • On loot boxes/merchants/vehicles added an icon to indicate "All"
  • Player inventory starts with 50 KG capacity, capacity can be increased when you equip a solider backpack (20 kg additional) or an explorer bag (10 kg additional)
  • In crafting menu, when an item is needed and you don't have enough of it, we write the amount that you have so 3/5 in red colors means you don't have enough yet but you have 3. So you know right away how many more you need.
  • In crafting menu, we write the name of the crafting component that is needed so you don't have to guess what the item icon means.
  • When you are using a mouse and hovering over an item you see a box containing the "Stats and Condition" of that item.
  • Hover over Salvage and Crafting components (in crafting menu and inventory item window at bottom) and you get a tool tip showing their name
  • Fixed a bug where the scroller in crafting window snaps to bottom all the time

* Player:

  • Adjusted overall stamina depletion rate to be more realistic.
  • Added looking around animations that happen while walking. This helps break the walk cycle look and make it more natural.
  • When unlock a box then close the window, make the player stand up automatically
  • Fixed fingernails appearing black sometimes

* Weapons:

  • Cross hair will now become red to indicate if you are aiming on your target.
  • All weapons now have dispersion. Your accuracy while moving is going to be lower than if you are standing still. The cross hair will move to indicate that.
  • Fixed an issue where after shooting the Luger or revolver, the gun doesn't immediately return to its position.
  • Thompson and MP18 automatic firing is working properly now.

* Interactivity:

  • Hitting metal fences and columns in the airport (while driving a car or a tank) will make them fall if you moving at a high speed.
  • Added several gas tanks, explosive barrels, and water barrels in the airport. Those are all interactive and will have different behavior when shot. Check them out :)
  • Punching wooden or clay props or using a tool to hit them with will cause them to break

* Coming Up Next:

  • This is just a sample of the features coming up next.
  • Key Rebinding .
  • Quick Access Bar (Hot Bar) at the bottom which you can drag items to and access with a single key press on keyboard.
  • Photo Mode: Frame your shot, change the filters and effects and take that awesome screenshot.
  • Localized Subtitles for all speech.
  • Saving the location of all vehicles and rideable animals in the place you were in.
  • Wild Animals that can attack the player. Starting with a wolf.
  • Different ammo calibers for each of the weapons in the game. So no more unified ammo for all weapons.