The ruins of the lost civilization contain powerful artifacts, and lost technology. This technology is extremely advanced, all of its secrets are lost to time. It is so advanced that it may as well be magic. Some sections of the ruins may have effects that counter normal laws of nature, such as space or gravity. You can retrofit collected tech that allows the last bastion of civilization, your home, to survive. You are your village’s last hope for survival.
The player is a scavenger who is scouring ruins in an attempt to save the village he is a part of. The village is one of last vestiges of civilization and without the artifacts the MC is bringing back to them the village will fade and be covered by sand. The player was part of a group of scavengers however after he was separated from the main group by a sand storm he found an artifact that attached to his feet when he touched them. He quickly found that this mysterious artifact was able to manipulate the sands in a way that allowed him to traverse at high speeds. Places in the ruins that were not accessible before suddenly could be found by the player. This game covers the story of the player as they discover more about this strange technology that they found as well as the mystery of what happened to the world ages ago.
The reason the village needs artifacts is because they use a device at the center of the village that keeps the sandstorms at bay. It is cobbled together from pieces of old technology, and since they don’t know how it works they can’t repair it, they can only try to find parts in the ruins that can replace any that break down.
Main Method of Conveyance:
The player should discover more about the technology of the race that left these ruins in the sand as well as what happened to such an advanced society. The player will do this by learning about the technology itself and about the people who made it.
It would be preferable to tell this to the player through experiencing it or through architecture of the ruins (for example the player finds a factory and by exploring finds out the purpose of the factory which is one piece of the puzzle). Another way of doing this is having the player experience “visions” whenever he activates certain devices in the ruins. In these visions the player will take the place of a one of the ancient race. The player will then act a certain event that was integral to the fall of civilization.