You're alone on a desert planet, and you play as a cactus humanoid alien character thing called 'Cactus Evergreen', your only means of survival is to locate water. Armed with a divining rod and a straw, you hunt the dunes following the twitches of your rod to what you hope to be water. Time is precious as you have a thirst meter, which is constantly draining, and your goal is to find water to fill it back up. If the divining rod seems highly responsive in a certain area, you can jump into the sand (temporarily planting yourself) refilling the thirst-meter significantly, however if you missed the water spring/damp area, you take a harsh increase in thirst. If you don't quite trust your instincts you can in turn, stab your straw into the sand and drink what little water you assume to be in the sand. Failing this process only slightly increases your thirst, but if you do locate water (and sip it through your straw), you will refill the thirst-meter a certain amount, but not as much as the planting yourself strategy.
Why the divining rod? Damp patches and underground springs spawn randomly and cannot be seen from above, think of it like the item-finder from the pokemon games, except without the 100% certainty that you're on the right spot.
What reason is there for the player to keep attempting to complete longer runs?
Leaderboards, duh. You'll be timed for each run, and the longer the time the higher the score and the juicier the bragging rights. Also, reaching certain time goals will unlock new skins for the player, and who doesn't like cosmetics? (also can be used as a non pay-to-win microtransaction)
This game is intended for mobile devices (iOS, Android) and potentially PC (Windows/Steam)
Main Features: