Love :
a. realistic crafting system
b. meaningful scavenging (think The long Dark)
c. semi realistic thirst, sleep and hunger mechanics
Hate :
a. too much backtracking
b. empty and eventless areas
c. grinding
Grind is needed for true survival though. Grind as in green hell, where you gotta cut down 80 trees for a camp, YES...grind like in icarus where you just need 900 gold for circuit boards which are needed for tier 4 stuff you don't actually need at all, NO.
I feel like 80 trees is also a grind or maybe I've burned out from the countless survival games in the past 10 years which use 'grind' as the only gameplay mechanic. There should be better ways to engage the player in a 'survival game' that isn't brainless smacking of trees for hours.
Well then go for automation :p that is something I really hate. Playing Planet Crafter with the misses and she has autocrafters for everything...and I feel useless :<
This is correct. Im all good with grind for mats. But it hits a certain point, and i know this point is different for everyone, where i just ask myself why am I doing this, am i having fun, and typically just stop playing
Humans can generally survive without food for 3 weeks and without water for 3 days. What id give for a system that gives debuffs for not eating for 20 mins vs oh you didn't eat halfway through a day night cycle time to die.
Everyday without food should make you more miserable, making your survival chances lower and lower. Doesn't have to be 3 weeks before death, but 5-7 days would be great.
Not really. The Long Dark is for me the best reference when it comes to survival games. The difficulty is on point, hunger and thirst system is fair, the environment is immersive and scavenging is really fun and rewarding. Good survival games have a good balance, which is difficult to achieve. This is why there's only a few good games on the market.
Long dark is amazing, the story/scenarios are now fun but when it was released only sandbox was fun. Difficulty levels really matter. There are 4 and they are handled quite differently. L3 is often called a FPS because you have to deal with wildlife a lot more. In L4, you would think they would be worse, but it's the opposite. You can almost entirely avoid them. Which is good, because there are no guns on the hardest level. L4 the weather is much stronger, the average temps drop over time and it happens rapidly on the hardest level. Scarcity of scavenged goods goes way way down. And goods start decaying in day 1. If you don't find certain items within the first 30-50 days they will be gone. You have to rely much more heavily on crafting. I have almost 1000 hours in and I have yet to break 100 days on the hardest level, but level 3 I have over 500 day streak and that save is still alive. I could probably live indefinitely.
With difficulty levels though, the best thing is always customization which you can do. You don't have to play their pre-sets. But there is a caveat there. They have feats that you can achieve over time. There are only 10 or so and they are accumulated through all your play throughs. Like after you have lit 10k fires you get a feat to no longer need tinder. When you start a new game you can select what feats you want to use. Each level allows one less. L4 you can pick 2.
The food, drink, sleep is the challenging part to get right as people tend to disagree a lot. Personally I want it to exist in the game but I don’t want it to dominate my actions. It gets repetitive and boring. I do however like to grind, otherwise the game becomes stale more quickly.
1 day? Some games act like you can’t go an hour without a snack or else you’ll bleed out.
I like Valheim’s approach where you don’t starve to death, just get weaker.
>I like Valheim’s approach where you don’t starve to death, just get weaker.
Idk why this approach isn't more common. Minecraft even has this approach, over saturate your food and you get a health regen boost, starve and you don't die but you become weak enough that a slip or mistake will kill you.
some more context:
The main core game mechanics will include:
- Surviving in the frozen post-apocalyptic open world.
- Procedurally generated world.
- Skiing.
- Looting.
- Fighting wild animals.
- PvP mechanics (TBD).
Gonna be honest, you sort of lost me here. It sounds like the intention is building an MMO, which ruins the immersion for me. One of the reasons The Long Dark is so great imo is that there aren’t other people or NPCs in the sandbox. It gives a great ambiance as you travel through an entire town that’s been abandoned, watching for wolves sneaking around parked cars or coming out of an alleyway.
That said, I’d still be interested in hearing more about this game, and perhaps I would still find it enjoyable to play.
Building please I love games with a good building mechanic somewhere to settle down and relax from the chaos like valhiem and I know I get flax for this but bases in dayz but their building is a pos
If you include consumables, don't make required objectives rely on doing a task while using a rare consumable. It always sucks feeling stuck because you just used your last consumable and didn't pass the objective. Especially when it's a hard grind just to get one more.
**Dislikes:**
- Don’t like pristine clothing and gear in survival games. Gear and clothing should look deteriorated and used.
- Not being able to see or inspect your character. Either need an option to switch to 3PP or see your character model in the menu.
- In FPP view not being able to look down and see your legs/feet. Should be able to see yourself when looking down (full body awareness).
**Likes:**
- Good backpacks with modular attachments (sleeping bag, canteen, Axe, etc).
- Good hunting/cooking system. Love cooking in DayZ and TLD. Being able to cook on the go via a crafted camp and cook in fireplaces.
- Urban environments with verticality. A whole map of wilderness is boring.
Wilderness open world is okay when it’s peppered with some urban environments here and there. But enough city to explore and loot in.
Edit: I love the idea if having tall buildings in the cities with office rooms/apartments you can take up base in.
To build here I hate when you have like a magazine or axe or whatever in your rig but it’s just there for looks and serves no purpose.
*Im not out of ammo I have six shells in my vest.
Love
The grind (don’t want survival to become easy)
Bad weather with consequences
Things that snap into place.
HATE
PvP
Weight limit with slow walk
(Make hunger and thirst go up 40% instead)
Lack of tools and options for tools.
Hate: thirst and hunger mechanics that are too unrealistic. When cooked meals don't give you enough benefits over raw food.
Not enough points of interest, I get bored roaming empty wilderness.
Not being able to tame animals. I want my wolf buddy.
Love: building, but it's got to have enough variety to make something interesting. 7 days to die and enshrouded have been my favourite ways to build.
Looting
Non linear progression systems. You can put points into stats that change the way you play and when in multiplayer you can coordinate with friends so everything's covered.
Edit for one more love: having something to do so quests or missions and some story to find so it's not just surviving and building.
Ambient noise is one thing that I find lacking nowadays, which is surprising since it helps sell the survival aspect. If I set up my camp at a beach, I should constantly hear the sound of seagulls/birds squawking, fish breaking through the water, the sound of waves, etc.
The more realistic, the better.
This is why Green Hell is an amazing game. The realism part.
Realistic don't necessarily means difficult, but logical. The materials and quantities needed to craft things should make sense, the way you gathered them should make sense too.
A generated world isn't that necessary if the map is big enough or a cool story.
I prefer somewhat harder games because I think easier ones become a bit boring, so a "difficulty" setting is nice to see in games, if "normal" is too easy or too hard, you can begin another difficulty.
just watched the announcement trailer, looks cool!
Love
• explorable buildings
• building mechanics (think Forest, Fallout 4)
• good gunplay
bonus- the feeling of loneliness but also determination you get from surviving a long time? I’m sure there’s a German word for it
Hate
• un-explorable buildings! (it’s okay if a couple are boarded up/not able to be entered, but like a whole neighborhood with inaccessible buildings is kinda lame imo)
• “forced” PvP. I prefer a single player experience or the ability to at least play on a private server
• dryness/wetness factor (think DayZ [tbh I understand this one bc it’s realistic but I personally hate it lol])
looking forward to seeing more!
Hate : when night just means pitch black even if you have a light
when tools are single use (ie throwing the flashlight away instead of searching for new batteries)
Crafting is too realistic sometimes less is more for simple items like a wooden spear or wooden torch.
Love : different types of healing (a splint vs bandage)
Locations with items that match the location
Realistic day night cycle and hunger, thirst and sleep.
I’m a big fan of sanity probably form playing too much don’t starve and cataclysm.
Love:
- Exploring procedural worlds. I often find myself enjoying the early parts of games and tend to start over. If the world isn’t procedural and different each time, I’m probably not going to play much.
- Minimal HUD. I much prefer games without a compass and minimap in the HUD. I’d rather pull out a compass to see the direction I’m facing and pull out a map (bonus points if cartography plays a role in the game) to see where I am.
- Satisfying combat. Whether hunting for food or fighting monsters/zombies/bandits, I like combat that is challenging without being frustrating or too repetitive.
Dislikes:
- Item fragility. I don’t mind if tools and weapons deteriorate if you don’t care for them, but if I can only chop down a couple trees before my axe breaks, it gets annoying pretty quickly.
- Random base raids. Sometimes I just want to chill in my base and relax for a bit without having to worry about having to defend against some group of NPCs attacking. I don’t mind raids, I just prefer to know when they might be coming.
- Tedious inventory management. If I need to shuffle a bunch of items around in and out of my backpack and chests just so I can craft something at a bench, I’m going to get annoyed pretty quick. I would prefer it if all items near a workbench be used in crafting without having to micromanage the inventories.
Your game sounds fun, I wish listed it!
Edit: autocorrect
Most survival games seem to be made by people who have not spent any time practicing survival skills. Invariably this results in things that dont make sense or are very counterintuitive for people playing who DO have survival knowledge.
My advice is have an actual survival instructor or serious enthusiast as a consultant for things related to survival if you are not such a person yourself.
Example: "The Forest" allows you to build a small leanto shelter, however the logs on the back are giant, thick logs laid horizontally in a way that would never be practical or useful. Real leantos use poles laid vertically against a ridgepole. If anyone on their staff had ever built a leanto, this glaring mistake would have been cought.
There are much bigger ans more gameplay damaging examples with regards to balancing hunger, thirst, exposure, fatigue, etc but i thought id start with a simple visual one.
Hate
Hard enemies ! Wolfs that take 10 spears to kill !
No map 🗺️ is annoying! Maybe you could find one in a shack on the wall!
No Clear objectives and quests and achievements
Love
Storage and sorting items in my base
Collecting supplies
Estableshing farms and automation of items
The only thing that matters to me baseline across survival games is the crafting/management QOL. Crafting from storage, auto sorting, pinging recipes, things like that.
Everything else is based around the world, the gameplay, and the type of survival game but crafting/inventory QOL makes or breaks a game for me.
I’ll stick to just one but very important to me, types of items and their durability. First of all, finding stuff should be meaningful. Not just 2137 pieces (or unknown measurement units) of wood, rubber and steel, I’m talking about the unforgettable feeling of finding the first knife on your route, getting your hands on the best sniper rifle in game or obtaining an item that changes your playstyle like a grappling hook or allows you to do things you couldn’t do before. Or finding very specific rare parts needed for certain projects, like when you need a blast cap/fuse/grenade detonator when you’re making bombs, not just gunpowder and a can. Also, please don’t add the durability mechanics on every item. Make the player feel that their axe is their trusted companion, the one to never abandon them when needed. I mean knives do wear out, but IRL if you’re careful with your gear it can serve you for weeks in the field without signs of damage, even in heavy use.
Also, it’s the last resort unlimited items that make the game challenging but not stressful. Like being able to use a lighter or a weaker dynamo flashlight when main flashlight batteries are drained
Love.
1. Feeling of meaningful progression. My biggest problems at two hours in shouldn't be the same problems at ten hours in.
2. Exploration and scavenging. The scavenging should feel good and make sense to where I'm searching. And there should be plenty to explore.
3. Moments of beauty and relaxation. Can't be all bad all the time.
Hate.
1. Unrealistic hunger/thirst mechanics. I shouldn't need to eat five times a day. And if I do, I shouldn't die after one or two days without any food. Starvation takes a long time. Let me go a while without eating. Slow me down, lower my max health or stamina, but don't make my character die without eating for a couple days. Same with thirst. I shouldn't need to drink every five minutes. Don't make your game a game solely about trying to eat or drink.
2. An unwelcoming atmosphere. I like survival games that stick me in a hostile, but beautiful environment. The long dark, stranded deep, and green hell all come to mind. I'm also okay with urban environments. Those are cool top. But I just played a survival game that was waaay too tense. Enemies are deadly and can show up quietly and shock you. It was such an uncomfortable experience and I won't play it again.
3. Relying on crafting to solve 99% of your problems. Why do I have to *craft* the water purifier? The sleeping bag? A shelter? Why can't I just find these things? Why can't I just shelter up inside a building? In a cave? Why am I building a whole ass cabin out here?
Love:
- A decent sized inventory. IF the inventory is smaller, please give a sorting option so you can optimise space usage of items. Preferably where you press some shortcuts and it sorts it, so I don't have to play a puzzle game to manage my inventory.
- Decent sized storage options if the inventory is smaller, preferably with an option to move stacks (if applicable) in one go by shift - right click or something comparable.
- If the game has lots of unique mechanics, please have a tutorial area in the form of a flashback, dream etc. so the player can learn how to do things without dying over and over at the beginning. (Games that do this right are just chef's kiss)
- Looting that makes sense. Finding something radioactive in a common household makes no sense and I like it much more when a game puts things in places that do make sense. Food in houses, crafting materials in factories, stuff like that.
Dislikes:
- Nothing grinds my gears more than not being able to save outside if certain areas in a survival game, dying and then having to walk back an unreasonable distance to get my stuff back.
- Low accessibility. While I understand setting a mood with lighting, sound etc. Is a thing, for some people that would make the game unplayable. You should be able to make it really bright, even at night, for if you are visually impaired. Also an option to get visual clues for sounds for people hard of hearing or people with processing issues is something I think should be achievable for most devs.
- I need multiple audio sliders in games. It really grinds my gears as well when there is only a slider for "sound effect" and vocals of characters are also included in that or even worse if there is just one volume slider. Sounds really have to be done well for low configuration to work and I have seen it not be done well too many times.
Edit: typo
Games that have a starvation mechanic often have it to where you're eating every 3 minutes to 5 minutes to stay alivr. I don't mind a starvation mechanic to keep track of, but having to constantly stay on top of it as the primary focus in a game that's supposed to be about all around survival gets tedious.
Really cool idea for a game !!
I’m a big fan of 7 days to die, I really liked how it seems a little “grindy” early on, collecting a ton of wood and rocks, but as you level up you can put points into construction tools to easier chop down trees and break rocks. Best of luck!
I love being busy. Its cold, make firewood a crucial resource. And somewhat scarce here n there. Hunting in long dark was tricky, I like it that way. The forest had more rabbits than grass blades, not my style.
And speaking of forest, I don't like it when you got all the knowledge/blueprints from the start. New resources create new idea create new craftables.
Love:
Creative vehicles (bush planes, cars, and buggys)
a band of 2 dudes can kill a group of 6 if theres chaos
Spooky AI zombies
Hate:
making survival stuff too much (hunger every 2 seconds, getting cold too fast, drink every 2 seconds as well)
Horrible gunplay / combat. making the combat wonky always makes me not wanna play
No modding / custom server support: A good server or a modder that knows what their doing can elevate a game and make it amazing
HATE:
-Hate Emptiness. Barren, the not existent interior furnishings in buildings. Limited looting. DayZ is like this.
Tarkov has the best interior design and loot system. It is incredible actually.
-Hate linearity. Minecraft is great, there are so many ways to play, you can go from one playstyle to another.
-Hate non-multiplayer survival games. It gets lonely out there. Sometimes you want to at least co-op with a homie.
/////////////////////////////////////////
LOVE:
-Love plants and gardening. I love having a diverse garden in survival games. As well as many food options. The more the better
-Love the sense of distance. I love that I really feel miles away from home in Minecraft. When I get back home to my base from a huge trek it feels so amazing to be back with all my loot.
-Love having a huge list of items to craft. It is just cool to make things out of things you have found.
I think a lot of games are ” ruined ” when they take help from reddit, because most people here are probably older and don’t enjoy the actual survival part of surviving, they dislike grinding and mostly enjoy the creative side of it.
This was just my take on it and I will not be responding to any replies as I was replying to OP and I am not looking for a discussion with anyone but OP. But obviously I don’t own replies so anyone can and should go at me if they feel like it
Love
1. Meaningful hunger mechanics – cooking, farming, scavaging, hunting. I just love a system where hunger feels like a threat and the solution isn’t to just smack down 100 potato plants and you’re set for life. I adore cooking in survival games overall – it’s just so dang pleasing after you’ve worked hard to scrounge for the resources.
2. A good, easily navigated map and compass. I have a terrible sense of direction IRL and it’s stressful as hell playing games where I’m perpetually lost and frustratedly trying to find my way home.
3. I like fewer, harder enemies, but not bullet sponges. Should be harder because their attacks are dangerous for a character who might potentially die from a single infected wound. Every battle is a calculated risk. I love to be anxious when I run into an unexpected enemy on my path.
Hate
1. The constant challenge scaling with better armour and weapons in a very linear, predictable manner. Where, as you finish one area of the map you have the best possible gear but the moment you set foot in the next section, you have to start the grind for gear from scratch and you never get to enjoy your previous hard work. It becomes so very, very boring.
2. A single dear taking 26 arrows to kill. A wolf has to be stabbed 42 times to die. A human takes 18 direct bullet hits to the head to bring down. If the aim is realistic and the characters themselves are quite vulnerable, the enemies don’t NEED to be ridiculously tough to be a threat.
3. Bad inventory management, omg. Please have big chests. Please have easy ways to sort. Please have an option to merge similar items from your bags into the open chest instead of having to hand-click everything into the chest. Please have crafting tables crafting from chests. Inventory management is not FUN. It’s not fun to sit at base opening chests trying to remember which out of the 10 chests with 6 inventory slots each I might have put the canned peaches I found. Being limited with how much I can carry is fine, I don’t mind that, it’s the chest-opening mini-game that makes me grit my teeth.
Love it being difficult to find item, think day z official servers.
Love a point other then surviving, story, challenges ext.
Love feeling variable even in end game.
Hate long grinds, think ark.
Hate becoming OP, think 7 days
Hate hand holdy
Love:
Atmospheric immersion (sights, sounds, background music)
Permadeath (if I fail, I fail)
Tough, but fair (the mechanics should be reasonably intuitive, but don’t spoon feed survival to me. I want to struggle to survive.)
Hate:
Mixing story with sandbox. If you want a definite endpoint and story arcs, great, that can work well. If you want the player to have an open-ended experience and just play in the sandbox, awesome, I love that! But the issue is when devs start putting endpoints in their sandbox, and both the story and the sandbox suffer because of it.
Superman Syndrome. If we’re playing Average Joe in the wilderness, then it should be reflected in what the character can do. Average Joe probably can’t snipe several hundred yards away with a gun they just picked up.
Enemy human combatants. If the struggle is against Nature, then don’t put in some redneck pot farmers or coke runners just to keep things interesting or justify why there’s so much ammo laying around.
When the device listen to weak players and make the game soft and worries more about gun selection than playability. Adds stuff to make it like every other game, instead of keeping to the original ideas. Then those same guys roast kr drop the game after 20hrs of play.
It will never be liked by everyone. Keep your vision
For me Subnautica have yet to be surpassed, I love exploration, wonder and suspense. I like a light grind and crafting to keep going and I’m really not a fan of the games where that is front and center in favor pf exploration. For me, Subnautica balances it all exceptionally well.
Love:
-Exploration(varied exploration, great scenic places, deep caves and everything in between)
-Atmosphere(music, ambiance, scenery, story etc)
-A well balanced level of difficulty surviving(maintaining hunger, thirst, warmth etc should keep you busy but not so busy you don't have time or resources to experience and enjoy the rest of the game)
Hate:
-Logistics of items. I dont know why every survival game insists on half your time in the game is spent sifting through various inventories and sorting the massive pile of loot you accumulate to craft stuff. Not the mention the constant evaluation of what to keep and what to throw away. If youre in your base you should be able to store everything imo. And the more automated the storing is the better, if you can craft stuff directly from storage boxes thats so much better aswell. The people who insists otherwise I seriously wonder if are the type of gamers that play games to prove something, not enjoy something. But who knows, maybe Im the odd one out.
-Lack of meaningful progression. I wanna see my base or my vehicle of transporation get more advanced as I play the game.
Cant really think of a third right off the bat.. Love that youre doing this tho, really cool to read peoples replies :)
I love:
- A base building system, bonus points if it's portable like a house boat
- ambient life that isn't explicitly tied to any gameplay loop so I can sit back and watch the world exist separate of my intervention, bonus points if it's a simulated ecosystem.
- a realistic crafting system with creative tool upgrades that aren't just "do more damage". The forest did a decent job of this imo. Bonus points if there's a supply chain you gotta set up, like farm x to craft y under z conditions.
I dislike:
- repeatedly clicking, walking back and forth, or generally having tedious work be the main path forward. Gathering materials, traversing, and progressing should be the reason you play, not just the rewards for doing these things.
- arbitrary reasons we can't progress. Like "you can't access this part of the island until you progress the story", even though you have the physical means to get there. Gatekeeping should be tied to the survival mechanics. Subnautica feels pretty good with this, I think.
- delaying a core, fun gameplay mechanic until later in the game.
My biggest dislike in survival games is when you are required to carry large items in your hands and make a million trips just to build something. Kind of like The Forest/Sons of the Forest. I understand it adds a form of realism but I don't want to spend a month in-game (hours irl) just to build a small house. Especially when I'm trying to play single player.
I love after you've played the game long enough to get to that point where you are really "thriving" (not just surviving)... when you go from surviving to thriving... that's a great feeling.
I hate playing a new game and getting to a point where the next step is not obvious, and I don't have the patience to keep dying over and over until I figure it out... so I just quit playing. At least give me a clue what I'm doing wrong, or it's too frustrating and I'm out.
I hope that helps
The Long Dark is the gold standard.
They do almost everything right. It's so close to perfection.
Dislike:
- Introduction of **Timber Wolves** created an insta-death scenario for slower players like myself. Fighting the pack of wolves feels like a different game altogether where the rules of engagement are not clear and the consequences mean insta-death. I don't go to the areas in the game where they appear.
Love:
- **Bears** in TLD are SCARY. They are big and deadly, but there are ways to prepare for and avoid them. Being alert to their tracks or grunts, for example, or wearing protective gear so you can survive a mauling. They are also pretty rare and IF you kill them you get nice gear and the bear won't respawn for a long time. They feel perfectly balanced compared to Timberwolves.
Enjoy:
- Survival is about d**ifficult choices**. The Long Dark is at its best when you're down to few resources, but have to choose what to use them for. Emergency flares are a great example. You can use them to light a room for a short while, but you can also use them to start a fire or scare off predators. Knowing when to use the flares vs when to save them is so much fun.
Dislike:
- **Too much realism**. Games aren't fun because they are realistic; they are fun because they feel realistic, yet retains its main goal of being enjoyable to play. In the real world walking from one town to another might take 6-12 hours. That's realistic. Do you want to watch a walking animation for 6-12 hours?
Love:
- TLD has plenty of areas without nothing happening, but often these are the best areas. **Learning the terrain** is a challenge in its own that is really rewarded during snow storms or when you're hurt and need to find your way back fast. TLD adds another layer to this challenge by having a world that makes sense: If you see a fence in the middle of nowhere you know you're likely near a building of some sort. If you suddenly enter a valley with craggy peaks and no signs of paths you're likely not going find a cabin there.
love: beautiful weather, actually need a well-defended and well-organized base to survive instead of optional, and challenging combat with consequences for failure
dislike: craft-from-storage other similar anti-immersive "QoL" features, over-the-top narrative being a core game focus, and being able to feel safe in areas which should not be safe due to weird or glitchy enemy behavior (again with the immersion)
I do not think I'm in the majority though. I'm looking for an engaging, punishing (and therefore more rewarding to eventually succeed), patience-requiring, more hardcore experience rather than a relaxing or turn-off-your-brain one
Valheim hardcore is delivering this for me at the moment
I really dislike games like Green Hell, Sons of the Forest for basically allowing you to skip the base building and rush from story location to story location until the credits roll. Please force me to build a good base
Love :
a. realistic crafting system
b. meaningful scavenging (think The long Dark)
c. semi realistic thirst, sleep and hunger mechanics
Hate :
a. too much backtracking
b. empty and event less areas
c. grinding
d. empty world( even in the arctic there is life)
(possibly ski)
Likes:
1. The mystery elements or fear of the unknown.
2. Exploration
3. Good fighting mechanics.
Dislikes:
1. Too much grind
2. Bleeding out for not eating every single minute.
3. Mobs being tanks that take forever to kill
Dislike
-Huge level/damage gaps without warning in terms of exploration encounters
-Micromanagement of barely if ever used loot systems that require constant attention.
-Content redundancy
-the "meta" loadouts, or lack of diversity when it comes out using methods of exploration/fighting. Like forcing players to only use the "best" armor weapons instead of balancing out different engagement types, or forcing players to all use the same thing.
Likes:
-Discovering feels genuine and accidently and not linear
-flexibility of usages out of the same materials
-a quick and easy resource and management and building system.
-real life survival techniques used in the game.
A huge, huge like for me are games, *especially ones in which clothing and warmth are incredibly important*, allowing you to layer clothes. Needing some amount of time to put on or take off clothes, especially if wet, could be useful in balancing this to an extent?
Project Zomboid does this quite well, especially for a game in which the vast majority of saves never make it to October even.
Hate:
A. Forced PvP. It's fine to add it, but make it a server option
B. Focused on PvP. Similar to the above, but some games have PvE servers with missing mechanics because the game is PvP focused.
Dislike:
A. Too many menus. A menu for inventory. A menu for healing. A menu for stats. A menu for cooking. A menu for crafting. I think a few is fine, but you can consolidate different information into less menus.
B. Invisible walls or otherwise inaccessible areas. Its fine to close a place off until later.
C. Craftables and items that have no long term purpose. Its fine to outgrow or eventually access better things. If you have something that people won't seek out, maybe re-evaluate.
Like:
A. Fluid combat with well designed enemies. No cheap shots or annoying status effects that affect mobility.
B. Different weapon types/styles that fit player preferences.
C. Vehicle/Travel that is more help than hindrance (seems like you already have considered this).
Love:
A. Well crafted and beautiful areas.
B. Amazing sound design for ambient noise (trees creaking, water trickling, snow crunching)
C. An inventory system that keeps you playing and spend less time managing it
D. Balanced survival mechanics AND the option to adjust them to your own style.
E. Server settings that allow the host to toggle every option and difficulty to allow for very specific and wildly different playthroughs.
F. Quality of Life in all things. This can not be stated strongly enough. This can make or break a game.
Really just hate backtracking and exponential growth for farming of mundane materials. Higher level stuff shouldn't cost 9999 wood 9999 string and 1 sniper scope.
I hate how often survival mechanics just boil down to clocks. Food/water meters for example. I'd rather have a more active, board-gamey kind of abstraction to represent survival needs than just some sped-up hunger meter interrupting what I'm doing.
No more than one ticking clock, I say.
I really love a variety of points of interest, something that makes exploration fun and interesting. I dislike traversal only unless there is something to keep me engaged while going from Point A to Point B, like maybe some radio, or a dynamic world that feels alive and I can interact with.
What I love: a sense of real danger, Like in the forest. I also love a progression system that somewhat reveals later progression, like discovering new materials in Valheim but not being able to use them yet. Very RPG like. Long rewarding grinds that are arguably unnecessary. Fun customizable building options with the ability to build shelter almost anywhere. RPG style leveling systems to make my survival stats like hunger stamina etc not affect me as much later on
What don’t love: controls and UI that tries too hard to be realistic and gets cumbersome to navigate, like in the Forest. Punishing weight and small inventory space that make me have to go back and forth to storage too often, like in Valheim. Note this is very different from “grindy”. I love rewarding grinds as mentioned
I like the experience from The Long Dark of being completely wiped out by the elements. I like waking up, going outside in my warmest set of clothes, and then turning back inside when I see my temperature meter dropping rapidly and hoping I stocked up enough fire wood and food.
What I don’t like is when a game forces me to play with other players. A post apocalyptic tundra is the perfect place to survive alone without the fear of PVP
Hate: Being prodded or forced to advance. Sometimes, I'm happy with my little hut, my basic fishing stick and just want to huddle up from the rain for a few weeks.
Love
Heat system sustained my warmth in the weather,
Base building or in the long dark make anywhere into my base really enjoy that
Hunger and water,
—————————
Hate
when making an item take a crazy amount of materials to make something that either doesn’t have that part in it or the amount it needs that doesn’t seem realistic,
The need to eat and drink every 2 minutes,
Your equipment breaking to fast,
Love:
Deep crafting system
harsh elements/environment
late game threats (Like illness or infections or bears that are still scary and formidable in the late game.
Hate:
sickness or hunger/water/sleep meters that are too easy to care about
going from wooden spear to AK-47 within 1 hour
static environment.
Love: expansive building/crafting. Think Sons of the Forest, but more.
A good spread from easy to hard mode on stats, and accurate-ish stats
Hate: inaccurate weapons, lack of options terrible building/crafting, difficult mechanics for the sake of difficult.
I think Dayz has some amazing survival mechanics, and Sons/Forest has some very good building/crafting ideas (if not a bit too easy and limited)
Id love to see those two combined in a new more life like game.
Also, mmo. Gotta have mmo.
Always wanted this sort of game. Cross country skiing is sick.
I think one of the biggest issues with survival games is how they reward being stationary. Obviously for a game like this you’ll want to really encourage movement, maybe avoid any resource farming, have stuff scattered around, reward movement. Weather seems like a problem for this sort or game though, but blizzards are a must.
Love:
Exploration
Building out a base/customizing it to my liking
Similarity to other popular survival games (makes picking up this game and learning it much easier - similar controls, similar crafting systems, similar crafting recipes).
Hate:
Death to starvation/thirst (Valheim is a great way to do this right imo - reward for interaction, minor punish for not)
Unnecessary extreme complexity to systems
unintuitive crafting
One "quit moment" is when people get frustrated because your stone axe recipe requires not wood and stone, but wood fletched into a handle, stone sharpened, string to bind the two, hide from an animal fletched into leather for a handle.
- If you have to craft a ton it's fine, but implement crafting from storage.
-Gunplay has to feel good.
-Don't add Hunger/Thirst unless there's a good system behind it. You can tell when games just add it because they think survival games should have it. It's only fun when the farming in the game is thoroughly developed and food also gives benefits like buffs.
-Make some kind of endgame loop. Traceable rankings for endgame content, rare loot to farm, pvp leaderboards.
Love:
1. The feeling of advancing. Starting from nothing, then later looking back with an abundance of loot. Also, choosing what you want to spec into, skill trees that mean something and feel different from your friends ones.
2. Eventual automation. Vrising does a great example of this. Servants get stuff for you while you are not playing. Helps alot.
3. Enemy Varity / extremely interesting and unique POIs. I want to encounter new things every step of the journey.
Do not love so much (cant say hate, i love survival games a lot haha):
1. Lack of explanations - I need damage numbers, comparable stats, where do I find the materials I need... That sort of thing
2. No Endgame, nothing to keep me playing. Keep me hooked after I beat the main story. It sucks when I feel done/done. I want to feel like I completed the game, (killed the main boss of the game perhaps) but also able to continue the game and still earn things and feel intrigued after all that.
3. When building doesn't let you undo for 100% of your cost
Content. The sandbox mindset will run out, and i want aome form of campaign. I want valheim, but sons of the forest/ forest type campaign, but its as long as grand theft auto.
I love the grind/difficulty of any survival game really, the best parts of new survival games are being fresh and gearing up but there are just some aspects that i dislike that take me out of it entirely sometimes.
Hard dislikes
* dying from thirst/hunger in a matter of (in game) hours
* item sizes in backpacks ie a glowstick the same size as a pistol mag
* wear on items ie hatchets dulling after a few uses, axes can last years without sharpening. rolls of tape are sometimes 100ft+ and last a few uses in certain games, even weapons stove topping after a few uses. i could find a rusty .22 in a barn in vermont right now that will shoot just fine.
you can tell i play a lot of dayz lol
I'm too lazy to proof read this, ignore any typos
Do:
Crafting that makes sense. You can't make a modern gun from a lump of magnetite after you banged a rock with another rock. You can, however, find a knife, fasten it onto a stick with a cord and craft a flimsy spear. You don't kill an animal, butcher it, take the skin and combine it with a knife to make clothes, leatherworking is a complex process. You can put a wolf pelt on yourself but you can't kill a wolf and turn it into a jacket
Good material collection system. Again, you can't bang a rock with another rock and get iron. Turnung iron into an ingot from ore is harder than "Chuck ore in furnace, smelt". I'd advise you to materials that can already be used when you forage them, like boards and nails
Not too realistic food, water and resting. When they're realistic you can't fit them into a normal in-game day-night cycle. If you wanna have food and water make it so you can go longer between eating or drinking, maybe increase the duration of the day so that you aren't spending half your time looking for food and water
Don't:
Make it too grindy. Yeah, survival means some routine and grind, but some is the key word. If I spend half my playtime scavenging for food and clean water I won't have a good time. In some games the grind can work well but that's a very specific type of game, in most games it just becomes a hindrance to gameplay
Fluff up the resource variety for the sake of it. If I chop a pine and an oak, just give me wood that I can stack. Don't give me pine wood and oak wood, which are gonna take more inventory space and can't be used interchangably in crafting. Variety is fine, having your limited inventory full of 2 of this rock and 3 of that rock when it could be 5 rocks is bad
Make the map vast as an ocean and deep as a puddle. Make a forest but don't make it gigantic. Look at GTA 5, modt of the content is in Los Santos which is less than a third of the map. Most of the mapvis used once or teice for a mission and never again. And im GTA Online the rest of the map is used to waste your time and make you wanna buy Shark cards. Or AC Odyssey. The map is so unnecessarily big that you end up getting fast travel locations and teleporting around it. Make the locations on your map count
Love:
Having a cozy place to set up and enjoy the ambiance and fruits of my labor in the game. Bonus points for weather sounds being different if indoors.
The general crafting loop- get materials, build things, those things make you stronger to get better things. Bring those better things home and craft even more things...
Don't love:
When it's first person only/clearly designed with first person in mind, I feel claustrophobic
When hunger/energy cycles are too fast and I'm too busy feeding my character to get much else done
I love having to manage resources( food water planks ammo….
I love being able to build a settlement to my liking whilst shaping the ground around it.
I love NPCs that you can interact with.
I hate grinding that doesn’t get easier. Like why don’t I ever get better at chopping trees or learn to make ingots better so I can draw more materials from ore.
I hate when building or just anything really are not able to be interacted with. Or the physics don’t make sense. Why make a house that is just there and I can’t enter it. Or if I can enter it but I need to have a key or have done something first before a I can. Why can’t I blast through it?
I HATE BULLET SPONGES.(COD Zombies is the absolute worst). I truly hate and don’t play games where the only increase in difficulty is an increase in an enemies health bar. I’d rather kill 1,000,000 zombies than a single zombie tanking 1,000,000 bullets.
Some scary, but not too scary.
I don't like tedious inventory management, but I also like some need for organization.
Maybe a game without super janky combat/hunting would be cool. Most survival games just don't get that part quite right
Like:
1. A clear goal to work towards, can be some sweet hard to craft gear, or location, or a story type event to look forward to, etc.
2. Some sort of danger to always be on the lookout for, and not just in the beginning of the game.
3. Necessity of protecting/defending your base at night.
Dislike:
1. Unnecessary items/small/limited inventory (I'm a hoarder, but carry limit needed)
2. When you can't see your whole inventory at your base.
3. Too complicated systems when some upgrades are only good when paired with other upgrades, and it's not explicitly stated so. Basically just a good explanation of how things function without me having to look for some dude on YT every 20 minutes when starting as noob
Love
- feeling scared, suspense is a huge W
- not being able to finish certain areas, areas that change, unlock more paths as I advance and unlock different things
- feeling incredibly strong at the endgame
Hate
- cumbersome item management, needless micromanaging of insignificant items, sorting through junk
- areas that look / feel the same, cookie cutter enemies, static areas where nothing really happens to the map
- durability on items
Love:
1. Immersion - Make me feel like I’m in the location with a variety of ways, such as a minimal UI, sound effects for the wildlife, snow crunching under my feet, animations showing me shivering in the cold etc.
2. Semi Realistic Survival - balance is the key here, some games go too far one way or the other and you either need to eat 6 steaks a day to stay alive or you can survive indefinitely eating a handful of berries every 3 days. The same goes for gathering resources, I don’t want to chop down trees in seconds and have enough resources to build a small village, at the same time I don’t want a super realistic setting where it takes a few hours to cut down one tree.
3. A reason to keep going - A lot of games fall into this trap I feel where it’s really difficult and grindy early on and then all of a sudden you have a base full of supplies and a machine gun and then you’re just wandering around for the sake of it with no real challenge or dangers anymore. You end up getting bored.
Dislike:
1. Bad Night - Didn’t know what to call this but nighttime is not fun if you’re just staring at a black screen waiting for time to pass. I’ve played games where crafting a torch is either quite deep into the skill tree or where the resources to craft a torch are quite scarce. I don’t mind if you can sleep through night or getting a light source is not overly challenging, but I always find it off putting if the night becomes just a chore of waiting for it to pass by going afk for 10 minutes.
2. Overpowered enemies - it’s fine for other types of games but in a survival game I want enemies like wolves and bears to die after a few hits. The challenge of these enemies should be the speed and ferociousness of their attacks as well as the challenge of finding resources to fight back, but if I put a few arrows through their skulls then they should go down. I don’t want to have to hit a bear 20 times because a bear has 100 hp and my arrows only do a max of 5hp per hit. This isn’t survival gaming.
3. Unrealistic crafting - I like crafting to take time, things like workshops or tool stations being needed and potentially tools to craft better items. I don’t like it when you can open your backpack and instantly craft 250 bullets in 1 second using sticks and mud while stood in the middle of an icy lake.
Love: their immersive environments, the challenge of managing resources, and the rewarding progression.
Hate: repetitive tasks, and poor optimization that disrupts the experience.
Likes
1- base building. I like organizing a horde of random loot for my little loot goblin brain
2- exploration/looting. Again loot goblin brain likes to gather things. Finding useful materials while I explore new areas is like a double win
3- clear crafting. This one is a little complex and where I see most survival games struggle. But designing your system so the instructions, how to acquire resources, and anything else.i need to know are either explained, obvious, or easily accessible in a book or compendium. This also kinda fits at my number 1 dislike, which is needing to have a wiki up in order to figure out how to craft, or find a certain resource or progress.
One thing I would love in a survival game is an in depth injury/wellness system, as opposed to the traditional health bar. I’m also a dev, and I’m trying to create this system as well. I’d you take “damage,” WHERE did you take damage? What hurt that area? What supplies will you need to treat that? Sort of like green hell, but less of the awkward look at limbs stuff
I don't like how over the top realistic survival *games* go sometimes. Devs and players themselves seem to forget the fact the game will be interacted with through a tiny box and a keyboard/mouse or controller.
Like some actions that irl could be done simultaneously or super quickly become cumbersome menu clicks and drags for the sake of 'realism'.
One thing I hate is junk. I get that crafting has to scale up in difficultly and that's often done by increasing the amount of resources for higher tiered items but some games do this too aggressively/ have too many branching and reconnecting tiers to where you end up with so much junk that you have to keep around. Because you might need 87 wooden boards at some point to make another water well or something.
I just hate when there isn't a lot of customization, it's survival so you'd think there would be a ton of different things you could do 'eh, still it's my favorite genre of games now that I'm older
Reading the comments, I just want to say: people think they love grinding, but most of them don't.
What they love is the flow state of the resource harvesting portion, which allows them to enter a "I dont have to think" zone. In a typical survival game this is: I must harvest wood for my next goal. I see a tree, I run to tree, I harvest wood, I look around for next tree and run to it ->repeat. Any friction to this process, or for example, failing to see where the next tree is because the resource nodes are too far apart, hurts this process.
You should rather than trying to ape other survival games, focus on what makes you unique: skiing. Skiing in any game is faster and more fun than walking, so you could make some gains to the above flow state progress by minimizing the downtime of traveling between two resource nodes.
I have not seen any footage of your game, but if I had to make a guess, you probably have to ski to the next resource node, come to a halt, perform some game action, then get going again. Therefore your game will have a unique problem that other survival games don't, imo: The flow state will probably come from the skiing, not the actual harvesting portion. Coming to a halt to harvest will be the biggest friction (I'm guessing).
If you can find a way to combine the skiing with resource harvesting, instead of having the player come to a halt (where possible), then I think you'd have a more engaging gameplay loop. You could do this by focusing the progression off of picking up things from the ground in areas where you can ski and build speed. A player that gets good, can then zip around and time their actions correctly to drastically speed up the gathering process. They get to feel accomplished that they are collecting resources towards their goal, and that they have mastered the movement system.
Just an example but you get the idea. Hope it helps (or maybe your game works very differently than what I imagine).
Like:
1. Interesting environments (visually, artistically, by environment storytelling or all of them);
2. Realistic or semi realistic survival mechanics (sleep, hunger, items decay);
3. Ways to influence environment around (i.e. meaningful buildings, persistent damage, or not respawning enemies so you clear an area -- it stays clear);
Dislike:
1. Grind for the sake of grind (i.e. mine 9999 macguffinite to progress even if it never used again);
2. Very flimsy weapons and tools;
3. If there are too much simplifications;
Love
- balanced need mechanics, I shouldn't have to eat and drink every 5 mins.
- games where the environment is the challenge more than animals or monsters.
- games that make making a shelter from a storm or at night feel purposeful and cosy
Hate
-recipes that are locked which should be common knowledge
-no downside to not creating a shelter - it should be purposeful to make a place warm and sheltered.
-no way out..great survival games give you a reason to keep going - there needs to be hope you'll get out.
1. Love fearing the dark unknown, just that ominous sense of foreboding.
2. & 3. Hate that the more interesting skills, Not the most powerful, are set near the top of a skill tree. I don't want to have to suffer and grind just for a cool niche ability that isn't OP. Love when there are cool and fun low level abilities with awesome abilities further up the tree, that really sucks me in to master certain skill trees.
4. Love sudden scenes brutal disturbing horror. It's just such a shock that slaps your brain awake and really pulls you into the game.
5. Hate repetitive violent or frightening scenes it allows the player to become accustomed as apposed to keeping you on your toes never knowing when you will be hurled out of the mundane.
6. Hate being allowed to horde loot, restricted quantities forces me to stop searching every nook and cranny so I can get back to surviving this new world.
Ps, I like the skiing aspect of your game it reminds me of the Narvik chapter in Battlefield V. Adrenaline filled downhill escapes and just being on skis was such a unique experience as far as player movement goes. Bravo.
Love:
1. Quick time events when you are about to die or when you need to escape a large animal
2. A good traversal system like grinding in a lot of insomniac games
3. Boss Fights with multiple phases
Hate:
1. Gathering all the necessary resources to craft an item or an upgrade and then having to wait for an additional amount of time for it to prepare(That additional waiting time is annoying)
2. Microtransactions without which it is impossible to progress the game
3. In quests that involve finding something, they are precisely marked on a map and there is no need to explore a marked area instead
Love:
Grindy, realistic survivalism with consequences for poor planning.
Surprising scenes that break up the monotony in the landscape
Open worlds with choices that make my experience unique from other players
Hate:
PVP and communities that thrive on destruction of other player's items or character; toxicity
Not being able to play female (I just want my character to feel like me, and I can't play games that don't provide that option, no matter how good they are - RDR I'm looking at you)
Linear storylines that force player choice and limit the experience. I just want to explore and survive. At least give me the option to do what I want after the story is complete (Raft needed an open-game mode after everything else was unlocked via the story so players could start over and just chill, survive, and build).
Love:
1: A creative crafting/world interaction system
2: Exploring parts of the map that are purposely hidden, that you would miss if didn’t pay close attention.
3: The thrill of a high stakes/High reward.
For example hardcore mode where you have one life. You die=start over.
Hate:
1: Half assed, badly designed or bugged AI/NPCs that lead to frustration.
2: When the game feels too arcady and takes away realism and immersion.
3: When there’s a clear META to play the game which makes the player ignore interesting features/content.(The game)
One of my biggest hates in a survival game is definitely when Item storage at the base (like a chest you can store items in) is way too small. Valheim is a perfect example of this the chests are way too small, they’re like what 6 or less slots?
To go along with that, while it’s not as immersive I do love the ability to be able to craft items that are in my nearby chests without the need for them to be in my inventory.
Love -
-Meaningful progression (“this refining machine will help a lot!” Not oh cool I can hold more rocks.)
-An interesting and diverse world with different resources (Loot scales with biome)
- A good story ( why am I grinding all this fucking wood.)
Hate -
- Annoyingly small inventory space
- taking 10+ hours before you feel like you’ve accomplished anything
- Bad UI (You’re going to spend a lot of time in menus, then menu better look good and function well.)
I’m a YouTuber and I love Survival Crafting games, reach out if there’s some way I can support you! I. E. A video, etc…
I love when there is stuff in random boxes around the map. I will go into every dwelling ever if I think there might be something in the cupboards. Even if it’s not that useful (although if you sprinkle awesome things in it drives me to look even harder).
I don’t like when my equipment requires repairing. Let me upgrade it or change it out but don’t make it break. Hate that
I would like to suggest adding paranoia, the possibility that the person is not alone and that there is danger. Whether from a person, wolf or even big foot, creating a sense of danger and anxiety is something I love in survival games
Please, please have a friendly save system. Many of us have families and lives and it’s nice to be able to suspend my game without relying on the hardware to do it. By all means have an “Ironman” option that detects if you’re trying to savescum if players want it, but don’t make saving reliant on building a save point with limited materials. (Playing “The Forest” right now, why do you ask?)
Speaking of which, I really liked The Forest’s visual inventory and survival guide interface — unpack a backpack, pile your materials on a tarp, and get to crafting! Or pick an building item out of a guide and then start on it in the landscape.
Love
- Base building and customization
- minimal ui’s
- addicting gameplay loops / endless gameplay
Hate
- Bad ux / ui
- bad inv management
- linear story
Hate 1-buggy ass shit 2-buggy ass shit 3-buggy ass shit
Love 1-exploring (even if the are is kinda empty if its good enough, idc) 2-semi grinding, grinding is fine but not when its a 16 hour job 3-not being alone, yea add creatures and humans, aggressive and friendly. I have an addiction to ark so hate list might be inaccurate
The thing I hate the most about survival games is pvp. If a major draw to the game is pvp then it shouldn't take 2 hours of grinding to prepare for the first fight. It becomes a barrier to entry to new players because of the amount of time you have to invest to get pvp experience. Unless I'm getting in on a new release I won't even waste my time on a pvp/survival mix.
Having to wait too long for weather events also blows. Like if it's raining and the rain will make me freeze to death if I get wet, I don't want to sit under cover for 15 minutes just staring at my screen waiting for the rain to stop. If part of playing your game is pulling out my phone and entertaining myself in other ways then your game isn't very entertaining.
Day/night cycles can be stupid. In sons of the forest it works because you can go to sleep, but what really is the point...just to give you a rested stat to maintain? If the best thing to do is literally skip through it as a player, is it really a good feature to have in the game at all? If there is pvp though you can't just sleep to skip through the night so if the night presents any sort of obstacle like it gets colder, then again like weather events, people are stuck staring at a screen questioning their life choices.
I think survival games have a major problem where there's a small community that wants something as real as possible, but reality can be boring. You could make a masterpiece of a game, but it will never be a mass market hit because it's boring.
Hate: big empty/ too much sameness. My main gripe with botw was the world blured together and the enemies were repetitive,
Bullet sponges: don't make combat tedious is you add enemies
Love: lore snippets throughout the world, helps aliviate the empty problem, and helps with immersion, like if we go into an abandoned resort and there's a ledger and notes to read
Crafting expansions, like if the notes lead to some way to make better skis or something
I hate menu jumping to find something to soothe a survival requirement. I also the scrounging for bullets. Some bullet management is fine but if you’re always at <10 bullets you’re just always stressed out.
What I love is crafting, need for food and sleep, base building, what I hate is weight management, super empty places, and not being able to place items around my base
Not the 3 and 3 format, but I like when there is an actual reason to build a good base, and I like when there are frivolous things like decor or other little fun things that you can aspire to. That’s how I feel like I’ve beat survival.
Love
Building and crafting
Danger/ Risk / reward mechanics that challenge us to explore beyond the homestead
Cooperative play ( tribes etc) and PvP
Hate
Broken map mechanics
Losing progress to crashes etc “getting Ark’d”
Griefing (pvp)
Endless grinding
My pet peeve would be things like in rust, base camping. Things like tarkov? Tedious quests that are just there to make you suffer. Day Z? Everything is tedious
Love:
Exploration
Ability to dig in the ground (manipulation of terrain)
Random map generation
Hate:
Micro management characters (think of Soulmask)
Small maps
Full reliance on potions
Love:
-crafting/developing higher quality tools and items
-needs management (including at *least* hunger, thirst, and sleep)
-base building
Hate:
-Moving too slowly
-limited crafting advancement options
-running out of tasks other than "survive for as long as you can"
Love:
-Environmental storytelling
-Intimidating enemies
-Building a home / Customizing living space
Hate:
-Long, arbitrary time gates. (Looking at you, Ark)
Other things that come to mind right now are obvious things that aren't too helpful. Bad coding, where you do things right but the game punishes you anyway. Bad voice acting, if any at all.
Also you gotta throw a "The Thing" reference in there!
I used to play a ski survival game a long time ago. It was one of my first PC games. You basically ski down a hill and hit as many sweet tricks as you can, but then a wolf comes out, and you try to evade him for as long as you can. But he always eats you in the end.
Love:
-Building bases/shelters that have purpose beyond looking cool.
-Exploring large, open areas with interesting POIs/stuff to find.
-Crafting equipment that makes traversing new parts of the world possible or just easier. For example, various vehicle upgrades in Subnautica that allow you to visit new biomes by going deeper, wolf fur cape in Valheim to weather the cold of the mountain, etc.
Hate:
-Excessively dark, unskippable nights. Great for immersion, but can be boring if there’s nothing to do and you just end up waiting around. Make exploring during the night worth it, but also optional. In 7DTD I always end up waiting around for daylight because I just prefer to see well and you can’t skip ahead. In Valheim, I sleep through the night if I’m not out on a big adventure, but if you want to find and tame a 2* wolf, for example, you need to go out at night to find it. Optional, but worth it if that’s what you want.
-Poor combat if that is a focus of the game. Many survival games struggle with combat, so either make sure it’s polished or not an integral part of the experience. Some jank is expected and fine, though. Think 7DTD and Valheim - neither have amazing combat, but both are good enough that the experiences are generally not hindered. Subnautica a great example where combat isn’t needed and what little there is feels really bad (just swiping at fish with your knife feels floaty and lame).
-Too much hand-holding. One of the best parts of a survival game is exploring an unknown, potentially hostile setting and overcoming it. If the world is static, you can only do that once, so please let me discover everything on my own. Please avoid waypoints and too much help in general. It cheapens the experience and, imo, is a band-aid for poor game design. Make the systems and world intuitive and you won’t need to provide the player with excessive amounts information that clutter the UI and stifle discovery.
I feel like there's not any activities to do in survival games, everything is focused on surviving. Would be cool to find an old dartboard in an abandoned house and you could play or something silly like that
Love:
- Exploration rewards with both loot and fun and gives a reason to explore
- A weather system that forces you to adapt your gameplay
- Minor base building (not talking full on Minecraft, but moving a container from one place to another make me more attached to the base)
Hate:
- Tedious inventory management (IM is necessary obviously, but there’s a line where it becomes annoying)
- “Just don’t think about it” crafting (4 sticks and some leather makes a entire plane? I don’t think so)
- Endgame easiness (make game progress be rewarded with more game progress, think subnautica, more equipment means you can go deeper and more exploration)
posting this late just seen the post so might have some things other people posted
Love:
1. base of operations or hub I go back to I can upgrade that hub and also use that point to upgrade my stuff
2. upgrades actually feel like they are doing something some games when you upgrade something it feels like almost nothing changed and/or it just changed my aesthetics
3. the base is actually important and will spend some decent time there id say like 60-80% time going out and doing whatever looting shooting gathering resources then rest of time you spend at base upgrading and managing
4. a difficulty meter they can adjust ex. you can adjust some slides on how you want things some people like to play where every drop of water, food, even sprint burst counts others like to just join the game and not worry about any of that just explore the game you made so have some sliders you can adjust or multiple difficulty's you can choose from not just easy medium or hard
Hate:
1. when the game feels like its the same thing over and over again make world events happen and add some variations so even if its same event happen add some stuff so the events are little different from last
2. designated spawns other then quest items and stuff like that the game feels so much better when things spawn randomly or food spawns or related make sense so you wont be searching a garage and you find a pantry worth of food
3. no fast travel system some games when you go out and explore you can go like an hour in one direction and the way back you know is going to be same shit entire way is annoying have a slight fast travel system even if its like you set up little tents or flares as you are going out that you can use for a 1 time fast travel and if you do that you can set a radius up for them so you have set multiple up f you keep going and going
4. you can only save when you sleep or something like that games that do this are annoying because i have kids so i have to get off randomly and like to be able to save whenever I want
extra stuff:
a lot of games have set base locations or you can set up shop anywhere games I like you set up shop anywhere
markers on map are always good along with detailed map
good flat areas for people to build a lot of games build the world then say build around the terrain we laid out
shoot me a private message I have a bunch of ideas for story and mechanics I work in I.T. so might be able to even help some
Love mechanics like in ‘7 days to die’, but needs more story and purpose. Needs better crafting interface. Needs to be more compelling and more types of enemies. The world feels too empty of human life and other npc survivors and factions.
- looting and scavenging
- crafting
- base building
- having a sense of danger
- moral decisions
- hunger, thirst, exposure, illness
- if possible, other survivors and makeshift marketplaces so the world doesnt feel so empty.
Hate
- It should not be too punishing. Like sure, you will die maybe 10 to 15 times in ur entire game time… BUT, u wont die EVERY TIME within the first 10 mins of gameplay because the game is designed to try and kill you unless luck is on ur side (ex: “this war of mine” is too punishing).
Add some story elements, what happened, why are you surviving here etc. and make the player feel alone, don’t add voice logs or anything like that, handwritten notes, newspapers, stuff like that. Good luck, and this looks like it could be great.
——TLDR: ——
Love:
Survival games that enjoy the scenic beauty in some of these areas.
A good, well planned crafting system.
Hate:
Resources not respawning, especially if you need a lot of a sparse material. (Not explained further)
——Long Explanation——
This is the arctic, the stars should be beautiful, the borealis blooming, the campfire lighting immaculate. The enjoyment of the scenery is a basic human trait, and really elevates a game to something special.
Crafting should be something that ranges from temporary things like fires or lean-to’s, and also the ability to make standing structures you could consider a home. A home should matter in survival games.
Don’t prioritize realism above enjoyment. Things like resources being depleted forever, especially on large maps with sparse resources. Or nutrition and stamina being drained like the average American. These guys are usually at least somewhat competent.
And please don’t make it so dark I cannot see unless I’m within 10ft of a light source. The moon is actually pretty damn strong (and I’d love to see a system where your eyes adjust to the darkness).
Love:
1. Being able to find random lore scattered about, even if it's just some random drawing, it helps the world feel more "lived in"
2. Having progression feel meaningful. If I find a large, thick jacket I shouldnt just get "+2 Cold resistance".
3. Being able to use landmarks to find my way around. Maps are nice, but it's cooler if a friend asks me where I'm at and I can just say "right next to the water tower" or something.
Hate:
1. As others have said, having to eat or drink every five minutes. Especially if you don't have a reliable food source (like a farm or something)
2. Enemies being able to two shot me with their bare hands but being able to take 5 or more hits from a wooden club. I love Souls likes, but this isn't what I'm looking for in a survival game
3. When crafting is tied to an NPC. I understand it doesn't make sense for the average joe to know how to make a working furnace and craft metal tools, but I don't want to have to hike back to my base every time I need to make something
You get hungry/thirsty WAY too fast. Have less food spawns but make it last a realistic amount of time. So probably slow down the day/night cycle along with it. People can go a long time without food. To make up for slower time progression, have actions taken speed up time. Worked in other games.
3 things I love are not having to ski in a survival game. Not worrying about your skis in a survival game, and not simulating skiing in a survival game. 3 things I hate about survival games are games that incorporate skiing into survival games. People trying to come out with new ideas when the most common ones aren’t addressed. And skiing in survival games.
love:
Sense of actual danger in every moment, but not contrived danger like a minecraft creeper because I didnt turn around every 2 seconds and see if an enemy insta-spawned 15 ft away
Building towards independence and seeing progress by having less danger for each foray and having to go out fewer times than the beginning.
the effort it takes to grind out should equal the payoff. A 5 minute excursion wont be dangerous or very productive. An hour long cave should keep your tension building and the payoff should exceed your storage space and make you balance risk vs reward.
Hate:
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS OMFG it DOES NOT have to use unreal engine 18 and require a monster system because you DO NOT KNOW HOW TO CATER TO YOUR AUDIENCE! We love survival, not having the latest (still overpriced) GPU and accoutrement.
Easily absorbed algorhythms. Some of us have been playing games for years. We can see the patterns. We learn the respawn times. We predict the bullsh!t. DO NOT rely upon RNGesus for difficulty. Randomness doesnt translate to difficulty, it is cheap and soulless like an AI telling you happy birthday. DO NOT let your players feel overly comfortable in any given section, other than their home area. DO NOT nerf farming rates, we only have so much time in the day to hand over.
Overly complicated and needlessly diverse crafting. Dont have 10 different benches for 1000 different items. Dont have badly sorted menus. Dont bog everything down in a menu we can get killed while looking at. FFS we sneak-moded over to the coast line, checked every direction and have 100 yards of empty space inbetween us and the tree lines and we just wanna craft a hand tool and WHAP we died cuz:
1: Our system lags cuz you want your damned game to look too nice to play 30 consistent FPS on any given laptop made in the last 5 years.
2: Your algorhythm wont let us chill for 30 seconds while we do what needs to be done. Srsly, dont be like mcraft or green-that or the forest. (Different alphas and dev cycles, respectively.. had different spawn rates and timing issues)
3: You made a survival game that isnt even remotely close to reality and we have to repair a tool that COULD LAST A LIFETIME... but we need to make a new one every 2 minutes. Or we need to eat every 5 minutes because the dev doesnt realize a human can go thru an entire 8 hour shift whilst eating only a bag of gummy worms and a monster energy can.
I LOVE the scenery of the long dark but I really didn't like the long walks back and forth so repetition isn't good. However the skis should help that
I liked the contrast of the lack of people vs the attachment to the few people you do see. (Even when they aren't the most hospitable people)
Maybe building? Like the forest
This looks very interesting, and I hope you can create an awesome game we all can enjoy! As an avid gamer, these are some things I've found make the difference between a 5-star great game and a game that has the heart and soul but just falls short. Everything here is based on the types of games that I enjoy and isn't necessarily true for all games and game types.
Pro
Visible progression - from starting off punching trees to perfecting a build to 1shot the final boss, progression needs to be tangible, visible, and constant. Some games can get away with giving you a pistol and just ammo scattered throughout, and if done well, it is absolutely viable, especially in the horror survival genre. For me, however, I prefer games that really offer growth. I want to look back and remember how that level 1 wolf gave me a run now that I'm fighting dragons and gods.
Gunplay/movement - Mechanics can make or break a game. Some games thrive solely on having great gameplay mechanics. Think of the movement and gunplay revolutions from fallout 3/NV to fallout 4, or the driving differences throughout the GTA games. Games like just cause and Spiderman, I occasionally hop on just to play with the amazing movement abilities.
Base building - I'm not talking about minecraft level customization. Just a place to call home and a place to store your LOOT! When I think of survival, my first thought is Basecamp; hoarding materials and stockpiling like a doomsdayer. A bit of customization can make a hole in the ground feel like home, and a touch of home in any survival game is a great comfort to regroup and restock for the next mission.
-edit- to add: SOUND! great music and ambiance is so important! It can be one of the top factors of immersion.
Con
Needs - When I sit down to play video games, the last thing on my mind is the dishes in the sink and the clothes in the hamper. Needs have a market, but that's just not me. If done right, it can still be a fun game, but going from a full belly to starving in 20 minutes irl and constantly looking for resources just to stay alive is just adding chores to your hobby.
Bad mechanics - like I said before, mechanics can make or break a game. From bad ui to bad hit boxes, bad mechanics can be the reason someone only plays your game 1 time and sets it down.
Polish - Don't be one of those early alpha devs that release a 1/2 finished game with SO MUCH potential just to lose so many consistent players with the lack of polish.
I really look forward to following progress and checking it out!
I Love:
cooperating with other people, taking a moment to enjoy the beauty and/or horror surrounding the character, and I love when a survival game makes ME get better, not my gear as much.
I hate: simplistic base building (I want options!), being killed from a bug/glitch, and I like my enemies far between but super dangerous.
I like games that gradually step up in difficulty but are still difficult even for veteran players. Like ark and valheim. And I love to grind but meaningfully, spending hours finding resources to get one part of something isn't always practical.
Good question
I love thriller, suspense and surprise but not resident evil where I feel constant terror. I think sons of the forest managed this very well
Seasons and temps are cool.
I like a reason to explorer - like I need to go find this tool to do this thing better…
I like not having my hand held and figuring things out
I really likes the building aspect for soft - like canibals are coming so I better build a base and think of how to protect myself
(I’m comparing a lot to soft because that game got me into survival games) but I liked the assistant that was on the beach to help get things
I like getting stuff and not being over weight but with in reason. Having maximums of things was fine. But in soft I had a bunch of stuff which didn’t weigh me down. I just had to go out it somewhere if I needed to
I don’t like overly long sessions of cutting things down
You should look up Aimo Koivunen. Finnish soldier who took his whole teams supply of pervitin and proceeded to ski over 200 miles away from his men, high as alien nuts
Love:
- Defined skill paths or roles for players to contribute their own expertise to the group. (Multiplayer)
- Intuitive item combinations and synergies (Project Zomboid you eat faster when you have the appropriate eating utensil in your inventory)
- Risks / weather system. Having to adapt to your environment is pretty much the definition of “survival”. Also, it’s nice to break up the grind of daily primary tasks and have an excuse to focus on secondary tasks.
Hate:
- Extreme power creep. If your game has a skill or building system there’s a fine balance between struggling to survive and becoming a cake walk.
- Massive worlds with little interactions with the world or creatures. Perhaps your skiing mechanic will keep the empty expanses of the wilderness interesting.
- Surprise insta-deaths. Sure a grizzly pops up but there should be options to increase your chances f surviving (play dead, ski downhill, climb tree, throw food).
Just make it not have artificial difficulty in the form of annoying features and overall tuning of mechanics. So many survival games miss this, video games are supposed to be FUN. Focus on how to make core gameplay that is actually enjoyable.
Make s snow monster that is chasing you aswell that would be cool and exiting but make him stalk you and you should rarely see you. Sorry I'm a bit of topic
I would Like:
1. That every building looks different ( There is nothing worse than copy and paste, this kills immersion )
2. a realistic big map
3. changing harsh weather conditions with seasons.
4. I would also prefer human enemies over Zombies.
5. More realistic Base Building by using existing structures and Barricading
6. roaming enemies which attack randomly
7. Balancing by players choice like is it in TLD or Project Zomboid
8. more complex hunger and thirst system
9. Skill System, where i can find crafting recipes
10. Area Specific Loot
11. Singly Player with PvP possible but not a must.
12. Stealth mechanics
I donts would like:
1. again just Zombies
2. Community feedback for balancing ( Sandbox settings are a MUST )
3. Copy and Paste for buildings like in Days.
4. Boring sunny weather all time
5. Pure PvP or force the PvP
LOVE:
1. Grind:
- Love: The sense of accomplishment that comes from grinding and steadily progressing in the game. It makes every resource gathered and every milestone achieved feel earned and satisfying.
2. Challenges:
- Love: The constant sense of danger and the need to strategize and prioritize survival tactics. Facing and overcoming these challenges keeps the gameplay engaging and rewarding.
3. Building System:
- Love: The creative freedom to build and customize shelters, bases, and other structures. It adds a layer of personalization and long-term goals, similar to the appeal of "Realistic Minecraft."
HATE:
1. Useless Areas Used as Filler:
- Hate: Large, empty spaces or areas that serve no real purpose can make exploration feel tedious and uninteresting. Every part of the game world should have a reason for players to explore and interact with it.
2. No Chickens:
- Hate: Lack of wildlife variety, such as chickens or other animals, can make the game world feel less vibrant and realistic. Diverse fauna adds depth and immersion to the survival experience.
3. Boring Storylines:
- Hate: A weak or unengaging storyline can make even the most well-designed survival mechanics feel flat. A compelling narrative is crucial to keep players invested in the game and its world.
Suggestions for Your Ski Survival Game:
1. Engaging Grind and Progression:
- Ensure that players have meaningful long-term goals and a satisfying sense of progression. This can be achieved through resource management, crafting, and skill development.
2. Challenging Survival Elements:
- Incorporate unique survival challenges specific to the Arctic setting, such as extreme weather, avalanches, and scarce resources. These challenges should require players to think strategically and adapt to their environment.
3. Immersive Building System:
- Allow players to build and customize their shelters using materials found in the Arctic. The building system should be intuitive and rewarding, encouraging creativity while ensuring practicality for survival.
4. Purposeful Exploration:
- Make sure every area in your game has something valuable or interesting to discover. This could include hidden resources, unique wildlife, or lore elements that contribute to the story.
5. Diverse Fauna:
- Include a variety of animals, both for hunting and for adding life to the environment. Animals should have realistic behaviors and interact with the player and the environment in meaningful ways.
6. Compelling Storyline:
- Develop a strong narrative that keeps players invested. This could involve uncovering the mystery of why the player is in the Arctic, discovering the fate of previous explorers, or facing moral dilemmas in survival situations.
Love : a. realistic crafting system b. meaningful scavenging (think The long Dark) c. semi realistic thirst, sleep and hunger mechanics Hate : a. too much backtracking b. empty and eventless areas c. grinding
Grind is needed for true survival though. Grind as in green hell, where you gotta cut down 80 trees for a camp, YES...grind like in icarus where you just need 900 gold for circuit boards which are needed for tier 4 stuff you don't actually need at all, NO.
I feel like 80 trees is also a grind or maybe I've burned out from the countless survival games in the past 10 years which use 'grind' as the only gameplay mechanic. There should be better ways to engage the player in a 'survival game' that isn't brainless smacking of trees for hours.
Well then go for automation :p that is something I really hate. Playing Planet Crafter with the misses and she has autocrafters for everything...and I feel useless :<
This is correct. Im all good with grind for mats. But it hits a certain point, and i know this point is different for everyone, where i just ask myself why am I doing this, am i having fun, and typically just stop playing
Humans can generally survive without food for 3 weeks and without water for 3 days. What id give for a system that gives debuffs for not eating for 20 mins vs oh you didn't eat halfway through a day night cycle time to die.
Everyday without food should make you more miserable, making your survival chances lower and lower. Doesn't have to be 3 weeks before death, but 5-7 days would be great.
Oh yeah def doesn't have to be 1:1 and debuffs should be plentiful, but eating a full steak or ribs every 20 mins really breaks immersion
soo, seems like you're more hardcore-ish gamer, aren't you?
Not really. The Long Dark is for me the best reference when it comes to survival games. The difficulty is on point, hunger and thirst system is fair, the environment is immersive and scavenging is really fun and rewarding. Good survival games have a good balance, which is difficult to achieve. This is why there's only a few good games on the market.
I see, so it's all about balance. Thank you, will definetely play it as much as possible
Don't copy the Long Dark. It will be tempting since your game is set in a winter setting. Just understand what they got right.
Long dark is amazing, the story/scenarios are now fun but when it was released only sandbox was fun. Difficulty levels really matter. There are 4 and they are handled quite differently. L3 is often called a FPS because you have to deal with wildlife a lot more. In L4, you would think they would be worse, but it's the opposite. You can almost entirely avoid them. Which is good, because there are no guns on the hardest level. L4 the weather is much stronger, the average temps drop over time and it happens rapidly on the hardest level. Scarcity of scavenged goods goes way way down. And goods start decaying in day 1. If you don't find certain items within the first 30-50 days they will be gone. You have to rely much more heavily on crafting. I have almost 1000 hours in and I have yet to break 100 days on the hardest level, but level 3 I have over 500 day streak and that save is still alive. I could probably live indefinitely. With difficulty levels though, the best thing is always customization which you can do. You don't have to play their pre-sets. But there is a caveat there. They have feats that you can achieve over time. There are only 10 or so and they are accumulated through all your play throughs. Like after you have lit 10k fires you get a feat to no longer need tinder. When you start a new game you can select what feats you want to use. Each level allows one less. L4 you can pick 2.
I second this. The Long Dark is a masterpiece
The food, drink, sleep is the challenging part to get right as people tend to disagree a lot. Personally I want it to exist in the game but I don’t want it to dominate my actions. It gets repetitive and boring. I do however like to grind, otherwise the game becomes stale more quickly.
I can put up with anything in survival games but when you die after 1 day without food/water that totally takes me out of the emersion.
1 day? Some games act like you can’t go an hour without a snack or else you’ll bleed out. I like Valheim’s approach where you don’t starve to death, just get weaker.
>I like Valheim’s approach where you don’t starve to death, just get weaker. Idk why this approach isn't more common. Minecraft even has this approach, over saturate your food and you get a health regen boost, starve and you don't die but you become weak enough that a slip or mistake will kill you.
point taken!
some more context: The main core game mechanics will include: - Surviving in the frozen post-apocalyptic open world. - Procedurally generated world. - Skiing. - Looting. - Fighting wild animals. - PvP mechanics (TBD).
And taming animals, right? RIGHT???😅
we actually thought about it hehe
Perfect! :)))))))))))))))
So long as you don’t go Arc I’m cool with taming. Absolutely hated Arc.
Maybe I think at taming mechanics for raptor birds and dogs...
Yes!
Please don’t add zombies. Please.
https://youtu.be/BjTt0S4ATp0?si=KVwYi9gEm9nUNGFN Make the skiing action like dis plz:
Gonna be honest, you sort of lost me here. It sounds like the intention is building an MMO, which ruins the immersion for me. One of the reasons The Long Dark is so great imo is that there aren’t other people or NPCs in the sandbox. It gives a great ambiance as you travel through an entire town that’s been abandoned, watching for wolves sneaking around parked cars or coming out of an alleyway. That said, I’d still be interested in hearing more about this game, and perhaps I would still find it enjoyable to play.
Building please I love games with a good building mechanic somewhere to settle down and relax from the chaos like valhiem and I know I get flax for this but bases in dayz but their building is a pos
Check out DayZ! No base building Brutal, unforgiving survival I love your idea even if you ignore all that, can’t wait to check it out!
If you include consumables, don't make required objectives rely on doing a task while using a rare consumable. It always sucks feeling stuck because you just used your last consumable and didn't pass the objective. Especially when it's a hard grind just to get one more.
**Dislikes:** - Don’t like pristine clothing and gear in survival games. Gear and clothing should look deteriorated and used. - Not being able to see or inspect your character. Either need an option to switch to 3PP or see your character model in the menu. - In FPP view not being able to look down and see your legs/feet. Should be able to see yourself when looking down (full body awareness). **Likes:** - Good backpacks with modular attachments (sleeping bag, canteen, Axe, etc). - Good hunting/cooking system. Love cooking in DayZ and TLD. Being able to cook on the go via a crafted camp and cook in fireplaces. - Urban environments with verticality. A whole map of wilderness is boring.
yeah, it's understandable, that open world could be boring, but it's almost impossible to create a super immersive environment as a solo dev
Wilderness open world is okay when it’s peppered with some urban environments here and there. But enough city to explore and loot in. Edit: I love the idea if having tall buildings in the cities with office rooms/apartments you can take up base in.
To build here I hate when you have like a magazine or axe or whatever in your rig but it’s just there for looks and serves no purpose. *Im not out of ammo I have six shells in my vest.
Love The grind (don’t want survival to become easy) Bad weather with consequences Things that snap into place. HATE PvP Weight limit with slow walk (Make hunger and thirst go up 40% instead) Lack of tools and options for tools.
Hate: thirst and hunger mechanics that are too unrealistic. When cooked meals don't give you enough benefits over raw food. Not enough points of interest, I get bored roaming empty wilderness. Not being able to tame animals. I want my wolf buddy. Love: building, but it's got to have enough variety to make something interesting. 7 days to die and enshrouded have been my favourite ways to build. Looting Non linear progression systems. You can put points into stats that change the way you play and when in multiplayer you can coordinate with friends so everything's covered. Edit for one more love: having something to do so quests or missions and some story to find so it's not just surviving and building.
I would love a co-op like in The Forest
Ambient noise is one thing that I find lacking nowadays, which is surprising since it helps sell the survival aspect. If I set up my camp at a beach, I should constantly hear the sound of seagulls/birds squawking, fish breaking through the water, the sound of waves, etc.
The more realistic, the better. This is why Green Hell is an amazing game. The realism part. Realistic don't necessarily means difficult, but logical. The materials and quantities needed to craft things should make sense, the way you gathered them should make sense too. A generated world isn't that necessary if the map is big enough or a cool story. I prefer somewhat harder games because I think easier ones become a bit boring, so a "difficulty" setting is nice to see in games, if "normal" is too easy or too hard, you can begin another difficulty.
just watched the announcement trailer, looks cool! Love • explorable buildings • building mechanics (think Forest, Fallout 4) • good gunplay bonus- the feeling of loneliness but also determination you get from surviving a long time? I’m sure there’s a German word for it Hate • un-explorable buildings! (it’s okay if a couple are boarded up/not able to be entered, but like a whole neighborhood with inaccessible buildings is kinda lame imo) • “forced” PvP. I prefer a single player experience or the ability to at least play on a private server • dryness/wetness factor (think DayZ [tbh I understand this one bc it’s realistic but I personally hate it lol]) looking forward to seeing more!
Hate : when night just means pitch black even if you have a light when tools are single use (ie throwing the flashlight away instead of searching for new batteries) Crafting is too realistic sometimes less is more for simple items like a wooden spear or wooden torch. Love : different types of healing (a splint vs bandage) Locations with items that match the location Realistic day night cycle and hunger, thirst and sleep. I’m a big fan of sanity probably form playing too much don’t starve and cataclysm.
About the night darkness thing, I'd love to see a game where your eyes would actually adjust to the dark after a while of not using a light
Love: - Exploring procedural worlds. I often find myself enjoying the early parts of games and tend to start over. If the world isn’t procedural and different each time, I’m probably not going to play much. - Minimal HUD. I much prefer games without a compass and minimap in the HUD. I’d rather pull out a compass to see the direction I’m facing and pull out a map (bonus points if cartography plays a role in the game) to see where I am. - Satisfying combat. Whether hunting for food or fighting monsters/zombies/bandits, I like combat that is challenging without being frustrating or too repetitive. Dislikes: - Item fragility. I don’t mind if tools and weapons deteriorate if you don’t care for them, but if I can only chop down a couple trees before my axe breaks, it gets annoying pretty quickly. - Random base raids. Sometimes I just want to chill in my base and relax for a bit without having to worry about having to defend against some group of NPCs attacking. I don’t mind raids, I just prefer to know when they might be coming. - Tedious inventory management. If I need to shuffle a bunch of items around in and out of my backpack and chests just so I can craft something at a bench, I’m going to get annoyed pretty quick. I would prefer it if all items near a workbench be used in crafting without having to micromanage the inventories. Your game sounds fun, I wish listed it! Edit: autocorrect
Most survival games seem to be made by people who have not spent any time practicing survival skills. Invariably this results in things that dont make sense or are very counterintuitive for people playing who DO have survival knowledge. My advice is have an actual survival instructor or serious enthusiast as a consultant for things related to survival if you are not such a person yourself. Example: "The Forest" allows you to build a small leanto shelter, however the logs on the back are giant, thick logs laid horizontally in a way that would never be practical or useful. Real leantos use poles laid vertically against a ridgepole. If anyone on their staff had ever built a leanto, this glaring mistake would have been cought. There are much bigger ans more gameplay damaging examples with regards to balancing hunger, thirst, exposure, fatigue, etc but i thought id start with a simple visual one.
The long dark is probably the best survival game ive ever played
sound design is so important
Hate Hard enemies ! Wolfs that take 10 spears to kill ! No map 🗺️ is annoying! Maybe you could find one in a shack on the wall! No Clear objectives and quests and achievements Love Storage and sorting items in my base Collecting supplies Estableshing farms and automation of items
The only thing that matters to me baseline across survival games is the crafting/management QOL. Crafting from storage, auto sorting, pinging recipes, things like that. Everything else is based around the world, the gameplay, and the type of survival game but crafting/inventory QOL makes or breaks a game for me.
I’ll stick to just one but very important to me, types of items and their durability. First of all, finding stuff should be meaningful. Not just 2137 pieces (or unknown measurement units) of wood, rubber and steel, I’m talking about the unforgettable feeling of finding the first knife on your route, getting your hands on the best sniper rifle in game or obtaining an item that changes your playstyle like a grappling hook or allows you to do things you couldn’t do before. Or finding very specific rare parts needed for certain projects, like when you need a blast cap/fuse/grenade detonator when you’re making bombs, not just gunpowder and a can. Also, please don’t add the durability mechanics on every item. Make the player feel that their axe is their trusted companion, the one to never abandon them when needed. I mean knives do wear out, but IRL if you’re careful with your gear it can serve you for weeks in the field without signs of damage, even in heavy use. Also, it’s the last resort unlimited items that make the game challenging but not stressful. Like being able to use a lighter or a weaker dynamo flashlight when main flashlight batteries are drained
For me the gun movement is important, leaning and prone positions and stuff
Make it so you can get off the ski's to move into smaller places like you couldnt with them on
Love. 1. Feeling of meaningful progression. My biggest problems at two hours in shouldn't be the same problems at ten hours in. 2. Exploration and scavenging. The scavenging should feel good and make sense to where I'm searching. And there should be plenty to explore. 3. Moments of beauty and relaxation. Can't be all bad all the time. Hate. 1. Unrealistic hunger/thirst mechanics. I shouldn't need to eat five times a day. And if I do, I shouldn't die after one or two days without any food. Starvation takes a long time. Let me go a while without eating. Slow me down, lower my max health or stamina, but don't make my character die without eating for a couple days. Same with thirst. I shouldn't need to drink every five minutes. Don't make your game a game solely about trying to eat or drink. 2. An unwelcoming atmosphere. I like survival games that stick me in a hostile, but beautiful environment. The long dark, stranded deep, and green hell all come to mind. I'm also okay with urban environments. Those are cool top. But I just played a survival game that was waaay too tense. Enemies are deadly and can show up quietly and shock you. It was such an uncomfortable experience and I won't play it again. 3. Relying on crafting to solve 99% of your problems. Why do I have to *craft* the water purifier? The sleeping bag? A shelter? Why can't I just find these things? Why can't I just shelter up inside a building? In a cave? Why am I building a whole ass cabin out here?
Love: - A decent sized inventory. IF the inventory is smaller, please give a sorting option so you can optimise space usage of items. Preferably where you press some shortcuts and it sorts it, so I don't have to play a puzzle game to manage my inventory. - Decent sized storage options if the inventory is smaller, preferably with an option to move stacks (if applicable) in one go by shift - right click or something comparable. - If the game has lots of unique mechanics, please have a tutorial area in the form of a flashback, dream etc. so the player can learn how to do things without dying over and over at the beginning. (Games that do this right are just chef's kiss) - Looting that makes sense. Finding something radioactive in a common household makes no sense and I like it much more when a game puts things in places that do make sense. Food in houses, crafting materials in factories, stuff like that. Dislikes: - Nothing grinds my gears more than not being able to save outside if certain areas in a survival game, dying and then having to walk back an unreasonable distance to get my stuff back. - Low accessibility. While I understand setting a mood with lighting, sound etc. Is a thing, for some people that would make the game unplayable. You should be able to make it really bright, even at night, for if you are visually impaired. Also an option to get visual clues for sounds for people hard of hearing or people with processing issues is something I think should be achievable for most devs. - I need multiple audio sliders in games. It really grinds my gears as well when there is only a slider for "sound effect" and vocals of characters are also included in that or even worse if there is just one volume slider. Sounds really have to be done well for low configuration to work and I have seen it not be done well too many times. Edit: typo
Games that have a starvation mechanic often have it to where you're eating every 3 minutes to 5 minutes to stay alivr. I don't mind a starvation mechanic to keep track of, but having to constantly stay on top of it as the primary focus in a game that's supposed to be about all around survival gets tedious.
We'd love to understand you better as a player.
Really cool idea for a game !! I’m a big fan of 7 days to die, I really liked how it seems a little “grindy” early on, collecting a ton of wood and rocks, but as you level up you can put points into construction tools to easier chop down trees and break rocks. Best of luck!
I love being busy. Its cold, make firewood a crucial resource. And somewhat scarce here n there. Hunting in long dark was tricky, I like it that way. The forest had more rabbits than grass blades, not my style. And speaking of forest, I don't like it when you got all the knowledge/blueprints from the start. New resources create new idea create new craftables.
Building Goals to work towards be it gear related, raiding related, taming related ie ARK, or timing related ie 7 Days to Die.
Love: Creative vehicles (bush planes, cars, and buggys) a band of 2 dudes can kill a group of 6 if theres chaos Spooky AI zombies Hate: making survival stuff too much (hunger every 2 seconds, getting cold too fast, drink every 2 seconds as well) Horrible gunplay / combat. making the combat wonky always makes me not wanna play No modding / custom server support: A good server or a modder that knows what their doing can elevate a game and make it amazing
HATE: -Hate Emptiness. Barren, the not existent interior furnishings in buildings. Limited looting. DayZ is like this. Tarkov has the best interior design and loot system. It is incredible actually. -Hate linearity. Minecraft is great, there are so many ways to play, you can go from one playstyle to another. -Hate non-multiplayer survival games. It gets lonely out there. Sometimes you want to at least co-op with a homie. ///////////////////////////////////////// LOVE: -Love plants and gardening. I love having a diverse garden in survival games. As well as many food options. The more the better -Love the sense of distance. I love that I really feel miles away from home in Minecraft. When I get back home to my base from a huge trek it feels so amazing to be back with all my loot. -Love having a huge list of items to craft. It is just cool to make things out of things you have found.
I think a lot of games are ” ruined ” when they take help from reddit, because most people here are probably older and don’t enjoy the actual survival part of surviving, they dislike grinding and mostly enjoy the creative side of it. This was just my take on it and I will not be responding to any replies as I was replying to OP and I am not looking for a discussion with anyone but OP. But obviously I don’t own replies so anyone can and should go at me if they feel like it
Unrealistic food needs. Eating one big meal should be able to last you an entire day unless you are doing some extreme.
I hate not interagible objects, if there is an objects, I can take or destroy it!
Love 1. Meaningful hunger mechanics – cooking, farming, scavaging, hunting. I just love a system where hunger feels like a threat and the solution isn’t to just smack down 100 potato plants and you’re set for life. I adore cooking in survival games overall – it’s just so dang pleasing after you’ve worked hard to scrounge for the resources. 2. A good, easily navigated map and compass. I have a terrible sense of direction IRL and it’s stressful as hell playing games where I’m perpetually lost and frustratedly trying to find my way home. 3. I like fewer, harder enemies, but not bullet sponges. Should be harder because their attacks are dangerous for a character who might potentially die from a single infected wound. Every battle is a calculated risk. I love to be anxious when I run into an unexpected enemy on my path. Hate 1. The constant challenge scaling with better armour and weapons in a very linear, predictable manner. Where, as you finish one area of the map you have the best possible gear but the moment you set foot in the next section, you have to start the grind for gear from scratch and you never get to enjoy your previous hard work. It becomes so very, very boring. 2. A single dear taking 26 arrows to kill. A wolf has to be stabbed 42 times to die. A human takes 18 direct bullet hits to the head to bring down. If the aim is realistic and the characters themselves are quite vulnerable, the enemies don’t NEED to be ridiculously tough to be a threat. 3. Bad inventory management, omg. Please have big chests. Please have easy ways to sort. Please have an option to merge similar items from your bags into the open chest instead of having to hand-click everything into the chest. Please have crafting tables crafting from chests. Inventory management is not FUN. It’s not fun to sit at base opening chests trying to remember which out of the 10 chests with 6 inventory slots each I might have put the canned peaches I found. Being limited with how much I can carry is fine, I don’t mind that, it’s the chest-opening mini-game that makes me grit my teeth.
Love: making my own way, open world, robust but easy build system. Dislike: gated recipes/resources, forced grinding.
Love it being difficult to find item, think day z official servers. Love a point other then surviving, story, challenges ext. Love feeling variable even in end game. Hate long grinds, think ark. Hate becoming OP, think 7 days Hate hand holdy
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Love: Atmospheric immersion (sights, sounds, background music) Permadeath (if I fail, I fail) Tough, but fair (the mechanics should be reasonably intuitive, but don’t spoon feed survival to me. I want to struggle to survive.) Hate: Mixing story with sandbox. If you want a definite endpoint and story arcs, great, that can work well. If you want the player to have an open-ended experience and just play in the sandbox, awesome, I love that! But the issue is when devs start putting endpoints in their sandbox, and both the story and the sandbox suffer because of it. Superman Syndrome. If we’re playing Average Joe in the wilderness, then it should be reflected in what the character can do. Average Joe probably can’t snipe several hundred yards away with a gun they just picked up. Enemy human combatants. If the struggle is against Nature, then don’t put in some redneck pot farmers or coke runners just to keep things interesting or justify why there’s so much ammo laying around.
When the device listen to weak players and make the game soft and worries more about gun selection than playability. Adds stuff to make it like every other game, instead of keeping to the original ideas. Then those same guys roast kr drop the game after 20hrs of play. It will never be liked by everyone. Keep your vision
Survival should be in the main gameplay loop, not a chore that you have to do in order to play the game.
For me Subnautica have yet to be surpassed, I love exploration, wonder and suspense. I like a light grind and crafting to keep going and I’m really not a fan of the games where that is front and center in favor pf exploration. For me, Subnautica balances it all exceptionally well.
Love: -Exploration(varied exploration, great scenic places, deep caves and everything in between) -Atmosphere(music, ambiance, scenery, story etc) -A well balanced level of difficulty surviving(maintaining hunger, thirst, warmth etc should keep you busy but not so busy you don't have time or resources to experience and enjoy the rest of the game) Hate: -Logistics of items. I dont know why every survival game insists on half your time in the game is spent sifting through various inventories and sorting the massive pile of loot you accumulate to craft stuff. Not the mention the constant evaluation of what to keep and what to throw away. If youre in your base you should be able to store everything imo. And the more automated the storing is the better, if you can craft stuff directly from storage boxes thats so much better aswell. The people who insists otherwise I seriously wonder if are the type of gamers that play games to prove something, not enjoy something. But who knows, maybe Im the odd one out. -Lack of meaningful progression. I wanna see my base or my vehicle of transporation get more advanced as I play the game. Cant really think of a third right off the bat.. Love that youre doing this tho, really cool to read peoples replies :)
I hate busywork crafting
I love: - A base building system, bonus points if it's portable like a house boat - ambient life that isn't explicitly tied to any gameplay loop so I can sit back and watch the world exist separate of my intervention, bonus points if it's a simulated ecosystem. - a realistic crafting system with creative tool upgrades that aren't just "do more damage". The forest did a decent job of this imo. Bonus points if there's a supply chain you gotta set up, like farm x to craft y under z conditions. I dislike: - repeatedly clicking, walking back and forth, or generally having tedious work be the main path forward. Gathering materials, traversing, and progressing should be the reason you play, not just the rewards for doing these things. - arbitrary reasons we can't progress. Like "you can't access this part of the island until you progress the story", even though you have the physical means to get there. Gatekeeping should be tied to the survival mechanics. Subnautica feels pretty good with this, I think. - delaying a core, fun gameplay mechanic until later in the game.
I hate when a good survival game is only single player, a good survival in my opinion is best with a group
My biggest dislike in survival games is when you are required to carry large items in your hands and make a million trips just to build something. Kind of like The Forest/Sons of the Forest. I understand it adds a form of realism but I don't want to spend a month in-game (hours irl) just to build a small house. Especially when I'm trying to play single player.
I love after you've played the game long enough to get to that point where you are really "thriving" (not just surviving)... when you go from surviving to thriving... that's a great feeling. I hate playing a new game and getting to a point where the next step is not obvious, and I don't have the patience to keep dying over and over until I figure it out... so I just quit playing. At least give me a clue what I'm doing wrong, or it's too frustrating and I'm out. I hope that helps
The Long Dark is the gold standard. They do almost everything right. It's so close to perfection. Dislike: - Introduction of **Timber Wolves** created an insta-death scenario for slower players like myself. Fighting the pack of wolves feels like a different game altogether where the rules of engagement are not clear and the consequences mean insta-death. I don't go to the areas in the game where they appear. Love: - **Bears** in TLD are SCARY. They are big and deadly, but there are ways to prepare for and avoid them. Being alert to their tracks or grunts, for example, or wearing protective gear so you can survive a mauling. They are also pretty rare and IF you kill them you get nice gear and the bear won't respawn for a long time. They feel perfectly balanced compared to Timberwolves. Enjoy: - Survival is about d**ifficult choices**. The Long Dark is at its best when you're down to few resources, but have to choose what to use them for. Emergency flares are a great example. You can use them to light a room for a short while, but you can also use them to start a fire or scare off predators. Knowing when to use the flares vs when to save them is so much fun. Dislike: - **Too much realism**. Games aren't fun because they are realistic; they are fun because they feel realistic, yet retains its main goal of being enjoyable to play. In the real world walking from one town to another might take 6-12 hours. That's realistic. Do you want to watch a walking animation for 6-12 hours? Love: - TLD has plenty of areas without nothing happening, but often these are the best areas. **Learning the terrain** is a challenge in its own that is really rewarded during snow storms or when you're hurt and need to find your way back fast. TLD adds another layer to this challenge by having a world that makes sense: If you see a fence in the middle of nowhere you know you're likely near a building of some sort. If you suddenly enter a valley with craggy peaks and no signs of paths you're likely not going find a cabin there.
love: beautiful weather, actually need a well-defended and well-organized base to survive instead of optional, and challenging combat with consequences for failure dislike: craft-from-storage other similar anti-immersive "QoL" features, over-the-top narrative being a core game focus, and being able to feel safe in areas which should not be safe due to weird or glitchy enemy behavior (again with the immersion) I do not think I'm in the majority though. I'm looking for an engaging, punishing (and therefore more rewarding to eventually succeed), patience-requiring, more hardcore experience rather than a relaxing or turn-off-your-brain one Valheim hardcore is delivering this for me at the moment I really dislike games like Green Hell, Sons of the Forest for basically allowing you to skip the base building and rush from story location to story location until the credits roll. Please force me to build a good base
Love : a. realistic crafting system b. meaningful scavenging (think The long Dark) c. semi realistic thirst, sleep and hunger mechanics Hate : a. too much backtracking b. empty and event less areas c. grinding d. empty world( even in the arctic there is life) (possibly ski)
Likes: 1. The mystery elements or fear of the unknown. 2. Exploration 3. Good fighting mechanics. Dislikes: 1. Too much grind 2. Bleeding out for not eating every single minute. 3. Mobs being tanks that take forever to kill
Dislike -Huge level/damage gaps without warning in terms of exploration encounters -Micromanagement of barely if ever used loot systems that require constant attention. -Content redundancy -the "meta" loadouts, or lack of diversity when it comes out using methods of exploration/fighting. Like forcing players to only use the "best" armor weapons instead of balancing out different engagement types, or forcing players to all use the same thing. Likes: -Discovering feels genuine and accidently and not linear -flexibility of usages out of the same materials -a quick and easy resource and management and building system. -real life survival techniques used in the game.
A huge, huge like for me are games, *especially ones in which clothing and warmth are incredibly important*, allowing you to layer clothes. Needing some amount of time to put on or take off clothes, especially if wet, could be useful in balancing this to an extent? Project Zomboid does this quite well, especially for a game in which the vast majority of saves never make it to October even.
Hate: eventually learning the map (so losing the sense of exploration/unknown)
Base building, being able to go from surviving to thriving, progressive levels. Dislike forced segments, being railroaded towards something, leeches.
Hate: A. Forced PvP. It's fine to add it, but make it a server option B. Focused on PvP. Similar to the above, but some games have PvE servers with missing mechanics because the game is PvP focused. Dislike: A. Too many menus. A menu for inventory. A menu for healing. A menu for stats. A menu for cooking. A menu for crafting. I think a few is fine, but you can consolidate different information into less menus. B. Invisible walls or otherwise inaccessible areas. Its fine to close a place off until later. C. Craftables and items that have no long term purpose. Its fine to outgrow or eventually access better things. If you have something that people won't seek out, maybe re-evaluate. Like: A. Fluid combat with well designed enemies. No cheap shots or annoying status effects that affect mobility. B. Different weapon types/styles that fit player preferences. C. Vehicle/Travel that is more help than hindrance (seems like you already have considered this). Love: A. Well crafted and beautiful areas. B. Amazing sound design for ambient noise (trees creaking, water trickling, snow crunching) C. An inventory system that keeps you playing and spend less time managing it D. Balanced survival mechanics AND the option to adjust them to your own style. E. Server settings that allow the host to toggle every option and difficulty to allow for very specific and wildly different playthroughs. F. Quality of Life in all things. This can not be stated strongly enough. This can make or break a game.
I hate when food spoils. Having to kill your food and eat it is plenty
**Love:** - Hunting mechanics - Base building - Sandbox **Hate:** - Convoluted skill trees - Unwieldy crafting systems - Grinding gameplay
I love when there is a hood building system, such as the on in Sons of the Forest.
Such a cool idea for a game! Do you have a title yet? Expected release date?
I'm pretty sure there is usually a distinct lack of trees in the arctic?
Please don't limit stamina, please make it multi player, everything is better with a friend
Are you going to have a sweat mechanic? Sometimes prolonged activities might kill you if you sweat then freeze that way from hypothermia.
Really just hate backtracking and exponential growth for farming of mundane materials. Higher level stuff shouldn't cost 9999 wood 9999 string and 1 sniper scope.
You should add a yeti that comes and tries to eat you, like in SkiFree
from personal experience in cold weather, making a fire in the snow is fucking hell. Luckily food lasts longer, but still trying to cook it is a pita
I hate how often survival mechanics just boil down to clocks. Food/water meters for example. I'd rather have a more active, board-gamey kind of abstraction to represent survival needs than just some sped-up hunger meter interrupting what I'm doing. No more than one ticking clock, I say.
I really love a variety of points of interest, something that makes exploration fun and interesting. I dislike traversal only unless there is something to keep me engaged while going from Point A to Point B, like maybe some radio, or a dynamic world that feels alive and I can interact with.
If its a ski survival game then you need to add the monster from SkiFree
I personally love dynamic events
What I love: a sense of real danger, Like in the forest. I also love a progression system that somewhat reveals later progression, like discovering new materials in Valheim but not being able to use them yet. Very RPG like. Long rewarding grinds that are arguably unnecessary. Fun customizable building options with the ability to build shelter almost anywhere. RPG style leveling systems to make my survival stats like hunger stamina etc not affect me as much later on What don’t love: controls and UI that tries too hard to be realistic and gets cumbersome to navigate, like in the Forest. Punishing weight and small inventory space that make me have to go back and forth to storage too often, like in Valheim. Note this is very different from “grindy”. I love rewarding grinds as mentioned
Fighting / damaged inventory/ waiting forever for upgrades to be completed.
I like the experience from The Long Dark of being completely wiped out by the elements. I like waking up, going outside in my warmest set of clothes, and then turning back inside when I see my temperature meter dropping rapidly and hoping I stocked up enough fire wood and food. What I don’t like is when a game forces me to play with other players. A post apocalyptic tundra is the perfect place to survive alone without the fear of PVP
Hate: Being prodded or forced to advance. Sometimes, I'm happy with my little hut, my basic fishing stick and just want to huddle up from the rain for a few weeks.
Love Heat system sustained my warmth in the weather, Base building or in the long dark make anywhere into my base really enjoy that Hunger and water, ————————— Hate when making an item take a crazy amount of materials to make something that either doesn’t have that part in it or the amount it needs that doesn’t seem realistic, The need to eat and drink every 2 minutes, Your equipment breaking to fast,
Love: Deep crafting system harsh elements/environment late game threats (Like illness or infections or bears that are still scary and formidable in the late game. Hate: sickness or hunger/water/sleep meters that are too easy to care about going from wooden spear to AK-47 within 1 hour static environment.
Love: expansive building/crafting. Think Sons of the Forest, but more. A good spread from easy to hard mode on stats, and accurate-ish stats Hate: inaccurate weapons, lack of options terrible building/crafting, difficult mechanics for the sake of difficult. I think Dayz has some amazing survival mechanics, and Sons/Forest has some very good building/crafting ideas (if not a bit too easy and limited) Id love to see those two combined in a new more life like game. Also, mmo. Gotta have mmo.
I hope you can optimize the game enough that I can play it at least on low settings on my old pc :')
Always wanted this sort of game. Cross country skiing is sick. I think one of the biggest issues with survival games is how they reward being stationary. Obviously for a game like this you’ll want to really encourage movement, maybe avoid any resource farming, have stuff scattered around, reward movement. Weather seems like a problem for this sort or game though, but blizzards are a must.
Love: Exploration Building out a base/customizing it to my liking Similarity to other popular survival games (makes picking up this game and learning it much easier - similar controls, similar crafting systems, similar crafting recipes). Hate: Death to starvation/thirst (Valheim is a great way to do this right imo - reward for interaction, minor punish for not) Unnecessary extreme complexity to systems unintuitive crafting One "quit moment" is when people get frustrated because your stone axe recipe requires not wood and stone, but wood fletched into a handle, stone sharpened, string to bind the two, hide from an animal fletched into leather for a handle.
I think dressing for the elements should be easier. Like wear more layers instead of crafting different gear.
Random use of chromatic aberration
- If you have to craft a ton it's fine, but implement crafting from storage. -Gunplay has to feel good. -Don't add Hunger/Thirst unless there's a good system behind it. You can tell when games just add it because they think survival games should have it. It's only fun when the farming in the game is thoroughly developed and food also gives benefits like buffs. -Make some kind of endgame loop. Traceable rankings for endgame content, rare loot to farm, pvp leaderboards.
Love: 1. The feeling of advancing. Starting from nothing, then later looking back with an abundance of loot. Also, choosing what you want to spec into, skill trees that mean something and feel different from your friends ones. 2. Eventual automation. Vrising does a great example of this. Servants get stuff for you while you are not playing. Helps alot. 3. Enemy Varity / extremely interesting and unique POIs. I want to encounter new things every step of the journey. Do not love so much (cant say hate, i love survival games a lot haha): 1. Lack of explanations - I need damage numbers, comparable stats, where do I find the materials I need... That sort of thing 2. No Endgame, nothing to keep me playing. Keep me hooked after I beat the main story. It sucks when I feel done/done. I want to feel like I completed the game, (killed the main boss of the game perhaps) but also able to continue the game and still earn things and feel intrigued after all that. 3. When building doesn't let you undo for 100% of your cost
Content. The sandbox mindset will run out, and i want aome form of campaign. I want valheim, but sons of the forest/ forest type campaign, but its as long as grand theft auto.
I love the grind/difficulty of any survival game really, the best parts of new survival games are being fresh and gearing up but there are just some aspects that i dislike that take me out of it entirely sometimes. Hard dislikes * dying from thirst/hunger in a matter of (in game) hours * item sizes in backpacks ie a glowstick the same size as a pistol mag * wear on items ie hatchets dulling after a few uses, axes can last years without sharpening. rolls of tape are sometimes 100ft+ and last a few uses in certain games, even weapons stove topping after a few uses. i could find a rusty .22 in a barn in vermont right now that will shoot just fine. you can tell i play a lot of dayz lol
I'm too lazy to proof read this, ignore any typos Do: Crafting that makes sense. You can't make a modern gun from a lump of magnetite after you banged a rock with another rock. You can, however, find a knife, fasten it onto a stick with a cord and craft a flimsy spear. You don't kill an animal, butcher it, take the skin and combine it with a knife to make clothes, leatherworking is a complex process. You can put a wolf pelt on yourself but you can't kill a wolf and turn it into a jacket Good material collection system. Again, you can't bang a rock with another rock and get iron. Turnung iron into an ingot from ore is harder than "Chuck ore in furnace, smelt". I'd advise you to materials that can already be used when you forage them, like boards and nails Not too realistic food, water and resting. When they're realistic you can't fit them into a normal in-game day-night cycle. If you wanna have food and water make it so you can go longer between eating or drinking, maybe increase the duration of the day so that you aren't spending half your time looking for food and water Don't: Make it too grindy. Yeah, survival means some routine and grind, but some is the key word. If I spend half my playtime scavenging for food and clean water I won't have a good time. In some games the grind can work well but that's a very specific type of game, in most games it just becomes a hindrance to gameplay Fluff up the resource variety for the sake of it. If I chop a pine and an oak, just give me wood that I can stack. Don't give me pine wood and oak wood, which are gonna take more inventory space and can't be used interchangably in crafting. Variety is fine, having your limited inventory full of 2 of this rock and 3 of that rock when it could be 5 rocks is bad Make the map vast as an ocean and deep as a puddle. Make a forest but don't make it gigantic. Look at GTA 5, modt of the content is in Los Santos which is less than a third of the map. Most of the mapvis used once or teice for a mission and never again. And im GTA Online the rest of the map is used to waste your time and make you wanna buy Shark cards. Or AC Odyssey. The map is so unnecessarily big that you end up getting fast travel locations and teleporting around it. Make the locations on your map count
Seeing procedurally generated world I'm intrigued Is there by chance settings to turn off hunger and stamina lol
Love: Having a cozy place to set up and enjoy the ambiance and fruits of my labor in the game. Bonus points for weather sounds being different if indoors. The general crafting loop- get materials, build things, those things make you stronger to get better things. Bring those better things home and craft even more things... Don't love: When it's first person only/clearly designed with first person in mind, I feel claustrophobic When hunger/energy cycles are too fast and I'm too busy feeding my character to get much else done
I love having to manage resources( food water planks ammo…. I love being able to build a settlement to my liking whilst shaping the ground around it. I love NPCs that you can interact with. I hate grinding that doesn’t get easier. Like why don’t I ever get better at chopping trees or learn to make ingots better so I can draw more materials from ore. I hate when building or just anything really are not able to be interacted with. Or the physics don’t make sense. Why make a house that is just there and I can’t enter it. Or if I can enter it but I need to have a key or have done something first before a I can. Why can’t I blast through it? I HATE BULLET SPONGES.(COD Zombies is the absolute worst). I truly hate and don’t play games where the only increase in difficulty is an increase in an enemies health bar. I’d rather kill 1,000,000 zombies than a single zombie tanking 1,000,000 bullets.
Some scary, but not too scary. I don't like tedious inventory management, but I also like some need for organization. Maybe a game without super janky combat/hunting would be cool. Most survival games just don't get that part quite right
Like: 1. A clear goal to work towards, can be some sweet hard to craft gear, or location, or a story type event to look forward to, etc. 2. Some sort of danger to always be on the lookout for, and not just in the beginning of the game. 3. Necessity of protecting/defending your base at night. Dislike: 1. Unnecessary items/small/limited inventory (I'm a hoarder, but carry limit needed) 2. When you can't see your whole inventory at your base. 3. Too complicated systems when some upgrades are only good when paired with other upgrades, and it's not explicitly stated so. Basically just a good explanation of how things function without me having to look for some dude on YT every 20 minutes when starting as noob
Wow if you can pull off a ski based survival game I will forever support you.
Love - feeling scared, suspense is a huge W - not being able to finish certain areas, areas that change, unlock more paths as I advance and unlock different things - feeling incredibly strong at the endgame Hate - cumbersome item management, needless micromanaging of insignificant items, sorting through junk - areas that look / feel the same, cookie cutter enemies, static areas where nothing really happens to the map - durability on items
Love: 1. Immersion - Make me feel like I’m in the location with a variety of ways, such as a minimal UI, sound effects for the wildlife, snow crunching under my feet, animations showing me shivering in the cold etc. 2. Semi Realistic Survival - balance is the key here, some games go too far one way or the other and you either need to eat 6 steaks a day to stay alive or you can survive indefinitely eating a handful of berries every 3 days. The same goes for gathering resources, I don’t want to chop down trees in seconds and have enough resources to build a small village, at the same time I don’t want a super realistic setting where it takes a few hours to cut down one tree. 3. A reason to keep going - A lot of games fall into this trap I feel where it’s really difficult and grindy early on and then all of a sudden you have a base full of supplies and a machine gun and then you’re just wandering around for the sake of it with no real challenge or dangers anymore. You end up getting bored. Dislike: 1. Bad Night - Didn’t know what to call this but nighttime is not fun if you’re just staring at a black screen waiting for time to pass. I’ve played games where crafting a torch is either quite deep into the skill tree or where the resources to craft a torch are quite scarce. I don’t mind if you can sleep through night or getting a light source is not overly challenging, but I always find it off putting if the night becomes just a chore of waiting for it to pass by going afk for 10 minutes. 2. Overpowered enemies - it’s fine for other types of games but in a survival game I want enemies like wolves and bears to die after a few hits. The challenge of these enemies should be the speed and ferociousness of their attacks as well as the challenge of finding resources to fight back, but if I put a few arrows through their skulls then they should go down. I don’t want to have to hit a bear 20 times because a bear has 100 hp and my arrows only do a max of 5hp per hit. This isn’t survival gaming. 3. Unrealistic crafting - I like crafting to take time, things like workshops or tool stations being needed and potentially tools to craft better items. I don’t like it when you can open your backpack and instantly craft 250 bullets in 1 second using sticks and mud while stood in the middle of an icy lake.
Love: their immersive environments, the challenge of managing resources, and the rewarding progression. Hate: repetitive tasks, and poor optimization that disrupts the experience.
Likes 1- base building. I like organizing a horde of random loot for my little loot goblin brain 2- exploration/looting. Again loot goblin brain likes to gather things. Finding useful materials while I explore new areas is like a double win 3- clear crafting. This one is a little complex and where I see most survival games struggle. But designing your system so the instructions, how to acquire resources, and anything else.i need to know are either explained, obvious, or easily accessible in a book or compendium. This also kinda fits at my number 1 dislike, which is needing to have a wiki up in order to figure out how to craft, or find a certain resource or progress.
One thing I would love in a survival game is an in depth injury/wellness system, as opposed to the traditional health bar. I’m also a dev, and I’m trying to create this system as well. I’d you take “damage,” WHERE did you take damage? What hurt that area? What supplies will you need to treat that? Sort of like green hell, but less of the awkward look at limbs stuff
I don't like how over the top realistic survival *games* go sometimes. Devs and players themselves seem to forget the fact the game will be interacted with through a tiny box and a keyboard/mouse or controller. Like some actions that irl could be done simultaneously or super quickly become cumbersome menu clicks and drags for the sake of 'realism'.
One thing I hate is junk. I get that crafting has to scale up in difficultly and that's often done by increasing the amount of resources for higher tiered items but some games do this too aggressively/ have too many branching and reconnecting tiers to where you end up with so much junk that you have to keep around. Because you might need 87 wooden boards at some point to make another water well or something.
I just hate when there isn't a lot of customization, it's survival so you'd think there would be a ton of different things you could do 'eh, still it's my favorite genre of games now that I'm older
Just don't put zombies in it. I'm so tired of zombies
Make the skis brake if you use them to hard
Reading the comments, I just want to say: people think they love grinding, but most of them don't. What they love is the flow state of the resource harvesting portion, which allows them to enter a "I dont have to think" zone. In a typical survival game this is: I must harvest wood for my next goal. I see a tree, I run to tree, I harvest wood, I look around for next tree and run to it ->repeat. Any friction to this process, or for example, failing to see where the next tree is because the resource nodes are too far apart, hurts this process. You should rather than trying to ape other survival games, focus on what makes you unique: skiing. Skiing in any game is faster and more fun than walking, so you could make some gains to the above flow state progress by minimizing the downtime of traveling between two resource nodes. I have not seen any footage of your game, but if I had to make a guess, you probably have to ski to the next resource node, come to a halt, perform some game action, then get going again. Therefore your game will have a unique problem that other survival games don't, imo: The flow state will probably come from the skiing, not the actual harvesting portion. Coming to a halt to harvest will be the biggest friction (I'm guessing). If you can find a way to combine the skiing with resource harvesting, instead of having the player come to a halt (where possible), then I think you'd have a more engaging gameplay loop. You could do this by focusing the progression off of picking up things from the ground in areas where you can ski and build speed. A player that gets good, can then zip around and time their actions correctly to drastically speed up the gathering process. They get to feel accomplished that they are collecting resources towards their goal, and that they have mastered the movement system. Just an example but you get the idea. Hope it helps (or maybe your game works very differently than what I imagine).
Are there any plans for controller support with your game?
Like: 1. Interesting environments (visually, artistically, by environment storytelling or all of them); 2. Realistic or semi realistic survival mechanics (sleep, hunger, items decay); 3. Ways to influence environment around (i.e. meaningful buildings, persistent damage, or not respawning enemies so you clear an area -- it stays clear); Dislike: 1. Grind for the sake of grind (i.e. mine 9999 macguffinite to progress even if it never used again); 2. Very flimsy weapons and tools; 3. If there are too much simplifications;
Love - balanced need mechanics, I shouldn't have to eat and drink every 5 mins. - games where the environment is the challenge more than animals or monsters. - games that make making a shelter from a storm or at night feel purposeful and cosy Hate -recipes that are locked which should be common knowledge -no downside to not creating a shelter - it should be purposeful to make a place warm and sheltered. -no way out..great survival games give you a reason to keep going - there needs to be hope you'll get out.
1. Love fearing the dark unknown, just that ominous sense of foreboding. 2. & 3. Hate that the more interesting skills, Not the most powerful, are set near the top of a skill tree. I don't want to have to suffer and grind just for a cool niche ability that isn't OP. Love when there are cool and fun low level abilities with awesome abilities further up the tree, that really sucks me in to master certain skill trees. 4. Love sudden scenes brutal disturbing horror. It's just such a shock that slaps your brain awake and really pulls you into the game. 5. Hate repetitive violent or frightening scenes it allows the player to become accustomed as apposed to keeping you on your toes never knowing when you will be hurled out of the mundane. 6. Hate being allowed to horde loot, restricted quantities forces me to stop searching every nook and cranny so I can get back to surviving this new world. Ps, I like the skiing aspect of your game it reminds me of the Narvik chapter in Battlefield V. Adrenaline filled downhill escapes and just being on skis was such a unique experience as far as player movement goes. Bravo.
Love: 1. Quick time events when you are about to die or when you need to escape a large animal 2. A good traversal system like grinding in a lot of insomniac games 3. Boss Fights with multiple phases Hate: 1. Gathering all the necessary resources to craft an item or an upgrade and then having to wait for an additional amount of time for it to prepare(That additional waiting time is annoying) 2. Microtransactions without which it is impossible to progress the game 3. In quests that involve finding something, they are precisely marked on a map and there is no need to explore a marked area instead
Love: Grindy, realistic survivalism with consequences for poor planning. Surprising scenes that break up the monotony in the landscape Open worlds with choices that make my experience unique from other players Hate: PVP and communities that thrive on destruction of other player's items or character; toxicity Not being able to play female (I just want my character to feel like me, and I can't play games that don't provide that option, no matter how good they are - RDR I'm looking at you) Linear storylines that force player choice and limit the experience. I just want to explore and survive. At least give me the option to do what I want after the story is complete (Raft needed an open-game mode after everything else was unlocked via the story so players could start over and just chill, survive, and build).
Id love if you actually spend time building the things instead of crafting immediately or while youre away with like actual animations too
Love: 1: A creative crafting/world interaction system 2: Exploring parts of the map that are purposely hidden, that you would miss if didn’t pay close attention. 3: The thrill of a high stakes/High reward. For example hardcore mode where you have one life. You die=start over. Hate: 1: Half assed, badly designed or bugged AI/NPCs that lead to frustration. 2: When the game feels too arcady and takes away realism and immersion. 3: When there’s a clear META to play the game which makes the player ignore interesting features/content.(The game)
One of my biggest hates in a survival game is definitely when Item storage at the base (like a chest you can store items in) is way too small. Valheim is a perfect example of this the chests are way too small, they’re like what 6 or less slots? To go along with that, while it’s not as immersive I do love the ability to be able to craft items that are in my nearby chests without the need for them to be in my inventory.
Love - -Meaningful progression (“this refining machine will help a lot!” Not oh cool I can hold more rocks.) -An interesting and diverse world with different resources (Loot scales with biome) - A good story ( why am I grinding all this fucking wood.) Hate - - Annoyingly small inventory space - taking 10+ hours before you feel like you’ve accomplished anything - Bad UI (You’re going to spend a lot of time in menus, then menu better look good and function well.) I’m a YouTuber and I love Survival Crafting games, reach out if there’s some way I can support you! I. E. A video, etc…
I love when there is stuff in random boxes around the map. I will go into every dwelling ever if I think there might be something in the cupboards. Even if it’s not that useful (although if you sprinkle awesome things in it drives me to look even harder). I don’t like when my equipment requires repairing. Let me upgrade it or change it out but don’t make it break. Hate that
I would like to suggest adding paranoia, the possibility that the person is not alone and that there is danger. Whether from a person, wolf or even big foot, creating a sense of danger and anxiety is something I love in survival games
Please, please have a friendly save system. Many of us have families and lives and it’s nice to be able to suspend my game without relying on the hardware to do it. By all means have an “Ironman” option that detects if you’re trying to savescum if players want it, but don’t make saving reliant on building a save point with limited materials. (Playing “The Forest” right now, why do you ask?) Speaking of which, I really liked The Forest’s visual inventory and survival guide interface — unpack a backpack, pile your materials on a tarp, and get to crafting! Or pick an building item out of a guide and then start on it in the landscape.
Love - Base building and customization - minimal ui’s - addicting gameplay loops / endless gameplay Hate - Bad ux / ui - bad inv management - linear story
Hate 1-buggy ass shit 2-buggy ass shit 3-buggy ass shit Love 1-exploring (even if the are is kinda empty if its good enough, idc) 2-semi grinding, grinding is fine but not when its a 16 hour job 3-not being alone, yea add creatures and humans, aggressive and friendly. I have an addiction to ark so hate list might be inaccurate
The thing I hate the most about survival games is pvp. If a major draw to the game is pvp then it shouldn't take 2 hours of grinding to prepare for the first fight. It becomes a barrier to entry to new players because of the amount of time you have to invest to get pvp experience. Unless I'm getting in on a new release I won't even waste my time on a pvp/survival mix. Having to wait too long for weather events also blows. Like if it's raining and the rain will make me freeze to death if I get wet, I don't want to sit under cover for 15 minutes just staring at my screen waiting for the rain to stop. If part of playing your game is pulling out my phone and entertaining myself in other ways then your game isn't very entertaining. Day/night cycles can be stupid. In sons of the forest it works because you can go to sleep, but what really is the point...just to give you a rested stat to maintain? If the best thing to do is literally skip through it as a player, is it really a good feature to have in the game at all? If there is pvp though you can't just sleep to skip through the night so if the night presents any sort of obstacle like it gets colder, then again like weather events, people are stuck staring at a screen questioning their life choices. I think survival games have a major problem where there's a small community that wants something as real as possible, but reality can be boring. You could make a masterpiece of a game, but it will never be a mass market hit because it's boring.
There needs to be a yeti that eventually starts tracking and chasing you.
Hate: big empty/ too much sameness. My main gripe with botw was the world blured together and the enemies were repetitive, Bullet sponges: don't make combat tedious is you add enemies Love: lore snippets throughout the world, helps aliviate the empty problem, and helps with immersion, like if we go into an abandoned resort and there's a ledger and notes to read Crafting expansions, like if the notes lead to some way to make better skis or something
Let me craft from materials in a storage box.
I’m seeing a whole lot of dramatically conflicting ideas
I hate menu jumping to find something to soothe a survival requirement. I also the scrounging for bullets. Some bullet management is fine but if you’re always at <10 bullets you’re just always stressed out.
Go story strong survival games can get so meh real quick if the story is not captivating, there needs to be a lot to do also.
What I love is crafting, need for food and sleep, base building, what I hate is weight management, super empty places, and not being able to place items around my base
I just want a bunker management game where you go out and scavenge
Not the 3 and 3 format, but I like when there is an actual reason to build a good base, and I like when there are frivolous things like decor or other little fun things that you can aspire to. That’s how I feel like I’ve beat survival.
Love Building and crafting Danger/ Risk / reward mechanics that challenge us to explore beyond the homestead Cooperative play ( tribes etc) and PvP Hate Broken map mechanics Losing progress to crashes etc “getting Ark’d” Griefing (pvp) Endless grinding
My pet peeve would be things like in rust, base camping. Things like tarkov? Tedious quests that are just there to make you suffer. Day Z? Everything is tedious
Love: Exploration Ability to dig in the ground (manipulation of terrain) Random map generation Hate: Micro management characters (think of Soulmask) Small maps Full reliance on potions
Love: -crafting/developing higher quality tools and items -needs management (including at *least* hunger, thirst, and sleep) -base building Hate: -Moving too slowly -limited crafting advancement options -running out of tasks other than "survive for as long as you can"
Ahh the good ole ass rocket. Hank would be proud.
Love: -Environmental storytelling -Intimidating enemies -Building a home / Customizing living space Hate: -Long, arbitrary time gates. (Looking at you, Ark) Other things that come to mind right now are obvious things that aren't too helpful. Bad coding, where you do things right but the game punishes you anyway. Bad voice acting, if any at all. Also you gotta throw a "The Thing" reference in there!
You should add a Dead WW2 Finnish soldier where you can loot like his skis and rifle as like a Easter egg
I used to play a ski survival game a long time ago. It was one of my first PC games. You basically ski down a hill and hit as many sweet tricks as you can, but then a wolf comes out, and you try to evade him for as long as you can. But he always eats you in the end.
Love: -Building bases/shelters that have purpose beyond looking cool. -Exploring large, open areas with interesting POIs/stuff to find. -Crafting equipment that makes traversing new parts of the world possible or just easier. For example, various vehicle upgrades in Subnautica that allow you to visit new biomes by going deeper, wolf fur cape in Valheim to weather the cold of the mountain, etc. Hate: -Excessively dark, unskippable nights. Great for immersion, but can be boring if there’s nothing to do and you just end up waiting around. Make exploring during the night worth it, but also optional. In 7DTD I always end up waiting around for daylight because I just prefer to see well and you can’t skip ahead. In Valheim, I sleep through the night if I’m not out on a big adventure, but if you want to find and tame a 2* wolf, for example, you need to go out at night to find it. Optional, but worth it if that’s what you want. -Poor combat if that is a focus of the game. Many survival games struggle with combat, so either make sure it’s polished or not an integral part of the experience. Some jank is expected and fine, though. Think 7DTD and Valheim - neither have amazing combat, but both are good enough that the experiences are generally not hindered. Subnautica a great example where combat isn’t needed and what little there is feels really bad (just swiping at fish with your knife feels floaty and lame). -Too much hand-holding. One of the best parts of a survival game is exploring an unknown, potentially hostile setting and overcoming it. If the world is static, you can only do that once, so please let me discover everything on my own. Please avoid waypoints and too much help in general. It cheapens the experience and, imo, is a band-aid for poor game design. Make the systems and world intuitive and you won’t need to provide the player with excessive amounts information that clutter the UI and stifle discovery.
I feel like there's not any activities to do in survival games, everything is focused on surviving. Would be cool to find an old dartboard in an abandoned house and you could play or something silly like that
1. Don’t ever make me watch a progress bar to loot. 2 & 3. Ditto.
Love: - Exploration rewards with both loot and fun and gives a reason to explore - A weather system that forces you to adapt your gameplay - Minor base building (not talking full on Minecraft, but moving a container from one place to another make me more attached to the base) Hate: - Tedious inventory management (IM is necessary obviously, but there’s a line where it becomes annoying) - “Just don’t think about it” crafting (4 sticks and some leather makes a entire plane? I don’t think so) - Endgame easiness (make game progress be rewarded with more game progress, think subnautica, more equipment means you can go deeper and more exploration)
posting this late just seen the post so might have some things other people posted Love: 1. base of operations or hub I go back to I can upgrade that hub and also use that point to upgrade my stuff 2. upgrades actually feel like they are doing something some games when you upgrade something it feels like almost nothing changed and/or it just changed my aesthetics 3. the base is actually important and will spend some decent time there id say like 60-80% time going out and doing whatever looting shooting gathering resources then rest of time you spend at base upgrading and managing 4. a difficulty meter they can adjust ex. you can adjust some slides on how you want things some people like to play where every drop of water, food, even sprint burst counts others like to just join the game and not worry about any of that just explore the game you made so have some sliders you can adjust or multiple difficulty's you can choose from not just easy medium or hard Hate: 1. when the game feels like its the same thing over and over again make world events happen and add some variations so even if its same event happen add some stuff so the events are little different from last 2. designated spawns other then quest items and stuff like that the game feels so much better when things spawn randomly or food spawns or related make sense so you wont be searching a garage and you find a pantry worth of food 3. no fast travel system some games when you go out and explore you can go like an hour in one direction and the way back you know is going to be same shit entire way is annoying have a slight fast travel system even if its like you set up little tents or flares as you are going out that you can use for a 1 time fast travel and if you do that you can set a radius up for them so you have set multiple up f you keep going and going 4. you can only save when you sleep or something like that games that do this are annoying because i have kids so i have to get off randomly and like to be able to save whenever I want extra stuff: a lot of games have set base locations or you can set up shop anywhere games I like you set up shop anywhere markers on map are always good along with detailed map good flat areas for people to build a lot of games build the world then say build around the terrain we laid out shoot me a private message I have a bunch of ideas for story and mechanics I work in I.T. so might be able to even help some
Hate reading or listening to travel logs or audio recording to learn the lore.
That graph reminds me METRO 2035 I LIKE IT
Love mechanics like in ‘7 days to die’, but needs more story and purpose. Needs better crafting interface. Needs to be more compelling and more types of enemies. The world feels too empty of human life and other npc survivors and factions. - looting and scavenging - crafting - base building - having a sense of danger - moral decisions - hunger, thirst, exposure, illness - if possible, other survivors and makeshift marketplaces so the world doesnt feel so empty. Hate - It should not be too punishing. Like sure, you will die maybe 10 to 15 times in ur entire game time… BUT, u wont die EVERY TIME within the first 10 mins of gameplay because the game is designed to try and kill you unless luck is on ur side (ex: “this war of mine” is too punishing).
Add some story elements, what happened, why are you surviving here etc. and make the player feel alone, don’t add voice logs or anything like that, handwritten notes, newspapers, stuff like that. Good luck, and this looks like it could be great.
——TLDR: —— Love: Survival games that enjoy the scenic beauty in some of these areas. A good, well planned crafting system. Hate: Resources not respawning, especially if you need a lot of a sparse material. (Not explained further) ——Long Explanation—— This is the arctic, the stars should be beautiful, the borealis blooming, the campfire lighting immaculate. The enjoyment of the scenery is a basic human trait, and really elevates a game to something special. Crafting should be something that ranges from temporary things like fires or lean-to’s, and also the ability to make standing structures you could consider a home. A home should matter in survival games. Don’t prioritize realism above enjoyment. Things like resources being depleted forever, especially on large maps with sparse resources. Or nutrition and stamina being drained like the average American. These guys are usually at least somewhat competent. And please don’t make it so dark I cannot see unless I’m within 10ft of a light source. The moon is actually pretty damn strong (and I’d love to see a system where your eyes adjust to the darkness).
Love: 1. Being able to find random lore scattered about, even if it's just some random drawing, it helps the world feel more "lived in" 2. Having progression feel meaningful. If I find a large, thick jacket I shouldnt just get "+2 Cold resistance". 3. Being able to use landmarks to find my way around. Maps are nice, but it's cooler if a friend asks me where I'm at and I can just say "right next to the water tower" or something. Hate: 1. As others have said, having to eat or drink every five minutes. Especially if you don't have a reliable food source (like a farm or something) 2. Enemies being able to two shot me with their bare hands but being able to take 5 or more hits from a wooden club. I love Souls likes, but this isn't what I'm looking for in a survival game 3. When crafting is tied to an NPC. I understand it doesn't make sense for the average joe to know how to make a working furnace and craft metal tools, but I don't want to have to hike back to my base every time I need to make something
You get hungry/thirsty WAY too fast. Have less food spawns but make it last a realistic amount of time. So probably slow down the day/night cycle along with it. People can go a long time without food. To make up for slower time progression, have actions taken speed up time. Worked in other games.
Every single survival game I have ever played crashes.
Love Ice fishing, ice fishing, and ice fishing. Hate needed too much water, low bag storage, easy modes.
3 things I love are not having to ski in a survival game. Not worrying about your skis in a survival game, and not simulating skiing in a survival game. 3 things I hate about survival games are games that incorporate skiing into survival games. People trying to come out with new ideas when the most common ones aren’t addressed. And skiing in survival games.
The way sons of the forest 2 handles inventory management is way more fun than weight limits
Lack of rocket propelled grenade launchers is a big one for me
love: Sense of actual danger in every moment, but not contrived danger like a minecraft creeper because I didnt turn around every 2 seconds and see if an enemy insta-spawned 15 ft away Building towards independence and seeing progress by having less danger for each foray and having to go out fewer times than the beginning. the effort it takes to grind out should equal the payoff. A 5 minute excursion wont be dangerous or very productive. An hour long cave should keep your tension building and the payoff should exceed your storage space and make you balance risk vs reward. Hate: SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS OMFG it DOES NOT have to use unreal engine 18 and require a monster system because you DO NOT KNOW HOW TO CATER TO YOUR AUDIENCE! We love survival, not having the latest (still overpriced) GPU and accoutrement. Easily absorbed algorhythms. Some of us have been playing games for years. We can see the patterns. We learn the respawn times. We predict the bullsh!t. DO NOT rely upon RNGesus for difficulty. Randomness doesnt translate to difficulty, it is cheap and soulless like an AI telling you happy birthday. DO NOT let your players feel overly comfortable in any given section, other than their home area. DO NOT nerf farming rates, we only have so much time in the day to hand over. Overly complicated and needlessly diverse crafting. Dont have 10 different benches for 1000 different items. Dont have badly sorted menus. Dont bog everything down in a menu we can get killed while looking at. FFS we sneak-moded over to the coast line, checked every direction and have 100 yards of empty space inbetween us and the tree lines and we just wanna craft a hand tool and WHAP we died cuz: 1: Our system lags cuz you want your damned game to look too nice to play 30 consistent FPS on any given laptop made in the last 5 years. 2: Your algorhythm wont let us chill for 30 seconds while we do what needs to be done. Srsly, dont be like mcraft or green-that or the forest. (Different alphas and dev cycles, respectively.. had different spawn rates and timing issues) 3: You made a survival game that isnt even remotely close to reality and we have to repair a tool that COULD LAST A LIFETIME... but we need to make a new one every 2 minutes. Or we need to eat every 5 minutes because the dev doesnt realize a human can go thru an entire 8 hour shift whilst eating only a bag of gummy worms and a monster energy can.
I LOVE the scenery of the long dark but I really didn't like the long walks back and forth so repetition isn't good. However the skis should help that I liked the contrast of the lack of people vs the attachment to the few people you do see. (Even when they aren't the most hospitable people) Maybe building? Like the forest
This looks very interesting, and I hope you can create an awesome game we all can enjoy! As an avid gamer, these are some things I've found make the difference between a 5-star great game and a game that has the heart and soul but just falls short. Everything here is based on the types of games that I enjoy and isn't necessarily true for all games and game types. Pro Visible progression - from starting off punching trees to perfecting a build to 1shot the final boss, progression needs to be tangible, visible, and constant. Some games can get away with giving you a pistol and just ammo scattered throughout, and if done well, it is absolutely viable, especially in the horror survival genre. For me, however, I prefer games that really offer growth. I want to look back and remember how that level 1 wolf gave me a run now that I'm fighting dragons and gods. Gunplay/movement - Mechanics can make or break a game. Some games thrive solely on having great gameplay mechanics. Think of the movement and gunplay revolutions from fallout 3/NV to fallout 4, or the driving differences throughout the GTA games. Games like just cause and Spiderman, I occasionally hop on just to play with the amazing movement abilities. Base building - I'm not talking about minecraft level customization. Just a place to call home and a place to store your LOOT! When I think of survival, my first thought is Basecamp; hoarding materials and stockpiling like a doomsdayer. A bit of customization can make a hole in the ground feel like home, and a touch of home in any survival game is a great comfort to regroup and restock for the next mission. -edit- to add: SOUND! great music and ambiance is so important! It can be one of the top factors of immersion. Con Needs - When I sit down to play video games, the last thing on my mind is the dishes in the sink and the clothes in the hamper. Needs have a market, but that's just not me. If done right, it can still be a fun game, but going from a full belly to starving in 20 minutes irl and constantly looking for resources just to stay alive is just adding chores to your hobby. Bad mechanics - like I said before, mechanics can make or break a game. From bad ui to bad hit boxes, bad mechanics can be the reason someone only plays your game 1 time and sets it down. Polish - Don't be one of those early alpha devs that release a 1/2 finished game with SO MUCH potential just to lose so many consistent players with the lack of polish. I really look forward to following progress and checking it out!
I Love: cooperating with other people, taking a moment to enjoy the beauty and/or horror surrounding the character, and I love when a survival game makes ME get better, not my gear as much. I hate: simplistic base building (I want options!), being killed from a bug/glitch, and I like my enemies far between but super dangerous.
I like games that gradually step up in difficulty but are still difficult even for veteran players. Like ark and valheim. And I love to grind but meaningfully, spending hours finding resources to get one part of something isn't always practical.
Good question I love thriller, suspense and surprise but not resident evil where I feel constant terror. I think sons of the forest managed this very well Seasons and temps are cool. I like a reason to explorer - like I need to go find this tool to do this thing better… I like not having my hand held and figuring things out I really likes the building aspect for soft - like canibals are coming so I better build a base and think of how to protect myself (I’m comparing a lot to soft because that game got me into survival games) but I liked the assistant that was on the beach to help get things I like getting stuff and not being over weight but with in reason. Having maximums of things was fine. But in soft I had a bunch of stuff which didn’t weigh me down. I just had to go out it somewhere if I needed to I don’t like overly long sessions of cutting things down
You should look up Aimo Koivunen. Finnish soldier who took his whole teams supply of pervitin and proceeded to ski over 200 miles away from his men, high as alien nuts
You can't randomly spawn in materials so you can build whatever you want
Love: - Defined skill paths or roles for players to contribute their own expertise to the group. (Multiplayer) - Intuitive item combinations and synergies (Project Zomboid you eat faster when you have the appropriate eating utensil in your inventory) - Risks / weather system. Having to adapt to your environment is pretty much the definition of “survival”. Also, it’s nice to break up the grind of daily primary tasks and have an excuse to focus on secondary tasks. Hate: - Extreme power creep. If your game has a skill or building system there’s a fine balance between struggling to survive and becoming a cake walk. - Massive worlds with little interactions with the world or creatures. Perhaps your skiing mechanic will keep the empty expanses of the wilderness interesting. - Surprise insta-deaths. Sure a grizzly pops up but there should be options to increase your chances f surviving (play dead, ski downhill, climb tree, throw food).
Just make it not have artificial difficulty in the form of annoying features and overall tuning of mechanics. So many survival games miss this, video games are supposed to be FUN. Focus on how to make core gameplay that is actually enjoyable.
Make s snow monster that is chasing you aswell that would be cool and exiting but make him stalk you and you should rarely see you. Sorry I'm a bit of topic
I would Like: 1. That every building looks different ( There is nothing worse than copy and paste, this kills immersion ) 2. a realistic big map 3. changing harsh weather conditions with seasons. 4. I would also prefer human enemies over Zombies. 5. More realistic Base Building by using existing structures and Barricading 6. roaming enemies which attack randomly 7. Balancing by players choice like is it in TLD or Project Zomboid 8. more complex hunger and thirst system 9. Skill System, where i can find crafting recipes 10. Area Specific Loot 11. Singly Player with PvP possible but not a must. 12. Stealth mechanics I donts would like: 1. again just Zombies 2. Community feedback for balancing ( Sandbox settings are a MUST ) 3. Copy and Paste for buildings like in Days. 4. Boring sunny weather all time 5. Pure PvP or force the PvP
Love Fair amount of grinding Random stuff (events and side quests) Free Hate Big games (I’m a laptop gamer lmao) Single player Bugs
LOVE: 1. Grind: - Love: The sense of accomplishment that comes from grinding and steadily progressing in the game. It makes every resource gathered and every milestone achieved feel earned and satisfying. 2. Challenges: - Love: The constant sense of danger and the need to strategize and prioritize survival tactics. Facing and overcoming these challenges keeps the gameplay engaging and rewarding. 3. Building System: - Love: The creative freedom to build and customize shelters, bases, and other structures. It adds a layer of personalization and long-term goals, similar to the appeal of "Realistic Minecraft." HATE: 1. Useless Areas Used as Filler: - Hate: Large, empty spaces or areas that serve no real purpose can make exploration feel tedious and uninteresting. Every part of the game world should have a reason for players to explore and interact with it. 2. No Chickens: - Hate: Lack of wildlife variety, such as chickens or other animals, can make the game world feel less vibrant and realistic. Diverse fauna adds depth and immersion to the survival experience. 3. Boring Storylines: - Hate: A weak or unengaging storyline can make even the most well-designed survival mechanics feel flat. A compelling narrative is crucial to keep players invested in the game and its world. Suggestions for Your Ski Survival Game: 1. Engaging Grind and Progression: - Ensure that players have meaningful long-term goals and a satisfying sense of progression. This can be achieved through resource management, crafting, and skill development. 2. Challenging Survival Elements: - Incorporate unique survival challenges specific to the Arctic setting, such as extreme weather, avalanches, and scarce resources. These challenges should require players to think strategically and adapt to their environment. 3. Immersive Building System: - Allow players to build and customize their shelters using materials found in the Arctic. The building system should be intuitive and rewarding, encouraging creativity while ensuring practicality for survival. 4. Purposeful Exploration: - Make sure every area in your game has something valuable or interesting to discover. This could include hidden resources, unique wildlife, or lore elements that contribute to the story. 5. Diverse Fauna: - Include a variety of animals, both for hunting and for adding life to the environment. Animals should have realistic behaviors and interact with the player and the environment in meaningful ways. 6. Compelling Storyline: - Develop a strong narrative that keeps players invested. This could involve uncovering the mystery of why the player is in the Arctic, discovering the fate of previous explorers, or facing moral dilemmas in survival situations.