Why You Should be Playing "Don't Starve"
Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 8:11 pm
Why You Should Be Playing "Don't Starve"
Don't Starve is a third-person, real-time survival sandbox game, alternately described as "Minecraft, Designed by Edward Gorey" and "Agricola with Monsters and a Sick Sense of Humor". In the game you are passed out in the middle of a field, a man in a pinstripe suit appears, tells you to get some food before nightfall, and then vanishes in a puff of smoke. Your character wakes up in a procedurally-generated world that is what would happen if Tim Burton were a capricious and spiteful deity. You have a hunger bar (which is steadily emptying), a sanity bar (which WILL empty once you see what's out there), a health bar (which will suffer plenty of abuse in due time), and an icon that depicts how much daylight there is left... it isn't much.
That's it. Seriously. Go! Daylight's burning!
The game has no manual and no tutorial. The controls are simple and intuitive. The game is conceptually simple and how the world interacts with you and itself is, for the most part, simple... though uncaring and brutal in a Hobbesian sort of way. The game has enormous breadth and quite a bit of depth, but you get there through a combination of intuition, UI cues, and trial and (sometimes fatal) error. Understanding is measured in fatalities in Don't Starve.
You will start from nothing and you will craft the most fundamental components of civilization to allow you to survive the night... or you will die. You will attempt to better yourself, climbing up the rungs of technology, altering your environment to be more conducive to your survival. And after a day, or two, or four, or two hundred... you will certainly die. Possibly while starving. Probably while insane.
[img]data:image/jpeg;base64,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[/img]
Congratulations Dying! You gained enough XP (which you earn from the number of days you survived) to unlock a new character. Now you don't have to play as Wilson, who looks like a chibby with devil-hair and a massive sleep debt. Now you can play as Willow: she likes fire. She REALLY likes fire. More games, more days, more deaths, more XP, more characters. The Librarian. The 11-year-old fatalist and her long-dead twin sister. The Strongman. The Automota. The Lumberjack. And still others. Eventually you will find Maxwell's Door, which will allow you to leave the sandbox behind and try to solve the mystery behind Don't Starve. You'll fail many times, because while the Sandbox world is merely dangerous, the worlds behind Maxwell's Door are actively hostile to you. It's goofy, surprisingly dark, and fairly Lovecraftian in tone.
Wilson:
Willow: 
And others: 
And still others: 
And many more: 
But you still won't have seen everything. Even if you saw everything, after hundreds of hours of gameplay, you still wouldn't have seen everything. Even if you go to the fan-made wiki and read everything, you still won't have seen everything. Because Klei Entertainment is releasing a major update to the game every three weeks. They have already done this twelve times. They will continue to do this for a good long while. Fact: it is awesome. These updates are free and they are enormous. Suddenly there is an entire additional map resting just below the one you've spent 150 in-game days exploring, which you can access -- and likely die within -- by going into the newly created caverns. Strange new creatures are introduced. Strange new powers are acquired; suddenly your Librarian can risk her sanity by manufacturing Books of Power. Suddenly new characters -- strange, hilarious new characters -- are available.
It was created by Klei Entertainment, the same people who made the amazing Mark of the Ninja, so it came from very competent, very creative people. They deserve my money, so I gave it to them. They also deserve your money. They're only asking for fifteen bucks, and the game is on Steam, so the only valid excuse for not buying Don't Starve is that you can't get a wireless signal to the shantytown your dumpster-home is located in. Move your hobo-pad next to a Starbucks and BUY THIS GAME!
The official trailer
Don't Starve is a third-person, real-time survival sandbox game, alternately described as "Minecraft, Designed by Edward Gorey" and "Agricola with Monsters and a Sick Sense of Humor". In the game you are passed out in the middle of a field, a man in a pinstripe suit appears, tells you to get some food before nightfall, and then vanishes in a puff of smoke. Your character wakes up in a procedurally-generated world that is what would happen if Tim Burton were a capricious and spiteful deity. You have a hunger bar (which is steadily emptying), a sanity bar (which WILL empty once you see what's out there), a health bar (which will suffer plenty of abuse in due time), and an icon that depicts how much daylight there is left... it isn't much.
That's it. Seriously. Go! Daylight's burning!
The game has no manual and no tutorial. The controls are simple and intuitive. The game is conceptually simple and how the world interacts with you and itself is, for the most part, simple... though uncaring and brutal in a Hobbesian sort of way. The game has enormous breadth and quite a bit of depth, but you get there through a combination of intuition, UI cues, and trial and (sometimes fatal) error. Understanding is measured in fatalities in Don't Starve.
You will start from nothing and you will craft the most fundamental components of civilization to allow you to survive the night... or you will die. You will attempt to better yourself, climbing up the rungs of technology, altering your environment to be more conducive to your survival. And after a day, or two, or four, or two hundred... you will certainly die. Possibly while starving. Probably while insane.
[img]data:image/jpeg;base64,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[/img]Congratulations Dying! You gained enough XP (which you earn from the number of days you survived) to unlock a new character. Now you don't have to play as Wilson, who looks like a chibby with devil-hair and a massive sleep debt. Now you can play as Willow: she likes fire. She REALLY likes fire. More games, more days, more deaths, more XP, more characters. The Librarian. The 11-year-old fatalist and her long-dead twin sister. The Strongman. The Automota. The Lumberjack. And still others. Eventually you will find Maxwell's Door, which will allow you to leave the sandbox behind and try to solve the mystery behind Don't Starve. You'll fail many times, because while the Sandbox world is merely dangerous, the worlds behind Maxwell's Door are actively hostile to you. It's goofy, surprisingly dark, and fairly Lovecraftian in tone.
Wilson:
Willow: And others: And still others: And many more: But you still won't have seen everything. Even if you saw everything, after hundreds of hours of gameplay, you still wouldn't have seen everything. Even if you go to the fan-made wiki and read everything, you still won't have seen everything. Because Klei Entertainment is releasing a major update to the game every three weeks. They have already done this twelve times. They will continue to do this for a good long while. Fact: it is awesome. These updates are free and they are enormous. Suddenly there is an entire additional map resting just below the one you've spent 150 in-game days exploring, which you can access -- and likely die within -- by going into the newly created caverns. Strange new creatures are introduced. Strange new powers are acquired; suddenly your Librarian can risk her sanity by manufacturing Books of Power. Suddenly new characters -- strange, hilarious new characters -- are available.
It was created by Klei Entertainment, the same people who made the amazing Mark of the Ninja, so it came from very competent, very creative people. They deserve my money, so I gave it to them. They also deserve your money. They're only asking for fifteen bucks, and the game is on Steam, so the only valid excuse for not buying Don't Starve is that you can't get a wireless signal to the shantytown your dumpster-home is located in. Move your hobo-pad next to a Starbucks and BUY THIS GAME!
The official trailer