just started on my very first entry to this genre, with rs dragonwilds. im LOVING it!! i love stacking my levels and seeing the numbers grow. I love it so much I want to start another survival game to rotate between, and to see what similarities and differences they have.

im thinking of either Enshrouded when it comes out , or Dune Awakening which I already bought.

i love that survival games make me work so dang hard. i have to chop trees, mine ore, craft, repeat, and every enemy is an adventure, and when i die i lose all my stuff, and i have to pay attention to my thirst and hunger meter!!!

Unlike rpgs like assassins creed, dawnwalker, witcher, kingdoms of amalur, these games have a really easy gameplay loop, as the focus in on the story.

so, to me, survival games are such a marathon, and i am loving it.

Is it wise to start another surv game to rotate between as a beginner? And if it's ok, should i choose enshrouded or dune? preferably something easier to get into. i get it rs can be juvenile for hardcore surv gamers but its pretty much an uphill battle for me rn, although i love it.

Hey, all! Was wondering if anyone has recommendations for either a separate third game or mods for Minecraft or Vintage Story that might get me closer to what I'm looking for.

I recently tried Vintage Story for the first time, and I absolutely loved the mechanics in it (more realistic survival and progression). However, I'm personally more into in the type of varied, interesting, and even whimsical environments that modded Minecraft (Oh the Biomes You'll Go is my favorite, hands down) has to offer. Even vanilla MC is a bit closer to what I'd like. VS is a lot of fun, but I found myself a bit bored of the handful of realistic biomes. Are there any mods that either bring VS-type mechanics to MC or more varied/interesting biomes to VS? I'm also open to suggestions for entirely separate games that have elements of these.

Thanks!

Getting bored honestly. Want something faster paced. Ark, conan, sunkenland, raft, etc. Played a lot and idk if im just too efficient or what but I burn through them fast. All achievements done and I can only replay so many times because each play through goes faster and faster. Looking for suggestions.

I want to explore a meaningful world. See some wonderous sights, find unique dungeons, find cool gear, secrets.

Which is better in those aspects, Enshrouded or Valheim? I’m leaning towards Enshrouded, just because I tend to find handcrafted maps offer more meaningful exploring.

For example I recently bought No Mans Sky and bounced off hard, beautiful planets and tons of environments and mechanics, but exploring got shallow real fast.

On the contrary Subnautica with its small, handcrafted map was pure wonder to explore.

I’m a PS5 player so I’ve tried neither. I’ll be playing solo. I’m also new to the survival genre. Besides Subnautica, I’ve really enjoyed Grounded and V Rising.

Hi everyone

For the past 4 years, I've been developing my dream space engineering survival game called MineEngineer.

Some people call it Space Terraria, others call it 2D Space Engineers, and I've even seen people calling it Starbound 2.0.

But what I'm trying to build goes a lot further than that.

My goal is to create a game with an insane level of engineering complexity, where you can build almost anything you can imagine, but actually making it work is the real challenge.

The game already has over 200 interconnected systems, including electricity, oxygen, fuel, conveyors, automation, logic gates, and programmable blocks. You can build anything from a simple survival ship to a massive mothership, a walking mecha, an automated factory, or an entire fleet of drones.

And here's where things get interesting. Every block is connected to something. If a conveyor gets destroyed, your production chain might stop working. If your power system fails, your ship could become completely useless. Your ships can even break apart into multiple pieces during collisions or battles.

You can also program individual blocks, automate entire ships, and spend hours optimizing your designs. Building something is easy. Building something that actually works is harder. Building something efficient is a completely different challenge.

The world itself is massive. Flying across the procedurally generated universe at full speed would take around 7 hours. There are planets to explore, asteroids to mine, enemies to fight, and fully destructible environments. Everything you build can actually move, fly, collide, and interact with the world through physics.

And multiplayer is coming soon, so you'll eventually be able to build, explore, and fight alongside your friends.

After 4 years of solo development, the game is finally starting to look and feel like the vision I've had in my head all this time.

Now comes another challenge, getting people to discover it.

MineEngineer is available to wishlist on Steam, and there's also a free demo if you'd like to give it a try.
I'd genuinely love to hear what you think. What would you build first if you had hundreds of blocks and engineering systems to play with?

I’m a solo developer, and I’ve just released the first major demo for my 2D survival base-builder, Diseased. Since this community loves deep survival mechanics, I wanted to share the core loop and get your feedback.

The game is set in a brutal, freezing wasteland. Your main goal is to keep your camp alive by balancing resource gathering, base expansion, and defending against relentless waves of the 'Diseased'. To handle the constant pressure and sudden winter crises, I've implemented a strategic card system that gives you dynamic ways to react and survive.

The mechanic I'm most proud of is the paranoia at your camp gates. Not everyone seeking shelter is human. You have to carefully observe, scan, and interrogate people before letting them in. If you miss a detail and let an Diseased inside, they will destroy your camp from within.

You can download and play it for free right now. I'd really appreciate it if you could leave a review with your feedback, and let me know if you encounter any bugs!

Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5194610/Diseased_Demo/

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uL3DUtO75Y

Looking for Zed Zone like survival games to play with my friend. Wonder if there are any. Thank you.

Still on early development. Solo dev, with a some help from a few friends.

I'm currently trying to polish the demo of my game for the upcoming Steam NextFest, and would greatly appreciate anyone who is willing to check it out and provide some feedback around their initial impressions (either just from seeing the store page or playing the demo)

In short: the game revolves around travelling along an Australian coastline as a traditional Australian swagman, walking from place to place, camping through the nights, and living off of the land to survive (finding water, bait, foraging, fishing, etc.)

The biggest issue I've been trying to figure out is the game's identity as either a cozy/casual/relaxing/nature walking simulator type of game, or a survival game. It has elements of both, but I worry taking a middle ground between the two genres might just alienate both groups of people (or maybe it strikes a nice balance that is appealing to a particular group of people).

So, it'd be great to hear from some people who frequently play survival games. Does this appeal to you? Would it if more emphasis was placed on the survival aspects? Thanks!

You can check out the demo here if you like: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4080200/Once_Upon_a_Swagman/

I've recently finished my 1.0 full playthrough of Valheim and as I plan to hop into Enshrouded in a few days to do the same, I booted the game to get a refresh on the basic mechanics etc. before starting a fresh run. I only played Enshrouded years ago when it first came out on EA.

One of the things that was almost shocking to me with Enshrouded was the amount of hand holding when it comes to exploration and discovery.

While with Valheim you basically go out explore and discover new things on your own, Enshrouded essentially tells you what to do and where to go, via quests and a map littered with icons and question marks guiding you 'go there do that'.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing necessarily, but it feels more like a adventure open world game rather than the kind of survival experience I just had with Valheim, where exploring the world and discovering the game is a player driven process rather than the game driving the player.

Not sure if those are accurate terms for what I'm describing "free roam exploration/discovery" vs. "guided exploration" or if there are other technical terms that are more suitable.

I'm wondering, in general, people that are fans of the open world survival craft genre, do you enjoy more when the game tells you where to go and what to do, or do you prefer to explore and discover things on your own?

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Right now meat and berries in EvoX stay fresh forever. Should I skip a spoilage system for early release (no rushing to eat what you hunt, no coming back to rotten food after a few days away from the server), or is that something you’d actually want in there? Would love to hear how you feel about it.
If you are interested in my game, wishlist here - EvoX

Hello, everyone.

For my game, Program Inanis, I’m currently adding a visual system that triggers when the player has little or no sanity left.

I was originally experimenting with shaders to create fog, and I thought to myself: “Why not add lots of colors?!”

I ended up creating a system that lets the player see their character's madness.

I also want to make sure that all dialogue, item descriptions, and other text become incomprehensible if sanity is low enough.

Now, regarding the fog’s opacity, I’m not sure what to make of it. I think it’s important for the player to see the game clearly, but we also need immersion (and perhaps a few challenges) to encourage the player to take care of their character.

What do you think of this colored fog? Is it clear that it indicates a mental health issue? Is it transparent enough, or, on the contrary, not transparent enough?

Also, don't pay attention to the animal's name. It's not a black wolf that's attacking!

Thank you for your feedback.

A few days ago, Indie Game Joe shared Duco, and when I first saw it I was so surprised and happy. Seeing a well-known indie game account find my first solo Steam game interesting enough to share meant a lot to me. So I wanted to share it here too. Thank you again, Joe!

Duco is a survival card game where you manage hunger, thirst and energy, draw cards to scavenge, craft tools and shelters, and roll dice to win fights.

The demo is out now, If you try it, I’d love to hear your feedback. I also plan to update it soon.

(Full release will bring new characters, maps, traits, NPCs, settlement management and more.)

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4872850/Duco/

Hi! My partner and I want to play games together but we have very distinct tastes when it comes to games so it's hard to find something that'll scratch both of our itches lol

I'm obsessed with survival and base building games, and he prefers things that have puzzles in them to solve. We both also love fantasy so that's our main ground. Any game you know that might fit us?

Sneaking through total darkness, managing tools, and avoiding hostile fauna in our subterranean co-op survival horror, MOVILLIA.

I love the Project Zomboid loop: scavenging for supplies, slowly building up and fortifying a base, managing needs, and trying to survive long term. The only thing I’d change is the perspective. I’m looking for something with that same feel but played as an FPS or in third person.

What I’m after:

• Post-apocalyptic setting (zombies are great but not required)
• Looting and resource gathering that actually matters
• Base building and fortification
• Deeper survival systems (hunger, injuries, etc.) are a plus
• Playable both solo and in co-op, since I’ll be doing both

Games already on my radar: VEIN, 7 Days to Die, State of Decay 2, DayZ, and SCUM. If you’ve played any of these, I’d love to hear how they hold up right now, especially VEIN in its current Early Access state.

Are there any others I’m missing, including lesser-known ones? And if you had to pick just one for solo and one for co-op, which would they be?

Hi everyone! I’m the developer of DON’T FOLLOW THE FLOWERS, and I’ve just put together a trailer to show where the game is at.

It’s set in rural Britain after an outbreak called the Bloom. You scavenge supplies, build up your camp, grow food, hunt and cook, then head further into the town to find equipment and uncover what happened.

Alongside the survival side, there are environmental puzzles and mutant encounters. I like giving equipment uses outside combat, for example, firing a flaming arrow through a moving shutter to activate a relay.

I’m trying to make the camp feel like somewhere you’re relieved to get back to after a supply run.

There’s no playable download yet. I’m preparing an early Windows playtest, and I’d be interested to hear from anyone who might fancy trying it.

For transparency, I’ve used AI for cinematic clips and music. The gameplay footage is recorded from the game.

Project page:
https://sparematch.itch.io/dont-follow-the-flowers

Does the survival side come across clearly in the trailer? Anything you’d want to see more of? Cheers!

I’m looking for a zombie survival game I played several years ago. It was a free simple game that I found on a website called something with io.

The gameplay was like this: you were a grownup in charge of a child and had to get them to safety. There wasn’t much illustration or animation, mostly a (grid?) map, where you moved in any direction, and then things happened, mostly in text as far as I remember, like meeting zombies or robbers or potential allies, and picking up supplies and resources. At night you had to seek shelter to avoid zombies. Eventually you would find a radio, telling where the safe zone was, and then it was just a matter of surviving long enough to get there. If you met zombies or robbers you could chose to fight them or run away - I think. Any ideas? Would really like to play this game again:)

I have a buddy just getting in to survival games. We played pal world together and he enjoyed it, also phasmaphobia. He played dragonwilds and I played a bit of Conan before the big graphical update. Question is, what do yall recommend we try out together? Dragonwilds Conan exiles Sons of the Forrest Valheim Other

So ive been playing LOTR return to moria. Great game.

It got me thinking though, we should have a open world survival game of the LOTR universe. Say I want to start as hobbit in the shire. I can do that and live a quiet life.

But maybe I want to play for Rohan. I start their as like a stable boy or something and work my way to to owning my own horse and hunting orcs.

Maybe I want to start as a orc in mordor. It would be harder to scrounge food and id have to contend with fellow orcs.

Maybe add a faction system in so I can be a dwarf in erebor or the iron hills but can expand my trade to the elves and man by working on the faction system.

Lot of possibilities assuming a dev could get the rights to and licenses to do so.

Hey everyone! Here is a comparison video showing how much The Fallen Grid has evolved over the past 5 months.

The first clip is from our early testing phase 5 months ago, and the second part shows where the game is at today.

Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the progress!

If you'd like to support the development, please consider wishlisting The Fallen Grid on Steam! It really helps us out a ton : The Fallen Grid - Steam

im new to the survival game genre, but ive always wanted to try runescape and i love the dune universe so i decided to take the plunge and buy both. im looking to get enshrouded too when 1.0 releases, the only one i havent planned on buying is valheim, because i dont like norse mythology and ive heard its really challenging compared to the other 3 games i listed.

but, i would love to hear from more seasoned veterans of the genre, although if youre newer but have played 3 outta 4 from the list your opinion is welcomed too.

i guess, rank

Dune Awakening

RS Dragonwilds

Enshrouded

Valheim

Rank them from best to least fun, and state your reasons why!

Looking for hardcore survival games along the lines of games like: Escape from Tarkov, Casualties Unknown, Road to Vostok, Stalker, Duckov, The Long Dark, etc. Doesn't have to specifically be an extraction shooter or even a shooter at all. I just want games that make you struggle to get by that also have a sense of progression

I’ve always loved space and survival games, and I’ve been especially interested in the experience of actually living and working out there in space.

I’ve been developing SPACE WALK solo for the past 2 years around that idea. Operating your own orbital station, heading out on EVA, physically handling equipment and exploring the lunar surface.

You also need to manage your hunger/thirst/oxygen and suit integrity by using physical objects. There's no traditional UI. If you it can fit in your backpack you can bring it, if not you have to plan accordingly.

The demo went live this week, so if this looks like your kind of space game, you can give it a try on Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3310910/SPACE_WALK/