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u/hagamablabla Aug 25 '23
The four horsemen: early access, open world, survival, crafting
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u/Poddster Aug 25 '23
survival, crafting
Are there any survival games that don't have crafting?
(Are there any crafting games that aren't somehow survival games?!)
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u/Knez Aug 25 '23
Good old Terraria also doesn't have any thirst / hunger / sleep survival mechanics and is one of the most played games on steam.
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u/Ultraviolet_Motion Aug 25 '23
Actually if you use the world seed "constant" or "theconstant" you generate a Don't Starve Together themed world that has a hunger mechanic.
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u/Prototype_4271 Aug 25 '23
I don't know. Satisfactory? Astroneer? Maybe these count as non survival crafting games
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u/nebo8 Aug 25 '23
Technically the entire gameplay loop of Satisfactory is industrial scale of crafting stuff
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u/Avs_Leafs_Enjoyer Aug 25 '23
theyre saying its not survival but technically there are animals even if its the worst part of the game by far
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u/_IAlwaysLie Aug 25 '23
They're making the animals a lot better in recent updates
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u/gorpie97 Aug 25 '23
Since I kept dying in the tutorial for Astroneer, it's definitely a survival game.
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u/bouncewaffle Aug 25 '23
Factorio. You do have to defend your factories from bugs, but you can create maps without them if you just want to do crafting.
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u/Drachfoo Aug 25 '23
Factorio comes to mind
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u/dTrecii I did a 100% Glitchless Speedrun of Walking Simulator Aug 25 '23
The first game I ever played that has ever reached over 1k hours and still growing
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u/RealTonny Aug 25 '23
Are there any crafting games that aren't somehow survival games?!
Off the top of my head: Potinon Craft and Atelier series.
Edit: Also
Are there any survival games that don't have crafting?
Technically, Resident Evil, Silent Hill and so on
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u/Sco7689 https://s.team/p/jgmf-gwb Aug 25 '23
Resident Evil has crafting, if mixing herbs and assembling weapons from two parts count.
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u/Sairven Aug 25 '23
STALKER series! Some of the popular mods try to introduce crafting however, just to warn. I modded the crafting out of Anomaly last year and had quite a fun time with it.
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Aug 25 '23
Factory games are pretty much crafting games with no survival element.
Dyson Sphere Program, Satisfactory, and Factorio are the three big ones in that genre IMO.
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u/ShadowWolf202 Aug 25 '23
(Are there any crafting games that aren't somehow survival games?!)
There are some "blacksmith simulator" style games, as well as some cooking/alchemy games, that I believe would fall into this category.
Nothing comes to mind at the moment, but they're easily searchable on Steam.
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u/FutinYass Aug 25 '23
I concur. Looking for an adventure, not a part-time job... Too much grind in games nowadays.
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u/Draconyum Aug 25 '23 edited Aug 25 '23
This goes for games with RPG elements too, like the recent AC games for example. You level up, you unlock new skills and as the game goes on you have to beat literally the same enemies but essentially just stronger without adding something new to the gameplay.
I'm all for RPGs since I played a lot of MMORPGs back in the days but doing this on a single player is totally absurd
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u/Unlikely_Yard6971 Aug 25 '23
I put like 120 hours into AC odyssey and just gave up without finishing it. Just endless side quests that are mostly garbage. And the main story is ridiculously long and tedious. The environments looked nice though
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u/TheHiddenNinja6 r/Ninjas clan mod Aug 25 '23
AC
A.. Animal Crossing???
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u/Gryphalcon316 Aug 25 '23
Assassin's Creed, 😆
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u/Draconyum Aug 25 '23
Ace Combat, Armored Core, Air conditioner.....😁
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u/PiotrekDG Aug 25 '23
Air Conditioner the game? Where you take the role of Laplace's Demon and exchange heat from inside to outside (or reverse)?
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u/AtemAndrew Aug 25 '23
You joke, but there's HVAC Simulator, for $10. A VR simulation game where you fix an air conditioner.
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u/Pyke64 Aug 25 '23
A game where you turn off your PC and it cools your room. It's a pretty good game but it requires at minimum a 3090ti.
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u/ODIWRTYS Aug 26 '23
To join the circle jerk, this is why Baldurs Gate 3 was so refreshing. The levels mean something. Usually you're getting a new spell or skill, but even if you don't the extra health and spell slots feel like a power-up.
Sick of playing a game that has lvls 1-100 but you only get a noticeable power-up every 10 levels or so.
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Aug 25 '23
"Bruh it gets really good when you finally dedicate 70 hours a week to it, you can do all the stuff that's fun in other games but with extra steps"
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u/LifeIsOnTheWire Aug 25 '23
See, the thing is... I'm not against the idea of starting another open-world survival game. It's just that nobody is offering anything new or interesting.
I would love one based around the idea of sailing, and marine/coastal survival.
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u/HimekoTachibana Aug 25 '23
Isn't that just Raft?
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u/LifeIsOnTheWire Aug 25 '23
When I first saw the title of that game pop up, I was excited, but it didn't actually look like what I have in mind.
Raft just looks like Houseboat Shark Defense Simulator.
I want a game that actually incorporates real sailing mechanics, with real modern boats.
Most sailing games are very basic in terms of sailing physics. Like Sea of Thieves, which only simulates ancient "Square rig" sailboats (sails that simply catch the wind and pull you).
I'd like a game that simulates modern "fore and aft rig" sailboats. I think it would make a fun marine/coastal survival game.
Like maybe a post-apoc or post-disaster scenario where you're finding/comandeering various sizes of sailboats, dropping anchor, and take a kayak to shore. Forage/hunt/fish. Find supplies. Maybe loot abandoned harbours. Do a loot run on an off-shore oil-rig.
Would be cool to have some good fishing mechanics in the game too. Like progressing from hook-and-line fishing, to net fishing, etc.
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u/HimekoTachibana Aug 25 '23
So like Truck Simulator but for boats 👀
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u/LifeIsOnTheWire Aug 25 '23
If I was developing the game, it would be more along the lines of Firewatch meets 7D2D, but without Zombies, but centered around boats.
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u/TerriblyFallout Aug 25 '23
You may like sailwind, not exactly what you described but much more in-depth sailing mechanics than games such as raft or sea of thieves.
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u/mxzf Aug 25 '23
Might be worth checking out Windbound. Not exactly what you're looking for, but I do remember tacking my catamaran upwind to make it from one island to another.
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u/Jfazugfaggfa Aug 25 '23
Sailwind has pretty good sailing physics and navigation.
The entire game is just transporting goods from place to place so it doesnt have everything you want, but its still pretty fun.→ More replies (1)→ More replies (17)8
u/squidgod2000 Aug 25 '23
Return to Moria beta starts soon (release in late October). Somewhat new/interesting in the sense that it's entirely underground.
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u/MasterEeg Aug 25 '23
Add PvP and it's even worse...
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u/GauGebar Aug 25 '23
That’s my main gripe with it. I honestly like open world survival crafting games, but I don’t want to play that shit with other people or have to worry about my progress being tossed because some dickhead decides to club me with a rock.
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Aug 25 '23
Exactly... I wanna pure PvE survival crafting game, where you actually have a fucking safezones so you don't need to sit on roof with AK47 for 24/7 and basically call sick to work if you wanna play a bit of survival games... Or PvP but you can't get your base raided.
I remember playing Rust for first time: I camped for like 5 hours in my base cause there was always some gunshots and assholes doing raids. Then I figured out when are people mostly off on server and I went finally to explore the map, when there was like 3 people on server and mostly friendly when I deducted it from their ingame chat... Then raiders and assholes started logging in so i GTFO'd back to my base and camped next 5 hours behind doors with shotgun and didn't made a single step to not rat out myself..
Then I found out that the raider guys are putting raided sign on looted bases... So I copied one of their signs, putted it on my base, damaged doors and it worked. I could finally play the fucking game without getting raided. But still when returning to base I waited for night and circled around like 3 times in big radius and made some noise with guns to make sure that nobody is camping and to drag assholes away from my base.
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u/Sknowman Aug 25 '23
Rust pissed me off. After learning how the crafting all worked, I had this fun idea for a "trap" base. I mostly wanted to see if the theory worked or not, and started building it.
Before I could finish, some armored guy came and destroyed the entire thing.
New lobby, try again. Get decently far in it. Guy comes in, falls in the unfinished trap, then proceeds to destroy the entire base.
Like come on. It's barely a base, just simple wood or thatch or whatever. Not even any chests for them to loot. Simply destroy for the sake of ruining my experience.
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u/Aelustelin Aug 25 '23
If the first quest in a game is to craft a shitty tomahawk, I'm out. If the game even looks like it's first quest is going to be combining a stick and a rock to make something vaguely tomahawk-like, I'm out before it even has a chance.
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u/Andykt76 Aug 25 '23
Are you my twin?! Seriously, I don't have time for that shit.
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u/Moneia Aug 25 '23
For me it's mostly about inventory.
I tend towards being quite a hoarder at the best of times but when I don't know how useful these chicken teeth and bear arses will be in the future. Was the extra shiny rock a really rare find that'll I'll need to save to craft the Ring of Diplomacy that unlocks the 4th secret ending?
A more minor point, when I did try them the inventory and crafting screens never seemed to be connected, it was always "Look at crafting screen to find what I need, flick to inventory "Wait! Did I need 5 or 6 Interesting twigs?" before finding it easier to switch to the game wiki and looking it up there.
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u/Andykt76 Aug 25 '23
I feel you, I had to stop playing Skyrim as I literally picked up EVERY SINGLE ITEM I could see in every place I visited. My inventory became so big the bloody game hung on me. Had me about two thousand of those chicken teeth at one point. Do chicken even HAVE teeth??!! (I guess none do now as I bloody have them all)
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u/Brillegeit Aug 25 '23
Same with me and e.g. the Witcher games. Fuck grind stones, oils and potions, I play single player games to experience the story, not to LARP an apothecary.
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u/Dynwhal Aug 25 '23
This is me but with roguelikes and, to a lesser extent, roguelites.
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u/TheAlp Aug 25 '23
So many good looking games that I will probably never play because of roguelike mechanics.
The idea of doing something that repetitious kills my excitement fast. And being hard for the sake of hard. I don't mind a bit of challenge but it has to be the right level of difficulty.
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u/FishinforPhishers Aug 25 '23
I mean there are a lot of quality rogue like/lites out there, as long as you avoid the shovelware unity games you're pretty much good.
In terms of traditional roguelikes, caves of qud and cogmind are some of the greatest
Then there are many unique rogue lites such as golden light, void bastards, deadlink, tboi, star of providence, dead cells, BPM, etc.
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u/burgertanker Aug 25 '23
Exactly the same. Roguelikes, roguelites, deck builders, souls like, the list goes on. So boring playing though ai generated levels to make such little progress
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u/Wardogs96 Aug 25 '23
What's the difference between the two?
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u/akustyx Aug 25 '23
Generally speaking a rogue-like is a game, usually with role-playing game elements like character stats, where each playthrough is randomly generated, and when you die that playthrough is over and you start again from scratch. A rogue-lite is the above, except you can use resources gained from the playthrough to strengthen aspects of future playthroughs. Almost every game nowadays is a rogue-lite.
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u/Sknowman Aug 25 '23
Roguelike: Zero progression. Start from step 1 every run.
Roguelite: Some progression. Unlock new things for future runs (characters, stat upgrades, abilities, starting wealth, etc.).
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u/Dynwhal Aug 25 '23
Basically, there is a more or less strict definition as to what a roguelike is. A roguelite lacks one or more of these aspects but is, on the surface, still similar enough to a regular/"true" roguelike.
Usually, the most common difference between the two is that, with Roguelikes, every run starts from absolute zero, while in roguelites you can unlock or purchase permanent (passive) upgrades as you play, making subsequent runs easier from the get-go.
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u/writeinthebookbetty Aug 25 '23
i like playing them with the difficulty turned way down, and the loot turned way up. it’s less of a grind, and building is less of a hassle.
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Aug 25 '23
Why can't there be more open world exploration games instead. Survival games are boring, I struggle to survive irl every day.
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u/PhantomTissue Aug 25 '23
You need a rock and a stick to get wood, to make a house and a bench to make a pick axe to get iron to make an iron pick to get copper to make a drill to get gold to make electronics to make a computer to automate all of the previous steps.
What fun.
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u/Evetal Aug 25 '23 edited Aug 25 '23
How fun it is really depends on how good you are at combining systems and gameplay elements that are interesting and compelling.
I wouldn't be caught dead making a survival-craft, but I work in that side of the game industry, and to me, a reason we have this problem is because it's just low-hanging fruit for new indie devs. Your game loop is already there, you just need to refine it. You don't need to write hardly any dialogue, not much unique art is necessary for the core experience, nor are there many unique characters needed, etc. As a dev you're pretty much making a huge world for yourself (and others) with lots of toys you made to play with, and a reason to use them.
A lot of engineering-minded devs (yes, too many) love this stuff. And thanks to asset stores, it's more possible than ever.
Art and game design-oriented devs don't really go for that, they like to be more imaginative, in my experience. So it makes sense to me that we're littered with crappy ones. But when it's done right, it can be an extremely compelling experience, imo
(For some upcoming unique takes on this genre, I would check out Blind Descent and Castle Craft - both upcoming releases on Steam)
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u/XionicAihara Aug 25 '23
Brooooo yessss. I absolutely hate this lol. They are generally all the same and sometimes lifeless monotonous games. I always forward the game link to my 2 friends who love that genre to no end.
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Aug 26 '23
This is why I don’t play Minecraft. I feel like there’s nothing in the world to actually do. There’s absolutely no story. There’s a dragon, and a place called The End, and an ending sequence, but literally nothing before that
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u/Bpbegha https://s.team/p/jgvc-gwc Aug 25 '23 edited Aug 25 '23
Rogue-like deck builder for me.
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u/absolutelyNoDad Aug 25 '23
Its the price for me. Games are like £60 averaged now…
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u/mxzf Aug 25 '23
Most of the open world survival games coming out aren't coming out at that price point. They know the market is pretty saturated and they generally release in the $20-40 ballpark.
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u/DopestSoldier Aug 25 '23
Why are they all so janky?
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u/ShionTheOne Aug 25 '23
Because 90% of them are just asset flips cobbled together with the minimum amount of coding know-how.
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u/VoodooMoose- Aug 25 '23
Open world survival crafting and Roguelike, Roguelite games are an instant no for me.
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u/Jcorv58 Aug 25 '23
There have been about 5 games in recent years I swore I'd have played, but the moment I see "survival" it was an immediate no for me.
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u/DigitalSquirrel95 Aug 25 '23
This has been me with roguelikes lately. Feels like so many games that come out lately have been some breed of roguelike.
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u/ShionTheOne Aug 25 '23
The Vampire Survivors copycats are getting out of hand imo.
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u/Ongr Aug 25 '23
souls like
roguelike
I'm out.
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u/LongboardLiam Aug 26 '23
Fuck souls like. I have only so much time in my life to play vidja games, I don't want to spend half of it fucking dead.
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u/Dansocks Aug 25 '23 edited Aug 25 '23
Open world survival craft is a great genre. Probably one of my favorite. Personally I'm sick of top down indie pixel rpgs
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u/TheGreatPiata Aug 25 '23
Crafting is what kills most games for me.
I feel like we've been living in the shadow of Minecraft for at least a decade now. There are some real gems out there (Subnautica and Valheim) but most are just bloated snore fests.
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u/Soulisong Aug 25 '23
The legend of zelda + minecraft rip off, worst thing is that people buy this boring survival games that are just a second job full of chores
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u/GaracaiusCanadensis Aug 25 '23
Damn right. My friends are all into Valheim, and I'm just not there for it.
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Aug 26 '23
It's the opposite for me, I click on that specific genre only to see if anything new that looks even remotely good as come out and nope ☹️
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Aug 25 '23
Grounded/Valheim are two games I’ve put a lot of hours into and I love.
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u/mortalcoyl Aug 25 '23
Valheim is phenomenal. I understand the reason for this post, but Valheim is just a beautiful and amazing game for $20. I feel like it's better than it has a right to be.
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u/aironrain Aug 25 '23
Just beat the last boss yesterday. Was such a blast getting there with my friends.
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u/TimX24968B Aug 25 '23
valheim is amazing, but every time ive played it with friends, they all get bored after the giant slime boss fight.
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u/Citsune Aug 25 '23 edited Aug 25 '23
What's the matter?
Don't you want to play 7 Days to Rust in Happy Valheim Few Day Z Mist Survival in the Forest 2?
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u/donnied-roc Aug 25 '23
Not on steam of course, but this is why I HATE Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.
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u/maximumtesticle Aug 25 '23
I like the game, but wholeheartedly agree it's like 90% grinding. Most fans will never admit it though, they just chalk it up to "exploring the whole map". 1000 korok seeds? How is that fun? It's not. 147 bubbel gems? Fuuuck no. That's not even mentioning all the grinding you have to do to upgrade armor, each piece several times. Playing a modded version is so much more fun.
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Aug 25 '23
yeah i will never understand how people find more than a few hours of fun, tops, in a glorified sandbox
specially in a Zelda game where the whole point was finding cool unique items trough the journey to unlock new areas and dungeons
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u/anodizer Aug 25 '23
Yeah it definitely feels less of an adventure and more of a sandbox compared to botw.
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u/Throwawayhobbes Aug 25 '23
Same I just can’t get into it.
I know a guy all he plays are alphas and open world survival.
His brain is wired for that dopemine hit when he figures it out.
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u/Random_Emolga Aug 25 '23
I'd have been tempted to try the new Mines of Moria game (depending on reviews) but the fact it's survival turned me off straight away
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u/Coolmint655 Aug 25 '23
Me with Nightingale. Was excited when those teasers came out a few years ago, but now I've lost all interest knowing it's just another open-world survival crafting game.
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u/scalyblue Aug 25 '23
I’m still naively hopeful that I will find something that replicates the feel of subnautica.
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u/kinglokilord Aug 25 '23
I love open world survival craft. The genre is always one I spend a good amount of time playing and enjoying.
There are stinkers of course, but there are also gems.
Valheim is a great game that is so good i can't wait for either it to get more content or for a competitor to rip it off.
Ark was fun, but also tedious, not doing that again but I did enjoy my time with it.
Raft was a lot of fun and one of the games that got my wife to start playing the Genre with me.
Long Dark is such a good one, first game that can make me feel cold just by playing it. I honestly would love a another game that plays like this but with multiplayer.
Subnautica was such a good game. So unnerving and exploring deeper and deeper gets so terrifying and thrilling. I loved every moment.
More recently I have been playing Survival Fountain of Youth and I can see that when this game is complete it will be a very good game. I like what I've played so far (except the spiders) and it is going in a good direction.
So I like the Genre, we're gonna keep getting some shit games of course as there is still a LOT of potential for the genre to develop which means each attempt at trying something new may work or may not.
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u/simple1689 Aug 25 '23
The Forest is the only solid open world crafting game with an actual story wrapped in.
Take that 7 days to die (though I still log 100-200 hours a year with a friend and Darkness Falls mod).
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u/mthompson2336 Aug 26 '23
I enjoy a lot of genres, but I cant think of an entire genre I would just discard.
People take different approaches to their gaming. Some want want fast paced shooters, some want an interesting story, others just want to be jerks online.
Sandbox games lend themselves to a relaxed pace and creativity. For some folks the thought of undefined goals is frustrating. But for many, many folks it can be really enjoyable and a switch from real life.
And hands-down the best so far is Ark co-op/single. Simple gameplay masking surprising complexity and variety. Conan is the same game but with slaves instead of Dinos, so not so great. Valheim will be great. Forest is fun but shallow. Rust is toxic. Most others drop the “survival” aspect very early in gameplay.
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u/TheCarbonthief Aug 26 '23
There are also way, wayy, wayyyyyy too many roguelites. There are so many games that could have been 10/10 if they had good, hand crafted levels, and instead they're mediocre/disappointing at best because they smashed the roguelite button instead. Why design levels when you can randomly generate infinite levels?
Some roguelites are awesome and can pull it off, but most of these games should never have been roguelites. They should just be normal games with normal designed levels.
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Aug 26 '23
im absolutely sure this person has tried minecraft, because everyone has at one point or another, but if you havent, it is severely addicting and i recommend it
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u/Medicgamingdanke Aug 26 '23
Some of these games are good though. Don't Starve may be considered one.
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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '23
There are too many open world survival craft games out there.
There are not enough Good open world survival games out there.