The survival gaming subreddit has over 42k members and it’s been around since 2013. That alone would qualify it for an assload of post history – but couple that with the survival genre blowing up over the past half decade and you get a subreddit that, while it’s got plenty of solid input and good posts, also has plenty that are… less so.
Since I regularly trawl through the underbelly of the sub to dig up info on games and news, I figured folks might as well benefit from my bravery. So, over on my survival gaming subreddit, I’m gonna start posting weekly rundowns of the best (and worst) of the week – so you can skip the “PLZ WAT GAME I SHOULD PLAY” spam and get straight to the good stuff. (Also the 500 recommendations for Valheim when someone wants a hardcore survival game.)
I’ll also be doing a monthly blip there, though what that’ll look like is still TBD. If joining another subreddit sounds like hell, don’t worry: I’ll drop the link in my weekly newsletter too. (Sign up here if you want that to slide into your inbox every Monday, no fuss.)
To kick it off, I put together this article to catch up on stuff from the past six months, because I know a lot was born (and died) in that subreddit during that time. (Like my belief in humanity 😭)
- The dev behind From the Bunker recently posted a teaser trailer – and honestly, the game looks quirky in a good way. Think This War of Mine but with a more stylized look and a few unique twists. The most recent comments tied to the game are from about four months ago, and lately the dev’s been posting a secondary project. (It’s a game about cats.)
I sent a Reddit DM asking for clarification and received the following response. “The bunker demo should be ready by early summer, just in time for the game festival. As for the full release, I expect it to launch after summer.” I see that the newest game (along with two others) is published under “D Games,” while From the Bunker was listed under “DEM Games.” This isn’t uncommon – especially when trying to avoid connections between projects – so it could be a justifiable thing or a shady thing, I suppose! 😂 (OG Reddit Post) - If you’re into RimWorld or Kenshi, keep an eye on License to Clone – it’s billing itself as an “open-world sandbox survival RPG” inspired by both titles. Most of the info is being funneled through their official site and Discord, so you’ll probably want to check there for updates or dev logs – all socials are linked to their Steam page.(OG Reddit Post)
- We’ve all seen the usual Reddit threads: What even is survival? or What features should be in a survival game? But this was the first time I’ve seen a “Why do we even want survival games?” post, and it led to some interesting replies. Here’s my favorite. (OG Reddit Post)
- It’s absolutely bonkers to me that this post got zero comments. I’ve seen some truly dogshit posts get a pile of upvotes and “AMG SO EXCITED!!!” comments – and yet someone drops something quirky, unique, and detailed, and it gets crickets? I fucking hate people sometimes. Anyway, Seasons of Solitude looks like someone threw ARCTIS in a blender with Above Snakes, and I don’t mean that as a bad thing. Not sure where it’s headed. (OG Reddit Post)
- Here’s one of the more recent mega-threads asking why we don’t see more survival games that lean into realism instead of zombies, mutants, or whatever procedural threat is trendy this week. Why yes, I did have the top comment. 😅 (OG Reddit Post)
- This one’s short, but a good discussion around “grind” in survival games. I agree with the comments pictured – people love to conflate grind with work, but they’re very different in this genre. One feels like survival; the other feels like busywork. Know the difference. (OG Reddit Post)
- Ages later, it appears the developer from Dead Unending is alive and working on an update for the game? Meh. (OG Reddit Post)
- Throw anything at the wall and maybe we’ll make it? CHAOS MELTING POT. (Caveat, I will totally sort this massive amount of babble into an orderly data chunk for myself.) (OG Reddit Post)
- Possibly a ‘survival roleplay RTS’ game in the works. Long way out it seems. (OG Reddit Post)
- This is fairly long, but it’s a decent discussion on the ‘best and worst aspects of survival crafting games’ – so, yanno, grain of salt. (OG Reddit Post)
- #TeamNoTutorial
- Nope, never heard of a sandbox survival game 🤔
By the gods – I’m dead inside. I know that was a five-minute scroll for you, give or take, but it took years off my life.
