Friday Forage: May 30th

Can you still call it Friday Forage if it’s posted on a Saturday?
Yes. Because this is survival, and we adapt. (Even if it’s just deadlines.)

🚦Refund Radar/ Dev Danger Watch

One of the things I’m working on is something I’ve nicknamed Dev Danger Watch—basically a red light/green light scale to gauge whether a game’s worth your time or money. Still sorting out the details, but it’s starting to take shape!

Case in point: the developer of Dead Unending has resurfaced after dropping the mostly contentless, bug-riddled game into full release… then vanishing to work on other projects. Hopefully pointing that out in the Reddit thread helps a few people steer clear.

Also got tipped off about the release of Lost Flight: Survival. Gut check says it’s shaky, so I’m marking it Dev Watch: ORANGE. Keep your wallet closed. Gonna let it sit for 3–6 months and circle back, though I’ll put together a full breakdown for Patreon later on why it’s getting an orange. I’ll mark it informational on the Curator—willing to give it some time to turn things around before bumping it to red, but honestly, my money’s on it being crap.

(Obviously, if the red flags turn out to be more about inexperience than bad faith, I’ll report back in its favor!)

🔮 Upcoming Game News

• FEROCIOUS playtest signups are live, but the only “survival” angle I’m seeing is “don’t die.” Probably not covering this one unless it shifts. (Also: I miss Turok.)
• Lost Rift has another demo coming for the June Next Fest. I tried the last one—it was rough. Combat’s clunky, which is wild considering it’s supposed to encourage PvP… kinda?
• Outbreak Island has a new devlog. Again. This game has been devlogging since 2021, and I don’t what the fuck the game is meant to be anymore. Started with a unique premise, now it’s just guns, flamethrowers, and random shit. (It’s like the endless DayZ “we added another gun” posts.)
• The Gold River Project has a demo available! I should try the backer demo again, because I couldn’t do shit before- you know the min requirements (at this point) encourage 32 GB of RAM? Wiiild.
• Hey, ANGST is alive again. This one’s been quiet for a while, but I’m glad to see movement again — the art style is adorable. Like throwing Don’t Starve, The Long Dark, and The Wild Eight in a blender.

#️⃣ Hashtag Backend Changes

In a feat of superhuman strength, I culled my main Discord account from nearly 200 servers down to 110. Eight new games were added to the Steam Curator, and the following blurbs were updated: Your Journey of Survival, RTE Worlds, and Road To Eden.

The website also got a tune-up: I reworked the main menu, added new tags and categories, and gave the homepage layout a complete refresh.

The Hashtag subreddit got a few tweaks too—new flairs are live, and I’ve kicked off a rotating community thread every Friday. The first one sparked some solid discussion, and the second is already up—would love to see more folks jump in.

Meanwhile, Patreon got a major overhaul. If you’ve ever been curious about the chaos behind Hashtag—screenshot folders, endless post-its, my cursed Notion setup—June’s a good month to peek behind the curtain.

And if survival games (and Hashtag’s particular way of covering them) are your bag—baby—fill out this form for me. I’d love to get some input from folks actually reading all this.

📋 Watchlist Additions

Weirdly, after years of bitching—sorry, constructively advocating—for survival games with actual friction and a reliance on bushcraft skills, we’re suddenly getting a shit ton?

(And I’m using “shit ton” loosely here—I’ve spotted three new ones recently. I was never good at math.)

Ember’s Verge, Paleolith, and Bushcraft Survival (not to be confused with Bushcraft Simulator, which is somehow a completely different game also in the works.)

Conceptually, I’m into a lot of what I’m seeing on their store pages. Obviously, there are differences in execution—and in Paleolith’s case, differences in time period—but they all lean hard into bushcraft mechanics, preparation, and consequence. The kind of survival design that actually pushes back a little.

Ember’s Verge

Vibe: Solo PvE survival where you’re stuck on an island with nothing and have to bushcraft your way up from scratch. No modern tools, so you’re crafting everything from natural materials, building shelter, and trying not to starve. It’s got seasonal shifts too, so summer’s forgiving but winter sounds rough. Seems like it’s aiming for slower-paced, realistic survival with actual systems pressure.

Thoughts: Some stuff looks a little rough, but that could just be because it’s early in development.

Hands-On: I haven’t jumped in yet, but there’s a demo available – and it was recently updated.

Visuals: Kinda a neat rugged look to it.

Paleolith

Vibe: It’s set in that prehistoric, no-tech era and actually leans into bushcraft. No map markers, no hand-holding—just you trying not to freeze or starve while crafting tools from scratch. Seems heavy on realism and seasonal pressure. Not sure how far along it is yet, but it looks like the kind of slow-burn survival I always say I want more of.

Thoughts: I’m not usually into the whole caveman-era setting—probably because games like Stone Rage burned that bridge—but I do think it makes sense mechanically. You can’t fall into modern tech feature creep when there’s no tech to begin with.

Hands-On: Nothing playable yet, but they recently posted about opening playtest signups. No ETA on when those will actually go live, though.

Visuals: I fucking love the key art alongside the logo. Their fire animation is nifty as well.

Bushcraft Survival

Vibe: Solo-made survival game where you’re dropped into the Canadian wilderness and told: good luck. Sound familiar? Like The Long Dark, it’s made by someone who actually lives there. (Lives in Candada. Not the wilderness.) You chop wood, build shelter, dry off by the fire, and try not to die from your own bad choices. Story mode’s later. For now, it’s just you vs. cold, injuries, and questionable decisions.

Thoughts: There’s an upgrade tree (which I usually hate), but it’s just stuff like tool durability—not magic skills, so maybe it will be tolerable?

Hands-On: There’s a playtest available- I received access shortly after applying, but havent tried it yet.

Visuals: Definitely rougher looking than the other two- it reminds me of some other game but I can’t recall which one. Rip.

Welcome to the Swagger herd, MutantArtCat!

Spotlight: New patron

💥 Quick Shots

• Survive the Nights dropped a content update that includes a Party System and True Offline Mode.
• If you’re looking forward to Dune: Awakening, you may want to give this a read.
• Winter Survival is still working on updates, though it has a ways to go if it wants to regain folks’ goodwill.
• I’m fucking stoked that 7D2D finally has a schedule up for the release of V2.0 Storm’s Brewing. That said, I’m a little worried about what it’s going to do to performance—between the new dust storms and all the other visual upgrades, FPS might tank hard. And let’s be honest, it’s already pretty shaky in spots as-is.

• Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days has dropped its first content update—a lot of neat stuff, including seedy hotels (their words, not mine).
• The Visual Enhancements update for The Long Dark is now live—there’s even a pretty video showing off the changes.

🕸️ Around the Web

• It turns out rodents of unusual size (ROUS) DO exist.
• It’s nice to see cats participate in outdoor time, SAFELY.
• GameStop has just purchased $500 million worth of Bitcoin. That’s it. That’s the joke.
• Anyone in for a trip to Japan? We can BUILD OUR OWN GUNDAM MODEL KIT

That’s it for this week’s Forage! The format is shifting a bit, and I’ll likely keep tweaking things over the next few weeks, so if you’ve thoughts, feedback, or ideas, I’m all ears. (But earlier in the week so I can get this out on time, ha!)

If you’re into this kind of weekly survival game chaos, please, please, please send it to a friend who might be too. Or a Discord. Or slap it in a YouTube description. Fuck, carve it into a bathroom stall. (Classy places only.)

The more eyes we get on Hashtag—and by extension, the good games (and the sketchy ones)—the better.

See you next Friday!