Dev Notes - Building a Survival Game

I've been playing a bunch of survival games recently, and have noticed some great features that the games in the genre implement. It's unfortunate, however, that most of survival games put emphasis on some parts of the great survival game formula, but not all or even most of them. To be clear, I'm not claiming that the notes I am proposing for building an awesome survival game are the template every survival game must follow, but they are definitely things to consider. The focus of the notes is more so to make the single-player experience compelling. Co-op and multiplayer is not covered here, and is a different sort of beast to handle.

The Importance of Game Design

It seems that game design is underplayed in its importance in the video game development process and many newbies don't even understand what it is and why a game designer is necessary. Let's take a quick look at the consequences of bad and good game design.

No Man's Sky - Constructive Criticism

I haven't actually played No Man's Sky, but from the negative feedback that I've seen towards it and the gameplay and review videos that I've watched, I can compile a way to address the game's issues and to improve upon the gameplay. I was inspired to write this after a conversation with a friend about the game's shortcomings and potential.

Infinite Story-Driven Sandbox RPG - Game Concept

This is an idea I thought about a year ago and indirectly discussed it on Reddit. I figured I should revisit it and provide more details, as this is a very intriguing concept that would be exciting to see implemented when voice recognition software, AI, and text-to-speech voice fluency technologies have had significant advancements.

My Sandbox MMO - Game Concept

Here is a sandbox MMO idea I have come up with about a year ago. The details have been stripped for IP protection and the headings were left to give you an idea of the many unique game features.

The main purpose and difference of this MMO idea is to create a living and growing world that a server-full of players can inhabit and interact with. The story is created by the players and the dynamic world, not theme-park MMO writers. I strongly believe that a sandbox MMO must be very dynamic and player-driven in order to truly be a sandbox. It should not have theme-park storytelling and quests that limits narrative content and sets a false purpose of playing the game; vertical character progression and levels that introduce the need to grind; game-economy restrictions that specify the minimum and maximum item prices; established and unchanging settlements that keep the world static; and a clear separation between PVE and PVP that creates unrealistic safe zones and undoes the purpose of a dynamic, player-driven MMO.

I am sharing this idea here to hopefully inspire some game/MMO developers. 

Enjoy!