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.