preface
There are three ultimate questions in philosophy – who am I? Where did it come from? Where to go? From the moment they become aware of death, human beings begin to think about the meaning of life.
Life is inseparable from "survival" and "life", survival is the basic need of human beings, is to maintain the state of life as a normal way to survive. Life is the behavior of striving to improve the quality of life and the level of life under the premise of normal life. Survival is the foundation, and life is a higher level of existence. They are interpenetrating, interconnected, and mutually reinforcing.
In modern society, many people want to experience a different life after solving the problem of basic needs. At this time, the game is the gateway to the three thousand worlds, and the "survival game" is the best way to explore the meaning of life.
What is a survival game?
"Tactical Competitive" = Survival Game?
The definition of the survival game is controversial and still has no accurate conclusion. But whenever "survival" is mentioned, some people immediately think of "tactical competitive" games: PUBG, Fortnite, H1Z1, etc., but are these really survival games? Is killing each other really the core of survival games?
Regarding the definition of a "survival game", Wikipedia explains it like this:
Survival games are a subclass of action games, mostly set in random or scripted open, persistent worlds. Players usually have very little equipment at the beginning of the game, need to collect resources, tools, weapons, and build shelter, and survive in harsh environments for as long as possible. Survival games are usually open-ended with no set goals; the setting is often closely related to the survival horror genre, such as the player having to survive in a supernatural environment.
According to the above concept, 3 key points of the "survival game" can be extracted:
1. The first meaning is to "live"
In the case of "tactical competition" games, players collect weapons, armor, and tools in order to hunt down other players and avoid being killed. Similar to pubic players' "circled" gameplay over time, players are also forced to enter smaller areas to meet and attack each other. Thus the ultimate goal of the "Tactical Competitive" game is to be the only person/team to survive, which in this respect has gone against the concept of a "survival game".
2. Player behavior will get feedback
The four elements of "food, body, spirit, and life" in the real world are still important in survival games. In the survival game, the character will be hungry and thirsty, can feel the change of the four seasons, and need to rush to collect transport supplies. But in Fortnite, the characters don't feel hungry and thirsty, and their bodies aren't affected by the temperature. The character needs to be filled with gasoline to drive the car, which seems reasonable, but if he chooses to run and walk, it will not consume physical strength.
3. Gameplay is not unique
Survival games usually have a high degree of freedom, and players can choose their favorite gameplay in the game. In ARK: Survival Evolved, if the player does not like the PVP mode, they can choose to delve into the building and tame the dinosaurs; if they want to live a more life, choosing fishing and mining can also make the character popular in the tribe. But in "tactical competition" games, confrontation is an eternal theme, and players can hardly concentrate on doing other things. The "tactical competitive" game has an end, while the "survival game" can theoretically continue as long as the character does not die.
In summary, "tactical competition" and survival games must not be equated, "tactical competition" emphasizes confrontation and conflict, although it integrates the exploration and collection of survival games, but cuts the most important link - the survival elements needed to survive in the game like the real world. If you have to position "tactical competition", it can only be counted as a sub-label under the survival game at most, and can be implanted into almost any game as an extended gameplay. To sum up the "survival game" in one sentence: players collect resources to solve the problem of food and clothing, so as to ensure their survival. After defining a "survival game", the next step is to briefly introduce the basic gameplay of the survival game.
A brief analysis of survival gameplay
In terms of basic gameplay, most traditional survival games are still designed around "survival elements" (food, body, spirit, life), and the concept of "survival" is presented to players in a more concrete form.
The following uses Famine as an example to talk about the embodiment of survival gameplay
Character settings
In Famine, the player controls characters with health, hunger, and spirit, which decreases the character's health, and requires the player to find food to increase satiety. When the spirit value drops to 0, although it does not directly affect the health value, it will constantly be attacked by shadow monsters, which will eventually lead to the death of the character.
In terms of food, from the petals that increase life, to the grilled meat made from the fire, to the combination cooking made with the meat rack and pots, there are various different attributes, and each food has a different rate of deterioration, which is very similar to the real world.
Numerical embodiment
food
Resource settings
Famine has dozens of NPCs: Pig-Man, Fish-Man, Rabbit-Man, Ant, Spider, etc., and depending on the player's choice, each NPC offers different things (food, resources, protection, death), so the use of resources is diverse. In addition, players can accelerate the progress of resource collection by collecting, cutting, mining, digging, igniting, planting, etc. At this stage, the speed of resource acquisition and consumption also needs to be calculated by the player himself to achieve balance, which also reflects the importance of "planning" in the survival game.
planting
Environment settings
The environment emphasizes authenticity, and a day is converted into 8 minutes of reality, which is divided into three states: daytime, evening, and evening. In addition, as the in-game time and seasons pass, the game tone, weather, and biological activity will change. For example, lightning strikes when it rains, ignites combustibles after landing, and can also cause damage to mobs. When it rains, the character's mental value decreases, the environment becomes humid, the wood is not easy to burn, and the phenomenon of "hand slippage" occurs when cutting trees.
Basic interface
Most of the players in Famine are conscientious and busy until the last minute (building camps, planting and harvesting in spring, raising animals, defending against attacks, etc.). However, the diversified survival mode allows players to rely on nomadism and live on berries and radishes. As a classic survival game that pays attention to details and is representative, the entire gameplay is in the service of "survival", and the core of the survival game it shows is: into the busy situation of running for survival, telling the player that "being able to eat" is the most beautiful thing in the world. When the game characters, resources, and environment settings are realistic, the embodiment of the survival game gameplay is also achieved. But another problem may follow – homogenization. After the survival game has a basic template, the mutual borrowing between the settings is bound to make its development stagnate. How can survival games break through? And where is it going?
Where did it come from?
Looking back at the development of survival games, it has always revolved around "life": to make a breakthrough, it is necessary to trace back to the source and summarize experience from the past.
The development of "life"
The origin is actually an educational accessory?
The earliest survival games were derived from The Oregon Trai, an auxiliary program developed in 1974 for teaching (the Minnesota Education Association). Built on a true historical narrative, the game quickly became one of the most popular games on the network after uploading to the local area network, with thousands of players landing every month.
Embodiment of the initial concept of the survival game: There is a concept in the game that the player needs to let the character survive, but it is not used as a fixed goal. The player's mission is to command a team of immigrants from Independence City, Missouri through the Oregon Trail to the Willamette Valley of Oregon. In this process, it is necessary to manage food, injuries, diseases, goods transportation, etc., as well as to combat severe cold and disease.
Shiny horror + survival elements
In 1989, Capcom launched Sweet Home, a survival horror role-playing game in which a total of 5 players can control the characters, and can choose to form a two- or three-person team to explore separately. In addition to fixed items and weapons, each character can only carry two items, so players must manage resources. The game also includes a permanent death mechanic, where a player's reaction to a sudden event can lead to the death of the character.
The game laid the groundwork for the making of survival horror games and has been called "the greatest horror game" and "a milestone in the history of horror games". Although it is not a survival game in the true sense of the word, its method of exploration and storytelling in Metroidvania is still the template for other survival horror games. It was this influence that led to the birth of the Resident Evil series.
Metroidvania: A splicing of "Metroid", the former referring to "Metroid" and "Castlevania", the former referring to "Metroid", the latter referring to "Castlevania". The two games define the genre together, with all Metroidvania having a large, complex world, and it consists of several elaborate little structures. A "small structure" might be a room, cave, dungeon, or an ordinary area that would be connected to each other in a well-designed way.
Sweet Home character status bar (level, attack, health, psychic, etc.)
Survival game system is established
Launched in 2009, Minecraft includes survival, creation, adventure, and extreme modes to meet the needs of different players.
Among them, the survival mode has a more complete survival game system. Players must collect resources, build buildings, battle monsters, manage hunger, and explore the world to survive and thrive. As they work to build and expand their shelter, players need to improve their character's abilities, attacks, and defenses by collecting items and resources. With a solid infrastructure, players can also explore other mysterious worlds (including the Nether and the End), so there is no absolute end to the game.
The shift of survival games to mobile
After the advent of smartphones, replacing consoles and PCs as the most used devices, many survival games were ported directly to mobile phones, such as: Famine, This Is My War, Minecraft, Terraria, etc. In the face of more users, the basic gameplay of the survival game can no longer meet the needs of different players. Therefore, survival games are moving towards multi-element integration and development, which is the future direction.
Where to go?
When "birth" is no longer the only direction to pursue, it is necessary to begin to look for the meaning of "existence".
"Exist" innovation
Why innovate?
Traditional survival games are difficult and the player experience is not good
Traditional survival games (e.g., Famine) give players limited resources, and as time goes by, the chips to live diminish, the outside obstacles become stronger, and each choice is irreversible. At this time, every prop and every bit of food is very precious. As Mencius said: A piece of food, a bean soup, if you get it, you will be born, and if you have it, you will die. This is a kind of "survival", not "standing in the world", and the player's sense of experience is bound to slip.
Higher pursuit of survival games, more demand (people always have to find something else to have fun when they have eaten)
Explained by the psychology of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, self-actualization is something that humans chase after satisfying the "basic conditions of survival." The mechanics of traditional survival games are mostly to fill the declining metering slots, and when the metering slots are empty, the character dies and the game ends, and the player must start from scratch again. Even if the player survives for a long time with superb technology, but day after day staying in the stage of "begging for food", the player's enthusiasm for the game will eventually be exhausted.
Life = Basic Elements (Shelter, Water, Food, Warmth, Safety) If the survival game only stays here, the player will gradually lose the pursuit.
Survival = high-order elements (social, love, respect, self-actualization, etc.) Survival games are innovative means that need to integrate new gameplay to meet the different needs of players.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory: People need to meet some different levels of needs in society, and when a certain level of demand reaches the satisfaction condition, the next level of demand will be generated. Human instinct drives physical growth, while higher needs drive spiritual growth, such as the need for knowledge and beauty.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
How to innovate?
The innovation of the survival game should be grasped, once the main bone is lost - "life", there is no point in finding "existence", so it is necessary to find life while maintaining life.
Abandon conformism and boldly incorporate new ways of playing
The survival game represented by "Famine" pursues a lonely life. The player can't find any companions and can only collect resources and spend the rest of their lives alone. In search of change, the online version of Famine appeared. Although some players complained about the high latency, the newly added multiplayer PVE gameplay brought a different feeling to the tense survival game. Players can unite and cooperate with their partners to ultimately reap the joy of victory together. For players who are not suitable for single-player games, the online version of Famine is a better choice. And the innovation of survival gameplay does not stop there.
Match-3 + doomsday survival is also OK?
Puzzles & Survival is a match-3 mobile game with a doomsday survival theme launched by 37 Interactive Entertainment. Although the background of the story is relatively outdated (the virus outbreak caused human infection and zombies appeared), the gameplay is not conventional. In addition to building shelters, recruiting and cultivating characters, simulating business and other conventional "routines", its core gameplay boldly incorporates the concept of "three matchmaking zombies". Each elimination is an attack, and the more you eliminate at once, the higher the attack power. This mode rarely appears in similar survival games, while reducing the difficulty of the game, it also directly knocks on the door of the "match-3" player, realizing the expansion of the survival game audience.
Puzzles & Survival main interface
Three-erased + latter-day survival
Lower the threshold for players and achieve heavy gaming lightweighting
Most of the traditional survival games are highly nuclear, slow to get started, and have a long overall front. When used as a mobile game, it seems to be a quick way to go to another track by appropriately lowering the barrier to entry for players and "slimming down" medium and heavy games into light games.
One map, one world, one tree, one resource?
Tiny Island Survival is probably the smallest desert island survival game on the map, right?
"The opening picture, the resources all rely on the shovel": in the game, the player will be stranded on an isolated island, with only a small shovel around him, no tasks and no hints, only "move with your heart". Players need to continuously cut down trees to unlock locations and explore resources. The traditional elements of survival (food, body, spirit, life) are integrated into one numerical value – physical strength. Although exhaustion does not result in death, it must also be replenished by returning to the tent. The island with a screen is installed, without the trouble of switching maps in traditional survival games, and the pixel art style with bright colors and simple style also visually realizes the lightweight of the game.
Tiny Island Survival - Initial map
Semi-development status map
What is a text survival mobile game?
The End of the World with You and Me tells the story of two survivors who survive together. As the dominant player, players need to make different choices to survive longer, as well as build camps, find resources, and protect themselves and their companions. Almost all art scenes are omitted from the game, and a desperate world is constructed with only white characters on a black background. For this game, the "operating threshold" has almost disappeared, and the focus of game design has shifted to text creation, at which time telling a good story is doing a good game. In addition, low development costs and low follow-up maintenance are also additional advantages of mobile games as text survival.
Different options
Try a different art style
In order to create a dark, depressing, and terrifying atmosphere, many survival games choose to use darker and less contrast scenes like Famine. But why is Famine so unique and impressive?
The style of the movie "Zombie Bride"
"Famine" does not follow the conventional aesthetics in the eyes of the public, the characters are top-heavy, the eyes are empty and loose, and they are definitely not exquisite and good-looking; the overall picture has a sense of chaotic line graffiti, so that players will feel an indescribable gloom as soon as they enter the game. This grotesque Gothic style is very similar to the animated film Zombie Bride, and perhaps this is also the inspiration for Famine. But not everyone likes such a different visual effect, and it is not impossible for survival games to go from dark to light?
What is the style of clay + survival mobile game?
Clay Uninhabited Island and Tiny Island Survival mentioned above are both cartoon-style stand-alone desert island survival mobile games, but the art scenes built by the two are completely different. The pixel wind used by the latter is not uncommon in the game, but the former can be seen from the name, and clay is its point of competition from similar games. All of the in-game scenes, characters, and props are made of clay (a style that anyone who has seen Shaun the Sheep should know). Bright colors and rounded corners visually construct a small clay world full of "childlike fun", "relaxation" and "leisurely". Even though the gameplay still revolves around "gathering/consuming resources", it's enough to be eye-catching after incorporating a rare and sophisticated cute style into the survival game.
"Clay Uninhabited Island" painting style
summary
What is a survival game? Where did it come from? Where to go? Do you have the answer now?
When the three ultimate questions of philosophy are not asked of humans, it is easier to give an answer. The survival game is the combination of "life" and "survival", "life" is the foundation, and "survival" is a higher demand.
Some people say that the game is the ninth art, art is a higher level of spiritual enjoyment, so how can the development of survival games stop at "life"? Some people want to feel the famine, and some people just want to embrace the world after eating. On the surface, it seems to be the opposite, but in fact, it is only the player's level of needs that is different, and the final development direction will always drive towards the needs of higher levels of "existence".
The future of survival games, there is no need to excessively pursue close to reality, after all, life is already bitter enough, why not let go of yourself in the game?
The survival game should be a change toward the "life" that different people aspire to, and the premise of achieving this is to maintain curiosity. Once people lose their curiosity, they can never develop a new life, and game workers do the same. Survival games contain life experiences that cannot be replaced by other types of games, and as players become familiar with traditional survival game routines, they will only accumulate aesthetic fatigue. Therefore, keeping bold innovation and incorporating more elements into the survival gameplay can allow players to find their own life in the three thousand game worlds.