Survival game
A survival game or survival game (German survival game ) describes a computer game genre, more precisely a subgenre of action adventure or action game in which the player tries to survive in a game world as long as possible. It differs from other games in which the player also has the goal not to die, mainly in that the basic needs of the character for survival must be secured and objects can be processed through a crafting system.
Description and game mechanics
In survival games it is the player's task to survive in a mostly hostile environment in the form of an open game world . For this, the player usually has little equipment at the beginning and has to collect items from the environment, which he can then usually process into other items using a crafting system. Items can often be acquired by defeating opponents (as a so-called loot ) or by trading . In some games, objects can also be dismantled with tools or areas can be cultivated in order to obtain new objects. In some games, the surfaces are modeled on a voxel graphic that can be changed dynamically.
The player has the task of taking care of his needs such as hunger , thirst , sleep , oxygen , body temperature , radiation exposure and health by providing himself with the right items. In the course of the game, the player usually receives (or creates) additional items that he can use for combat (e.g. weapons), defense, technical and machine systems or as decoration.
Often the game world is generated procedurally and is a persistent world and open game world. Survival games usually have no clear goals and no end and are intended to encourage the player to experiment. The game world is often hostile to life, e.g. B. by an environmental disaster , the colonization of a strange planet or a zombie apocalypse .
If the game is purely a single player , it is only played against non-player characters ( player versus environment ), but if it is a multiplayer game , combat or cooperation and cooperation with other players also play an important role ( player versus player ). Usually the player loses his items after death and returns to a saved point ("respawn"). In some games, however, the player has to start from scratch due to the game death (“permadeath”). Survival games are also popular as Let's Play videos on video portals such as YouTube and Twitch .
history
Early literary works such as Robinson Crusoe deal with the aspect of survival in a hostile environment. Films like The Gray - Unter Wölfen or Cast Away - Verschollen also pursue this idea. The idea of a "survival game" was shaped by works such as Battle Royale and The Hunger Games . However, many horror films and thrillers also have the motive that a person has to survive as long as possible.
An early survival game is UnReal World from 1992. Another early example is the game SOS from 1993. Some computer role-playing games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games already included the first survival elements. For example, the game Wurm Online served Markus Persson as inspiration for the development of Minecraft . Minecraft set important standards in the genre, especially in the sandbox area, drove the development and popularity significantly and even became the best-selling video game . The DayZ mod for the ArmA 2 game set many standards for later survival mechanics and zombie games. Most of the following games used the early access model and were financed through crowdfunding .
Although the history of the genre goes back to the early 1990s, the lemma has only been used to a greater extent by gamers, specialist and special-interest press since the more recent history of computer games .
Delimitation and overlap
Battle Royale
In the battle royale genre, the player fights against a predetermined, often high number of other players (usually up to 99, so there are a total of 100 players) in a delimited play area that becomes smaller and smaller as the game progresses. The player usually starts with no or only a few items and must first collect them or win them through battles. If the player leaves the play area, he takes damage and dies after a short time. The winner is whoever is the last player or the last team alive, similar to a combination of Last Man Standing and Deathmatch . Battle Royale games are almost exclusively online games. Many battle royale games leave out elements of survival games such as needs management or crafting and are assigned to other genres such as the first person shooter .
Survival horror
In a survival horror game, elements of the survival game are mixed with horror. For example, the player has to fight against eerie creatures such as zombies or search for objects or solve puzzles in a frightening environment. It is crucial for a good survival horror that the scary factor is in the foreground and, for example, zombies should not just be shot down in a horde shooter. Despite the name, the aspects of a classic survival game are rather less represented in a survival horror title.
Sandbox
A sandbox game is a game in which the player can build on the mostly open game world as freely as possible. Sandbox aspects are often included in a so-called creative mode in survival games, but can also be found in other game genres. In a creative mode, the player usually has an unlimited choice of resources, can fly on the game world, can change game parameters, does not suffer any damage, is usually not attacked by opponents and does not have to meet the needs of the game character. The survival aspect is mostly lost.
Sandbox games also stand for survival games in which the construction aspect is in the foreground, but the player still has to ensure his survival. Sandbox games often allow the exchange of user-generated content and make it possible to create mini-games or mods. Well-known examples are Minecraft and Garry's Mod .
economy
Market research firm Super Data estimates Survival Games sales at $ 400 million for the first six months of 2017, making the genre one of the largest markets in the computer game industry.
List of survival games
This list includes well-known survival games. Games that belong more to the sub-genres survival horror or battle royale are listed in their own article and not in this article. Some games contain survival elements, but are clearly mainly assigned to other genres. These games are also not included in this list. Examples are Rise of the Tomb Raider , Kingdom Come: Deliverance or Fallout 4 .
| game | Publishing year |
|---|---|
| 7 Days to Die | 2013 |
| ARK: Survival Evolved | 2017 |
| Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead | 2013 |
| Conan Exiles | 2017 |
| DayZ | 2013 (Mod) |
| Don't starve | 2013 |
| The Sims 2: Stranded | 2007 |
| Green Hell | 2018 |
| H1Z1 | 2016 |
| How to Survive | 2013 |
| Infestation: Survivor Stories | 2012 |
| Life is feudal | 2015 |
| Minecraft | 2011 |
| Miasmata | 2012 |
| No Man's Sky | 2016 |
| Oxygen Not Included | 2019 |
| PixARK | 2018 |
| Raft | 2018 |
| Rimworld | 2018 |
| Rising World | 2014 |
| Robinson's Requiem | 1994 |
| Rust | 2018 |
| Stranded Deep | 2015 |
| Stranded | 2003 |
| State of Decay | 2013 |
| State of Decay 2 | 2018 |
| Subnautica | 2014 |
| Starbound | 2016 |
| Space Engineers | 2019 |
| Scum | 2018 |
| Terraria | 2011 |
| The Forest | 2014 |
| The Long Dark | 2014 |
| The Flame in the Flood | 2016 |
| The Solus Project | 2016 |
| This War of Mine | 2014 |
| Unturned | 2014 |
| We Happy Few | 2018 |
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Genre: Wilderness Survival. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
- ↑ a b http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/07/05/virtual-selection-the-rise-of-the-survival-game. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
- ↑ http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/01/09/6-of-the-best-survival-games. Retrieved September 19, 2018 .
- ^ Rust, H1Z1, and the emerging 'survival MMO' genre. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
- ^ Benedikt Plass-Fleßenkämper: Ten years of "Minecraft": block by block to the cultural phenomenon . In: Spiegel Online . May 16, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed September 19, 2019]).
- ^ Graham Smith: Survival Games Are Important. In: Rock, Paper, Shotgun. October 20, 2014. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/sos/sos.htm. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
- ^ Graham Smith: Survival Games Are Important. In: Rock, Paper, Shotgun. October 20, 2014. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ PCGamer: Has the open world survival genre run its course? In: PC Gamer. March 28, 2015, Retrieved September 19, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ Lucy Orr 4 Feb 2014 at 10:03 am: The revival of survival - the gaming genre that refuses to die. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Sandbox / Open World. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Sandbox Game: Definition & Examples | TippCenter. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
- ↑ The most important sandbox games - These games give you complete freedom. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Sandbox or Open World: The small but fine difference. In: MMORPG.de. January 11, 2016, accessed on September 19, 2019 (German).
- ↑ PC Gaming Weekly: the magic of the $ 398 million survival game market. In: VentureBeat. August 18, 2017. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ The best survival games that are simply timeless (PC). February 23, 2017. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Top Survival Games 2019 - These are the best survival games on the PC. May 9, 2019, accessed September 19, 2019 .