Entry #2: The Importance of Food

                So, I am a huge gamer, it’s always been a passion of mine from the moment my hands first came across my neighbor’s Playstation controller to today. The types of games I play vary and I enjoy all types. The game I am currently playing is one called “Don’t Starve”. It is a survival game where your object is, as the title implies, not to starve. The game goes so much further than that though, it’s about planning ahead, being creative and using resources wisely. It has a cute, Tim Burton-esque horror theme to it that helps to draw the game together. Player’s start the game off with their chosen character being dropped off into a world they know practically nothing about with a tall man in a suit standing over their character telling them “you better find something to eat before night falls”. With that he disappears and the player must figure out how to get that done with a hint that something ominous happens in the night time.

                The player might start off noticing that there is a bunch of objects that they are able to pick off the ground, and a menu for building things on the left side of the screen. Some of the items are obvious what their use if for, such as berries, while others are not apparent what they do, such as flowers. Collecting twigs and flint the player can start to make tools to help them gather more valuable resources, such as wood and stone. The player needs to make sure they build a fire or some other source of light by the time the first night comes as the ominous hint given in the beginning is very true and there is a monster named Charlie hiding in the darkness. At night Charlie will come out and attack any player not in the light, killing them rather quickly. Whenever the player dies that save is deleted and logged into the morgue, a running list of all the different times the player has died. In other words, once the player dies they must start the game over.

                Once players have begun to gather resources they should start looking for a relatively rare resource called gold. Gold can be found in certain nodes of rock. Gold allows the player to start creating structures that unlock more advanced things to build. Having built these structures (science machine and alchemy machine) a player should start looking at the food tab and building farms and other things out of it to help them survive.

                The true danger of Don’t Starve is usually not the food part but rather the means that players go about acquiring this food. Hunting is a very efficient way to acquire food and other useful items however the creatures of the land do not die easily and will attack the player when the player attacks them. Furthermore, there are hounds that will periodically spawn and hunt down the player until either the player is slain or the hounds are. Finally unbeknownst to the new player, there are seasons in the game and winter offers unique challenges in having to keep warm and a general lack of food during the season.

                There is generally thought of a way to “win” the game, though really the object is to survive as long as possible. There is a portal somewhere in the world that takes the player out of “survival mode” and puts them into a separate realm of “adventure mode”. Adventure mode provides unique challenges for the player where they attempt to assemble 5 items in the new realm they spawn in and assemble them into a new portal to move onto the next level of adventure mode. There are 5 levels in total in adventure mode and players who complete all 5 are usually thought of as having beat the game.

                Overall Don’t Starve is a great puzzle game that I have put way too many hours into. The game is challenging and offers a new challenge every time it is played. With the harsh “restart the game” consequence of dying it makes it a real challenge to try and survive and thrive in the world of Don’t Starve.