The Indie Game Magazine December 2015 | Issue 56 | Page 12

SUBFEATURE

Isolation, Survival, and the Self-Guided Experience

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by: Ruby Clyde

he very earliest video games, dated as they seem
compared to the eighth-generation of consoles, still have
a lot in common with typical modern games:
There’s an objective, and there are enemies. Of
course this isn’t universally true, but to many,
the definition of a ‘game’ might be something that can be ‘won,’ whether that
means completing a storyline, shooting all the bad guys, or getting through
all the levels. But the recent spate of
Early Access survival games on Steam
con-fuse this conventional, objectiveoriented game style. While every game
can be broken down into a series of
small objectives, these games refuse to
provide an ultimate goal other than one
vague instruction: Stay alive. They create gaming experiences based on exploration and often,
non-stop struggle in a usually beautiful, albeit cruel
environment. Savage Lands merges a gritty and harsh survival
experience with fantasy, which can be played either alone or in
co-op mode.
Savage Lands is a co-production between Signal Studios and
DigitalDNA Games. Signal Studios is known for the Toy Soldiers
series and has ventured into fantasy RPG territory before with
Ascend: Hand of Kul. A Seattle-based developer founded in
2008 by team members with years of industry experience, the
award-winning company makes games for console, PC, and
mobile, and is actively designing its own search engine and
toolset named SigEngine™, with the intention of “facilitating the
massive content demands and rapid iteration necessary for
today’s top-tier, AAA games.”
DigitalDNA Games is the studio behind the CastleMiner series.
Their games are among the highest rated, highest grossing
indie titles of all time on Xbox, having enjoyed particular
success with Cas-tleMiner and Paintball Avatar. They are in fact

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the highest grossing XBLIG developer of all time, and their mission
is simple: “To bring you the games you want to play.”
The personality of each studio is certainly visible in
Savage Lands, in its blending of crafting, fantasy,
role-playing, and resource gathering. There isn’t
a plot, but there are notable enemies to
take on including dragons, forest giants,
and named enemy creatures like
the Helion that spawn rarely and
pose a serious challenge. Rare
items can be collected to create
more powerful weapons, and
as materials are collected,
greater shelters and even
decorations can be crafted to build
a personalized base. Early on,
inspired by the in-game journal that
explains what’s required to craft various items, self-set
goals become a part of play. The short opening tutorial
encourages certain objectives to serve as an underpinning narrative of
the gameplay experience, but Savage Lands definitely isn’t going
to string that narrative together for the player. Once the few boxes
that appear at the game’s start have been checked, they’re gone
for good.

There’s something primally
“unsettling
about even the simulated
experience of crouching by a fire...
knowing it is a beacon for whatever
is hidden in the shadows;

”

The resource gathering and crafting system is reminiscent of
The Forest, but perhaps one of the closest reference points for
Savage Lands is Skyrim (with realistic needs and diseases and

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