Making Great Survival Games 2023


 Making Great Survival Games 2023

Have you played a survival-themed game of mobile game app development companies only to discover that it’s too simple once you’ve completed the first few stages? The game’s focus shifts to building bases or another element.

This is because of poorly designed difficulty curves that are not well-designed. There are a lot of (extremely well-known) survival games that are similar to this.

What are the most difficult Curves?

The trouble curve is the way in which you progress through challenges from beginning to end.

There’s no “perfect” difficulty curve. However, there are many imperfect ones, particularly in the case of survival games.

Poorly designed Difficulty Curves

Most survival games feature one of these curves of difficulty:

1. Decreasing difficulty

This is among the most popular (and flawed) games of best mobile game companies — as found in games like 7 Days to Die, Don’t Starve Together and Hobo: Tough Life.

It’s a start with nothing or perhaps a little. You’re trying to search from the countryside to get water or food to survive.

The world is a constant slumber while you’re living from paycheck to paycheck.

However, eventually, you will discover enough food to set a foundation. As the base grows, it becomes more comfortable and more comfortable to live in. You construct things that help you survive: things such as farms, weapons and armor, etc.

The problem is that players lose interest when the game becomes easy in time.

2. Increased difficulty

The reverse is true. It becomes more difficult as time goes by.

It’s a “ how long can you survive for?” kind of game from gaming development companies, similar to Yet Another Zombie Defense.

OR

It’s a “ can we make it to the end in time?” kind of game, similar to Distrust.

Personally, I like this one more than the other since I’ve had more positive experiences using it.

It isn’t without issues, such as players being forced to restart from the beginning and players who have finished the game before leaving having a lower playing time in general.

3. Stagnant Difficulty

The difficulty remains constant throughout the whole game. It’s never easy, but never easy, and somewhere between.

Examples are Minecraft (always easy), Raft (medium) and Project Zomboid (depending on the settings that are used).

If a game is always complex, players will become bored. If the game is always challenging, players will eventually get tired of playing.

The majority of these games aren’t the competition but rather about story-telling or base-building. There’s a certain amount of leniency in these games.

The “Ideal” Difficulty Curve

This is how I think is” the “ideal” difficulty curve should appear to be:

The difficulty should fluctuate between easy and difficult.

There should be moments where players can relax and focus on things like base-building/crafting.

There are also instances of extreme danger (such as the appearance of the massive boss).

This is where you can use your imagination to come up with any conflict you could bring to the opponent.

Note: The beginning point is not fixed. It can begin as an easy medium, difficult, or easy. However, the difficulty is constantly shifting. It is possible to modify the “peaks” and “dips,” which are also able to be adjusted to be more or less.

A good example of a Fun Gameplay Loop


Imagine this game as an example game top game development companies for the survival of the zombies:


1. Complex: You start off with no food, and you have to fight for water and food in order to survive.

2. It’s not too difficult: You manage to learn how to dodge zombies and keep an adequate amount of food items in your backpack.

3. More Simple: You’re engaging in base construction, crafting, setting traps, and learning how to avoid zombies. You’ve got weapons that allow you to take out the zombies easily. The zombies can’t get into your private space. Everything is going well for you. You’re feeling good!

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4. Difficult of a sudden, the difficulty gets harder: a New wave of zombies emerges that is stronger and faster. Then a boss appears. The water or electricity stops functioning. Then Winter is approaching, and the snowstorm is visible. A new illness may be spotted. It’s a battle to live the next time.

The cycle continues. The first time they overcome the hurdle, then fix their foundation, strengthen their defenses, feel safe and secure, and then another obstacle is revealed.

This is how you can keep participants engaged for prolonged durations of time.

It doesn’t feel enjoyable to play if it’s constantly difficult and frequently causes the player to feel angry.

If the game Top game development companies is simple enough, the game will become exciting quickly, and the player will continue playing the game through mobile game app development companies.

The most effective way to strike the right balance is to keep an equal amount of both. There must be times of calm when the participant can feel that their hard work is successful and that they are capable.

There will be times of struggle when the hard work they put into it is likely to take a huge loss or completely disappear. In the end, “a life without challenge is a life not worth living.”

Four Ways to Make Fun Survival Games

Here are four more methods to create a great survival game

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1. Include an End Goal

Setting a goal for players to strive towards is the best practice. If you’d like your game to go on forever, the two aren’t distinct.

The game “Eco” has a great illustration of this

Eco is a Minecraft-style survival game in which an asteroid strikes earth within 30 days. You have to work with other players on this server in order to create an economy and develop technologies to stop this from happening at the right time.

If you’re successful, the game could be played on for.

Another instance is Hobo Tough Life. As a hobo, you need to endure the imminent “calamity” in Winter by making a shelter, complete with warmth as well as lots of food.

2. Include an Event or Story Progression

It’s not every game that has an overarching narrative. However, it’s always beneficial to give players a feeling of progress.

Stardew Valley isn’t a survival game, but they can do very well at this.

  • The overarching story and goal
  • Each month is a distinctive, special event on the calendar. They could be competitions, festivals Halloween, or some other event.
  • Each season has its own distinctive plants that you can cultivate.
  • Character advancement system.
  • Random happenings and stories.
  • We are unlocking new places.

Stardew Valley has nearly 450K reviews on Steam, with an average score of 98%, which is the highest I’ve seen.

Another game that is very effective in this regard is Raft.

In Raft, the entire world is in ruins, and you are unsure of the reason. You’re on the shores of the sea using a 1x1 square raft. Slowly it would help if you collected trash from the ocean to make your Raft.

As you move through the game, you will discover new areas as you try to discover the mystery of the universe and search for people who survived and “paradise.”

3. Create Multiple Modes



The bottom line is that there should always be a “sandbox” mode and a “standard (main)” mode. To keep” standard” or “standard” mode from becoming a sandbox, it must be an infinite scaling of enemies after the objective has been reached.

It’s true that the game of gaming development companies is transformed into a “how long can you survive for” kind of game. However, when there is no challenge, players will become bored and quit. Through having two different modes, the game will appeal to both hardcore as well as casual players.


4. Let the Player Control the level of difficulty

While Project Zomboid is a flawed game, one of its most appealing features is the ability for players to tweak its difficulty levels. The player can adjust a myriad of different settings like:

  • Ex growth
  • Rate of food spoilage
  • Item rarity
  • Spawn rates
  • Zombie strength/speed
  • Zombie numbers
  • Zombie growth multiplier
  • +Heaps of more

This is the primary reason I put so many hours into my game.

All in all

Many survival games suffer from an extremely flawed difficulty progression which causes players to feel like a waste of time. If a game advertises itself as a survival-oriented game, it must be focused on the survival aspect. This aspect must be difficult.

Like always, there are going to be some exceptions to the rules. There are many games that don’t have to be solely focused on the challenge. Some games are able to engage players with other methods, like stories or even short and long-term objectives. These are all fine.

Personally, I’m a bit awestruck by the genre of survival and am hoping this guide will help developers make better design choices.

The same principles should apply to all other genres, too.

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