In this post, we’ll look around Don’t Starve Together, developed by Keli. I’ve played this game for about 100h and gone through all four seasons.
The goal of this game is survival in the uncompromising wilderness world full of science and magic.
There’re several play modes, and in survival mode, more than one player cooperates with the others and competes with the system.
How does the player learn the “Rules“?
The game does not kindly teach the player how to survive in this harsh world. We’re going to see two parts: Construction/Crafting, Cooking.
Construction/Crafting
The system only tells the player which materials are needed to make something. But the player does not know everything that can be made in this system, and the system shows different things to the player’s state. For example, if the character is near a science machine, the system shows items that a science machine can make at that point.
Although the system tells what sub materials need to make something, it does not tell the player how to acquire those. So the player should learn one by one by interacting with the system. For example, to acquire coal, first, we should burn a tree and cut it down. But the player who doesn’t know this rule should learn several things.
- The player needs to know a tree can be burnt.
- The player needs to know how to burn a tree.
- The player needs to know a burnt tree can be cut.
So with this knowledge, the player can finally get the coal and survive better after that.
Cooking
The system does not tell recipes for the food; the player does not even know what kinds of food they can make. And also, the player does not know the effect of eating the food. So the player needs to experiment to learn the recipe.
Confliction the player encounters
There’re lots of obstacles to achieving the goal of the game. We’re going to see three factors that make the player hard to achieve the goal: Hunger, Sanity, and Mobs.
Hunger
Every time the player does something in the world, the hunger stat drops. Even if the player does nothing, the hunger stat still drops.
If the hunger stat reaches zero, then from that point, the player’s health stat drops. And if the health stat reaches zero, then the player dies. So to survive, the player should keep finding food. The player can collect the food from the ground or kill the mob to gather it. The food the player gathers can be an ingredient of the other food. The amount of hunger stat that increases is different by how the player eats the food. Some food can drop the health stat, so the player learns which food is efficient for increasing hunger.
Although the player can gather the food, there’s still another problem. All the food in the game gradually rots. And all the foods’ decay periods are different. So by the decay period, the player can’t keep the food indefinitely. And it makes the player find food all the time. Also, the player thinks about how to store the food efficiently.
Sanity
If the player equips specific items, eats food, or is near something, it drops the player’s sanity stat. If the player’s sanity stat is below some threshold, mobs are emerged and attack the player, so the player needs to manage their sanity stat in addition to their hunger stat. The player can’t focus on finding foods by the sanity stat, and it also restricts the player’s action.
Mobs
Some mobs are hostile to the player, but some are not. Also, for gathering food, combat with mobs is inevitable. Because the player’s health reaches zero, the game is over, and the player has to prepare for combat by crafting armor and weapons. Worse, armor and weapon have durability. So if durability reaches zero, then they will be broken. So the player should always be ready to craft armor and weapon.
Challenges for the player
Despite these obstacles, this game makes the player keep playing and survive. Newbies don’t know most of the system, like how to interact with the object and the effect of their playing. For example, they find a new food but still don’t know the effect of eating this food, or when they encounter a first-seen mob, they don’t know that mob is hostile to the player.
All these kinds of new things can be a challenge for the player. The challenge makes the player keep tension and curious about it. After overcoming it, the player learns how to survive better.
Every time they survive day and day or the weather is changed, the system gives the player new challenges, and by overcoming them, the player keeps playing.
People online share their knowledge of how the system works through blogs or youtube. So the player who is stuck at some point and feels frustrated can search on the internet, and as a result, the community is formed naturally. Although the player can get knowledge from the internet, the game still makes the player feel challenged because the player can’t learn all the rules through the internet, and the game keeps the player busy.
The game as a role of play
Playing this game with friends or somebody, they divide their roles and talk about overcoming obstacles. Each player has a different proficiency level, so the player who has played a lot relatively knows better how to prepare than others, so they lead the play by telling other people. On the other hand, the less experienced player follows the leader and does what they are given. While doing their parts, they are used to the system and can gain knowledge.
In this way, various social activities may appear depending on the experience of the game.
System dynamics
Emergent systems
Each mob has its own rules for behaving depending on the situation. Because of this characteristic, the player can find interesting sights. For example, pigs and spiders have their own rule for behaving as below:
pig
- they can be a friend when giving them something to eat
- when attacked, the group attacks the target
- they can live in the forest
spider
- they are hostile to others if they are not a spider
- when attacked, the group attacks the target
- they can live in the forest
Because of these rules, they fight each other if their territory is nearby. With emergent systems like this, the player can feel that each species has a nature to protect themselves and that they are in a fantasy world.
The player can use this system. For example, the pig can be a friend by giving them food, and when the player fights with other mobs, the pig can help them.
Interacting with the system
In several cases, the player does not know most of the system. But it is just hidden from the player, not working probabilistically.
Therefore, when player starts the game for the first time, it makes them feel helpless and, at the same time, feel nervous about the information they don’t know. But they can learn because it does not work probabilistically. As they gain information about the system, the player understands the effect of their actions, and they gradually become able to devise their strategy and gain confidence.
