I wanted to make a game that meant something and that lasted. I wanted to make something big, some place I could go to escape when I was in the hospital or nauseous beyond description.
I’m not familiar with their other games and a bit skeptical of the kitchen-sink approach to this one, but plan to keep my eye on it.
Been following the development of this one for a while. Not only is Sam’s fight against cancer an amazing thing, but they have some great ideas for this game to take way a lot of the tedium often associated with crafting titles (like unlimited inventory as mentioned in the trailer).
"I told him we’d build a world, somewhere I could escape to while I was in the hospital and going through this bullshit, somewhere we could pour months of rage and joy and frustration and everything else into. It’d be like Don’t Starve meets Diablo meets Pokemon, but not. And when I was better the game would be done, we’d share it with the rest of the world, and it would be a piece of armor for others to slide into when real life just needed to fucking be okay.
… also there’d be a one-legged cow hippo and you could milk it."
I know, right? I’ve always been interested in these sorts of games but want to focus on exploring, building, and discovering cool things, not fighting with the interface, which is exactly the way they have pitched Crashlands.
Releasing on Steam January 21st and iOS sometime next week. Apparently there will be cloud saves between platforms. Still very excited over this one. I watched some video on youtube and it really is like a survival/crafting game mashed up with a Diablo clone.
Crashlands is an outlandish story-driven crafting-adventure set in a world of hidden magic and high technology. Tame and milk alien beasts, craft resources into menacing weaponry, befriend the locals, and go toe-to-chin with a world-domineering maniac - all in the name of ON-TIME DELIVERY!
I watched a bit of a Let’s Play on this and it looks great. Which in some regard strikes me as strange, since on the surface it plays a lot like Don’t Starve, and that one didn’t click with me (could it that I’m so shallow that it’s something as simple as the art style? Dunno). Perhaps it’s the overall silliness of Crashlands that appeals to my inner child.
Heart-rending yet inspiring story by Sam, one of the brothers behind Butterscotch Shenanigans, applying the development of Crashlands as a means to cope with his cancer and its treatment:
edit: oops, already linked above but maybe needed a bump since the game is just about to be released.
If I’m mistaken, this is a dramatic departure from Don’t Starve because there are no survival elements. There are lots of similarities in presentation and moment-to-moment gameplay, but the fundamental dramatic tension from Don’t Starve is nowhere to be found in Crashlands. It’s basically You Won’t Starve.
