As somebody who sometimes takes a moderately unga bunga strategy to videogames, I need to admit I lastly really feel moderately seen by Subnautica 2 designer Anthony Gallegos proclaiming that we’re all monkey-brained players who love survival crafting due to how they faucet into our most primal instincts.
As reported by GamesRadar, Gallegos sat down with Edge journal to speak about Unknown Worlds’ upcoming recreation—which is at the moment going by way of a little bit of a second after writer Krafton gutted the studio’s high brass, delayed the sport into 2026, and now face a lawsuit by the hands of the studio’s co-founders—and what it’s about survival video games that preserve folks coming again even because the style continues to swell and shift priorities.
“I used to work at this one Marvel studio, and we had some coworkers that may sometimes convey their children to work,” Gallegos mentioned. “I used to be watching this little child play [Astroneer] and I used to be like, ‘Oh, geez, good luck, child, that recreation has no onboarding.’ I got here again two hours later, and he had made a base that was leaps and bounds above something I may have fathomed for myself. I used to be like, ‘OK, both this child’s a genius, or survival recreation mechanics are simply easy sufficient that they are universally approachable.'”
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Contemplating a 10-year-old can construct a greater Minecraft home than me, I would wager it is in all probability each, however Gallegos says that finally survival video games efficiently faucet into the foolish primitive components of our mind: “We’re all little monkeys,” he begins. “Everybody’s little monkey brains like shelter and meals.”
I imply, hey, true. I actually take pleasure in having a roof over my head, and anybody who’s spent greater than 5 minutes in my neighborhood is aware of how a lot I really like a snack or a candy deal with. I additionally completely take pleasure in a superb survival recreation, so I reckon Gallegos is fairly on the cash right here.
He additionally says that, equally to MMOs, individuals who dabble in survival video games are usually fairly down for making an attempt out a number of completely different ones. “If I see folks play by way of all of the content material of Subnautica after which they depart for a bit bit till we do a content material patch, that does not alarm me, as a result of I do know what they’re doing. They simply transfer from one to [another] with their mates, or by themselves. However they play all of them.”
Gallegos additionally factors out an growing precedence being positioned on extra multiplayer or social components, and that the style has largely begun to shift away from an unforgiving struggle in your life into one thing with rather less friction.
I undoubtedly see that—I do not bear in mind the final time I watched my meticulously-created village burn to the bottom earlier than me, or suffered a loss of life that catastrophically altered the trajectory of my save file. I do surprise if a part of that does include how game-hoppy the style might be. I’ve misplaced depend of how my occasions my buddies have prodded and poked one another into shopping for a brand-new survival recreation, rinsed it for per week after which by no means touched it once more. That kind of in-and-out playstyle does not precisely lend itself to challengingly advanced programs, in spite of everything.
And hey, like Gallegos mentioned, on the finish of the day we’re all simply little monkeys. And this little monkey prefers her survival video games to be simpler on the ol’ noggin. I am already duking it out in actual life, let me hit sticks into one thing vaguely axe-shaped in peace.
