In an early build of Stranded: Alien Dawn, I wiped out my entire crew. Besides failing to protect my poor interstellar backpackers, I also pushed each and every one of them to the brink of madness – a nightmare scenario that culminated in a horde of giant flesh-eating bugs systematically tearing my colony apart. Ultimately, I wasn’t sure whether surviving just 10 in-game days on the Red Planet was an accomplishment or a punishment. When you’re starving, sleep deprived, and losing your mind, a week-and-a-bit isn’t long for a holiday, but sure as shit it feels like a lifetime.
Through all of this, Stranded: Alien Dawn was a great experience for me. This is a planet survival sim developed by the same team behind Surviving Mars, Tropico 3, 4 and 5, among many other similarly-styled strategy games. Stranded: Alien Dawn is also a storytelling RPG, where players can create and fail as they wish.
The gameplay in Stranded: Alien Dawn is a sandbox experience, allowing players to adjust the difficulty and gameplay style, and take different approaches to achieve success,” says Bisser Dyankov, CEO of Haemimont Games. There has been a lot of diversity in gameplay – it exceeds our expectations. While some players have mastered the ‘Crash Landing’ scenario in record time, others have built massive bases and have defended them against huge waves of enemies for years.”
Stranded: Alien Dawn launches in full today, April 25, after several months in Steam’s Early Access. In addition, Dyankov says: “Stranded: Alien Dawn has been an amazing journey for us, and we are grateful to the passionate community that has helped shape it.”
I sneer at players who complete the game’s opening Crash Landing scenario in record time, but their efforts also inspire my creative side. Again, it’s those circumstantial, inadvertent moments in games like Stranded: Alien Dawn that I find fascinating – where one player may spend all their time equipping an entire commune with carpeted living spaces and wallpapered walls; while another may scavenge for hours to ensure their community survives.
The dev-side of the game is equally exciting for Dyankov, who says striking a balance between hardwired story elements and random outcomes is part of what makes it fun. Our goal as developers is to approach story beats in a way that complements, coincides with, or is directly related to gameplay events. It is not unusual for video games to have a separation between ‘video game things to do’ (i.e. day-to-day management actions in Stranded: Alien Dawn) and story/RPG elements, but we believe that integrating our storytelling into these ‘video game things to do’ will allow players to connect the dots and tell their own stories.”
” Humans are storytellers. Our understanding of the world around us is based on connecting certain elements into stories that make sense. Our belief as game developers is that gameplay elements should be woven into the story. Players can take the game (and therefore the story of their survivors) in their own direction. Rather than telling a story, Stranded: Alien Dawn strives to create a natural emergent story based on the things that happen to the survivors and the interactions between them. It could be described as ‘sandbox storytelling’.
“[Ultimately] the key is that we are not trying to tell a story in full, but promote certain events – gameplay events, story beats, etc – to prompt the player to create their own stories. Thus, we don’t separate gameplay and RPG elements, but rather aim for them to work together to create an engaging and compelling experience.”
A big part of what makes Stranded: Alien Dawn work is that it never takes itself too seriously. While my ill-fated travelers were trapped in an absolute nightmare scenario, there was something darkly funny about watching them share one gun between four, while scampering away from the horde of bloodthirsty flesh-eaters. As far as Dyankov is concerned, games that don’t take themselves too seriously have a greater degree of creative freedom – and while he admires games that explore deeply rooted themes, he believes humor and creative freedom are central to the likes of Stranded: Alien Dawn, Tropico 3-5, and Surviving Mars from Haemimont.
Dyankov and his team hope that Stranded: Alien Dawn sustains the fun that underpins each (mis)adventure, so players return for more. Having grown in size and scope over the last few months in Early Access, it remains to be seen how the survival planet sim continues to evolve in the wake of its 1.0 release, but Dyankov is confident the game will continue to inspire players with a penchant for interplanetary colonization.
“[In the coming months] we hope to see a thriving community of players and modders who are eager to tackle new challenges and discover innovative ways to approach the game with every playthrough,” he says. “Players are encouraged to share their ideas and experiences in a dynamic environment, enhancing the gaming experience. Our goal is to build a community that’s united by their love of the game.”
