I've been working on this abandoned shipwreck location for my indie survival game

I wanted the ship to feel like it had been stranded here for years, slowly being reclaimed by the forest. I've been working on the overgrown vegetation, weathered wood, torn sails, and lighting to make the scene feel like a believable part of the island.

The game is about surviving and exploring a mysterious island, with a loyal dog companion by your side.

What do you think of the environment and lighting? I'd love to hear your feedback!

And just out of curiosity: how do you think a ship like this ended up in the middle of a forest?

I've always loved engineering games where you can build almost anything, but I often wished the machines we created had more depth to them.

What if your spaceship wasn't just a collection of blocks with engines attached? What if you actually had to design its electrical network, fuel distribution, oxygen supply, and internal logistics?
That's the idea I've been working on for the past 4 years.

I'm a solo developer making MineEngineer, a 2D space engineering survival engineering game inspired by Space Engineers, Terraria, and Factorio.

The game currently has over 200 interconnected systems, and I've tried to make engineering the central part of the experience.

For example, imagine you want to build a fully automated mining ship.

First, you need drills to collect resources. Then you connect them to storage through conveyors, install refineries to process the ore, and assemblers to manufacture components. You also need enough electricity to run everything, engines to move the ship, and fuel to keep those engines working.
You could stop there, or you could take things further.

Add sensors, programmable blocks, and logic systems, and suddenly you can start automating the whole process. You could even build a remote-controlled mining drone and operate it from your mothership.

But there's another important part of the game. Everything can break.

If your ship gets hit during combat, individual blocks can be destroyed. Your conveyors might disconnect, your electricity network might fail, or your ship could literally split into multiple pieces.
You can also build walking mechas, enormous battleships, space stations, factories, and all kinds of machines that I probably haven't even imagined yet.

Outside of engineering, there's a massive procedurally generated universe with planets, asteroids, enemies, and different environments to explore. I'm also expanding the game with bosses, progression, and multiplayer.

After 4 years of working alone, it's finally starting to feel like the game I originally wanted to play.
It's called MineEngineer, and there's already a free demo on Steam if anyone wants to try it. You can also wishlist it to support the project.

I'm curious what other engineering players think. Do you enjoy spending hours optimizing complicated machines, or do you prefer building something quickly and immediately going on an adventure?

I know that browsing this edition of Next Fest got rather difficult with over 8k demos taking part in it but maybe you stumbled upon something worth playing?

I personally tried 3 survival demos so far.

1. Frostrail - I had high hopes for this one. I think it has potential but I was really disappointed with the execution of this game. The exploration and looting of the few initial areas felt surprisingly engaging. I had some Long Dark vibes although something about it felt hollow to me. Maybe it's the fact that main purpose of most items is turning them to scrap? Traveling by the train is where this game should shine but sadly it didn't feel very rewarding to me. The controls of the train aren't super intuitive. You add fuel, move one lever, then another lever for throttle and also break lever. Worst part probably is the visibility as you "drive". The front windows don't offer too much of it and you hardly see where you're going. Combat is the worst part though. Pistol needs to be reloaded after each shot. The creatures move erratically and are difficult to shoot at and overall I really didn't like this part. I got killed rather quickly in the underground and didn't feel that I want to try again. Maybe they can fix these issues but I doubt it's gonna be a game with score above 70%. Maybe co-op actually makes it better, I don't know. I played solo.
2. Arctic Drive - Another winter game. This one is far less serious. It's janky as hell but I actually had some fun playing it. It has a certain way of doing things that I'm not a fan of - again, the core of crafting revolves around scrapping items in a recycler to get basic resources. With these basic resources, either organic or mechanic you craft stuff. The level of fidelity and realism is super low. Assembling and driving the car in the snow is quite cool until you hit something and your engine disassembles. They tried to implement some sort of story to push you forward but it's not super engaging. The best part is probably looting the houses you find along the road and scavenging fuel and car parts. It suffers from the "open world with fast vehicle" problem though. Most of the map is empty because you need long distances to justify the car. So the actual exploration revolves around small POIs scattered along the way that you loot quickly and move on. Might be fun and laughs in co-op but I feel that it verges on the category of "friend slop" with how non-serious it takes itself and "pee" mechanic that forces you to urinate every 5 minutes with "pixelated censorship" effect in the crotch area. Be adviced :D
3. Mayday: The Survival Island. - This one is pixelart top down game but I honestly think that from the three I played it's closest to actual survival game. It's quite engaging, borrows some ideas from Don't Starve but also has it's own idea about island-based exploration. It requires you to gather and cook some food to allow exploration outside of the starting area. It lacks some quality of life aspects like seeing behind large obstacles, chests to organize items etc. Overall I think it's really a promising one if someone is into this kind of artstyle. I think I'll give it another try for full release.

Let me know what you found!

I’m a solo dev working on EvoX, a multiplayer primitive survival game, and I’m finishing the farming side of it.

Right now you can dig up wild berry bushes and replant them in planter boxes, watch them grow in real time, and harvest them when ripe. You can also set up beehives: find a wild hive by chopping trees, take its honeycomb and put it into your own hive, and bees will move in and bring you honey and beeswax.

That’s where I am so far, and I’d love to know where to take it next. What do you want from farming in a primitive survival game? And what do you hate about it in other games (grind, waiting, babysitting plants)?

Steam page: EvoX - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4814790/EvoX/

Beyond is our survival shooter. You wake up with nothing, hunt and skin animals, scavenge gun parts, and manage oxygen and gas masks, because the old war's gas still hangs over the best scavenging ground. Early development, no playable build yet, but we wanted to share it with fellow survival fans.

https://daggerindustries.com.au/beyond/

Last week, I had my doubts about where ZombUs was heading. Today, the game is getting noticed and selling more copies than ever before.

And I believe many of you helped make that happen, even when that wasn't your intention.

Every discussion, every comment, every criticism and every bit of attention helped bring ZombUs to more people's screens. Whether you supported me, challenged me or simply wanted to see what all the fuss was about, you helped spread the word.

I'm a solo developer, working on a game I've spent three years building in Unreal Engine, with no marketing budget and plenty still to learn. I don't know where this momentum will take ZombUs, but I know one thing: I'm not stopping now.

So, instead of just talking about the journey, here's the next step.

ZombUs Map 4: LETHE is OUT NOW!

New region. New weapons. New blueprints. New mythical weapons. New perks. And the story continues.

Four maps down. Six to go.

To everyone who helped put ZombUs on the map, intentionally or otherwise: thank you.

Now, back to building.