Don’t Starve is a roguelike game. The art is quite unique and the game seems like fun. Its a game of discovery, as I’ve been playing it for a few days now, but I’m still sure what the game is about.

Note: This includes mild spoilers. If you want to discover absolutely everything for yourself, go out (or stay in, that works as well), buy the game, and play it yourself. I’m not going to discuss anything major though. In fact, I probably don’t even now anything that major yet.

You start after you wake up in a strange place, prompted by a guy who immediately disappears. He instructs you to find food. That’s all you know about the game in the beginning.

Finding food at first is pretty easy. There’s bound to be a bush of berries, or a wild carrot around somewhere, but it gets harder, as you consume the resources. Therefore you need to learn to hunt, or grow your own food. To do that, you need tools. You can construct some basic ones from the materials that are easily available to you. However, in the long run, you’ll need machinery to prototype new tools. Actually, not even that long. You’ll often do it during your first day.

The locals aren’t very friendly unless you feed them.

So, as you live longer, you’ll learn more things you can build, and you’ll find more interesting stuff to interact with.

Pigs seem to be the intelligent race of the area, but there are stranger animals around. (Pigs are also an important source of manure. Just feed them and they’ll produce some immediately.)

Apparently there’s something called Nightmare Fuel in the game and you can make some with your Prestihatitator. Sounds simple and straighforward.

You’ll also get to plan out how you are going to proceed. You’ll see bunch of stuff available to you if you just happen to have the right materials and the right machinery.

Learning the hard way that lighting stuff on fire might get out of hand.

While you learn how to survive, you’ll amass days, which will convert to experience when you die. This experience unlocks new characters, such as my favorite one, Willow. Willow has her own lighter, which is quite good and often comes in handy. Other characters I’ve unlocked thusfar include a strongman, a girl who is accompanied by her dead sister, and a robot, who is damaged by the rain, but powered up by lightning.

All in all, the game is quite enjoyable. It does have a component of feeling like work, but apparently many people are willing to live with that (based on how popular certain MMOs are), so that probably won’t bother too many people. On the other hand, there is an element of fun to the building. Do you know why you need that Divining Rod? Neither do I, but I do want to find out.

So far it hasn’t felt repetitive, but I’m guessing that day will come. How soon? Who knows.

I still don’t know what I’m supposed to do in the game. I guess the man in the beginning has something to do with it, as well as the entry point to the caves. Certainly I hope some of the things I haven’t managed to build yet will help.