By Katey Khaos

For those unfamiliar with the indie game scene ~ you’re missing out on thousands of awesome titles! Thanks to Steam, more and more of the indie games coming out are seeing the light of day and getting their due credit. Normally, I wouldn’t review a game that’s still in beta, but hey, by the time you read this (like now), the full game will be released.

Don’t Starve has become one of my favorite indie games as of late, with its amazing Tim Burton-esque art style (and music to boot!) and an interesting survival concept. What more could you possibly ask for?

The premise of the game is this: No instructions. No help. No hand-holding. Start with nothing and craft, hunt, research, farm and fight to survive. Sound simple enough? Your name is Wilson, a gentleman scientist who has been captured by a demon and relocated to a mysterious wilderness world. In this new mystery world, your goal is to utilize your environment, as well as the inhabitants, to … well, survive and ~ hopefully ~ find your way back home.

Now, I’m sure the question that’s on everyone’s mind is, “How do you survive?” The answer isn’t hard and fast, but to help out, I will suggest collecting food and gathering resources to craft tools to kill various enemies is a good start. Mind you, you’ll be living on your own with nobody else, except for the wildlife on the island (and some are much friendlier than others).

With that being said, let me also forewarn you that surviving isn’t as easy as you might think. No, this isn’t Oregon Trail, and no, you won’t die from dysentery. There’s a lot less chance of that here. Like I said, you just need to survive.

After a while, surviving becomes less of a chore and more fun, which makes this game surprisingly addicting for such a simple concept. What’s better is there’s more than one correct way to do things. There’s many ways to survive, so don’t be afraid of trying new strategies.

Don’t Starve is available on Steam for $15. For a trailer of the game, to buy the game and more, visit store.steampowered.com/app/219740/.