Ember's Verge

If you're tired of zombies, raiders, or griefers getting in the way of your survival gaming, then this is absolutely for you. Except for the occasional wolf, you're free to scratch out your existence from a deserted island. There is a great variety of world settings from common resources and indifferent wolves to scraping for everything while wolves gnaw on your southern boundary. Seasons, droughts, and floods can keep you from getting too relaxed while you try to upgrade your living conditions and start trying to farm. I'm having a blast honestly. This is survival for survival sakes. There's no building an AK from sticks and mud. Hell, there's not even a spear. 24 hours in, still in my starting area. Can't wait to explore the rest of the island. 11/10, would let date my sister.

So, I've got opinions. To start off, overall I enjoy the game quite a lot and will continue playing, and following the development. I say this as someone whose favorite game genre is survival/crafting games; the more realistic the better. I do recommend it if you enjoy games more grounded in realism like The Long Dark or The Last Plague: Blight, rather than more casual survival games like Valheim, Raft, ARK etc. Simply put this game is the closest I've found to a "Primitive Technology" vibe that I've been looking for, especially since it's surviving on a deserted island (so no pre built structures) and avoids the fantasy theme of e.g. zombies. It's just you with nothing, and the wilderness. ---------------------- Quick-checklist, elaboration after: Graphics: ☐ Potato | ☐ Bad | [X] Decent | ☐ Beautiful | ☐ Masterpiece Atmosphere: ☐ Okay | [X] Immersive | ☐ Masterclass Performance: ☐ Well-optimized | [X] Decent | ☐ Stuttery | ☐ Poor | ☐ Unplayable Difficulty: ☐ Easy | ☐ Medium | [X] Rough | Unfair Survival Mechanics: ☐ Balanced | [X] Punishing but fair | ☐ Brutal Grind: ☐ No grind | ☐ Casual grind | [X] Tedious | ☐ Life-consuming Controls: ☐ Smooth | ☐ Grounded | [X] Clunky Bugs: No bugs noticed during my playtime. --------------- Strap in, this will be a long wall of text. Okay so, let's start with the graphics: Overall it's decent, but the atmosphere is on point. It's in an interesting middle ground where the general foliage and atmospheric effects in the game look great and makes it feel immersive, and on the other hand the models of the surrounding scenery like rocks are rather simple, without much variation. All large rocks ranging from singular boulders in the fields to the map's mountain ridges seem to have the same general round shape and look, just with a different scale. So occasionally I'll notice the repetition when wandering around. This isn't an issue in wooded areas, only noticable in barren/open areas. The atmosphere of the game is fantastic. The first time walking into a cave and having everything turn completely pitch black, and slightly struggling to go back out was unnerving. Stumbling upon a thick pine tree forest, having a heavy fog appear and unable to really see anything past a few feet besides thick foliage gave a welcomed but uneasy feeling and kept me on edge while I was there. Struggling to see what could be hiding in the grass only to get scared by a rabbit running past has given me a few spooks. The nights are dark, the storms are heavy, and the morning feels refreshing. The general quality of item models are rather good, and the only one I have a personal issue with is the look of clay. It looks like a hard edged rock rather than a softer material that you could work with your hands; which I find odd since there is already a model for a pile of mud/dirt, which could just be repurposed for clay with a different texture and feel more accurate. Now, onto performance: This is my experience on both my PC and my Steam Deck. On my PC it runs well. I haven't noticed any performance dips while running everything on the highest quality, so that's a plus. On the Steam Deck it's a different story. On the lowest settings, 720p, terrain/draw distance brought down to ~50%, the average frame rate is around 50. In some heavier areas like the thick woods, it can dip a bit lower, or during some weather. I'd assume the majority of the performance issues is just from atmospheric effects. In either case, it is still playable and personally enjoyable to play on the Steam Deck. Difficulty and Survival Mechanics: Important context: I play on permadeath with all guidance/assistance features turned off to see how intuitive the game is. I have built my first mud hut and currently am in a good survival loop with a constant supply of fish, rabbit snares, wolf meat and some vegetables. There is a codex in-game with some general information on resource locations, some crafting recipes, and some other tips. I aimed to use this only as a last resort if I could not figure something out. Okay so, in short; while the difficulty is rather rough, I think it's fairly balanced. Most of the difficulty comes from finding specific resources, but more specifically how you find/get them. Example, clay. I spent some time looking for patches of clay in the ground around water/shores with no luck, digging in random spots only to find just dirt, and it took enough wandering around that I ended up checking the codex. Turns out, clay spawns in specific, static, rock crevices that are near water, usually a small but decent walk away. These rock crevices don't look much different from the surrounding rock scenery/collection of stones and the clay blends in with granite, so it's rather easy to completely miss them. So even with that information from the codex it took some extra time to finally find a couple spots with some clay, and those spots were some that I have walked past a handful of times in the area where I set up shelter. Example, fiber. The main way (but not the only way) to get fiber is by removing specific foliage on the ground, small bushes. However, you can only get fiber from specific bushes, and without trial and error it is difficult to tell what does give fiber. The issue lies more on being able to tell what can and can not be harvested for fiber, rather than making every bush harvestable, because realistically not every plant will yield usable fiber for cordage. In the birch/maple areas you get fiber from darker small bushes, in another area you get them from a more vibrant green leaf heavy plant. This is just a smaller issue that I personally struggled with. You can also get extra fiber by harvesting tree roots, which works well, it just takes more effort. The gameplay loop of surviving is rather balanced. You can find fresh water, but there's a chance you can get sick from it if you don't boil it. Your character can get wet, the wind-chill can give problems, but you can take cover behind trees and in crevices. You can find a handful of different types of fruits/vegetables to keep you going till the next day, can get a steady supply of fish by setting up traps or fishing, and meat after a kill is plentiful. The general grind is what you'd expect from a survival game that tries to take a more realistic approach. Performing actions takes time, starting fires doesn't always work out, you can mess up crafting and lose resources, your items have durability and the quality of the materials affects the end product; however your character's passive skills do get better over time, so you'll end up breaking less things, harvest more resources from animals, start fires more efficiently etc. In that sense, yes it is tedious but it's what makes it feel like an actual "Survival" game. So.. the controls are kinda rough. Yes, the general movement is fine. You can walk, run, jump, swim. There is no crouch which is a little odd. My final verdict is that the game is good. While it is rough around the edges and needs some QoL fixes, it shows a lot of promise and I'm really eager to see how it progresses. The map is enormous with a mix of biomes, the atmosphere is great and immersive, you can (in most cases) logically figure out what to do and where to go to find resources to survive.

Love it. It's hard to find survival games where the focus is on actually surviving without supernatural elements, so that alone had me interested. The floods and droughts add a unique challenge. A few bugs here and there, but the dev is very active and responsive to feedback. Would definitely recommend.

TLDR: its rough and needs work but currently its very good and if u want a truly primitive game this is the one its rough and got bugs here and there but its truly the best survival game i played, the first one to ACTUALLY be primitive, all other survival games i played got some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ story or fantasy stuff but im glad this is one is normal here are the bugs/complains i have so the dev can make the game better 1: the stick spawnrate is so ass i find one stick per area like cmon a whole forest doesnt have more then a few sticks? 2: the world feels like lifeless sometimes theres not much that animals or stuff, just add more animals and stuff to do 3: theres only 1 crafting object and thats the flat stone and then pretty much u can craft anything, the dev should add more stuff that give u access to crafting recipes 4: the animation is rough doesnt have to be realistic animation just needs to look good and not goofy 5: this is a bug, whenever moving my camera is so choppy and laggy i genuinely thought my game was running at 30 fps but no it was the camera, please fix this dev 6: the map is pretty bland, dev needs to add more cool areas, caves, animals, etc.

6 days in, the flood destroyed my little mud house and swallowed most of my collected resources while I was out checking my snare. I scrambled to move the little loot I had left to higher ground, and built a little campfire. I cannot build even a simple shelter here, I'll have to move on and rebuild. If I survive that long. The game might be a little rough around the edges in terms of animation and presentation, but I like it overall. So far the systems are well thought out and working well together. Item placement works well, building is simple. Pacing is good, and information is there if you seek it out in the Codex or pay attention to the hints. I'm looking forward to exploring this game more.

Calming but not easy game play which I enjoy as I'm the kind of player who solo plays green hell on hardest difficulty and survives for 100 days, overall have enjoyed the experience This game teaches you how harsh nature can be don't be the foolish man who builds his house in a flood plain... A few small tweaks could make it where I want to play this game a fair bit longer: -Setting to let the audio play when paused -If missing item in recipe then a click to jump to making that item would be helpful -Ocean water to make salt (Maybe a simple as just have a cup of it sitting out and after so long it dries out, or it must be boiled -bees / beehive (smoker?) --honey / wax / candles? -plant cattails, the part that is being used as tinder can be made into flour, or spread around to grow more cattails --Primitive sweet roll could be made with cattail flour and honey Items which are no longer bugs or tweaks: -Position saves, but the rotation of flat crafting rock does not seem to save --The dev team reached out, this is a feature not a bug, the rock rotates to the direction you are interacting with it.

First and foremost, the game has a demo version. A big + sign that we miss in the industry today all to often. The game itself... Its good. Needs some work here some there, maybe a few items added, Some minor bugs noticed, some already patched. Developer is very active at the moment, few patches dropped already in consideration with feedback and suggestions. You are stranded on a deserted island and need to survive in a fight (or cooperation) with nature. From what I see you can also escape the island, did not get so far- There is a raft in the game thou. You will NOT build fortresses and tesla coils! But huts are there. No sci fi crafting, make a bow. A rain collector, a clay bowl. No freezers, but storing in the ground slows decay. And so on. Farm, hunt, swim, escape from wolves or hunt them. Different biomes offer different resources and most offer same basic ones. Core gameplay will not change if I noticed correctly and that is a good thing. The game is good as it is, even very good. It might even be great with some work. I did not have any crashes or similar issues, graphics are ok, sound of nature is nice. If you like survival games, if nothing else give the demo a try. It offers a limited number of days to get a feel of the game, then go from there. Full game is not expensive at all.

Finally, a "Primitive Technology"-Simulator!

Hooked immediately. Looking forward to updates and more content. Excellent work. The game is a low key, survival game. Its basic at first, but very intricate when it comes putting simple elements together. Some complain about the animations when crafting, I enjoy it, this is a game where the slowness, or the moment is supposed to be there, whether chipping stone, or making the fire, that is the point. So far, its great, solo Dev, responsive, and I intend to support this game full "steam"... no pun. Seriously, no zombies, no AI, just survival. As if Les Stroud was dropped via boat on an island and left to his expertise.

This game is extreme survival... and its not, actually :) Your first run is extreme. You dont know anything, everything is confusing and makes no sense. And then it does. You memorise the map. You memorise animal patterns, you know how much of what you need and you build your cozy existence in a realm where you gotta think what you are doing. At some point you'll be able to switch from non-stop survival race to casually living on a cool island. As a side note: developer listens to player feedback and introduced both bugfixes and QoL changes based on player feedback. Hope to see ya all on this not so little island! P.S.: the game will run smoothly even on a potato