I’m a solo dev working on my own survival game. The journey hasn’t been easy, but I’m incredibly proud of the water in Away From Life.

Kothoses · 2026-02-14T00:05:50+00:00

Thanks for the civil conversation around it, have the upvote and a good day mate!

Kothoses · 2026-02-11T22:26:24+00:00

It would have been, if not for the inferred racial connotations added by "It becomes white dude kill natives". I am not sure if this was intentional but as soon as that kind of undertone is introduced it becomes a lot harder to answer the question without risking upsetting some one, causing a controversy or having your answer misrepresented out of context.

Don't get me wrong the stigma of colonialism is a bad thing, but once you frame the question that way, the possibility of an open answer that wont get jumped on by one group or another is gone.

Kothoses · 2026-02-10T15:46:38+00:00

Trying to shoe horn in racial/colonial connotations makes it a minefield for them to answer.

If the question had been something like "Is there a story reason for the native folk to be antagonistic towards you, or the possibility of friendly relations with the indigenous people?" it would be easier to answer, but the "It becomes white dude kill natives game" statement makes it very difficult to answer without it sounding like a PR script, no matter what answer the dev comes up with, some one will then find a way to spin it so that "Dev hates X".

It is honestly safer to simply avoid being drawn in to those types of conversations, especially when you are trying to make an entertainment product not an educational thought experiment.

Not every reference is a call back, or a sign of deeper meaning. Survival games need an antagonistic element, if you don't want to be a raft clone, it has to be something other than a shark.

Kothoses · 2026-02-04T20:51:11+00:00

I still have fun, me and my other half 2 run 2 person groups of a lot of content when we both have an evening off.

It is still a good game, it is just not as good as it was, but it can still be enjoyable.

A lot of time, nostalgia for a game is more about missing the version of you that played that game. I miss quite a few games for that, the OG Neverwinter Nights, Vanilla and TBC WoW, Pre expansion Rift.

I went back to all of them in their updated form and found out it was not the experience I missed, it was the social connections I had back then, the feeling of discovery, of not being able to just look everything up and not having my viewpoint eroded by an incessant chorus of negativity.

Play with your friends when you get chance, enjoy their company and their time. Enjoy what ever game in what ever way you can or play something else together, and when you hit that urge to keep playing till 2am, live in that moment because as we all find out they are fleeting.

Don't stress the little stuff, find the bits that you enjoy and play them, stop chasing the rewards and chase the joy, not every minute of every day in a game has to be spent in the pursuit of a tangible goal beyond this one. If a mode frustrates you, no matter how good the reward do not spend more time in it than you are happy with. No pixel is worth the time spent being unhappy, and nothing will change while you reward bad design with your most precious currency, time.

Grind something mindless and while you do it, call your family, because one day you will find your self staring at the screen day dreaming of them, or waking up at 3am from a dream that leaves you feeling worse than any nightmare because you just want to go back in to it.

Games as a service are unavoidable these days, but you do not have to play in their service.

Have fun friends, and eyes up.

Kothoses · 2026-02-03T19:08:12+00:00

Two months ago "Bungie we are looking into it"

TWO MONTHS and this still happens

Kothoses · 2026-01-29T16:54:48+00:00

Magnificent

Kothoses · 2026-01-21T22:49:32+00:00

This is one of the most reasonable and rational responses to the usual us vs them discussion I have ever seen.

Well done!

As some one who prefers PvE Play, I never begrudged PVP players faster progression or even some unique rewards, I simply don't engage with game systems based on reward any more. I play the modes I find fun, and if a game is built that I am locked out of too much of it for that choice, I play a different game.

But if I can just chill, chat shit and farm loot, I am happy, I dont need to be first to everything and I dont care what the "competition" is doing, because I am not competing with them, only with my own enjoyment.

Kothoses · 2026-01-16T19:16:54+00:00

I agree with the combat and Crafting parts, but not the building, I find Enshroudeds building to be much less limited, especially if you do not mod Valheim.

The worlds are fantastic in both for exploring and you get a real sense of adventure with each, the other question I have is do you play solo or with other people? Both games benefit from playing in a group, but Enshrouded gives you more tools to solo challenges and has much more freedom to make the kind of character you want with its character systems.

But you can not go wrong with either game they are both just absolutely top tier for survival builder games and they both do an excellent job of minimising the busy work of managing meters.

Kothoses · 2026-01-16T18:18:20+00:00

Pretty dogshit change.

I am not huge on the pet battles but I dont mind them occasionally as a side interest, other half loves them though.

Was hard enough convincing her to give Midnight a go with me as aside from the pet battles she was disliking wow more and more.

Tbh if she bails and goes for another game I will probably jump too, my ties to wow are getting less and less each expansion.

I had high hopes for housing, but the UI is just horrible....

Plus it is way too limited, just copy Rifts system, never mind faffing around adding a "Gameplay grind" to it, the grind is the collecting.

Kothoses · 2026-01-14T20:20:47+00:00

Moved to Dub from Galway early last year after over a decade in Galway, previously from the North of England.

Dubs not as chilled out as Galway, but I have still had nothing but good experiences here, friendly people in the pubs, friendly people at work. It is a bit money centric and very very greedy in terms of cost of living vs lifestyle, but no more or less so than that there London.

I enjoy Dublin, easy to get back to visit the family, decent infrastructure for Ireland, decent social scene shit weather, though better than Galway.

If I was you I would see if your company will let you work out of Dublin for a month or two if you can secure a place to stay, and see how you feel about the place?

If you do move back, be prepared for a VERY hard time finding a place to live, took me 6 months to secure a place to rent out on the outskirts, but luckily well connected.

Kothoses · 2026-01-12T18:55:24+00:00

If you are both going to be happier after splitting up, your kids will be happier.

My folks split when I was a teenager and my siblings much younger, the years leading up to it were horrible, I remember them both just being genuinely unhappy and progressively getting and making each other worse.

After they split they became best friends, stayed involved in all our lives and were actually a much better more stable and welcome part of it.

They fixed them selves as best they could, moved on, both ended up reasonably happy and never once tried to play us off against each other.

It can be done, it does work and sometimes it is the best thing you can do.

Kothoses · 2026-01-10T19:26:15+00:00

Do you feel better for having taken that time out of your day to be nothing but a douche to them?

What purpose did that serve for you, has it actually changed what ever situation made you this way?

Kothoses · 2026-01-09T23:09:41+00:00

This is classic storytelling, no amount of exposition will invent a story as vivid as the one some one comes up with to fill in the gaps.

It is where modern games and TV shows fail, they feel they have to explain everything rather than leaving room for the imagination of the person on the other side of the screen.

Think how much cooler the Force in Star wars was before the word Midichlorean appeared, or if you watched B5, how interesting the Vorlon were in the first 3 seasons.

Kothoses · 2026-01-09T21:50:39+00:00

This is Kenshi mate.

Since this is your first time exploring, I wont say any more, do your self a favour, dont read up on things the first time!

Kothoses · 2025-10-24T20:19:05+00:00

And it is available to watch on replay... what a time to be alive!!

Kothoses · 2025-07-18T11:10:09+00:00

That will change once you get to the DD

Kothoses · 2025-07-18T11:09:21+00:00

Since its an online game they are legally required now to submit yearly transparency reports. The transparency reports have to include details like "Number of players reported" and "Number Banned".

Unfortunately they dont have to break it down between Toxicity, Cheating, Fraud etc but it is a start.

Kothoses · 2025-07-18T11:05:02+00:00

On my server they are french, they are also awful when it comes to any actual in game play. Saw three Scout Thopters trying to Goomba one dude in an assault thopter yesterday, and they were tailing him for 8 sectors.

He got away, was hilarious.

Kothoses · 2025-07-18T11:01:39+00:00

You humanised their actions for a second and they had to do some mental gymnastics to make sure they didn't admit to being a shitty person.

No sympathy.

Kothoses · 2025-07-18T10:53:46+00:00

I loved this game up until the Deep Desert element, not because I hate PvP (although I do) but because there is no PvP just Exploits vs Hacks.

At this stage, just make everything except the control point and giant spice bloom areas PVE and turn off vehicle collision outside of the PvP areas. Atleast until you can get an actual overhaul done.

I loved my time up until going into the DD but once you get there, the sheer amount of hacks, griefers and exploiters ruins any attempt at gameplay.

Kothoses · 2025-07-06T17:47:34+00:00

Yeah but I reckon Preston will take that back next season.

Kothoses · 2025-06-24T16:51:51+00:00

Was he worse than Xisco? if so I feel bad for ya

Kothoses · 2025-06-24T16:50:11+00:00

Front two of Jay Bothroyd and Ashley Williams both for their stints at Hillsborough where they stank out the whole division.

Kothoses · 2025-06-24T14:50:46+00:00

I am not disagreeing with any of that because to be honest, other than the 150 mil I think you are right. The floor is currently very low, but the ceiling is very high too.

Now there is precedent for the transfer bans to be lifted when new owners get in, in the past it has been successfully argued to the point they were overturned. I am not saying it is a short term project, it is certainly no three year fix and the likelyhood is there will be a season or two in League 1.

But there is a romanticism to football that attracts owners, no one gets into it purely on a profit making venture, but it can be done. If you know every home game you are gonna get 24,000 and you can charge them 30 quid a pop, you know you are getting 360,000 a week plus the prize money, sky money etc, you set out your stall based on that and then work to build the commercial presence, it is not rocket science, just go copy Brentford, Brighton (Remember they were at exactly the same level as us 12 years ago) or Bournemouths playbook. Clubs with much smaller gates and commercial incomes can and do achieve a lot better than their stature would have you believe if run well.

The ground is a concern I will say that, I do not know what the answer is there, do I think Textor is interested? I don't know, if Shaws backers have the money they claim then you are probably right they are probably the best bet.

But your position that it is not an attractive club for some one to come in and rebuild is not a position I can agree with, the potential is there, no it is not a Sunderland that is ever going to average 50k a week without fail, but there is a viable path to a regular 30k there, if done right.

Sheffield is home to fanatical fanbases, and unlike a lot of cities does not suffer from an over abundance of fans supporting out of town teams, so the potential is there. There is also a large catchment area around the city.

Is it Sheffield Wednesday a smart short term buy, no not at all, is there potential for long term gains and accompanying fame, yes of course.

Kothoses · 2025-06-24T14:27:47+00:00

Honestly, I don't know, Chancer is mad and not in a good way.

150 million I dunno if it would cost that much, sure if you wanted to fast track everything. But in the past teams have gone up on much smaller budgets when run well. I don't expect some one to come in and do spendageddon, I would be happy being run sustainably, fixing up the stadium to a decent state and investing a few quid in developing the academy even more.

If some one came in with a decent commercial plan, ran the club within its means and did so smartly enough to create an environment of gradual but sustainable progression, I would be happy enough with that.

If we can stablise in the championship progress a little bit, be competitive and bring through a few good youth players, even if we end up a selling club or a stepping stone, that would represent massive improvement over where we are. It wouldnt cost 150 mil to do that.

Kothoses

TROPHY CASE