Making it in Unreal: SCUM is a survival game that tracks your metabolism

“Everybody wants to grab a sword,” trainer Atala tells combatants in The Hunger Games. “But most of you will die from natural causes. 10% from infection, 20% from dehydration. Exposure can kill as easily as a knife.” It’s an idea that survival game developers have largely ignored, too. While single-player games like The Long Dark have forefronted the struggle against nature, the multiplayer open worlds available on Steam tend to become combat-focused killzones. The studios behind SCUM intend to change that. “We’re trying to take the next evolutionary step in the survival genre,” game programmer Tomislav Oreskovic tells us. “We’re trying to mix in a lot of realism and simulation. We believe that should be present in survival games but mostly isn’t so far.” Set in a dystopian near-future where mega-corporations wield the stick, SCUM is the carrot - a brutal entertainment show designed to keep the masses busy and complacent. In this TV extravaganza, prisoners are sent to a private island to battle unto death, vying for the support of viewers, producers, and sponsors. The winner needs knowledge, and not just skill, to master the complex systems developers Gamepires and Croteam have built.

from PCGamesN https://ift.tt/2wDzRhM