So there I was starting another camp with my girlfriend in the game Don't Starve Together, and while I was running around hunting the ape-bulls for their meat, it struck me how well integrated the hunger mechanic is into the gameplay loop. Especially for a survival game, a genre where hunger is often a bar that nags you every five minutes, asking to be filled up.
So what makes DST's food systems work? For one, you really need to hammer out your meal plan. Different seasons and conditions affect what kinds of food you can gather, food will spoil so you need to time when you eat so your meals don't get wasted, and you generally want to set up some garden plots and beehives to grow your own ingredients.
Furthermore, hunger itself is tied to the two core stats: health and sanity. Some food is immediately accessible and filling, but barely increase your health. You can eat raw food in a pinch, but your sanity will take a hit.
In short, cooking and eating food is fun in DST, because instead of being a chore like in other survival games, it's a core mechanic that affects everything else you can do.
So what about you, have you thought this hard about fictional food before? What games would you say have great hunger mechanics?
So what makes DST's food systems work? For one, you really need to hammer out your meal plan. Different seasons and conditions affect what kinds of food you can gather, food will spoil so you need to time when you eat so your meals don't get wasted, and you generally want to set up some garden plots and beehives to grow your own ingredients.
Furthermore, hunger itself is tied to the two core stats: health and sanity. Some food is immediately accessible and filling, but barely increase your health. You can eat raw food in a pinch, but your sanity will take a hit.
In short, cooking and eating food is fun in DST, because instead of being a chore like in other survival games, it's a core mechanic that affects everything else you can do.
So what about you, have you thought this hard about fictional food before? What games would you say have great hunger mechanics?