Originally a part of Valve’s ill-fated Greenlight Program, which allowed gamers to vote for independent titles to be approved for distribution on Steam, Miasmata was developed by a couple of Minnesotan brothers that had previously specialized in simple puzzle games and Pocket PC ports of older titles. Of course, not all survival games are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on IonFX’s criminally under-played Miasmata, a decade-old title that not only helped to pioneer the genre as we know it today but also hasn’t been surpassed when it comes to sheer dedication to its premise. While this was likely due to rapidly advancing technology allowing for more complex mechanics that could better simulate real world survival, you’ve got to admit that there’s no better universal motivator than being forced to find shelter and attend to basic human needs like food and water. That’s why I find it curious that survival games as a genre only really took off during the mid 2010s after the success of titles like Minecraft and Day Z. From Pong to Missile Command, most early gaming experiences weren’t about concluding story-arcs or even defeating a final boss, they simply tasked players with trying their best at a certain task until they met with an inevitable defeat – our natural instinct to persevere and earn high score bragging rights is what made that journey satisfying. Before the days of in-depth single-player campaigns and cinematic storytelling, nearly every videogame shared the same basic premise: survive as long as you can.
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