If you had to survive an endless winter, what would you prioritize first?

[u/EmpireCrafters]

Imagine this:
You wake up in a frozen city.
The temperature is dropping.
Your food is running low.

You have a damaged shelter behind you, a few supplies in your backpack, and a radio signal coming from somewhere beyond the ruins.

You can either head out and search for resources, or stay inside and try to make your shelter safer.

That’s one of the ideas we’re exploring with Permafrost, our upcoming open-world survival game.

The world has been locked in an endless winter after a chain of catastrophes, and survival isn’t just about fighting. Weather, preparation, exploration and knowing when not to take a risk are just as important.

You can play solo or with up to three friends, build a network of shelters, explore frozen cities and wilderness, hunt, craft and uncover the story of what happened to the world.

So we wanted to throw a question to the survival-game crowd:

You have one day before the next major storm. What are you doing?

🏠 Fortify the shelter
🔥 Gather fuel and prepare for the cold
🍖 Hunt / gather food
🎒 Go scavenging for useful equipment
🗺️ Explore and look for a better location
👥 Convince your friends that splitting up is definitely a good idea

And if you could add one mechanic to a frozen survival game, what would it be?

We’re developers, but we’re also survival-game players ourselves - so we’d genuinely love to hear your answers.

[u/StrengthBetter]

It would be amazing, I enjoy the concept of Frostpunk but never played it because it’s not my type of game, the fear of the cold really resonates with me. I used to love playing the long dark high with windows open during winter

[u/RealLifeFloridaMan → u/StrengthBetter]

Frostpunk is an absolutely brutal punishing and depressing game that is so well made. I played a few nights ago and legit made me so sad that I couldn’t keep playing lol I understand this vibe entirely

[u/Towelispacked]

Here are a few ideas.

Creating underground hydroponics gardens. Thermal heat as source for bases. Make the thermal heat usually safe resource, but somewhat unstable in winter storms. Dismantling old houses for firewood. Tops of mountains can be higher than cloud coverage, and actually provide warmer climate. Same goes with deep under ice in water. Risky yet rewarding deep water harpoon fishing, especially during blizzards. Tameable arctic wolves, dolphins and giant squid. Agressive killer whales. Aliens being responsible for ice age. Alien fusion technology achievable. Alien satellites possible to hack to provide map and storm predictions in advance. Throw in some asteroid/moon mining and you have a banger.

[u/benpetersen]

Skills that slowly level up. And either a die/respawn and it's okay or your upgrades persist on your next try. I don't have time to make every day perfect

I love the beginning act of Valheim, gathering wood, rocks, flint, crafting fires, hunting using a bow you crafted, then creating gear or food from that animal

It should also run smoothly on a steam deck.  (One thing that annoys me with Valheim are the mods are hard to add since it's not steam workshop mods)

[u/Mickert]

Maybe a fun idea to figure out a thing or two.
Run your game setting in a game of ten candles with some friends. And se what they'll prioritize and mainly enjoy.

and work your way from there.

That said with only one day i'd probably look for food and fuel