Survival games often keep their inner workings tightly locked away, but Brian Hicks, former creative director of DayZ, thinks that needs to change. He argues survival games should let players fiddle with nearly every setting developers use, giving them a kind of power usually reserved for modders and designers.
Imagine cranking enemy aggression way up or messing with the game’s vibe just by flipping some in-game switches. Hicks shared with PC Gamer that he’s puzzled why more survival games don’t offer players access to these “levers and switches” to tweak difficulty and overall feel. Instead of forcing players to dig into complex mods or external tools, he suggests devs should build these options right into the game.
Hicks gave a shoutout to 7 Days to Die for how they expose almost every variable on the XML side to players. Why hide all that behind complicated modding when you could just put it out there? His point is simple: if you create a world and its systems, why not hand over the keys and let players tell their own stories or craft their own experiences by adjusting the settings?
It’s a bold idea that might sound scary to some devs, but it could open up a ton of replayability and creativity. Plus, it’s kinda refreshing to hear someone push for giving players more freedom instead of locking things down tighter.
What do you think? Would you want survival games to come with a giant control panel full of sliders and toggles? Or does that take away from the mystery and challenge? Either way, it’s an interesting take on how survival games could evolve.
