How did you first discover the Don't Starve franchise? (Survey)

[Bronzebot]

This is just a survey of a subject I came to think of while reminiscing how I first found Don't Starve (which for those who are curious, was via the Yogscast on Youtube way back in 2012). Feel free to share your anecdotes regarding how you first discovered the franchise as a whole, old and new players alike.

[DavePlaysDST]

my mom was playing the singleplayer version when i was younger (no dlc but still i was scared of it lol) anyway some time later i have dst i try it our bur dont enjoy it.

later sometime before winona is added i pick it up again

yeah thats about all i remember 

[Mike23Ua]

Depending on the console platform you play DS on- It’s actual release year will vary greatly. for Example- Nintendo SWITCH is just now experience the franchise for the first time ever as late as April 12 2018. Xbox also did not get Don’t Starve Together till 2017.. So there will be large gaps between what year people have played due to the strange enormous years long gap between when the game was released per console. 

As for Me- I bought it pretty much around when it released on Console, it looked fun and the promise of Randomly generated worlds where everything hates me and wants me to die sounded fun.  

[TheGoldenDonut_]

My brother was looking around for a game to play on my uncle's PS4. He found Don't Starve and played it. He died of insanity during Winter. The game looked very interesting, so me and my brother got into it.

[GetNerfedOn]

I looked for engaging survival games which could run on my beaten, worn laptop and found Don't starve. I have stuck with it ever since.

[Pixil]

Back in 2013 brother was playing the standalone single player game and couldn't make it to winter because hounds. I ended up playing a lot of the game on his PC to the point where I was good at it, but then I got bored because I wanted constant action and adventure whereas everything looked the same. Fast forward to 2015 and Darkest Dungeon gets released and I put a majority of my time into that, while also soon discovering that Klei had an involvement in creating the game which caused me to go back to Don't Starve to see the new RoG dlc that I missed out on. So I continued playing that and being terrible at it for about another year until early access DST was released. Sadly I have my own account on Steam now so no bottomless pit skin 

TL;DR: Was into game at 2013, lost interest then found it again through Klei's other work.

[Sinister_Fang]

I remember finding DS by watching one of TotalBiscuit's reviews. I started playing after the "All's well that Maxwell" update, but I can't specifically remember when that was. I'd occasionally play it now and then, and it wasn't until the DST beta that I started to really get into the game.

[Minitte]

me and a friend were bored so we picked a random game on steam to play.

[reverentsatyr]

my brother bought this game on his console. I thought the game looked stupid, but I tried playing a world on splitscreen with my brother anyway. I got hooked. I play this game waaaay more than my brother.

[ShyRo-Zyerenzy]

A very special friend gifted me DST in steam. The fact the game is already fantastic just made me enjoy it more , it feel happy playing remembering my friend, like going back in time. Almost 4k hours playing DST. Hosted servers but also mixing it with public Klei official servers.

[CremeLover]

Remember I once catched a friend of mine playing single player don't starve back in 2012-2013 (can't remember). I immediately found it very interesting, from the mechanics to the art style, and I adquired for myself later on. Instantly fell in love with it and played sporadically over the years.

[NSAiswatchingus]

A friend's girlfriend was playing OG Don't Starve on PS4 in like 2014 and was struggling. I was the resident pro gamer so she had me try it out. I of course died shortly into Winter, but the game was super interesting. Years later I was looking through the PS store and saw it again. I bought Don't Starve and started playing it right after DST had released on PS4 unbeknownst to me. The next week I saw DST, bought it, and have been hooked ever since. It helped break my Destiny addiction. 

[minespatch]

@Tamir's bloodeagles through my friend @toki-dokke showing pages.

[Owlrust]

TL;DR

Back in around 2013 I was playing TF2 and saw a weapon called the "Ham Shank". I thought it was cool, and around that time it wasn't uncommon for TF2 to do promotional items for games like Fallout or Deus Ex, but I didn't think too much about it. One day I came across one of Markiplier's playthroughs, but one of the games he was playing happened to be Don't Starve itself; I fell in love with the game from that point on because it reminded me of how Tim Burton movies looked (and those movies meant a lot to me in my childhood). Funny enough, I remember when Markiplier was playing during the "Research Points" period in the game's history and I got incredibly confused when I bought the game and couldn't do it.

I had so much fun playing with mods when I was smaller, and I thought they were the coolest things; Mr.Tiddles I think their username was that did all those fun mods I loved like William J. Danninghar, or the Brass Lantern. Needless to say, this game took up a majority of my time every day when I came home from school and I don't regret a single second of it, not for one moment. 

Fun fact: When I wanted to buy the game back in 2013 my parent's (who are very devout Christians btw) thought the game was blasphemous because of a scene from the original trailer. Yup there it is right there, took forever to convince her I wasn't playing a satanic cultist game.

[Maxposting]

A czech youtuber played it waaay before even it released out of early access.

Spoiler

 

 

[Scrimbles]

I loved Mark of the Ninja and looked into more games by Klei, and discovered Don't Starve back in its early "research points" era.

I was a Yogscast fan as a kid and I watched some of their videos covering the early stages of the game.

A year or two later (I forget tbh) I got some money for my birthday so I checked up on Don't Starve, and bought it during the "All's Well that's Maxwell" update.

 

It was magical to see the original devs actively talking on the forums, sharing stories, and discussing things, especially as Reign of Giant's started to creep up on everyone.

Klei has grown so much since... and have become lot less active on the forums, understandably I suppose.

 

Also R.I.P the "No Multiplayer Ever" emote.

[TheDoughboy1917]

I first saw Don't Starve from screenshots on Steam of old steam friends playing it during it's earlier stages. I kind of abandoned the game until I saw various videos on YouTube of it. One of these videos featured Wendy and when I first saw her (having no prior knowledge of her character) I thought she was supposed to be some kind of cheerleader or something.

I started looking up more about the game and became obsessed with it, finally buying the game during Christmas of 2013. From there I became really active with the fandom on Tumblr and I ran a few DS themed roleplay blogs for most of my time in highschool. I met some great people there who I'm still friends with today.

I still play DS and DST to this day and I still roleplay a bit on DST even. The game left a huge impact on me and I still obsess over it's lore and characters!

[Theforumlurker]

I first saw don’t starve when I was a small one, in those days I was watching a group of youtubers known as the yogscast and during this time came across a video in which Simon and Lewis played what seemed to be solo don’t starve in its early development and then I decided to look up the trailer and automatically fall in love with the game

[Blueleaf12]

I have a bit of a story for this. 

I've known of the game from at least 2016. I think earlier, but I don't remember much before that. Anyway, in 2016, I was watching Markiplier play the game. I had a huge nosebleed and had to go to the hospital to get my nose cauterized. Long story short, because i had been out of the country within three weeks (I went on vacation to The Bahamas), they had to seriously consider if I had ebola. I was fine, but shaken. After that, I kind of forgot about the game until Christmas of 2019. My friend bought it because it was on sale on Steam, and I was like "oh wait, this game exists, I remember this" and bought it alongside her. She then gifted DST to me 2 months later. 

[JosePapp]

2 hours ago, Owlrus98 said:

TL;DR

Back in around 2013 I was playing TF2 and saw a weapon called the "Ham Shank". I thought it was cool, and around that time it wasn't uncommon for TF2 to do promotional items for games like Fallout or Deus Ex, but I didn't think too much about it. One day I came across one of Markiplier's playthroughs, but one of the games he was playing happened to be Don't Starve itself; I fell in love with the game from that point on because it reminded me of how Tim Burton movies looked (and those movies meant a lot to me in my childhood). Funny enough, I remember when Markiplier was playing during the "Research Points" period in the game's history and I got incredibly confused when I bought the game and couldn't do it.

I had so much fun playing with mods when I was smaller, and I thought they were the coolest things; Mr.Tiddles I think their username was that did all those fun mods I loved like William J. Danninghar, or the Brass Lantern. Needless to say, this game took up a majority of my time every day when I came home from school and I don't regret a single second of it, not for one moment. 

Fun fact: When I wanted to buy the game back in 2013 my parent's (who are very devout Christians btw) thought the game was blasphemous because of a scene from the original trailer. Yup there it is right there, took forever to convince her I wasn't playing a satanic cultist game.

Pretty odd "blasphemy" being a christian myself, i don't see it (maybe the pose?)

Found the game browsing through appstore

[Owlrust]

32 minutes ago, JosePapp said:

maybe the pose?

That's pretty much what did it for them, after that though I bugged them enough to let me buy it and they found out that it actually was fine. Funny enough though, I had nightmares of Don't Starve for a few years where the game took place in hell and there were no resources, and you play as a hooded figure that erects crosses with bodies on em....pretty messed up lol.

[kiwikenobi]

8 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

Nintendo is just now experience the franchise for the first time ever as late as April 12 2018. 

Don't Starve has been on a Nintendo system since 2015. Which was the year I discovered it, and I when I first bought it for the Wii U.

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/dont-starve-giant-edition-wii-u/

[Mike23Ua]

26 minutes ago, kiwikenobi said:

Don't Starve has been on a Nintendo system since 2015. Which was the year I discovered it, and I when I first bought it for the Wii U.

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/dont-starve-giant-edition-wii-u/

Must only be the Mega pack that released in April 2018 then, thank you, I stand corrected it has now been fixed.

[Flip Face]

In January 2013 I was still fascinated by Minecraft but the YouTuber who played this game started playing Don't Starve and I hated it! I wanted Minecraft!

Until one day I had nothing to watch so I decided to give Dont Starve a chance and I fell in love!

But my parents didn't trust online shopping, and I didn't buy the game!

I saw the game grow without being able to play!

Just watching on YouTube ...

Spoiler

Dark times.

In December 2017 I bought Don't Starve Together on Steam, days later I lost my account ...

I bought Don't Starve Together again in January 2018 ...

Then I bought the solo franchise in November 2018 ...

Spoiler

My father thinks Don't Starve is a game of the devil because he saw Maxwell welcoming you to Constant.

 

[CameoAppearance]

I saw gifs of the trailers on Tumblr starting in the spring of 2013 - one of my friends gave me a gift copy around then because he knew I thought the art style looked cool - and continued hearing about it occasionally until 2015, when I actually started playing it. Some other games I was interested in listed it as an influence, too. It seemed like it was everywhere, but I think I just hang out with a lot of indie gamers.

For the longest time I knew the main character was named Wilson, but had no idea whether that was his first or his last name.