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

[AN-0923]

I think around 2015 but unsure. I first learnt of this when App Store recommended Don’t Starve Shipwrecked as an Editor’s Choice.

[CaptainChaotica]

Mine is...hmmm...well, it's multi-part.  Do you want when I first became aware that the game(s) EXISTED, or when I myself started actually playing?

For the first one, I remembered hearing about this game that sounded kinda fun and interesting, called "Don't Starve", being discussed on an episode of Video Games Hot Dog, a podcast I used to listen to regularly.  (Made by the devs of Kingdom of Loathing, which is what the stick-figure comedy RPG _West_ of Loathing is based off of.)  The impressions I got were that it was difficult but fun, creepy but cute, and had way more under the surface than you might think at first.  I filed this information away in my head until...

YEARS later, it finally occurred to me:  Hey, you know that phenomenon known as "Let's Plays" you've been watching and enjoying for years now?  Instead of just watching the next episode from people you already know, _why don't you just SEARCH FOR A PARTICULAR GAME_ and find out what it's like _that_ way?  Say, maybe that one you've been meaning to look into any day now...Don't Starve, was it?

So, in I think late 2015? I saw Jacksepticeye's old playthrough and then part of Sips', before I decided I DEFINITELY wanted to play this thing for myself.  I don't know when I first got singleplayer, but Shipwrecked was still in beta--I remember seeing patch notes that said things like "WOODLEGS CAN NOW DROWN."  I played vanilla first on purpose even though RoG was already a thing, to get my bearings, and THEN put on the expansion pack.  Despite being taken way aback by the new, MUCH more, um...comprehensive? fire mechanics and having NO idea how to Wigfrid in the spring when all the rabbit holes were closed (until I taught myself the recipes for froggle bunwiches and fishsticks), I never looked back. 

And then I got DST very shortly after it came out of beta (so like...May 2016?)  I still remember the original twiggy-tree design.  : P

...Notorious

[ADM]

I remember the first time I've heard of the game was on a French Blogspot dedicated to the game news and content from a very dedicated friend, @SamLogan, the blog had a link for the demo of the game and I can still remember playing this for months without being bored, good times. ^^

Sadly just like many other Blogspot websites it was shutdown due to hackers, but without this blog I wouldn't have discovered the game that fast, I'll never forget those years.

[AnitaCoffee]

A friend of mine who was always trying to get our small group together to play something, anything, told me about it. So I was like "Cool I'll buy it." and bought the wrong one, DS. xD So he sent me DST. Funny part is, he never really got into, but I'm still playing it 3 years later. I've since bought the game for a few people, and done blog giveaways. My latest victim is my husband who has never really been a gamer, so it's cool seeing how much he actually enjoys this one.

[MrNaxeros]

I saw the Team Fortress 2 promotion where you got two items for buying Don't Starve. At first it didn't really pull me in. Didn't even survive a year where there was only Summer (Autumn) and Winter. It was only after I got RoG that I pushed myself to survive a whole year. Grabbed Wolfgang, beat the bosses and after like 3 years I got bored and died to Rock Lobster infestation.

Good times.

[CobaltGengar]

I found it via the Sips let's play on YouTube and started playing when single player caves were in beta, so is that 2013 or 2014? I put 2014 on the poll but honestly no idea if that's right or not.

[Pelontriques]

i forgot when i first heard of it, but i'm pretty sure it was due to an effin... steam sale. i bought together, passed the free copy over to a friend, and got suckered into the fanbase.

pretty sure it was 2018.

i met an old friend of mine, got banned from a specific DST fandom discord server (tumblr and such, good on them for banning me, but screw them, my mental state is wayyyyyy better off without being in their junk), and made some really good friends who i host in-character servers with.

i still have what's essentially a hyperfixation on don't starve, but the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired.

[Queron81]

In 2012 i discovered let's plays on Youtube and watched a lot of it, it was like a chain reaction. In late 2012 I watched 2 yotubers playing FTL and was looking for another FTL let's play, so I found a youtuber who was playing a lot of indie games and I discovered his Don't Starve let's play in the early beta phase and liked it, so I was following his let's play for some weeks until I decided to buy the game to play it by myself (I think in early 2013, at least after the winter update).

[RogueGamer12]

Going to make a lot of people sad, but i discovered it from Total Biscuits. The game peaked my interests, and well a few years later i brought it from the steam store.

[bruhmoment23]

Bought it only to play together with a very close friend 2 years ago.

[CaptainChaotica]

Ooh ooh ooh!  I found something. 

My very first screenshot!  or, rather, the first one whose original date I'm still sure of.  See, most of the time I take them as bitmaps, then shrink them, convert them to .pngs, and _delete the original bitmap_, meaning that the date on the picture now only says the NEWER version's creation date, not when I actually first hit PrintScreen and took it.  And sometimes that can be much later.

So, while I think a two or three others in my screenshot folder ("willowswinterfell" especially, since it's from a vanilla game) might originally have been taken earlier, I DID for some reason still have the original bitmap of this one, and the "Date taken" on it is:  (drumroll please)

March 17, 2016.  (Yes, St. Patrick's Day.  Heh.)

So I've narrowed it down!  I now know that I was definitely playing DS in March 2016.  (Maybe late February but I wasn't taking pictures then.) Anyway, there's a bit of my Don't Starve origin story:  A random shot of Wigfrid's fortress, in the run where I made it through an entire RoG year for the first time.    FEAR my way-too-small basebuilding skills and inability to place walls properly!  : P

...Notorious

[kilobit]

In 2012-13 some guy who I watched for Minecraft vids had played it and I watched about like 5 seconds of gameplay

I only saw Wilson and Willow

And Wendy, but I didn't understand her existence

[Neu7ral]

In 2013 I saw a Youtuber called GamerMaldito and RulosGaming.

I got hooked by the style and due to survivals being the THING in those years.

[OMGkawaiiAngel]

a friend gave it to me, a free DST copy I mean since on the Steam version if you buy DST, you get a free copy for a friend. I also bought him an other game.. so we're even now. Plus I remember I used to play Don't Starve a few months before I got DST, September 2019 I think? I was given DST in late November though 

[MikoFanboy]

me: "Chrome Web Store" :)  

[TheFat]

I first saw a friend of mine played DS when I was still in University (around 2013) , I was intrigued by the game style and character movement that looks like a cartoon cutout, plus the name, so it definitely stick in my mind somewhere

Fast forward to 2016, after we finish our mock project for graduation, we still have some spare time left and we looked for some game to play together. Half-life, fighting games, then of course, DST ( these were all cracked version, because we were dead broke, forgive me Klei). And I got way into DST, somehow DST difficulty doesn't faze me, it just keep making me wanting to overcome each challenge Maxwell and Charlie throw at me . The first time I ever got through one whole year in DS RoG/ DST is pure bliss.

Once I got a proper job and stable income, bought DST on Steam and still enjoying it

[Fozzlebub]

I was looking for games to play with my SO!