Return of the old creepy atmosphere in Don't Starve Together.

[Phoenix_Cobra]

I like the style in Don't Starve Together, for example, the moon style, the style of Charlie's roses, the Wagstaff mechanisms, the carnival style and so on. But it seems to me that it is necessary to remind the player that Don't Starve is not by the level of difficulty of the game, but by the level of style, as it was in Don't Starve, even before the two DLCs for it.

I really like the creepy style, like for example in the cartoon Frankenweenie, or in the puppet cartoon Coraline. Personally, I would be pleased to return to such an atmosphere after a long passage of the game after the moon, mechanical style and the style of Charlie's roses. I understand that this is more typical for Don't Starve when Maxwell was the ruler, not Charlie, but just imagine how you return back to the very beginning creepy, dark and lonely style of the game, like the cold and dark death in Don't Starve Together. Perhaps it can be strengthened a little and even add a little horror that could scare you. And I would like to note that such a style is better done with the atmosphere, and not with skins for items or character clothes.

Perhaps the best time to do this is at the very end of Don't Starve Together before you fight the very last boss of the entire game and finish the game itself.

[Well-met]

Understood, let us undo every update since return of them.

[lowercase skye]

Did it ever go anywhere?

[Phoenix_Cobra]

11 hours ago, Well-met said:

Understood, let us undo every update since return of them.

Maybe I didn't express my thoughts correctly in the post. I didn't mean to cancel all updates or change anything. I just wanted to say that maybe the game lacks something really scary, something random that players can't predict. For example, in Don't Starve there is a mod called The Screecher. In my opinion, it was really creepy and a little scary.

[A.P.Erson]

I feel like the rift content could very well go in that direction rather seamlessly, and as it stands right now it's getting a little closer. I mean for hecks sake the deerclops has a giant crystal where its eye should be, and the gestalts are possessing corpses! That's not even mentioning how the lunar stuff in general is kinda messed up, like the fact that the moonglass pengulls have their innards showing or where shattered spiders live inside a petrified husk of a queen spider. Maybe if the shadow side does something equally creepy as hell (although the shadow masks that possess your old corpse do that pretty well) then the spooky stuff could very easily come back.

One big thing to note is the game itself has been shifting away from making you feel so much as a pathetic little person trying to avoid dying with the advent of new equipment and abilities to characters that bring the average strength of the player much higher compared to early game where you can struggle fighting with even spiders if you don't have good enough equipment or late game where a seasonal boss can knock you out of your pants or unexpected hound waves can catch you off guard even if you have a good amount of gear. I feel another thing that would alleviate this is more new threats for late game that actually challenge the status quo that late game usually devolves into, much like how Terraria would suddenly spike in difficulty for most things by introducing new mechanics and tougher enemies to combat the scaling of the gear you get. Don't Starve Together is starting to get into that, but at the current state outside of bosses and the few seasonal changes there isn't enough to mix up the gameplay.

Edited June 19, 2025 by A.P.Erson

[Phoenix_Cobra]

1 hour ago, A.P.Erson said:

I feel like the rift content could very well go in that direction rather seamlessly, and as it stands right now it's getting a little closer. I mean for hecks sake the deerclops has a giant crystal where its eye should be, and the gestalts are possessing corpses! That's not even mentioning how the lunar stuff in general is kinda messed up, like the fact that the moonglass pengulls have their innards showing or where shattered spiders live inside a petrified husk of a queen spider. Maybe if the shadow side does something equally creepy as hell (although the shadow masks that possess your old corpse do that pretty well) then the spooky stuff could very easily come back.

One big thing to note is the game itself has been shifting away from making you feel so much as a pathetic little person trying to avoid dying with the advent of new equipment and abilities to characters that bring the average strength of the player much higher compared to early game where you can struggle fighting with even spiders if you don't have good enough equipment or late game where a seasonal boss can knock you out of your pants or unexpected hound waves can catch you off guard even if you have a good amount of gear. I feel another thing that would alleviate this is more new threats for late game that actually challenge the status quo that late game usually devolves into, much like how Terraria would suddenly spike in difficulty for most things by introducing new mechanics and tougher enemies to combat the scaling of the gear you get. Don't Starve Together is starting to get into that, but at the current state outside of bosses and the few seasonal changes there isn't enough to mix up the gameplay.

It seems to me that after activating the shadow rifts, you can add skeletons that respawn from underground at random moments, filled with pure nightmares. Or another idea: you can add that pure nightmares will come out of the darkness on the surface when it's dark at night and leave when day comes. If the gestalts got into the caves thanks to the activation of the archives, then why can't the shadows get to the surface due to the restoration of the ancient gateway? I think something can be done here too.

[Phoenix_Cobra]

3 hours ago, milsonmeow said:

gestalts been in the grotto even before activating the archives. also we already have shadow creatures in both surface and caves?? do you want nightmare fissures to appear out of nowhere on surface too??? Or getting smacked by lurking nightmare out of nowhere when insane?????

I meant about the great gestalts. No, not the appearance of cracks on the surface or a lurking nightmare, I meant something you know a night monster hiding in the darkness, for example, the same night eyes that appear at night with low sanity, only now they can appear with full sanity. For example, when the player sits near a fire and sparkling eyes look at him from the darkness, then the player hears something like laughter (possibly childish) and a nightmare begins to attack the player from the darkness. And then during the day they go underground. And this is also a random event that may or may not happen tonight.

Edited June 19, 2025 by secretgalaxy

[Phoenix_Cobra]

Or here's another idea: imagine a player sitting near a campfire at night and suddenly a spider, rabbit or lobster with a sage's masque (or another with a herald's mask) comes to the player from the darkness and says something like: "We see everything" or "Join us" or "We are part of you" and before daylight comes, it goes back into the darkness and disappears. Moreover, this neutral mob cannot be hit or killed.

Edited June 20, 2025 by secretgalaxy

[Semind]

I'll say, I had a semi-recent experience that was pretty good on the spooky experience scale. I had forgotten where I'd left an Armored Bearger at one point and after probably half a year since I last saw it, I finally wandered back into the section of the world where it had hibernated... while it was night time. I got unexpectedly aggro'd by it and witnessed a giant silhouette with only ethereal glowy bits piercing through the veil of darkness approaching rapidly from off screen before I knew what was happening.

[Beetrice]

I feel like the game has gotten a lot less gloomy with the post rift stuff. The shadow stuff isn't intimidating or scary (it looks rather cartoonish), the Brightshade items are really goofy, and for all of the interesting and sort of grotesque additions (such as possession and mutation), there's something like Frostjaw. It's been too colorful, too whimsical and silly, and doesn't feel like you're using wicked or forbidden creations.

The fact that most weapons in the game are really makeshift (e.g. Spears, Ham Bat, Bat Bat, Morning Star, Tail o Three Cats, Tentacle Spike) or hinder the user (Dark Sword, Bat Bat) makes them feel more desperate, like you are struggling to survive... In comparison, the post-rift weapons have no theming or downsides, only upsides, and are actual weapons. They didn't even try anything with the Brightshade Sword 😔

I really enjoy the original aesthetic, it's one of the reasons I still like this game. If you looked at concept art for the game, you would see there were conceptualized structures that would be pieces of things from the real world, like signs adorned with lightbulbs, lamp posts, clocks and pillars. It made it feel like the Constant was sucking things in indiscriminately, or for some unreadable purpose. It was a reminder that your goal is to escape as well, that there is a world you belonged to beyond this one. If we could have more things like that, along with more leaning into the time period that Don't Starve takes place in, I would be a happy camper. Maybe this kind of junk starts falling into the Constant near the end of the game, when you shake its very foundations?

Along with the Horror Hounds, the concept art for the Gloomthorn was a great step towards something more spooky, I'm a fan of the bottom-most ones.

(well, it would have been, had it not been replaced by a purple willow tree 💔)

[Phoenix_Cobra]

Wow, this really looks awesome, especially the evil Maxwell)). I especially liked these art structures:

Hmmm, I was thinking, considering the appearance of new horrors, we can add new mechanisms in which these horrors are located. For example, dread mite can become a robotic version of the pawn, as in the picture: 

 

And by the way, it's also a good idea to fleshy bulb and her eye sockets to the ocean that can float on the surface her,
something like this art:  

Сan also add something to the ocean, like sunken ships or plane wrecks in shallow waters.

It's a really good idea about the emergence of new structures and the destruction of the boundaries between worlds. It would be interesting to fight with the new mechanisms that appear after activating the shadow rifts and see the old atmosphere of the game.

Edited June 24, 2025 by secretgalaxy

[A.P.Erson]

I actually had an idea for the final END GAME of the game, where we end up actually going to both the lunar rift, which transports us to the MOON ITSELF, and the shadow rift which takes us to wherever the hell they come from. There it would not hold back its punches and would be a completely different tonal shift with completely different worlds, entire shards that do not resemble our normal world as much as we'd like. That would be a perfect place to bring in the crazy stuff, and would also give a reason for the armor to be as useful as it is, as we'd need it...

I will say though I do miss the handmade aesthetic of gear from early game. I can see what they're going for with the late game armors, like the brightshade helmet is literally just a bunch of leaves tied together on the top, but it still feels like a Terraria armor set instead of survivalist gear. I miss the goofy yet dreary struggle of the game where you were wearing a bunch of logs tied together and wearing a pigskin helmet while using a ham to beat the heck out of dogs that explode