Multiplayer

[Kevin]

There has been a lot of talk about adding a multiplayer or co-op mode. I’d like to give our official response to this suggestion, and clear up any confusion that people might have.

As you can see from the game’s roadmap, our vision for the game does not include network play. We have promised our players an awesome single player experience, and we are devoting all of our time and resources towards fulfilling this promise. We are even committing to six months of continued support after launch, so that we can make the game even better.

Don’t Starve was designed and implemented as a single-player game. At the code level, you have to do things a lot differently if you want to play over a network. If we were to implement multiplayer now, we would have to re-architect all of this code, which would have unavoidable spill-over effects for the single player experience. This would make it harder for us to fulfil the promises that we’ve made, and compromise the overall quality of the game.

This is an amazing community, and we really value your feedback, as you can see from our constant updates and hotfixes. We have discussed and debated multiplayer A LOT within the studio. In the end, we have concluded that we can make a better game, and better support the community, if it remains single player. This is why we are not planning on adding multiplayer or co-op to Don’t Starve.

Now let’s get on with making the best single player game we can make!

Edited December 14, 2012 by Bigfoot

[Critter79]

I love this game, and I love comparing how long I've stayed alive or the things I have found with my friends and family. When I want to play together we play minecraft or terraria. This game would lose a lot of it's challenge if co-op were added.

And I looooove gloating over my sister: "Tentacles? You didn't tell me there were Tentacles!"

Muahahahaha.

[Blorog1]

But...you CAN have multiplayer! Just play beside somebody else and tell eachother your progress as you go along!

[Toaster Fu]

It's good to have an official response.

[A Bad Feeling]

Yup. I hope this clears things up to new members and Don't Starve players in general.

Keep up the awesomely great job you guys are doing.

[mobius187]

Ah... the hammer finally dropped. Well, better knowing than wondering for eternity...

[Xaris]

I understand your position, and that's fine. I don't have any complaints about Don't Starve being designed around an amazing singleplayer experience. That said, I would still kill to be able to play this game with my girlfriend. There's something strangely romantic about being forced to huddle next to a fire while dangerous monsters lurk in the depths of night

But I hope you consider co-op for a sequel (ala what Orcs Must Die 2 did from OMD1) or an expansion, if there's money left over to continue development

[Syd]

It's nice to see an official sticky thread on this matter. I'm within the "I'd prefer it to stay single player" camp, so it pleases me to know that 100% of the team's efforts will go into making single player the best it can be.

[A Bad Feeling]

There's something strangely romantic about being forced to huddle next to a fire while dangerous monsters lurk in the depths of night

Go to the suburbs with your girlfriend, set a fire in a barrel and wait for the night to come! You don't even think of the monstrosities that are held deep within the dark... I bet you both will huddle

REAL LIFE SURVIVAL MULTIPLAYER! CREEPY AS EVER!

Nah, I'm just kidding man. I know what you mean, but I think it is far too early to consider a expansion or a sequel (not that I don't secretly pray to Horus every night for that).

[gibbin]

I think it's the right decision, and I'm not only talking about the huge overhaul work of your code you'd have to go through. Some games are meant to be played in single player mode, like most rogue-likes and horror-themed titles. I'm a huge co-op fan and try to convince my girlfriend and other friends to buy as many co-op games I'd like to play as possible, but you have to be on your own, without any help or reliance on anyone else but you and your skill to get the most out of a survival/horror based game (not talking about survival mode in a zombie slasher game or the like)

[cejoga]

I believe the comparison with other games makes people ask for a multiplayer. I understand compare Don't Starve with Minecraft and Terraria. They are all games of survival, isn't it? Although they are completely different in several ways.

With multiplayer, comparisons (already large) will never end. It is likely that Don't Starve becomes a simple copy of the games mentioned above. However, I would not see it in that way, others I don't know. I think every company that develops games should worry about it. I would not want to create a game that it seen as a copy of another. Or an application in my case, it's bad for business.

I like the single player the way it is today. Can't wait for the winter and the other things mentioned in the roadmap. Makes the game, let's say, unique. It's all about you and your choices, I read it somewhere here and every day it makes more sense to me. Wilson isn't Wilson, Wilson in fact is you (include other characters name if you wish).

Some days I catch me thinking how complex it is to make something like that. Pablo Neruda said one day: "You are free to make your choices but you are prisoner of the consequences". Any developer shares the same curiosity?

[BlackGinger77]

ive got a suggestion... the small birds are cool and stuff and i like how they are loyal but the cant stay smallbirds forever. like mabey after 20 days or so they would turn into tall birds but friendly and nest around wherever your currently at. this ofcourse will be different from other tallbirds like 1 egg laid every 7 days or so to keep from mass egg farming and 2 friendly tall birds near eachother will result in them fighting so you cant have like 5 nest in your base. also i would like if the babys had more emotions like they will look tired and begin chirping so you feed them seeds . just a suggestion.

[fivebetwhale]

ive got a suggestion... the small birds are cool and stuff and i like how they are loyal but the cant stay smallbirds forever. like mabey after 20 days or so they would turn into tall birds but friendly and nest around wherever your currently at. this ofcourse will be different from other tallbirds like 1 egg laid every 7 days or so to keep from mass egg farming and 2 friendly tall birds near eachother will result in them fighting so you cant have like 5 nest in your base. also i would like if the babys had more emotions like they will look tired and begin chirping so you feed them seeds . just a suggestion.

Don't think you should be posting this here. However if you think about it bird age relatively slow so if the time in the game stays realistic, the birds doesn't have to ever grow up. However i don't know if the devs have anything planned for this.

[Little Teemo]

i think the devs said that they will add life cycle of the tallbird Soon =)

[MiLoPL]

i think the devs said that they will add life cycle of the tallbird Soon =)

Me too

Translate this topic for Polish Community

http://dontstarve.pl/multiplayer-oficjalne-stanowisko-klei-entertainment-t55.html

[Zeklo]

Hmm, disappointing but I see your point. Also I'm new! Maybe a non-direct approach like you can throw bottles into the sea and it contains what ever you put in it, and it can find its way onto someone else's island? Not sure if that's still what you are against.

[BlessPL]

Thanks for clearing that up! I hope that single player will grow up rapidly:D

[lonelyduck]

I hope that one day they will put it in. It would make the game MUCH better

[Khrayfish]

That's... really disappointing...

[Wasserstern]

Good to hear this

I hope there will be less new people suggesting it now.

[mathman200]

I'm sad now. My friend would only play the game if it had multiplayer in it. It would be 10000x better, but I told him that they would have to re-write the code because of the fact that over the net it would be a lot different. I hope you can in the future! Love the game btw! <3

[Khrayfish]

The thing is, you can't sell 2 copies of a game that is single player... It just doesn't work like that...

[Ditocoaf]

Haha, yeah, some people will always want any open-world game to be Minecraft.

The thing is, you can't sell 2 copies of a game that is single player... It just doesn't work like that...

You can, and it does. It's a marketing thing, giving away extra copies to encourage people to talk about the game.

I don't understand why some people think "buy one get one free" means "multiplayer", it's nonsensical!

[yiffy]

Haha, yeah, some people will always want any open-world game to be Minecraft.

You can, and it does. It's a marketing thing, giving away extra copies to encourage people to talk about the game.

I don't understand why some people think "buy one get one free" means "multiplayer", it's nonsensical!

what do you mean nonsensical 7 times out of 10 when they do a buy one get one free it usually means there's multiplayer involved but the other 3 times it isn't it's not nonsensical. It would be nonsensical if they gave you one copy and you would assume out of the gate that it's going to be multiplayer ,also you saying that insulted 70% of all the alpha build players including me cause in the back of our minds we thought they where going to have multiplayer. I'm not trying to be mean but here is some advise do some research think for a long period of time on what your going to type then type it.

[Excess]

what do you mean nonsensical 7 times out of 10 when they do a buy one get one free it usually means there's multiplayer involved.

What's nonsensical is relying exclusively on that fact to assume there's multiplayer and then be upset when there isn't. THATS nonsensical, at least by MY standards.

There's absolutely no word about multiplayer neither on the official webpage of the game, nor on Steam, which by the way has a special section that tells you whether the game is singleplayer, multiplayer, or both in radioactive green text, nor on any Youtube's "Let's Play" of the hundreds that currently are.

When I buy 2 cereal boxes for the price of 1 on the supermarket I don't immediately assume I'll have to invite someone over for breakfast the day after.