These days, I generally try to play games that won’t stress me out, for all of the usual, modern, capitalist society reasons, but on occasion I get an interest in a survivalbox game also for obvious reasons: building, crafting, collecting, exploring…that kind of thing. I particularly appreciate these kinds of games when they feature “creative” modes that do away with the survival elements but I also don’t jump directly into those modes either because as much as the “survival” part of survivalbox games stresses me the hell out, sometimes I think I kind of need it to be present.

While trawling through my Steam library I noticed a demo I had downloaded earlier in the year, Astrometica: Prologue. I blame fate because Astrometica is currently in early release (I know, boo hiss) as of December 10th and I had been considering it since Green Man Gaming had it on sale for $15USD. I originally stopped myself because do I really need another survivalbox game? I have so many at this point, play each for a while, and then get tired of the grind (hi Icarus)…why would this be any different.

The $15 discounted price was hard to ignore, though, so I snagged it and I have to say it’s enjoyable. Word on the street is that it’s basically “Subnautica in Space” and I will not refute that, from the cramped “home base” I keep returning to (it has my stuff, and a fabricator) to the “soft” sci-fi design of the tools, buildings, and furniture — I really don’t know how else to describe the aesthetic, but I figure if you know, you know. I liked Subnautica fine…except when things started to get dangerous because that game does a really good job of making me paranoid. I used to SCUBA dive in my younger days, and I challenge you to find any diver who has never been speared through the psyche with a sudden sense that something dangerous is swimming up behind them.

I also made my daily morning visit to YouTube to see if any new tutorials have been released, and the first video from El Algorithm was about Nightingale’s Winter Update release which made me both happy and sad. This release contains the requisite holiday-themed stuff like new cards that can make a realm snowy and slippery, holiday decor, and new building styles (every major update seems to include more building styles, which is awesome). It also includes the ability to have multiple followers and the UI to assign them tasks around your abeyance realm, so they can be collecting wood, rocks, and other stuff (probably) while I’m out adventuring. One feature that I really hope continues to evolve is the movement away from Inflexion’s closed hosting model. They introduced offline mode earlier in the year, and this update adds personal server hosting. Unfortunately, it seems like it’s just Ye Olden Connect To Friend hosting, but I am holding out for the eventual dedicated server hosting because I’m getting the sense that Nightingale might not survive through 2025. It’s a good game even for early access, IMO, which has made solid patch releases in 2024. Inflexion isn’t afraid to toss the game’s elements in a blender to mix things up, as they’ve already made significant changes to several systems. In some ways it reminds me a lot of the trajectory of No Man’s Sky post-release, except in this case Nightingale works; it just isn’t getting traction which pains me greatly. Early access is a disservice mainly to the game itself, as players can’t or won’t wrap their head around the spirit of the thing, but it can also be a disservice to the players if the developers just use it as a mea culpa if they can’t make a go of it, blaming EA if they can’t connect with an audience during that time. When a developer focuses on shaping the game to the desires of the community without submitting to the ego of the community, I think powerfully magical things can happen. I hope Nightingale turns out this way and gains more attention and doesn’t sink into a mire of early access experience dismissal.