Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Game Journalism Day 1 - Basics


Game Journalism Day 1 - Basics

Raft is a early access survival game where you and your friends (if you are playing co-op) are trapped on a raft with nothing but a plastic hook in an open ocean where you will need to collect debris to survive as you starve, dehydrate and get attacked by a shark. Once you start a world, you will wake up on a raft on a blue ocean with plastic, wood and leaves floating around.

There are two ways of collecting debris:
  • 1.) Using your plastic hook that you spawn with; Hold lmb (left mouse button or left click) to start reeling your plastic hook and let go in the direction of debris that you would like to collect.
  • 2.) Picking up the debris; Another way of collecting debris is to pick it up by pressing E and in order to do so you would need to be close to the debris wether you paddle up to it or it is floating towards your raft.

Debris:
  • Wood; Used for mainly everything (ex: expanding raft, simple grill, small crop plot).
  • Leaves; Used to create rope which is used to craft other things. (ex: spear, hammer).
  • Plastic; Used to create items (ex: empty cup, simple purifier). 
  • Barrels; Contains random loot (ex: wood, leaves, plastic).

Ways to die:
  • Hunger: Hunger bar slowly decreases as the game goes on.
  • Dehydration: Thirst bar slowly decreases as the game goes on.
  • Shark: Swims around and will occasionally (every ~5 mins) attack your raft and will attack you if you enter the water.

Ways to avoid death:
  • Hunger: Craft a simple grill with 6 wooden planks, 1 scrap (found in barrels), and 3 rope. You can use it to cook beet or potatoes which are found in barrels or you could fish to survive for the rest of the game by using a fishing rod (6 wooden planks, 8 rope) as well as wood for fuel.
  • Thirst: Craft a simple purifier with 6 wooden planks, 6 leaves, and 4 plastic as well as an empty cup by using 4 plastic. To use your empty cup, press E near the water to collect salt water. Once you have collected water, bring it towards your purifier and press E to place the water as well as placing wooden planks as fuel. Collect the fresh water and drink your thirst away.
  • Shark: Once it starts attacking your raft, attack It with a wooden spear which is cartable with 8 wooden planks and 3 rope ( 6 leaves). Once you have killed it by counter attacking the shark attacks (~30 wooden spear stabs), you can swim up to it and stab him with your spear to start looting him (1 stark head, 5 shark meat).