How many stories out there are about people landing on a deserted island trying to survive as best they can? It’s a classic trope, and many video games are based on that survival-style gameplay. Pequi Studios has teamed up with Indie.io to see how they can pull this off with their open-world survival title Mayday: The Survival Island. Pretty on the nose, but it gets the point across, right? Anyway, the game will arrive on November 2nd, and if you’re going to PAX West, you can play a demo for the game there. For those not in attendance, you can check out the game’s breakdown and trailer below:

“Unlike other survival games, Pequi Studios did not procedurally generate its open world. The studio drew all 24 islands by hand, in top-down pixel art, with every detail designed to support a natural sense of progression. That same attention to detail extends to the animation, with more than 1,000 individual frames created for the main character. While the world is carefully crafted, resource distribution and island locations retain an element of randomness, giving each playthrough its own challenges.

Mayday starts with everything players expect from a survival game: gathering, crafting, farming, cooking, exploration, and combat, but puts its own creative spin on what comes next. Players can turn natural resources into potions, learn to raise and herd sheep, bring buffalo back to their farm, and discover new ways to use the world around them. Rather than a collection of disconnected survival mechanics, these systems are designed to feed into one another, so every discovery hands players another way to survive, explore, and chase whatever it is they are after. Progression in Mayday is meant to feel natural: the more players learn about the island and its resources, the more possibilities open up.

The island itself is full of mysteries, and there is always something new to discover, from hidden treasures and unexplored places to the truth behind the crash and why players ended up there. As they push deeper, new paths and areas open up, the dangers grow, and the answers begin to come into focus. What starts as a fight for survival gradually becomes something more personal: a journey of discovery as they uncover the secrets of the island and what brought them there.”

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to live on this island, and it’ll be up to you to determine what the best approach is for doing just that. If you think you’re up to the challenge, wishlist the game today!