Hello everyone. I am here with an update or more of an announcement about Survive the Wild, and sadly it is not good news this time. The short of it is that after a couple months during which players can enjoy their store bought items, Survive the Wild is going to shut down for the foreseeable future. The store will be disabled within no more than 7 days after the publication of this post, target date for store shutdown is this Friday. If the game ever does return in the distant future, it will not be in a beta state and will retain all data, at such a theoretical time we would pick up all of the pieces such as choices of January 11th inventories, dealing with credits purchased during the beta etc. The remainder of this post will describe what finally lead to this decision.
Lots to fix code wise
There are several blog posts that talk about the various broken aspects of this game, so I won’t spend much time on them here other than to point it out as one of the major reasons we can no longer keep the game online. Fixing these various problems is going to take months of attention to the code without any distractions being caused by the running game, and that doesn’t even touch on all the plans we had begun to form regarding actually giving the game much more replay value such as with human npcs, buildings and much more. Of course if the actual work was the only problem, this post would not be getting written.
Limited manpower
Survive the Wild has had staffing issues for years, even when we do find someone trustworthy to add to the team we tend to either find little time to train them, or there is a massive change to systems following any training (such as RTig to Angelscript, slash commands to administration UI etc) which renders much previous training much less useful. We cannot keep this game online until we resolve such staffing issues. Currently the game is playable so long as a player doesn’t run into an issue, but as soon as they do, getting support from staff is often very difficult and frustrating due to lack of available team members, a staff member’s lack of knowledge about either system or procedure, or sometimes bugs in the new staff UI that render a moderators job much more difficult than intended.
Conflicted morals
Here is where we begin to enter the real crux of the issue though, the final straw that broke the camel’s back as it were. If the following situation existed apart from all other issues, we’d be able to get bye.
It started a little over two months ago when it came to our attention that a certain very charismatic stw player might potentially pose a risk to minors on the game. It’s possible that this person might be luring kids to an off-game server of some sort where some weird and inappropriate behavior could be going on.
So what’s the problem why don’t I ban them and have done with it? Because the allegations against this person A, come from a quite trustworthy source but B, have very very little supporting evidence which I could classify as proof against them. I won’t go into the details of what I was told but it was concerning to say the least. So that’s already bad enough. I know there is a potential nefarious character on the game, but especially since much of the nefarious activity is likely to happen off game I cannot just ban them with no proof. Sadly though it gets even worse because one of the things I was told was that apparently one of stw’s staff members told the nefarious player that we were investigating them, which of course was confidential information. Another betrayal from the staff team, even if potentially unsubstantiated, was a huge blow to my already extremely crippled morale. Since just about everything involved in this case more or less amounts to word of mouth from friends, I have no way of gauging the actual seriousness of these claims and don’t want to overreact. We can try talking to the player in question, but as I said first they are extremely charismatic and second the issue came up of not wanting to expose to this player the names of the people giving me the information on them. We could examine chat logs, but lately that situation is a mess because of the beta and more.
I’ve already been struggling for years trying to figure out what kinds of messages I should and shouldn’t log on stw and who should have access to those logs. Though I was sadly a bit more reckless about this when I was younger, I began worrying about invading people’s privacy combined with more and more systems being recoded, and fewer and fewer chat events were getting logged. I’d actually come up with a good solution to the message logging issue that would be noninvasive to privacy while also being secure and tamper proof, log messages on clients with a way to spit out the log with server generated message hashes and more, was going to write up a good privacy policy finally etc, but I just never managed to finish all that stuff and this happened now not later. Really the lesson in the end is that you make a privacy policy saying that you log all chat events and that, paraphrased of course, with all due respect you should use signal if you are trying to communicate something private. This is a game with kids on it who could be endangered by unsolicited communication from other players, and that hardcore trumps any concern about privacy when chatting on a *game* even when sending a pm, which exists for convenience and which boasts no additional security or privacy features beyond not broadcasting that particular chat packet to other players than who you intend to talk to. I came to that conclusion a little late though I guess, live and learn heh.
In the end, I feel thoroughly trapped by this situation. Every second I keep the game online, I’m knowingly exposing young impressionable kids to someone who just might, according to unsubstantiated reports from a trusted source, be at least somewhat dangerous to them. This knowledge has been constantly grinding on my spirit and has caused me much distress over the last couple months. But then to add a just as unsubstantiated potential staff betrayal is really just too much. And the final nail in the coffin was this. I told the masters that this staff member might have leaked confidential information, to which a response I got was something along the lines of “We really shouldn’t demote this dude because we already have too few staff members and it would do too much damage to the game.” Wow, well that makes things pretty clear doesn’t it. Given the fact that manpower/energy is too limited to properly deal with the situation, my options are to shut down the game or to leave it running knowing full well that a staff member might be leaking any amount of private information at any time, moreover to someone who might possibly be endangering minors. Why would I keep a game running knowing that someone possibly dangerous to kids is running around while a staff member leaks information about our investigation to them? I do, after all, have a conscience. Also I’m so utterly tired of this kind of thing, I’m more of a programmer than a people person and not only does this situation put me out of my depth, but I’m too depleted to deal with it anyway, it has me far too depressed and disabled to lift a finger to fix it.
God’s opinion
So I apologize if this section gets strange for some readers. I don’t usually talk about my religious beliefs publicly somewhat because I am a young enough christian that I still have some fear of judgement from others due to my beliefs, but also because they are still developing way too rapidly for me to describe well. I’ll try not to get into it much here and will only describe situations that directly happened which influenced the decision to shut down stw. Even writing this much at this time is weird for me, but genuinely I feel like I’d be giving a somewhat dishonest or incomplete account of the situation if I did not mention these events.
Lets start with the server crash in February last year. Because it’s really weird, I didn’t mention this potential cause when describing the server crash in blog posts last year. All I know is this. On February 2nd (a little over than 24 hours before the crash), I was really really depressed about stw. At that time in particular the thing pushing me over the edge was a case of data corruption regarding somebody’s character on the private beta server. Me and the masters were already talking about shutting down stw’s public server at the time due to different but also similar staffing issues back then as well as general stress regarding trying to manage and develop the game at the same time. Anyway something about this data corruption was some sort of last straw for me back then because I got very mad and proceeded to shout something which I began regretting less than 5 minutes later, “God help me I don’t even want to be paid for this sh*t anymore!” Though of course as I calmed down I began to again remember how grateful I am for every credit purchase on stw and realized what a dumb thing I said, the simple fact is that there was some heartfelt truth to the angry statement at the time. The shear amount of stress and mental fatigue stw was causing me was genuinely unhealthy, and even if no part of me wanted to admit it, I knew deep down that I was ready for a break from the game even if it meant no more incoming payments. I consider it a certainty that God heard me, because just a little over a day later the freaking SSD on my server fails and what do you know I’m no longer being paid for stw heh. Having already experienced God moving in my life several times before this point, there was absolutely no way I was going to interpret that sequence of events differently. First was the contrast of feelings letting me know that something good happened. A day previously I was so mad I was trying to avoid becoming a danger to myself just because a beta member’s character got corrupted during testing, but then when the entire infrastructure blows up in a spectacular and unrecoverable digital fireball a short time after, I somehow just pretty happily got to work fixing things after the initial jolt of admittedly not entirely unpleasant surprise. Other reasons I know it was God’s work is because for example I’d just moved from an apartment to my parents house again, meaning that I was no longer paying over $1000 per month on rent. Had this ssd failed 3 months earlier, I would have been in serious trouble. God was also trying to get me to save money in a couple strange ways months leading up to this crash. In November of 2022 for example a Christian radio station I listen to was doing their help a child in need in another country thing they do a couple times a year. My Mom had done it before and it’s cool because it’s personalized, it’s not just some generic collection bin. You select a child to support from the beginning and pay a certain amount monthly to help them with food/lodging/education/more, and you actually communicate with them over the years as they grow up. I decided to give this a try, but managed to mistype my credit card information (which I don’t do all that often). I attempted to retry but was presented with an amusing and unfriendly looking sql database error about how an insertion constraint failed because a row in the database already existed with my email address, and at that point decided to classify that endeavor as unsuccessful and moved on with my life. I found it funny because I just happened to be implementing SQLite into stw at the time and so had just recently learned in detail the exact meaning of that particular error message. Shortly there after (in December of 2022) I tried making an order from sound ideas that contained several libraries. The process worked right up until I pushed the checkout button, where my browser then informed me that the connection to sound-ideas.com had timed out and that the page could not be loaded. The first thing I did was to verify that other websites would actively load, it wasn’t my internet. I tried refreshing and reloading sound ideas several times and it remained offline for me. A friend called at that point and distracted me from making the order at all, though a few hours later I successfully made a much smaller and less expensive version of the order. That was weird though, take spirituality out of it and one could easily wonder at how me pressing the checkout button on sound ideas managed to seemingly crash their entire server! In February of 2023, I was suddenly very much thanking God for the weird disruptions to my financial spending after my server exploded like that. Indeed by the time stw came back online months later i was desperately trying to decide what to do, cancel my charitable donations or withdraw my ever dwindling holdings in crypto currency. In the end I spent such an annoying hour trying to cell my crypto which wasn’t doing well to begin with that it’s gonna be a really long time before I try investing in that stuff again lol. Anyway, without those disruptions to my spending that took place before the server crash, I’d have been in a truly uncomfortable situation. That crash also caused us to finally fix our bad character backup practices, it was perfectly timed after the last rudimentary data download 3 weeks earlier such that we lost enough data to make fixing the backups a serious priority while also not losing so much data that the game was unrecoverable. Remember how I mentioned that we were more reckless with data logging earlier on in the game’s history? The crash also conveniently destroyed much of that older data such as private message logs that we’d never asked permission from players to collect with the usage of a privacy policy. So yeah, that’s the untold part of the story behind the 2023 crash. I very strongly believe that the word coincidence cannot even remotely be applied to that situation, it contains far too many hidden blessings and happened at far too perfect a time.
And then just a few days ago, though without the data loss, it all happened yet again! The circumstances were somewhat different and it was much less aggressive, thank goodness I don’t need to spend a bunch of time rebuilding my server. But this above mentioned staff betrayal situation had been going on for a couple of months and I had already been considering shutting the game down pretty much all that time. Finally, though another part of my mind was trying to retract the prayer as I thought it, I just prayed “Ugh God if you want this game shut down can’t you just do the server crash thing again?” Well, the server crashed again or more specifically suffered a network failure that was out of my control a couple days later during the first time I was on tt with a master in about 2 months. Vultr had to fix it 8 hours later. In the physical world I could imagine that perhaps Vultr suffered very minor effects from the cascading outages of certain large cloud database providers that took place that day, but spiritually speaking I would feel quite illogical if I interpreted this event as anything other than an answered prayer. A good 98% of my spiritual experiences are like that, there is almost always a real world explanation to them and only their combination combined with prayer and faith turns what would otherwise be completely random coincidences into very weird God moments that make me facepalm and question to myself how little I truly know about reality. This 8 hours of network outage happening at such a perfect time is an example of such a god moment, finally cementing the fact that it must be best to shut down Survive the Wild for now.
Will the game return?
Honestly I have no idea. Certainly I am making no plans at the time of this post, which though very sad will also be extremely relieving. It’ll be nice to wake up and not have to tend to the same project I’ve been working on for 10 years, constantly feeling like I have something to fix while rarely feeling like I have the energy to actually do it because some administration or logistical rather than coding issue is bogging us down. For the past couple years every time I get a payment from stw I’ve felt a strange mix of gratitude and sadness, gratitude for obvious reasons but sadness because I haven’t felt like I’ve been able to truly deliver on the good game that people are supposed to be paying for for quite a long time now. It’ll be good to have a break from that feeling. One thing I can say for sure though is that I don’t plan to delete any data. If the situation allows and if God has something else to say about it some time later, I’d love to finish fixing this game and watch all the dreams I have for it come to fruition. I have the source code, the January 11th inventories and all of the data gathered during the beta period over the last year, which luckily happens to contain a very comprehensive bug report and suggestion database such that if the game does reappear, it’ll be in a much much better state than it is in now, certainly the beta phase would be over to say the least. But I don’t know for now, after shutting this thing down I plan to spend as little time thinking about Survive the Wild for a while as I humanly can, and we can talk more about restoring the game after the desire to just not think about it anymore has been fulfilled enough to no longer be a concern. As to what will happen to the Survive the Wild discord server? I mean I see no reason to destroy that community, people can either leave or make it thrive as they wish if other stw staff agree to keep moderating it. After all if the game comes back, we’ll need a place to announce that fact.
It’s been a wild ride yall
Everyone, genuinely thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking with the game, that goes for both staff and players. I think it’s safe to say that there have been many positives as a result of this project over the last decade, from countless memories and hours of fun and relaxation on the expected end to changed lives, forged relationships and even a BGT rewrite on the unexpected end. I suppose all things considered, that really isn’t bad for a game’s lifetime.
As for me I plan to keep working on NVGT, and will soon probably begin seriously trying to seek employment or something. Lately I’ve needed at least some game to code in NVGT so that I can use the engine as well as creating it, and as such I’ve been working on rewriting constant motion and am happy to say that the nvgt version begins to resemble the python concept demo more and more, soon I’ll just be working on individual minigames in that project rather than the infrastructure. I’ll generally be around, I’ll probably come up with something or other to post on this blog as time goes on.
Since I cannot deny that it would be helpful, I’ve opted to leave the store running for just a few more days encase anyone wants to provide any final financial support or just wants to get a few last minute credits to have some fun before things start shutting down. The store will die sometime this upcoming Friday. Another very deep thank you to everyone who has ever purchased credits on stw, you guys should know that your support allowed me to live independently in 2 apartments in 2 states over a couple of years, your purchasing of credits on this game has genuinely changed my life. Because of your support I now have enough sound effects for life to make any game or audio production I could possibly imagine, and I thank everyone of you for every blessing I was able to experience as a result of your digital purchases. Anyway, Survive the Wild will shut down a couple of months after the store does, so that everyone can enjoy their most recent purchases. I apologize if the staff situation continues to deteriorate even further however during these final months of gameplay.
Well, I think that’s all for the last Survive the Wild update post. I’m sorry that we did not manage to achieve our goals and end up with the game we were all hoping for, but none the less am very grateful for the countless lasting blessings that have resulted from the Survive the Wild project. For those who do so, please pray for the game’s return! And now with a very heavy heart I say fair well, and seriously, thank you all for playing my game.
101 Comments
First of all: nice one with the pun of the last heading in this blog post. It sure has been a wild ride.
Now, on a serious note:
I’ve been around for 7 of these 10 years and overall, it’s been a damn good time. I grew up with this game and the good memories will always stay with me. I’m glad I was able to help a bit in the end, and do the small part I could, around school and my own projects.
Rest in piece, survive the wild. You were a good friend. And lastly, best of luck in your future endeavours, Sam. I genuinely hope that, whatever path you choose to travel, it is fulfilling and wonderful as god knows you’ve earned.
Hi sam I am so sorry to hear this from you.
I just can’t believe this game is going down after 10 years, you know I am not a big fan of this game, but I have been playing 2021 and I really enjoyed it.
But I use to rage sometimes cause I kept dieing to broken bones and also falling from a mountain lol, but anyways I came back to this game after some a month I believe so yeah.
After I came back from my rage moment I said to myself I will learn this game and try to be like other players and help newbies as well.
And everything end up like I wanted it after I put all my efert to this game, I said to myself why to myself to get a paid char.
So that’s what I did to get myself a paid char and a shelter so those were very happy moments when I got my paid char for the first time.
I also learned most of the quests thanks to those friends who have helped me in the passed.
I still remember when I died to a lion under the cave when I tryed doing the hidden quest for the first time.
So yeah anyways that’s a story about me.
I hope this game will return in the future and menny thanks to you for making me have fun in your game.
I will enjoy me doing all your arenas in your game.
But always take care and good luck in life.
give me refund now. I had over 50 dfcs. dam you
If you read the credits disclaimer, you probably know that refunds are not possible once you purchase credits and then buy items using them.
It’s quite evident you do not possess the required emotional maturity to deal with adversities. It is a game. Of course, whatever you purchase may not be useful to you.
well mabie you should be happy you got to play the game it all, aiden its sad its going down but it is a great game
are you mad? what the fuck do you think you are saying? do you even no, what Sam is going through? well, you don’t, that I no, as per your rude tone. I also doubt about your reading the credits license. If your telling Sam to refund your DFC’s, then, mind your tone, and language. Reading the credits license requires common sense to understand what is written in their, and I doubt that You’d even have a bit of common sense or not! do not message Sam like that ever again, he’s not your servant and you have no right to order him around. And besides, he is no one to listen to you.
Sam, thank you for the last couple years of STW. I really enjoyed it, and would have loved to see your dreams for the game come to fruition. I’m sorry that all this is going on, and I wish you well with your future endeavors. If you do ever decide to bring STW back, or any other open world concept like it, rest assured I will play it. The loss of STW is absolutely a serious blow to the audio gaming community. To be honest, there’s really nothing else like it out there right now. Nothing as immersive and comprehensive, despite the errors that have plagued STW. I remember when I first played the game back in high school. I remember when the crystal Thomas quest line was brand spanking new. I remember that PVP map coming online for the first time. I also remember never getting the opportunity to do the Samville quests, something I will regret missing out on. I also remember the days of shift enter, and your solutions to that which make STW more immersive and enjoyable than every other audio game with multiple maps I’ve ever played. Seriously Sam, noone has ever done anything with your level of suffistication for the audio gaming community that I’ve ever come across. While certainly, the gameplay has been a bit stagnant since public beta, I have thoroughly enjoyed playing it. Seeing a combination of the things I remembered well from my previous time on STW nearly a decade ago, plus the new things I missed when I was away, gave me a combination feeling of nastalgia and adventure. Sam, sir, truly, STW will be missed, and I know for certain I am nowhere near alone in this sentiment. I also understand that the health, sanity, and welfare of the game’s creator comes first, so do what you have to do. I do hope STW can come back some day, and I for one would love to see your work continue to contribute to making better audio gaming experiences for all of us to enjoy.
Yours Sincerely,
Ryan Noblett
AKA, lucid dreamer
Thanks for your good message. I have nothing to add to that. I will be a for ever fan, becouse of the high level and realistic gameplay. I hate all the monsters who want to eat me in the game but the total gameplay is super!
hello, sam. firstly, i would like to thank you for such a wonderful game, it was so much funn wile it lasted and i feel bad that you’ve have to make this Decision.
all the best for your future endevers, and i’ll pray for the return of stw with everything fixed! again, thanks from the bottem of my hart
Hi Sam,
I joined STW 3 years back, and it was something like oh man it’s too real. I enjoyed playing it, and it was something I had best in my collection.
Today, this post is to me a surprise and a shocked too. Seriosly, I am unable to put my emotinos into words. I’ll miss you stw!
definitely sam you are kind hearted but, this is not a good decission from you bro. people are paying and what they pay is they using no without any trouble? see, we are not forcing you to develop faster, let you take your time. as a developer i know how will be a life of a developer in his personal life as well as professionally, how will be the pressure of solving a bug, how will be the feeling when we solved a bug if thousand bugs are there, go one by one, if possible, make a relationship between some bug, and think about it and solve. If again another bug comes for sure and you should be in same life cycle. This is what we call the agile process. And one thing, regarding the staffing issue, there are so many trusted people but, i think you should still find the way to find trusted one. and, regarding insulting minors, you can come with a spam char and monitor all of us no? and if somebody complaints, you should have an option to log pm for some few days and after that let you take decission to ban them or not? So my final opinion is, don’t shut down stw and it’s the game we adicted to so far. Another thing is, I noted this game is the only one where from developers to staffs are very friendly.
Those are not only my words, those are the words of all stw players who support your game by playing.
But dude. It’s so much more than that. This dude is just stressed by something for so long that he just, wants a break from it. Having the server running and plus didn’t you read the staff situation? Doesn’t make it very easy dude. Read the entire post again, this game just can’t. Be up. Even Sam didn’t do this easily but he must. And if that is the will of lord almighty who are you to question it? Sorry had to say it
Oh please stop it with the lord thing. Not everyone believes in God or ven Jesus as a God how the hell do you force someone that it is the will of your own God. All the reasons are valid but take out the lord one. It is something personal with Sam you don’t go generalize the same on everyone else.
Yes, while in the world there are children being raped or dying of hunger, God is worried about ending a computer game… of course, it would make perfect sense to talk about something that doesn’t exist. Even God took the blame for Sam not wanting to solve all the problems he himself created with this update of the game’s language. All we can do is complain to Sam’s god who wants the computer game to come back.
that’s not fair tbh, you don’t know the stress of dealing with broken code and dealing with community+staff issues, and possiblly vps issues, you have to remember he have been keeping it up for 10 years. It’s easy to imagine things being simple or an exaduration from your side but it really isn’t, you have to remember he has his own life and stw is taking so much from that, also I don’t agree about the not fair thing, when you buy something on an online game always be ware that it could go down so do it at your own risk, and what? You expect him to keep it up until he dies from old age? That’s what I call unfair, everything has to end at some point.
Hey there, Sam!
Sorry to hear this news. It’s unfortunate that the game can’t stay up while you take a break from fixing things. Hopefully it can return one day. You and the rest of the staff have put a lot of effort into it and it would be a shame to see all of that wasted.
As for the situation with that player, sometimes you really do have to bite the bullet and spy on – I mean monitor potential problem people. Aside from other people reporting, that’s really the only way to catch someone. A general message of the day stressing how important it is to be careful online wouldn’t hurt either.
Anyway, I wish you luck with whatever it is you do next, and hopefully STW can come back.
It’s really a pity. I haven’t played this game much lately, probably because it’s a beta and all achievements will be canceled, but still, everyone has been patiently waiting for the full version. A really nice community of people was created around this game, new friendships were made and people often came here just to talk to each other. I hope this is a temporary crisis, because this is the best audio game. Maybe it’s worth rewriting the privacy policy. Add a minimum age provision in the regulations. Insulting people and exploiting children happens everywhere on the Internet and it shouldn’t be a reason to close such an awesome project.
indeed. this blog is gonna make many people’s day boring. i am among them without a doubt. after few blogs i was frustrated since this cupple of month that stw beta isn’t finishing. i have done everything here but still stw is for me a platform of fun, relaxation, and good seven year’s memory.some of my school friends started playing stw and everyday evening we come and play clasic. sit down somewhere enabling voice and just gossip about some other things. or just we explore with some newbies. but i seriously think that shutting the game isn’t a good idea. not because of people paid for the game only. but that will be so boring for us specially those nights when we don’t feel sleepy. even if store is shut down. i feel that stw should keep running at it’s worst state even. really shokked to know about the staff situation but that is expected. but though there are some true wellwisher who would want to contribute with honesty. just the matter to find them. there is no such game like stw. i still consider it the best online audio game. such reality. such feeling like sitting beside people and speaking, chatting, doing things i have never seen on any audio game. and the staff who betrayed stw should be demoted in any case. without concerning about current stw staff situation. nothing to say more. just frustrated more. hope this game doesn’t disappears from our life. there is no better work than making people happy. and you did so for several years. so i don’t think god will ever indicate you to stop doing that. if to think about in SPRITUAL WAY. but what ever happens, we have to accept it. but at last i still hope that stw shut down decition will be overturned.
DONT GIVE UP. YOU CAN DO ITT. IT DOESNT MATTER WHEN YOU RELEASE THE GAME, I AM SURE ME AND OTHERS WILL PLAY IT. WE ARE GREATFULL TO YOU FOR STW.
hey there sam. I’d just like to say Thank you. I joined stw in 2021 or so and seriously have enjoyed the past 3 or so years I’ve spent on the game. I haven’t been as active for quite some time now, as I was hit with a massive case of bordum twards everything, including the game. I’m just greatful about recently though, when I was able to become an official translater for this game and help out spanish players in that regard and generally with the game as best I could. It’s been fun, and I totally understand why you came to the decision of taking the game offline, and I support that. I wish you well in all of your future adventures and wish you well on finding employment somewhere if you go through with that. May god be with you and bless you. I’d just like you to know I personally think you made the right decision. so as a parting statement I’d like to extend my thank you on behalf of the spanish comunity of stw. It was quite fun and I personally really enjoyed my time here. I just hope that one day, if you decide to pick this game back up once again that you can finally do so knowing that you can now have the ability to have the dreams and plans you had for this game come to reality in an epic way. Should probably stop writing here before I end up repeating myself lol.
hi sam I’m definitely sad that this game is closing, because I found both of my relationships in this game, because I made over 40 bug reports, helped out a bit with the translation, and generally, after realizing that wet towels are not much fun, helped developing the game as much as i can 😀 however, I totally understand your decision, I’d probably do something impulsive if I were you, like kick away all the masters or something. I sincerely hope that the game will return, and I will study nvgt if it develops
STW has been my favorit game since I lost my sight. From my early days as a newbie, when I fell from a tree and broke my leg, to the intense moments of losing fourteen death_free_cards during a PK fight, every experience has been incredible.
Even though I’m not an avid gamer, I have many recordings related to this game. I enjoyed playing STW and contributing to its growth. Translating the game for Ukrainian players was a real joy, seeing so many dive in and enjoy a new, realistic experience.
Like many others, I want to thank you for these ten amazing years. Your dedication and hard work are truly appreciated, and it’s sad to see this journey coming to an end.
I understand your decision and respect it, knowing it’s final and wise given your situation. Still, I hope that someday you might find the strength and motivation to bring this wonderful game back to life.
STW was, is, and always will be one of the most popular, balanced, and interesting games. As long as we remember and cherish the memories of our time spent here, its legacy will live on.
It’s heartbreaking to see such a grand project take such a toll. I sincerely hope you get more support over the years and that your life gets better. Thank you for giving us a unique gaming experience and for your contributions to the blind community.
This game has great potential, and I hope to see it return in the future. You’ve done something amazing by creating the most popular game among VI folks. For that, I thank you again.
Wishing you a speedy recovery and success in your future endeavours. Keep us updated on Discord; we’d love to hear about the game’s development, your life, and your blog posts. You’re amazing! 🍻😆
Hello, it’s sad to know that there is no possibility of STW remaining standing, so I came to suggest that you release the private beta server for everyone, so we can see what’s beyond the current limits and at least know and live a little the direction this game is heading. would go if you kept programming. well, in general I would say that you should have always hired people to program stw with you, because the excuses for not doing this were lack of trust, etc., when in the job market trust means nothing, but confidentiality contracts and other actions to protect your right to the work. I think at this point you lacked a bit of professionalism and that ruined your ability to manage the project stw and if at this point you need to stop, it’s only up to us to accept it and know that it’s really not worth spending money on things we have no control over.
hi Sam, I started playing the game in 2022, the year before the new year, I really liked it, and when the server crashed in February, I was very sad and missed the game, and now I see these lines and understand that how easily everything can go wrong, a month ago, I was just playing and having fun, and now I’m sitting in front of my laptop and thinking and hoping that the game will return soon, or in any case, will not be forgotten by others, I think that many are sad right now, and this game was the most, most, favorite game, communication, with friends, successful dying, and so on, I will remember, stw, you were the coolest game, and if it comes back, then I will definitely play it,
Hello, Sam. Stw was my first audio game and I’m very sad to see the game shut down. I’ve been playing for less than a year, but a lot has happened in that time. I met many interesting people, worked on the Ukrainian translation of the game, and even found a boyfriend 🙂 Lately, this game was almost the only game I played. I haven’t found any game that interests me more than this one. Now I have no idea what to play after the server shut down lol. I’m sorry you had to make the decision to close the game, but I understand that the well-being of the developer is more important. I wish you luck with what you do next, whatever it may be and don’t give up. I hope the game comes back someday
Been playing STW since its release 9 years ago. I’ve learned a lot from it and had many fun experiences. Thank you for this amazing game.
A long time ago, I would cheat items and such to gain an advantage in the game. I apologize for all the harm that I’ve done to the game and I hope you can forgive me.
I am very sorry to hear that the game is closing. I will pray to the great Allah to give you the strength to continue the project you have been working on for more than ten years.
Sincerely, Abdul, Republic of Tatarstan.
oh no no no!!!
Realmente vai ser uma pena um jogo como o surviv in the wild acabar, a qualidade desse jogo é imprecionante. Eu gostaria de sujerir, que se possível a gente pudece ativar um servidor localmente como existe em outros jogos por aí para jogar com amigos, mas realmente só se isso não for trazer nenhum tipo de prejuíso ao projeto. Gostaria de deixar meus agradecimentos a equipe por todos esses anos de trabalho.
English: It’s really going to be a shame a game like surviving in the wild ends, the quality of this game is impressive. I would like to suggest that it is possible for people to activate a server locally as it exists in other games around there to play with friends, but in reality it is only possible to create any kind of prejudice to the project. I would like to express my gratitude to the team for all these years of work.
Sam, I as well as a lot of others I’m sure, totally respect your decision. and your honesty in your blog is amazing. I’m so touched to hear how God has answered your prayers in the way he has.
I am really sad that this game is going though. I have a theory and maybe I’ll get a msg to you privately about that soon.
Well done but yes, feeling more emotional about this than I thought. I have only been playing for 21 months but am so familiar with this game now.
I have also made some wonderful friends as a result of this game and will not forget that.
Thanks for the time I have been able to play it. Take care and all the very best.
hi sam,first of all, I completely respect the decision to close the game. I have been playing this game since January 2, 2024,and this game has brought me many, many great things in my life, I have had many great times,I have learned many great things. I had a dream that I wanted to have the most in life,and I made this dream come true thanks to this game. This game was the first online game I played,I’m really sad about its closure. Thank you very, very much for everything,it’s good that I came across such a game. Here
I don’t want to forget anyone I’m close to, anything I’ve learned,I’ve tasted happiness thanks to this game, even for a short time,thank you so much for everything🥺
Hi Sam
I’m so sorry you’re closing Stw.
please do not close it
Or if you are going to close it, please let it come back one day.
I’m literally going to cry right now
Chara, who was cursing at the children, cursed at me a lot, but I didn’t care, I just opened a support ticket.
I repeat, do not close the game completely, I understand you, but do not do such a thing.
sorry for the spelling mistakes lol
i can foley relate to everything said on this post, keaping such a game in it’s current state, with all of the issues mentioned obove is time, and energy consuming, especially if it’s taking a toll on men,physical and emotional aspects of his health.
i have, plaied the game for a little over 8 years now, bin off and on on it for years and it was one of the best periods of my life, fun memories with friends, exploring, ro just the fact that i had somethign log on and relax while playing it.
in the end the decision to close the game is up to you (Sam) if you do mandge to find a working solution then that’s greate, if not then choose what alligns with your soul, is best for your health and needs, especially your health, their is nothing more prescious then that in the world, i had to learn that the hard way.
fair well
Howdy Sam,
Thanks for all the time spent on this game. I didn’t play it much myself, but a lot of my friends did. It was one of the most requested games for audiogame-manager, my project for making Windows based games work in Linux.
Your work has touched a lot of lives, and brought a lot of happiness. That is a completely awesome achievement.
I also wanted to say thank you for making NVGT work with Linux. We are already starting to see some really fun games being released with native Linux support. Also, thanks for making it open source. If I can help in any way, feel free to reach out. I am an Arch user myself, so if you need testing on that distro, let me know.
Bye bye STW… I’ve been there for 9 -10 years and I spent my teenage there. I can’t say all what’s inside me now, sorry. I don’t think it’s worth detailing anymore, things wanted to happen.
“I must say, although I had a hunch this might happen eventually, it still came as quite a shock. While I’ll be sad to see this game go, I deeply respect your decision and admire your mental fortitude in making it. I could see that maintaining the game was taking a toll on you, and I’m happy that you can now focus on projects that are less straining. Thank you for the amazing three years I had playing this game.
It couldn’t have been easy maintaining STW, and I’m really glad you’re in a better place now, mentally. Honestly, I had so many experiences in this game that it’s hard to pick just one. However, I think the community aspect was what I loved most. Spending hours upon hours chatting with the community about something or other was amazing. To be honest, this game was a significant reason I can type this well; it helped improve my spelling and social skills.
I’ll be sad to see it go, but your mental health and happiness are much more important.”
It’s so sad. I haven’t played this game very often and I hope it’s maintained, but if you can’t maintain it any longer, please consider releasing the source code. Someone could still develop this game, right?
Hello boy!
The most important thing is that your mental health is perfect and, above all, that you have found a faith that guides your life and a wonderful God who never abandons us.
.
Remember that STW has become much more than just a game. Relationships between couples in the real world were possible thanks to the game, true friendships that also last. And especially for blind people who do not have a full social life, the STW served as a companion on lonely nights in moments of fun or simply joining the game and chatting as a way to alleviate loneliness and have a company to share the moments. day to day problems
Maybe one day you will understand what your mission is or was with this game, God is the only one who can give you that answer.
But you should know that indirectly the good things that the game and its creation provided were greater than the problems, disappointments and betrayals of the people you trusted.
And if these wonderful things happened it is because God allowed them, and also the bad things so that many values could be tested.
The world since its creation has shown that there was a Judas Iscariot and there will always be one in all places, professions, life cycles.
And finishing. Move on. If the project continues it will be wonderful. If you decide to follow other paths in your career, you are a very brightly talented boy and you will succeed.
And I repeat, the most important thing is your health and your heart is at peace with God.
.
I will pray for you and your family.
Hugs.
Really sad news. I remember the beginnings of STW.
its definitely been a ride take care and all the best
Hello, I’ve been at game stw since I was 13 years old. I’ve always watched it develop. And you are also an inspiration for me to become a programmer. Hopefully the game will come back again.
Farewell, Survive the Wild. My heart aches as I bid you adieu. You were more than just a game – you were a shared dream, a collective heartbeat, and a testament to human connection.
To the admins, developer Sam, and others who poured their souls into this world, I see you. I see your sweat, and your passion. Your labor of love will never be forgotten. Thank you for trusting us with your vision, for believing in us, and for giving us a piece of yourselves. Your dedication inspired us, motivated us, and changed us.
To my fellow players, my friends, – we were in this together. We explored, we struggled, and we triumphed as one. We formed bonds that transcended screens and distances. We found comfort, support, and belonging in each other’s company. Let’s carry this sense of community and camaraderie forward, even as we say goodbye to this chapter.
As Survive the Wild fades into silence, remember that its spirit lives on within us. Let’s hold on to the memories, the laughter, and the lessons learned. Let’s continue to inspire, support, and uplift each other, just as we did in this game.
Rest in peace, dear Survive the Wild. Your legacy will live on in our hearts, a reminder of the power of human connection and the impact of a shared dream.
Greetings Sam, I really enjoyed stw in with all the things it brought to my life from real friends new experiences on my quests and with all the friends it was a nice time and I really look forward to this game to come back online and I hope that you work on it
and give it all you got
I’m damn so thankful for that period I’ve been playing. I stayed here in Stw more than I did in any other games
Hello Sam, the truth is that I am very sad that you have made this decision, but the truth is that if it is for your own good, go ahead and hope that everything turns out well for you in your personal life. I hope that one day you can give us years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds of fun again, this was my first online game that I enjoyed and the truth is that I had a great time. Many Spanish-speaking people liked the explanatory videos I made on my channel. Maybe you don’t understand anything I’m talking about but here I leave you a video of my first chapter of the series called empezando en survive the wild.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn1YJZpPsRU&t=835s
There are 9 chapters, in which I am very grateful for having given me years of fun, exactly 10 years playing this title and seeing that I was able to help each new player who entered the game. Finally, I would like to thank the survive the wild ayuda community for providing guides and contests for players that I also participated in. Greetings Sam and until next time!
Thank you for everything, again. What you’ve done is admirable, there is absolutely no question of that. Best wishes
STW is one of these games which i would leave and come back to extremely fast. I played this game permanently since version 92.7 and it made me an adult. Thanks so much, and I wish you luck in your future. I can’t wait for STW to return.
ok goodluck for future.
can I get your contack or email?
I mean hello sam can I get your email or contack? or telegram if you have?
Hi, if you visit samtupy.com you’ll see a contact heading on the homepage. Thanks.
hi sam. i joind the stw on the update wen annimels wer not in the game at the time with the radar but the thing iz i’m all reddy stumbling around hey i hav over 4 onnline games but this game its un like utherz sorry for miss spels but i hope stw gets bigger and mey the god bee with you from amirreza on old deyz baestkiller nue baesthunter
but gize the horsiz! dont fergget about the cats and hors ride ing lol.
Hola Sam,
Quería escribirte porque la verdad he estado muy triste desde que me enteré que el juego va a cerrar. Este ha sido uno de mis juegos favoritos, por no decir que es el único que realmente me ha gustado. He probado de todo, pero nada se compara con esta hermosa experiencia, y eso es algo que siempre llevaré en mi corazón.
A pesar de estar en beta y de que siempre pensaba “ya debe faltar poco”, seguía volviendo para jugar y platicar con todos ustedes. Ahora realmente no sé qué va a pasar. Aún no lo supero, pero entiendo la situación por la que estás pasando.
Te deseo mucha suerte en lo que venga y espero que, en un futuro lejano, podamos ver el regreso del juego. A todos los chicos, gracias por los buenos y malos momentos.
Un abrazo, ¡hasta pronto!
Direct translation from Google is:
Hello Sam,
I wanted to write to you because the truth is I’ve been very sad since I found out that the game is closing. This has been one of my favorite games, if not the only one I’ve really liked. I have tried everything, but nothing compares to this beautiful experience, and that is something that I will always carry in my heart.
Even though it was in beta and I always thought “it must be close,” I kept coming back to play and talk to all of you. Now I really don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m still not over it, but I understand what you’re going through.
I wish you the best of luck in whatever comes next and hope that, in the distant future, we can see the return of the game. To all the guys, thank you for the good and bad times.
A hug, see you soon!
I am so sad to read this. I was really looking forward to the product of so much work that had gone into it for so many months, and I can’t imagine how much of a blow this must be for you as a developer. But the decision makes sense, at least for the time being. I sincerely hope this game comes back, even if it won’t be until the distant future. Honestly, if I had more time to put into it, I would volunteer as a staff member myself because of the game’s potential.
On another note, it is wonderful to hear about your budding relationship with Christ. I am a Christian myself and it is always wonderful to meet a brother or a sister in Christ. Even if we never meet here on Earth, I look forward to meeting you in the clouds. God bless you.
Hello sam, I’m very sad to get this game closing notice, but no matter what happens, nothing is more important than your mental health. When you are healthy then you can give us joy so take care of your health. It’s been almost 1 year since I started playing stw but STW has taught me a lot and I have met many helpful and nice, kind friends through this game. This game is very good and enjoyable as well as deadly. And the friends of this game are also very good. I also have 2 paid characters in this game but I don’t care about that because for me money is not more important than your health. And another thing is that I have played many online audio games but none of the games I have played have been as friendly as the developer of stw. In the end, what I want to say is that I am also very sad by what is written above and by the pain that you are going through. This world is the world of selfishness. In this world, there are more people who drag their feet because they can’t see the good work done by others than those who give encouragement, but never get involved with such people. Be happy be happy and try to get stw back as long as you can. Will always miss you and stw. I hope and pray that we can meet again in stw. rest of the peace stw. My english is not a good if i told rong, please give me sorry
greetings Sam, greetings to the person who created the audio game that was always the best for me and many others. I wish I am not pressurizing with what I will say, but I will write it down just because I loved stw, even though with the few staff members and the few times I saw them really active, it was still the best compared to others. I really wish the love of the blind community to your game will bring you back with extreme motivation to code and work with more enjoyable, rather not frustrating times, and I wish that a day will come, I try to log in to survive the wild and get surprised that I am back online enjoying the loss of DFC, the defeat in arenas, the at times annoying, and at times funny bugs, and the drama that could go on out of character or pm that might bring me a smile or an expression of angriness. I wish our extended support will let the motivation thunder through your mind again, and even if it doesn’t for stw, i just wish it happens while working on something us that will allow this moment when we will meet again to come. 5 years of playing in this impressive project, and many years I expected for to approach while I enjoy will forever stay in my memory, and will forever let me say I hope stw comes back with its large fans and great developer. I just wish this decision will come to your mind again some day, and have a change about it. Truly its a heavy, huge loss for the blind community to shut down this game. Anyway, with whatever you do, I wish that Jesus will bless your work and help you with whatever is good for you. thanks for a game that I momentarily pray it will return. a 5 years old STW player
The truth is that I don’t have much to add here.
Players has already said above that we all hope the game returns,
because no game compares to STW.
I Just stepped in to add my name to the considerably large list of the people who had found great friends in this game.
Without this game my English would have remained as horrible as it was in my teenage years.
All blind gamers I’ve met had been an STW player at some point, but a lot of STW players don’t like to play any other game.
Even if it ends here, This had undeniably been a successful project in your life.
Thank you for giving something more than a game, to the blind comunity of all around the world.
May you discover the inner peace that you deserv.
Of course I had been always a passive player, I’m sorry that I couldn’t do anything to make the game better but; I write if reading this can bring a millisecond of satisfaction.
All the best to you and everyone who helped to make this game better for others.
Thanks for reading.
Regards, Negar.
Translation: Hello Sam. Here is just a child who, since he was 9 years old, has been playing this. For God’s sake, the first time I heard about this game I decided to install it and see. I got hooked and, although I was never able to buy credits, I loved it. It’s a shame that this game is leaving. Thanks Sam, this game gave me 3 years of fun. If it ever revives, I offer myself as a translator/moderator in the game’s Hispanic community. Until then, goodbye, survive the wild. Note. My comment is written in Spanish, You can use a method to translate. I think I’ll try to program something in NVGT or revive a game that many said was a clone to have some fun.
Original: Hola, sam. Aquí solo un niño que, desde que tenía 9 años juega esto. Por dios la primera vez que oí de este juego decidí instalarlo y ver. Me enganché y, auqnue nunca pude comprar créditos, me encantó. Es una lástima que este jeugo se vaya. Gracias, sam, pues este juego me brindó 3 años de diversión. Si alguna vez revive, me ofrezco como traductor/moderador en la comunidad hispana del juego. Hasta entonces, adiós, survive the wild. Note. My coment is writed in spanish, You can use a metod to translate. Creo que intentaré programar algo en NVGT o revivir un juego que muchos decían era clon para divertirme un rato.
hello. I am going to miss this game. I had memmorys I made on stw. and even though I didnt play much tords the end I never hated stw. now, lets make osmething clear. no this other aiden golomb person who ocmmented is not me, I am not sure who did it and why they did it, but that is not me.
goodbye, STW
Dear Sam,
I wanted to express my deep appreciation for “Survive the Wild” – it was a game I thoroughly enjoyed and spent many hours playing. While I was disappointed by some issues with the administration, I’m truly saddened to hear the game is shutting down.
I have an idea that might allow the community to continue enjoying “Survive the Wild” even after the official servers close. Releasing the server files would enable players to host their own versions, complete with custom maps and admins of their choosing. This would create a vibrant and flexible environment, offering a fresh perspective on the game.
Imagine the possibilities! We could have our own “Survive the Wild” servers, tailored to our preferences, and run by a team we trust. I’m sure many players would find this incredibly exciting. You could even implement a system to shut down all servers in the future if you decided to change your mind.
I’m thrilled to hear about your deepened relationship with Jesus Christ, and I feel that same joy in my own faith. Your kindness and dedication to this project are evident, and I’m thankful for all the hard work you’ve poured into “Survive the Wild.”
Thank you again for everything, and please consider my suggestion.
Sincerely,
Custard
Hi,
So you did consider the kill switch which everybody else leaves out, I commend the forward thinking! 🙂 Sadly the problem here is that in reality such a kill switch is almost impossible to implement correctly for one very simple reason: everybody will be trying to attack it. Basically sure I could code a kill switch that functions out of the box, but I cannot create a kill switch that would stand up to the constant attacks of players who are spending 100 times more energy than I spent on the implementation trying to figure out how to get the game to run even with the kill switch activated. I can tell you now that such people would succeed. I’d argue that any reasonable programmer would say the same thing here unless they have a truly unique skill which I am without, it’s pretty much impossible to write code that can stand up to that kind of punishment from hackers. In other words, how much time do you think game developers spend trying to make it so that their games can’t be cracked, and how often do you think they actually succeed? If you guessed not very often, you’d be correct. Cracks are everywhere, and the same thing would happen to any kind of kill switch. Within days of me activating it, someone would just release a modified server binary with the code branch that checks for the kill switch commented out.
Completely practically: Say that when stw’s shared server file launched, it queried https://samtupy.com/stw_kill.txt to determine if the game should be allowed to launch. If that file contains the number 1 kill the game, otherwise let it run. Well, someone can just modify their C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file, make samtupy.com point to their own server instead of to my actual website, and can put their own kill_stw.txt file there with the value of 0. That’s just an example, if I worked around that issue someone would just do something else to get the game to run. If I could create a kill switch that actually destroyed the binaries rather than just disabling them, sure we could talk. Sadly such destruction is neither possible nor ethical, bringing us back to square 1. Again you did detect the issue, if I could find a way to release server files while being able to undo the decision at a later time, I genuinely might actually do it. Sadly though unless another programmer wants to come along and show me a miracle solution here, such a kill switch is an impossibility at least safely, and thus is the idea of locally hosted stw servers for the present. Thanks for the idea though!
La idea no es mala. Yo se que simplemente cualquiera podría, en caso de liberar el servidor de ahora, que todos lo querrían copiar y crearían miles de STWs. . Pero puede que una reforma resulte. Espero leas esto y lo consideres. Entonces, lo que podrías hacer sería liberar la versión en BGT. Así, aunque la gente abra miles de servers de STW, ninguno tendría lo nuevo. Además, a todos. ¿A quien no le da nostalgia recordar al viejo STW? Aunque tenga errores, estaría bien tener a survive the wild con nosotros. Incluso podrías, si tienes una versión de sTW antes de la primera gran actualización, la de julio del 2021 antes de las arenas pk y cuando todos usábamos archivos .lng estaría todavía mejor para quienes nunca pudimos apreciar esa vieja versión. Porfavor, considera esto, sam. Hasta entonces, a disfrutar.
As a wannabe novice programmer who doesn’t have 1 percent of the skills or knowledge to accomplish something like this, I can only empathize without actually understanding the struggles. I’ve been able to play seriously for only one year, it was good while it lasted.
Thank you
Hey, Sam.
I’m really sad for readed this news.
The STW is the better, super, master, blaster and other superiority adjetive that’s exist in english to describe it.
It’s really bad read that it’ll shut off.
I understand you, I’m also a developer and I know as annoying try for weeks to solve a bug and can’t be do.
I play STW as 9 years ago and I’ll feel miss as STW. I found a lot of friends arround the world and I’ll remember about them forever.
Thank you so mush for made much more than a game, made a great social platform.
I hope that the STW backs online some day and when it happen, I’ll back to play!
Success in your new life time and I wait hear news about you.
Sorry my english, lol.
Hi Sam, here I am very sad to hear your decision to close the STW server.. and I am also a little bit very upset, why was I warned on my STW discord at that time? even though I have asked you not to be angry when I asked for the old version of the STW source code. and I also want to ask? why do you not want to share the old version of the STW source code at all? even though at times like this, the STW source code can be useful while waiting for STB to return. so people can reminisce and play there until STW returns.
If you were actually warned beyond a gentle message about asking for the source code, I apologize for whatever misunderstanding was going on there. Generally I cannot do this because of how irreversible the decision is. The moment I release stw’s source code, I’ve forever lost the ability to bring the game back someday without entirely rewriting it, as people would use the released source code to find any number of exploits which they could use to cheat the game if it ever returned.
Okay, that’s fine Sam. P but can I have all the STW music? Because I already got some STW music. But it’s not complete. Because STW music is music in the game audio game that is very nice. If the STW game is closed, then I can’t feel the music anymore. Once again sorry please don’t be angry
Greetings,
While people are saying goodbye to the game, I have a few questions to ask:
Sam mentioned that he was feeling frustrated and prayed for the server to be shut down if that was what was supposed to happen. A few days later, the server did crash due to a network issue that was beyond his control. This raises a couple of questions:
If Sam believed that the network issue was a sign from God to shut down the game, why did he reopen it, launch a beta, and release updates? If he thought the crash was a divine message, isn’t he contradicting what he believes God wanted by continuing to operate the game?
Another question, Now that Sam wants to close the game, why is he keeping the store open until Friday and allowing customers several months to use their purchases? Wouldn’t it make more sense to close the store immediately and issue refunds to recent buyers, rather than extending the store’s operation and giving customers additional time? This seems inconsistent with his belief that the crash was a divine sign.
Kind regards,
Mahdi Abedi
Hi,
It’s actually a great question. The simple answer is that it took a while for me to be sure of what I was hearing from God. At the time of the first crash in February of 2023, it was completely conceivable to consider that God was indeed trying to give me the break that I needed rather than trying to get me to shut down the game.
It took until the prayer shortly before the network outage in 2024 for me to be sure enough to make such a drastic decision. In 2023 I prayed (well more raged) because I needed a break and got one, I did not think it meant I should completely shut the game down. In 2024 I prayed (with no rage) and said God if this shutdown is what you want it would be easy for me to listen right now if you let me know in this particular way. I didn’t expect him to do it but it happened, and so I’m now trying to listen based on the latest information.
As for keeping the store running, I did not feel as though god was rushing me to shut the game down so long as I work to shut it down. In general I feel no conviction about allowing people to support me by credit purchases for a few more days, like I implicitly feel that God understand that stw is my only income source and that I can only accept change so quickly, and I have the feeling that as long as I get the deed of shutting the game down done, God will be pleased enough. In other words I don’t get the sense that God is saying “Fool shut this game down right this second or be destroyed!” but instead something much closer to “Beloved child, please work towards shutting down this project and moving on because it’s destroying you and I may have any number of better things in store for you.”
God only knows whether I am hearing him wrongly or listening to him too slowly, I can only do my best based on what I understand and pray for forgiveness during the inevitable times when I mess up regarding such things.
Hope that clears up my prospective on that a little!
hello sam, I respect your decision to shutdown survive the wild. We are verry sorry. I know that it would be a verry, verry difficult decision for you. but, it is your hardwork, you should continue running this amazing game. I cannot express that How much happyness I got while playing this game. I still remember I went to deserd for the first time, and died dew to thirst, that sweet memaries are still in my brain. I will never forget the happyness this game has given to me. again, thankyou verry much sam! thank you from bottemof my hart and, if it is possible please, please, bring this game to life. thankyou again sam! and wish you best of luck!
Hi, I know this comment is a little late but honestly I just saw this. About a year ago when I got this game I was completely obsessed, but as I got more busy I had started to pull away from playing, which I definitely regret now. I know I wasn’t around for as long as many people, but I have met so many amazing friends because of this game and I can’t thank you enough for the oppertunities this game has given me at friendship. Cheers to all the pond parties, late night camp fires, and to all the times I jumped off the mountain repeatedly after I lost my last DFC. Frankly, this has become more then a game to me and it will be sorely missed.
Hi Sam. I’m so sorry to hear about this news. I didn’t read the whole thing but got the gist of it all. STW was definitely a fun game to play. I’ve used it for having noise in the background for study, and I’ve loved this game so much that I played into the night. Thank you for providing such a fun project that was really engaging for all players. I wish you all the best for the future.
Hi Sam!
It appeared long time ago I was somehow right about that it’ll gonna happen. Few months ago I dreamt of Jesus, He told me that one of games that you used to play is gonna shut down.
I asked him: which game?
He answered me: You’ll know soon, on August this year, you’ll be anounced on July.
I wasn’t thinking that it’ll be STW, thought that a mud game or some sort of online games I used to play will be shutdown but didn’t really pay attention to it until the holy spirit informed me suddenly that I should check any websites and blogs related to any game that I play so I found out that post and that was really unbelievable that you are going to this situation, shutting down this game do to that staf issue also, not only because God told you through the holy spirit and some sort of roring thunder.
I think long time ago I explained this but sadly was on public chat as a result I’ve been banned 610 weeks for claiming that I’m spreading roomers, despite these weren’t roomers and the ban was unfair, tried contacting you but no luck that will get answers from you.
The holy spirit informed me today that it’s great you listened to God, but it’s somehow late, though God will continue supporting you financially throu different ways, STW is over for you and you have to permenently shutting it down with in 2 weeks, not few months do to that you won’t get support from too many people do to the bugs that’s in and also because it’s still on beta despite you promiced the beta stage gonna end too early but it didn’t happen do to that you’re too busy doing things, and God through the holy spirit gave you some staff members that you trust that they do things inappropriately as a worning to shut the game down.
Also: I’ve been informed by the holy spirit that it was a great job to save money this way, instead of paying for your apartment 1kUSD which was somehow a lot, also I’ve been informed you probably have to go to a GOP state and live there do to a very low taxes there, like Florida, Texas, Idaho and so on.
Anyway: may God bless you and hope you learned a lessen that you shouldn’t be late of what God is telling you to do, you should do what he’s telling you directly
who ever you are, you clearly are a lyer, Please stop trolling, this isn’t the correct time or place
LOL it ain’t trolling, look what’s going on then comment, what i said happened, 100% is right so it must be the holy spirit talked to me
A*****n, our twenty-first century prophet from B*****—oops, I mean Dr. Ramon from Colorado! It looks like I inadvertently revealed both your location and true identity. Will your Holy Spirit take issue with that and punish me for it? ?? Before any divine retribution comes my way, I wanted to ask: Didn’t your Holy Spirit advise you to live in the US rather than B*****, especially since you keep claiming to be in Colorado? Oh also Let me know if your Holy Spirit has an answer for my comment! 😂😂😂
LOL this amused me greatly in a petty way, it almost pains me to have to edit your comment. As seemingly deserving as what you did is though, I’d like to avoid such things as personal info dumping or flame warring within this blog’s comment section, it won’t really help anything as it’s not the right thing to do and will lead to a moderation headache for me that becomes frustrating to control, so any personal information was redacted. Generally I’ll let people say what they want until potential of an argument starts and then I will step in to stop it which is what I’m doing now. As such, everybody please note that any further comment regarding Ramone’s thread may be deleted if I consider it to be too inflammatory from this point on. Thank you.
LOL mahdi don’t be surprised thinking dat you are doing that, almost everyone know I ain’t born in Da US, so what you published is known and this what you call it personal information ain’t secret.
The holy spirit doesn’t punish you just for doing that, but you will be already punished for too many things not related to this comment and won’t even mention dat, and dreamt of Jesus and asked him.
I feel very sad and sorry for what you feel, but I really hope that STW will come back with a game that is more interesting and lasts longer. You have to believe that every problem, no matter how difficult, there is definitely the best solution. without having to close this game, I can only help with prayers, hopefully you and STW will be present again with all of us, amen! You are a good friend, patient and intelligent.
just 1 think, i will miss STW. its not just a game, its an emotion to me. hope you will return in future with STW Sam.
hay Sam. Well, I do not know how to start with, what’s happened, survive the wild going down? its so, so, sad! I wasn’t able to take it, but now, I think that yeah, its going down for good, and I have hopes! this game will return. And return with such force that the other audio games will crumble in front of STW and consider it as the king, their leader! don’t worry Sam, I hope you be fine and in a positive state of mind when you are not working on STW, you’ll have time to think of other things. I pray to the all mighty this game returns, and beleive me Sam, i will open the game every day and press enter on play as Rishit , because I have the strong hope that the game will return! it will! Where ever you go Sam, what ever path you take, always be happy. Never consider yourself a man who’s failed. No, fuckin, no! you are not man who’s failed! we all no it! we all do! and for the people who are writing somethings that upsets you Sam, ignore them. Concentrate on the nice thingsw that the others are writing to you, not the bad once. Good luck Sam,. hope to see Survive the wild, Back in full swing! take care of yourself and your parents, by, fair well
What about releasing the private beta server to everyone? If everything is going to end, there’s no point in hiding it from those who haven’t seen the beta server, because now bugs don’t matter anymore.
Lol nah. That just re opens the game and he’d face the same problems, it’d just be another public
Hi Sam, don’t let others push you into doing what you don’t want to do.
I’ve not played the game in a long long time and it’s not really my kind of thing but I’ve read your post and completely understand why you feel the need to take it down.
I have no idea how this works but could you give the other survers to other people and have them pay for it? Like a monthly thing, if they want to play this game and you can’t run it yourself, then let them do it, If not, I understand completely.
Either way, good luck with your life.
The news is sad, but I hope that one day STW will return.
Before the see you soon, couldn’t you release the island cave? putting a ladder to enter?
please as said above dont stop the game. I like the game very much and its like pubji that other people could play and we as VI can enjoy with new features. Thank you.
No! No only one it!
Dear Sam,
I want to start by expressing my deepest gratitude for everything you’ve done with “Survive the Wild.” This game has been more than just entertainment; it’s been a lifeline for so many of us. It’s a place where we’ve found joy, community, and a sense of belonging. I can say without hesitation that it’s the best game I’ve ever played, and I know countless others feel the same.
I fully understand the immense challenges you’re facing—the technical issues, the staffing difficulties, and the ethical concerns. Your dedication to maintaining the game despite these obstacles is truly admirable, and I deeply respect your thoughtfulness in making such a tough decision.
However, I want to ask you from the bottom of my heart to reconsider shutting down the game. Even if it remains broken for a while, I believe that many of us would rather have the game in its current state than lose it entirely. We understand that it might take time to fix everything, and we’re willing to be patient. Your work has brought so much happiness to our lives, and the thought of it disappearing is heartbreaking.
I know how much you’ve invested in this project, and I understand if you feel that you need to step back. But I believe that this game still has so much to offer, even with its current issues. If there’s a way to keep it alive while you work on the fixes at your own pace, I believe the community would rally behind you with unwavering support.
Your creation has touched lives in ways that words can hardly express. It’s not just a game—it’s a part of our lives, something that we look forward to and cherish. I ask you to consider how much this game means to all of us, and how much it would mean if it could continue, even if imperfectly.
Please know that we are here to support you, whatever you decide. But if there’s a way to keep “Survive the Wild” going, even if it’s just as it is now, I believe it would bring so much hope and happiness to so many people. Your work has made a lasting impact, and I hope that this journey can continue, with all of us by your side.
Thank you, Sam, for everything you’ve done. Your dedication, creativity, and heart have created something truly special. Whatever the future holds, I’m deeply grateful for all the joy you’ve brought into our lives through this incredible game.
Hey Sam, I’m so sorry that this has come down to it. I’ve played STW ever since 2017 or 2018. I was like 15 or 16 when I started playing, and believe it or not, years after I had my brain surgery, which developed a severe hearing loss in my left ear. But thanks to a good friend of mine, he really helped me out a ton with this game. Acer, I can’t thank you enough for helping me understand and teach me how to play this game. Without you, it would’ve been tricky. And you have been my long term best friends for years now, and look at where we are now. STW, rest in peace. You were an amazing game, and I hope it will be restored in the future, better than ever. And Sam, if you ever wanted to contact me, I have discord, email, you name it. I will always be there for you and support you in any way possible. With that being said, I wish you the best on everything, whatever path you choose!
Its a very sad news for all of us! I pray to Allah Almighty that this game become online again.
All good things must come to an end and many times they are for good reasons.
It’s not sam’s fault, yo.
Hi I played the game in September 2023, really thank you for creating a game that is very realistic to life. I was very sad when I heard that the game had to close, so I am a Christian and can only pray. Although I am Vietnamese, this game helps me not to be stressed and tired while studying. I hope the game will come back with an official version.
Hay Sam. First of all, Hope your fine and doing well. Now, to the point, lol. STW. It is gone! How can we go about now Sam? I’ve played STW from 2023 and have hence forth, never looked back, I have always gone forward in STW. As STW has gone away, a part of me has also passed away with it. Sam, I no, you said about all those bugs. Every single thing that needs to be fixed, Dude, the bugs do not matter, The things that matter for us players are you, and STW. If the games having bugs, its ok, we will be fine, but without STW? No! Never! we cannot be without STW. We cannot be fine! Please Sam, bring the game back? It is a request. You do not no Sam, even if we were just sitting in the game, doing nothing, we were enjoying the game to the fullest, with the knowledge that we were playing something! a game that is the best! Please Sam, Bring the game back? It is a humble request!
Friend, pray that Sam is convinced that his god wants the game to come back, after all, he blamed the game for coming to an end on that god.
No. He’s not bringing it back, the decision is made. Stop asking.
I just hope that Survive The Wild can come back again. I just played this game and I am interested in the audio concept of this game. I also just understood how to play this game. I can only hope that this game can be opened again.
Hello Sam,
I understand why you had to pause the development of this game, and I truly get it. But please know how meaningful this game is to our blind community. I’ve been playing it for a long time, and it’s not just enjoyable—it’s unique. There’s nothing else quite like it for visually impaired players, and I hope you can feel why it matters so much.
There are countless games out there, but this one stands out. It has sounds of mountains, rivers, oceans, trees, animals, and fish—all these details come together to make it an extraordinary experience. There’s simply no other online game that immerses blind players in this way. I remember longing for something like this back when I saw sighted people playing similar games on their phones or computers. I often wondered if we’d ever have the chance to enjoy such a game. And now that it’s here, I hope my dream can fully come true—to play this game just like everyone else.
I believe that you’ll find a way to start it up again soon. Remember, God is watching over us, and we’re all here to support you and keep you in our prayers. Please don’t worry too much. We’re with you on this journey. Thank you so much.”
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Hay Sam. Hope your doing great, buddy. Well, the guy in the post above, Arjun, is rite you no? Yes, STW has everything, from sounds of oceans, to mountains, even fish. This game has truly given the blind community something to have as their own, something, where we, the players, the blind community, can be one, playing together. Dude, Sam, always remember. God is always with us. Here in India we say, ” If god has given you a bad time, he’ll remove it soon enough, you just have to have the faith in yourself, and your hard work” . I really hope that the game soon returns, with you in full swing, making it as the most sot after game in the blind gaming community! Dude, if ever you feel like Its a bad day, or if its a bad time, always think to yourself. “This to shall pass”. Meaning , This bad time shall pass and good times will come very soon. I pray that you and your family is in full health and happiness, and will always be healthy and happy. Well, that’s enough talk here on this comment, Hope you consider the idea of bringing the game back. Take care, Sam, thanks.