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Survivalcraft is a sandbox video game developed by Kaalus. The game was created by developer Igor Kalicinski in the Java programming language. Following several early test versions, it was released in 16 November 2011 for the Windows Phone. It is available for the Windows Phone, Android, iOS, and the Windows Store.

In Survivalcraft the player is marooned on an island and needs to gather food by farming or hunting animals, as well as craft items and tools to keep himself alive. To survive, the player needs to make clothes to keep warm, make armor and weapons for protection, and craft tools to improve the effectiveness of working.

The game displays all the weather conditions, as well as birds and animals.

Survivalcraft is similar to and is perceived to be a clone of Minecraft: Pocket Edition, where players build the world using cubes in a 3D-generated environment, although a number of reviews state that the added survival theme gave a more realistic feel.

Survivalcraft brings to the mobile device features found in the PC version of the most common blocky world game: infinite worlds, caves, logic elements (electricity), weather, boats, ridable animals, explosions, clothing, armor, and many more. It accomplishes this while retaining its own authentic, survival-themed style.

Development

Background

Kalicinski stated that he made the game after playing and remixing the source code of the game Minecraft. He bought a copy of the game in July 2011 after hearing rumors about the game for a long period of time. After playing the game and modifying the game's source code, he wrote his own test code a few days later. Kalicinski stated that his code was initially intended as a "toy project"; he never thought of publishing or selling it due to the sheer amount of Minecraft duplicates that already circulated at that time.

First release

Kalicinski chose Windows Phone as its starting platform due to the absence of Minecraft and its clones in the platform. He had difficulties in overcoming limitations for apps in the Windows Phone, such as the lack of support for shaders and the prohibition of native code. These problems made him almost abandoned Survivalcraft, but he tried to ran the game in the phone and reached a rate of 4.5 frames per second at its first try. He tried to improve the game's code and managed to make the game playable. The game was submitted to the Windows Phone's app store in mid-November 2011 and officially released it on 16 November 2011. At the time of its release, the game has a price of $1.99.

Updates and other platform releases

After its first release, Kalicinski received

Reception

Sales

Survivalcraft fared well in Windows Phone and iPad, with the game becoming the 15th most popular game and the 7th most popular game in the Action & Adventure section a week following its first release. After the game was released in iPad, the game became one of the two top 50 grossing games in 2013 that has no in-game purchases. The next year, the game became the 5th most downloaded paid app in iPad.

Critical response

Review scores

Publication	Score
Gamezebo
TouchArcade

The game received "mixed or average reviews" based on four critic reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Jared Nelson from Touch Arcade, who reviewed the game in January 2014, rated the game a full score, arguing that the game is superior to its source of inspiration, Minecraft, in every aspect. He describes the game as giving him a "sense of adventure". He stated that the game's infinite world area, cave generation system, and world sharing—which did not exist in Minecraft at that time—was what makes the game better than its source of inspiration. Nelson himself also praised the fact that that game is made by a single person, as opposed to the "unlimited money and resources" that the developers of Minecraft had. Similar review was delivered by Nadia Oxford from Slide to Play, who claimed that those who considered Survivalcraft "as a mere Minecraft clone" were shallow. However, Oxford pointed out that the game's block placement is difficult for those who have not mastered Minecraft. Oxford considered that the game is better suited for "Minecraft veterans".

A less favorable review was delivered by Mike Rose from Gamezebo, who described the game as a carbon copy of Minecraft and as an insult to the players and developers of Minecraft. Although he stated that Survivalcraft differs from Minecraft due to the wildlife as its focus and the community tab that allows players to see each others world and texture, he argued that Survivalcraft is missing a lot of features that Minecraft already had. He then recommended readers not to bother with Minecraft and concluded that the game's only pros was as "a perfectly playable Minecraft clone."

References

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference microsoft-store was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. Cite error: The named reference amazon was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. "Survivalcraft 2 on the App Store". App Store. Apple Inc. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
4. ^ Anderson, Dana. "Survivalcraft - App Review". Common Sense Media. Common Sense Media. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
5. "Survivalcraft is in the marketplace!". Survivalcraft. 2011-11-17. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
6. ^ Nelson, Jared (29 January 2014). "'Survivalcraft' Review - A Better Mobile 'Minecraft' than the Actual Mobile 'Minecraft'". TouchArcade. Retrieved 17 June 2018. Cite error: The named reference "toucharcade" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
7. "Survivalcraft". Survivalcraft. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
8. ^ Paweł, Przez (26 November 2011). "Wywiad rzeka z twórcą gry Survivalcraft" [A conversation with the developer of Survivalcraft]. WP Games Polski (in Polish and English). Archived from the original on 3 December 2011. Retrieved 31 May 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
9. Acevedo, Paul (13 November 2011). "Minecraft clone Survivalcraft coming to Windows Phone, looks good and blocky". Windows Central. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
10. ^ Rubino, Daniel (17 November 2011). "Minecraft-clone Survivalcraft now available in the Marketplace". Windows Central. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
11. https://www.pocketgamer.biz/news/50564/minecraft-pocket-edition-passes-10-million-sales-milestone/
12. https://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/apple-outs-most-downloaded-free-paid-and-grossing-ios-apps-of-2014-639658
13. ^ "Survivalcraft iOS". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
14. ^ Rose, Mike (8 May 2013). "Survivalcraft Review: Can you say "blatant Minecraft clone"?". Gamezebo. Archived from the original on 10 June 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
15. Oxford, Nadia (10 May 2013). "Survivalcraft Review". Slide To Play. Archived from the original on 1 October 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2013.