7 Days To Die

Actually, I hope it will take longer than that

Here’s a Rest Day Ruminations post. Thank you to my lovely paying subscribers who make some posts open to all, as with this one. Please consider joining them if you’d like to support my work!

---

I play a lot of computer games. I always have, since I got a blister-causing Atari 2600 as a kid (which was eventually replaced with my beloved C64; I still play Commodore 64 games today!). I don’t often write about them, though I did a piece about Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs.

I thought I’d do a brief post about 7 Days To Die, which I have been playing with my nephew for a couple of months.

It’s a game set in an apocalypse, where zombies have taken over and a few humans roam the remains of society, scavenging for supplies. What’s amazing is that the whole game is destructible. By that, I mean it isn’t just static scenery. Any tree or bush can be cut down. Any vehicle dismantled. Any building taken apart (with the right tools). All the ground dug up and tunnelled and mined for resources. And in turn resources can be used to build: walls, bases, stairs, windows, defences, home comforts, weapons. You can craft a little life for yourself.

A twist is that every seventh night is a Blood Moon, when you will be attacked by a horde of tough zombies all night long. You’d better have prepared for it! They know where you are, so you can’t hide. And they will eventually break any wall or defence to get to you. Survive the night and you have another seven days to explore, and build, and prepare.

Each Blood Moon is tougher than the last.

Another feature is that you can play with other people. Now, I normally hate multiplayer games, and don’t play games with strangers. But my nephew lives in another country and I don’t see him much. So when we play this we can chat on headsets about anything we want as we explore and craft together, and make plans, and enact those same plans (and maybe watch those plans fall apart). There are tense times when we are fighting for our lives, and quiet times when we sit in chairs on the roof and watch the sunset and share a meal one of us has cooked.

We’re playing the same game, though he is using Windows, and I am using Linux.

The other night I took screenshots during the session. Here are a few of them, and what was going on at the time, to give you a flavour of our “other lives”.

For background: we ended up setting up home in a tiny side-of-the-road abandoned honey stall. We built walls around it, and have kept expanding from that humble beginning. By now, our constructions are extensive, as the images below will show!

The image above is the interior of our base. This is the corner where we put our sleeping bags. The gun safe and plant help to make it a separate area that we don’t walk on, whilst also meaning we can keep an eye on the main door. That door creaks, so nothing can sneak in while we sleep there! And our gun cabinet is right by the beds. We keep the drinks dispenser stocked with water and different types of cold tea.

On our first ever night in the game we got into our sleeping bags when it got dark and said “Good night!” then saved the game. It felt strangely realistic.

This is a view to the right of the previous image. Storage lockers and chests (the latter neatly labelled by me). Some soft lighting and a chair for reading in the evenings, plus a plant and painting for decor. Note that I glazed part of the roof, so we no longer get soaked when it rains (it used to be open) but we can watch the sky, helping us keep track of the time and weather when we are busy crafting or talking.

This is looking towards the other corner. It’s the view as you walk in, really. My nephew is using the forge to smelt some iron ore. I installed a sink and toilet on the wall near that corner.

This is what happened one day when I left the doors open. A zombie was attracted by the sounds of our machinery as we built things out of wood and metal. I turned around on hearing shuffling footsteps and saw this! Luckily my flaming sledgehammer was already in my hand, so I didn’t get bitten and was able to sort out the problem. I try to remember to close the doors behind me nowadays.

This is an outer courtyard area. On the left is my raincatcher with a filtration system so that we always have fresh drinking water. Next to it is the camp fire where I do all the cooking. I had a big pot of vegetable stew on the go that night. To the right is another door, our primary defence. As such I made it out of steel and moving parts, rather than iron sheets.

Outside the courtyard is the main road. Our outer walls are to the right. The line of trees was planted by me. I like planting trees. Sometimes we need to cut one down for wood, but mostly I am just creating a huge forest all around us, even if my nephew sometimes complains about it blocking the view or growing through our constructions.

To finish, here’s the two of us going for a ride on a motorbike my nephew built. He added the baby seat on the back for me. Yes, he’s the one in front, I just hold on and take in the view as we whizz along. I couldn’t stop laughing the first time we started the engine and went for a test ride up and down the road. He then strapped a torch to the front so we have light when it is dark.

Around about that time he sent me an email. For context, we found old paper money all over, but it seemed worthless with society mostly collapsed, so I said we should just burn it as fuel. After a few weeks he sent me an email saying:

“I actually can’t believe it, the whole time we have been burning the dollars we find in game when they sell to the trader 1:1 for the actual money we use at the shop. I wonder how much money we have burned by now.”

Oops.

We’ve survived a few Blood Moons now, and he has made another motorbike: this time a proper big one. I am building a garage for them (and our bicycles), but have only laid out the concrete foundations so far. I am so glad we got a cement mixer. Though it is noisy, and makes it hard to sleep if I leave it on all night, as it is just opposite our sleeping bags.

Thanks for reading!

(Subscribers get a bonus photo and story below!)