Card Survival: Tropical Island

Its interesting untill you get the hang of it, then it becomes work. I dont think I will investing any more time into this.

I like it. The devs are great and listen to feedback. Will also buy the dev's next game day one early access or not.

Great game with some rough edges, if you like Survival and Resource Management it is a must to at least try it. First I wasn't impressed and put it down but then I tried again and can't stop playing it (offline hours).

It is not a card game, cards are only for authentic: instead of "crab" you have "crab card", you don't have decks or hands. Cards are mainly for showing that It is a turn based game.

It is not Roguelike (as in tags), it has some randomness but map is the same every run, so you wouldn't have a lot of them. Actually I would like it to be more random.

It is true open world, nothing is pushing you but you have end game goal.

It is knowledge game, it is hard at first but after you accumulate knowledge it becomes quite easy. It has perk system for difficulty.

It is a base building game, you have a base and that cozy-base feeling.

Main problem is performance when there is a lot items on the ground. Some systems are cumbersome but its ok when you get to know them. Not enough basic options, has that indie-game style going. But devs are active and fix bugs quickly.

Appears to be a simple game, but there is an unbelievable amount of depth. There's somewhat of a learning curve but discovering the secrets is a draw to the game. The devs are very active and constantly adding content and taking feedback from the community and making updates. The two new characters offer interesting "quest" based play. Highly recommend for players who want an easy to pick up and start but challenging enough to keep you interested for a long time.

I'm reviewing today because it looks like the developer has made substantial improvements and is also trying to deal with bugs related to game UX

The core game is really nice, it's a setting that I've always wanted to play. I think the game that I played the most in this kind of setting is "The Long Dark", but it's nowhere near as detailed as this one.

I really hope this labour of love gets a lot more of your support to get better. It's definitely worth a buy.

The events of days 55 to 85

Day 55. It's raining. Both of my reservoirs are filling up with fresh rainwater, truly a sight to behold. Soon my cistern will be finished as well, granting along with the spacious and well-furnished mud hut a truly comfortable position for survival. I am feeling great!

Day 65. It hasn't rained in ten days. I still have a little over a reservoir of water left. I think nothing of it and spend my days gathering wood, nursing my grandfather, bringing home saltwater from the sea and boiling it to obtain the salt, building up an impressive stockpile of cured boar meat from boars I have trapped. I gather rocks from the sea to continue work on the cistern.

Day 70. The first Reservoir is empty. It will rain again soon and when it rains, I better have my cistern build by then. Not that it would endanger my survival if it didn't.

Day 73. The second reservoir is empty as well, I spend increasing time on gathering water from the ponds and the cave of the mudlands as well as from banana trees and finish building the cistern.

Day 74. A Macaque raids my home and tries to steal my stuff. I injure it severly with my sling and even, if my water situation worsens by the day, begin nursing it to gain a friend on this deserted island. Along with my grandfather he'll keep me good company!

Day 77. Clouds form, first only a few, then a lot. Gleefully awaiting the longed-for rain, I spend the day carving wood and practising climbing. The rain doesn't come. My last glimmer of hope vanishes along with the clouds.

Day 79. I have built the alembic, allowing me to make water from undrinkable see water, this should permanently fix my acute water issues. Excited to try it out, I walk to the bay, gathering water. Upon returning, I fill it in, light the fire and wait. I am left disappointed. The two vases of water it took me half a day to collect have become reduced to on vase full, over multiple hours, while consuming most of my stick reservers. Nevertheless, I will keep using it, as it is one additional renewable source of water I have left, and, while more labour-intensive, faster than waiting for water to slowly collect in the cave in the wetlands

Day 81. I am my lowest. Dehydrated and desperate, I have set up coconut bowls at every rotting banana tree trunk I could find. At this point all the trees in the deep jungle next to my home have been used up, the remaining trees are far apart. I spend all day walking between these and the ocean. I am currently at the wetlands when the sun's last rays vanish. It is night, I am left in the dark with no way out. I am seriously dehydrated. Everything hurts. The banana tree trunk is slowly dripping out water, which I instantly drink, but it isn't enough. Not at all. I check the cave. Here too the water is collecting to slowly. And it's unpurified. I drink it regardless. I return to the surface. I am not going to make it. No way.

Day 82. It's past midnight. I haven't slept, only rested a little bit, while frantically consuming the few drops water the tree and cave provide. Is there no way to leave the wetlands. Then I notice it. There is. I had set up a camp fire in the cave earlier to explore. I had only found bugs, but now that then-questionable decision would be my saviour. I deconstructed the campfire and reconstructed it at the surface. I tried to make a fire drill to ignite the tinder, but failed. It was to dark. I really should have thought this through. How would I even light the way from the mudlands? I have no torches, no candles, nothing. And I can't carry the campfire along the path. It's hopeless. This is the day I die. I go to rest again, awaiting the inevitable. I drink what I have, and rest once more. The sun rises. Somehow I have made it though the night, extremely stressed, dangerously dehydrated. I move to the deep jungle to find the bowl at that regions banana tree to be full. I devour all the water that's left. Carefully estimating the firmness of my stool I drank a bit of coconut milk as well. I was once again in a reasonable state.

Day 84. I have found a routine, and am beginning to regain some hydration for myself. Not enough to start stockpiling it though, sadly.

Day 85. It started raining. I am free. After a month of draught, the gates heaven unleash a torrent of water. My hope is restored. Beginning to fill up the cistern with the water I collect from the rain using various bowls and my two reservoirs, I realize the sheer dimensions of what I have constructed. This will last for a long time and I am now in a truly comfortable position for survival. I am feeling great!

10/10 for me as far as survival games go!

Very fun and tough as nails game! with the demo coming out i would 100% recommend giving it a try if your on the fence as it may well surprise you with its depth and replay-ability!

Really really great game with cards and survival! xD
Despite me being playing it for more then 60 hours I am yet to complete at least once a survival part and escape from it successuflly alive >.> But this island is sooo sunny, so lively with a wildlife and places to explore, so i just can't force myself to leave it behind xD
Totally recommend it!

I really enjoyed this game, very addictive combination of personal survival and card mechanics. I will probably find myself coming back to this game again and again.

I'm convinced the dev is a genius. I bought this game because Card Quest was amazing. I'll buy the next one too because Card Quest was amazing. Keep making games my dude.

This game is the epitome of hidden gem. Do not let the graphics or presentation here fool you, this game is deep and engaging with a ton of content. A must buy for strategy survival fans and anyone looking for something fresh and new.

This game is complex and simple at the same time.
Both beginner friendly and still a challenge after hundrets of hours in.

Use a small stone on big a stone to get a cutting tool.
Use that on a coconut to peel and puncture it.
Drink and eat from it to survive the first days.
Easy, right?

Do it few more times and realise you get diarrhoea from it, loosing food and drink stats.
Collect and eat coal from your fire place to combat that, making you thirsty.

But you've forgotten to put your coconut halves out when it rained, so you are now looking for puddles in nearby locations.
You should get out of the sun anyway, that sunburn starts to look bad.
Parched, you find a puddle and drink to survive, even though the water looks unclean.
Now you are starting to feel ill and in search of healing plants. Or could you just wait it out?
And what is with all those bugs?

There are solutions to every problem, all with their respective pros and cons.
And you will figure them out.
Not all on your first try.

Good or bad, it will be your choices and your choices alone.
And it is incredibly fun!

At $35.95 (in my region) the price is steep.... But is it really?

Compare it to anything else, like a trip to the movies, a nice dinner at a restaurant?
This game has an incredible Joy/Dollar ratio.

It seems so simple, but it already is way deeper than i ever imagined, and i feel like ive only scratched the surface.

It boils down survival games to its bare mechanics, what makes survival games fun isn't a 3D character physically walking around from place to place its the choices you make, and it is their consequences, and that is all this game is.
Also cards are cool it feels like im big braining a really long convoluted turn in Yu-Gi-Oh

IDK, i guess what im trying to say is that this game is RAD and i think its worth its the (incorrectly perceived) high price.

This game makes me want to make games again

It didn't rain for the first couple days so I tried to survive on coconut water. It caused me to shit my brains out and die of dehydration by day 5.

10/10 would shit my brains out on the beach all over again.

This is really addictive and fun. The most realistic survival game I've ever played despite the deceptive simplicity of the presentation.

Really good pure survival game. UI takes some getting used to, but I've thoroughly enjoyed what I've played.

Excellent game. It's simple but perfect. I would say it's about 5 dollars overpriced, but still worth getting.

This is a cute little game that has a lot of depth. It's an interesting little puzzle to solve and I'm having a blast with it. I feel like I've barely scratched the surface and will update after more time with it.

A very good game, looking forward to other releases from the developer, and updates to this game.
My choice for indie game of the year.

So, I have not really played this game to the point where I feel like I have the experience to write a review. However, some of the things that I have experienced in just the 2 hours I have played make it impossible for me not to give this game a negative review considering the absolute wave of positive reviews it has. It is a great game. I will continue to play it after leaving this negative review, because it is 100% my kind of game. As someone who likes to optimize however, it is just so frustratingly lacking it hurts.

One of the first things I noticed about the depth of this game was the numbered flags that let you, at least as far as I thought, set an inventory to that slot and then open it without having to seek out the card. Seems like a really cool idea in theory, especially considering the character's satchel that you start with has the ability to be added to that bar. Except when I do that, I get a message saying there is no satchel here. The character is always where the character is, why would I have to take the satchel off?

There are multiple spots in the menu with the text "The above text is a placeholder", except this game is 1.0... As it has been early access for a while it makes sense there would be some placeholder stuff, but when you hit 1.0 you are releasing a full game. That implies the placeholders have done their job and been replaced with what was supposed to be there...

The last straw that made me minimize to write this review is, actually kind of funny, but at the same time it's extremely frustrating. I was exploring and found a crab. Then immediately after finding the crab, a seagull show up and takes it... This while I had an empty spot on my person... I feel like food should probably be added to the person if possible to avoid stuff like this from happening... I am okay in my run right now, but I could only imagine if I actually needed that crab and wound up needed to restart because the game doesn't know how to check if an item is important enough to store in a relevant slot...

I made two monkey friends, they bit me lots but I loved them. I didn't love the monkey fever their bites gave me. Monkey friend two was murdered by the wind, and monkey frend one was by my side as his bacteria killed me. 10/10 would make monkey frens again

So there's this stat "loneliness". You have to build a "totally-not-Wilson-from-Castaway" kinda card that helps you keep loneliness in check. A pretty neat Easter egg I thought. Well, it turns out that card is the only option you have to keep the stat down that's not an absolute pain in the a**. And the best part - you can just casually lose it in a storm, after which it can't be built a second time.

I don't mind 'tough but fair', but here there's no warning or hint either, so you're not really aware you absolutely HAVE TO keep that card safe. Up to that point the game teaches you that everything is fine to lose, and you can just rebuild. All items in the crafting book can be made as many times as your resources permit, except for this particular one (afaik). One would assume the implementation of a "Safe Mode" that lets you restart the current day will enable you to do your run and experience the game however you want without too much grief. One would be wrong.

So without any warning, you just get a choice - rage quit or accept you'll have an absolute annoyance of a run. This just cost me some 8 hours and a world of b-hurt. Wish there was a third kind of finger gesture button for this review.

Refunded for now.

The concept is great and it seems to have a lot of depth to it. But when you release a game to 1.0 it shouldn't have the text "the text above is a placeholder" on items anymore. No judgement but I also think a motivated dev would have polished the game a bit more, still feels a bit rough on some edges. I'll check this one out again after a few updates but for now it doesn't seem to be worth its current pricetag.

So far 40+ hrs in and still exploring content. A surprisingly deep survival card sim. Well done, devs!

If nothing else, this game has taught me that eating only coconut meat and drinking only coconut water will give you terrible diarrhea.

I really love this game. It's simple and addicting. I find myself unable to stop playing because I always want to do one more thing before I quit.

The graphics look simple but that is about the only simple thing about this game.
It's amazingly complex. I'm managing several layers of mental health, dehydration, hunger but so much more than that. Appetite fluctuates which means you think you're eating enough but you're still slowly starving. Guess depression is more than just a stat. You have to track and manage so many things at the same time. The first time I managed to get pottery so I could start keeping water for more than a day I fist-pumped. Also you can have a monkey friend who brings you things. Sometimes he brings you poop ... but whose. Mysteries abound.

Don't Starve, but turn-based. Anyone who likes resource management games should enjoy this.

A rare gem from a very small dev team. Devs are very active in steam discussion, too.

surprising good!
i saw a streamer play it and thought i'd check it out and wow is it good stuff!
the amount of depth in a card game is astounding.
i love it and cant wait for more!

What a hidden gem!
I used to think that I only liked games with amazing graphics, until I found this game. It has completely changed my mind.
Its interface is simple, yet complex and the content is very deep. Definitely a learning curve as it's not a game that holds your hand, which makes it a great strategy game. And the devs seem to update it often.
My new favorite survival game!

Steam workshop support please!!! I can already imagine with workshop support how this will be as additive as project zomboid would be.

Day 143.

Between flares of intense pain, the hunter could only wonder if this would be his doom.

Stacks of halved coconut shells fell with a loud clatter as he barged inside the hut and rushed to the wooden table. No time to sit; he knelt down and grabbed whatever tool was on arm's reach. Flipped it, slammed the handle down, smashed the kava roots on the table in jagged rhythm. Hissed a curse through his teeth when he saw the clay jar at the center almost tilting to the left. In a burst of clarity he reached out to stop the jar back just before it tipped over.

Water, precious water. Couldn't waste it; not with his life on the line.

Gritting his teeth, the hunter grabbed one of the coconut shells and poured the water from the jar. Scattered the now powdered kava inside. Stirred it and gave a few squeeze for good measure, giving no care about where his hands had been before. And then he chugged everything down in one long gulp.

Almost immediately the kava worked its magic, running within his veins and sanding down the agony in his nerves. The hunter poured another serving of water and repeated the whole process again, then again, exhaling in relief when the pain was reduced into a heavy but manageable ache.

Only now did he notice what he had grabbed to ground the kava. A bone knife, chipped and cracked all over the surface.

The hunter snorted. And then grimaced when his shield-bearing arm shrieked a painful reminder of his situation. His stomach also joined in, groaning and growling, no doubt demanding more food to help his body recover. The hunter carefully pulled the splint from his satchel and began tightening it around his broken arm, wincing and flinching as he did. Doing things would be difficult for now. Not good.

And yet there was no one else to blame but himself. He could just stay away from the boar. Let it wander as it wished. But -of course- he just had to let his greed run unfettered. Had to let his visions of a pristine new bedroll cloud him from the fact that his shield was nearly cracking apart. Now he got his wish and had to pay the price. And it was such a hefty price to pay. There was still a week left before the rainy season ended and the dry season began, but the sun had already glared down on him with a righteous rage. There were lots of things to prepare; lots of projects still unfinished. And now everything would come to a grinding halt.

Again, the hunter wondered if this would be his doom. If not now, in blinding pain, then days later in throat-clawing thirst.

He wondered if he made the right decision to come here.

He wondered if the Enemy knew his fate would end like this.

A rustling sound snapped him from his miserable thoughts. The hunter looked up to see the three macaques he had managed to befriend on this island, eyeing him from the safety of his old bed. On the palm-woven bedding the coconut Weston also looked at him, his round head slightly tilting to the side, the concern real and palpable.

“It’s fine,” the hunter lied. “Just need–kkggh–just need to take it slow for a couple of days.”

Weston’s silence was loaded with sympathy. Weston was kind, after all. Quiet and somewhat unfunny, but kind. Nothing like the cranky captain perching on his shelf. And the macaques…the hunter wondered if the macaques cared. Certainly they did within some levels; after all he brought them food and water. But was there more? Did they see him as a friend like he did, or was he just a provider to them?

As if answering the hunter’s question, one of the macaques carefully jumped a few steps forward. The eldest, Friend-o.

“What’s up, Friend-o?” said the hunter, mustering all of his remaining energy to sound harmless. “Are you hungry already? Pretty sure I just gave you some coconut this morning.”

Friend-o replied with a squeak and a tilt of his head. He jumped closer but still kept his distance.

“Are you shocked?” asked the hunter. “Don’t be–it’s just a little accident, nothing more.”

Friend-o jumped closer, head tilted as if wondering. He squeaked twice, stretched an arm forward, and the hunter finally saw that one of his hands was clenching something tight.

“Is that a gift?” asked the hunter, warmth blooming in his chest. “For me?”

Holding back another grimace, he slowly leaned forward and offered his unhurt arm to the macaque, palm opened. Friend-o jumped on his spot and squealed in delight, handing the hunter the thing he’d been holding so fast that the gesture almost felt like a handshake before turning around and rejoining his brother and sister.

And the hunter–well. He didn’t have to look at the gift. He already smelled the foul stench coming off his palm and felt its disgusting stickiness on his palm. There was no need to look down.

Manure. Fresh from the macaque.

A loud, unbridled laughter burst free from the hunter’s chest, stuttering and heaving, unbroken even when his fractured arm throbbed in complaint. And when it was over, the macaques stared at the hunter with a mixture of awe and confusion as he tossed the freshly made gift away and stood up with a long groan.

He couldn’t just die here. He had a calling to pursue, an Enemy to vanquish, friends to care for. He had a dry season to survive through.

And to start that off, there was a boar waiting to be skinned outside his house. Maybe he would make a new knife out of its bones. It would look pretty nice together with his new bedroll.

TO OTHER PLAYERS:
This is an excellent card game featuring enjoyable exploration and deep, realistic crafting.
The number of card combinations is mind-boggling!
Highly recommended!

TO THE DEVS:
It's obvious you've put a lot of work into this.
The huge amount of art required! The colours are realistic and the animals especially are well-proportioned. Nice work! But there is room for visual improvement and I'm eager to offer help and advice.

ICONS
- The status and effects icons are sketched. Hand-drawn sketches look really good on the cards, but for UI elements like the icons, I think it would look better if they were not drawn freehand. Consider using Inkscape / Adobe Illustrator / Corel Draw to create tidy, symmetrical shapes and smooth outlines.

CARDS:
- The shelters and woven basket could have better perspective effect.
- Currently the lighting and shading on all objects is a little flat - maybe create higher contrast between highlights and shadows.
- Some objects should be shiny (crab shell, edges of the sharpened rock.) and others would look great if they looked more wet.
- More detail would be great, (especially on cards like the stone axe) but looking at the huge, impressive quantity of art you had to produce, it's not surprising that everything isn't highly detailed yet.

I hope this all doesn't sound too critical - I love your game, It runs great, looks and sounds good and I'm inspired by it!

I'd love to see it get even better - If you want some help with the status icons, I'd be happy to redo them for free, PM me.

A pretty deep and fun survival game about surviving in a very specific environment. Death is easy but a lot of progress in this game is made by learning things, so you can set up faster the next time. You have three pre-made starts with varying difficulty and can also make custom starts with certain unlockable conditions. Also, don't let the name and images fool you, the card part is mostly just for looks - you don't do any deckbuilding. The closest "card" game to this is probably Cultist Simulator, though Card Survival is not real time. This game is easily one of my faves in the genre!

I wish that I put this much effort into organizing my actual life.

This is a crafting/survival game in a strategy game format. It uses board game mechanics to make it easy to pick up and understand. It gets to the core of what make survival games fun for me, the planning around time and resource allocation and risk/reward balancing.

The only flaw so far is after the colon. While there is variety to play around with settings, the particular challenges you face tend to enforce a sort of meta, where there is a narrow channel of right actions, and where you can end up in the XCOM-esque situation of realizing that you lost the game 12 days ago when you forgot to collect wood.

An amazing and novel idea for a game, with great depth and Robinson Crusoe feeling to it. Well worth the money. Can't wait for more games of this nature from this developer

I can only seem to play this game in multi-hour binge sessions. There's always something that needs to be done or some crisis to overcome. I started out with what seemed like an over-powered character and have continually managed to be humbled time and time again. 18 hours in and I still have so much more to experience.

Pro tip: The shoreline may seem like paradise, but you really need to move your camp inland as soon as you can. I won't spoil the reason why so you can experience the terror yourself. Good luck!

Don't really write reviews but this game is definitely a hidden gem! A bunch of hidden depth past simply finding resources. You always need to be planning your next move. Even when your character is in danger of various potential deaths figuring out how to survive is so fun. Looking forward to future updates or their next game!

One of the most compelling games I've played in a long time. I come back to enjoy it again and again. Only downside for me is that it heavily relies on a lot of mouse clicking (even though they have pushed some minor improvements with stack moving), which gets painful after a while.
The developers are incredibly active with fixing and great at communicating too and the early access period was a joy.

In short: This is a game you don't want to miss if you enjoy survival games.

Card Survival is one of those hidden pearls that pop out from nowhere and shines in both depth and execution.

Fans of the survival genre will recognize the main loop immediately: You're lost on an island and - starting from basically nothing, you need to fend off nature and build yourself a sustainable habitat while managing a number of body-based needs. The Macguyverism is strong in this one.

Don't let the cutesy game graphics or the card based gimmick fool you. This game is abundant with both mechanics, locations, and items - as well as game customization to create the perfect difficulty based on your degree of masochism.

In its base game, the game's progression is mostly comfortable - but you will (probably) die a number of times until you learn the optimized routes - and the world gets dynamically more and more difficult as time progresses. Did I mention it's roguelite? It's roguelite. With the base settings, a death is a death and you start off from the beginning (but with more customization points to set up more fun scenarios)

Card Survival popped out of nowhere, but is an instant classic and might very well pave the way for a new genre of survival games, where deep (but accesible) survival mechanics trump huge 3D worlds with little content. It's highly recommended for people who enjoy deep mechanics over triple-A graphics.

A solid plus for the developers actively fixing bugs and interacting with the community.

An astonishingly deep survival game play mechanic that pulls you in and captivates you. I am surprised by how much I like this game. It can feel very easy at times and turn on a dime to punishingly hard if you don't keep your attention. For fans of the card or survival genre will be pleased. I would rate this as on the same level as This War of Mine or Help Will Come Tomorrow.

I love it extremely!
I hope we can have a extra zombie apocalypse scenario. My character will build a survival base in a remote valley, farm, fishing and breed animals, fortify the area to against attack, explore the dangerous ruined city to find valuable resources...Are you interested in this? I'm looking forward to your reply!

Since many Chinese player also like this game, I'd like to help translate it to Simplified Chinese. Please give a contact email if you are interested in volunteer.

Impressive game, one of the best strategy games out there. Everything in the game is highly relevant and you are going to be tested with every decision you make, you'll constantly be in thought.
This is on par with slay the spire in terms of the tag 'strategy game'. Many paths to success, progressing your path and challenging that progression in new ways the further you get.
I really appreciate the in game help information. What kills these games is lack of information leads to wasting time to frustration. The info is about 80% there, which is better than most games. I don't actually know how long a single game takes, because I haven't beat it yet, it's a challenge. Probably 40 hours? I have to beat it so I can level up as a person.

Turn-based Don't Starve, basically. Very engaging and worthwhile if the idea of a hardcore survival simulator is interesting to you.

The game seems simple at first but the survival mechanics are surprisingly in depth. I have high hope for this in the future as the devs seem active and a bit more content would help replayability in the long run.

Really bad screen tearing for a game that requires a lot of reading. Add V-Sync and I'll swap to a positive.

Game itself is awesome.

Edit: V-Sync Added In two days. Thank you!

Great game so far. Very well thought out and designed. So much deeper than it looks on the surface.

This game is absolutely incredible. Probably the best survival game I've ever played, and I can't believe I'm saying that.

This game is absolutely brimming with "Ah-ha!" moments when you realize you could have been applying real-world logic to solve a problem the entire time.

This looks simple but is dripping with depth. Can't stop playing, learning, and discovering. Plus the author adds to it damn near weekly... they are clearly in love with their project. (Example of the depth, there is a meter for the level of callouses on your hands).

A deep survival game on par with Unreal World. It's unlikely, but this would be a killer mobile title.

Well made and fun survival game

This game is the $*!t.
Literally.
All the time.
Everywhere.
And it smells like coconuts.

I genuinely wish I could talk badly about this game...
I was actually "forced" to buy this once I played it somewhere and blanked out for 2.5 hours, completely ignoring the outside world... 3 times in the same week.

Now that I bought it, I sincerely played it for 5 hours on the first day. I don't quite know what it is, but this game just presses all the right buttons in my brain and makes me waste time I genuinely would rather spend on other stuff.
Some improvements I loved since I last played was the farmer character, which changes things up a bit, still keeping it all challenging, but also speeding up some parts of the early game. It also makes me value much more some resources that you usually take for granted, and Safety mode, which, while gives me mixed feelings, allows me to enjoy the game much more, in the end.

Only Issue I had so far was when I found a cliff and the option to climb down said "(Not a chance)". I, for some reason, interpreted it as "this is guaranteed, it has no chance of failure" and, well, I got stranded on a beach. Just use safe mode to revert it, right? Nope, it happened just at the end of the day and, while I hadn't died, I could only rewind time to immediately after I got stranded, and there was no plausible way of returning to a safe place before dying of dehydration. Still, the game always feels way more real and accuarate than any game has the right to be, even when this isn't strictly true.

I love this game more than any game I've ever played in my entire life. I've sunk so many hours into it and every update is genuinely exciting. I'm writing this right now though because there's new portraits! I love them so much, oh my god! My husband got a good chuckle because I cried a real tear about them, lmao. Play this game, I promise you won't regret it. Heck, I've got it on my phone as well.

Fantastic Game and great devs.

Updated often. The game has deep mechanics and is very fun discovering all the areas and things to craft. I have had a great time playing this game and it is very enjoyable. I highly recommend it!

Don't pass up on this one. If you like survival games than this is where it is at. Enjoy!

This is an incredibly detailed survival game full of hidden mechanics that are genuinely engaging. For the first time in a while, I feel like this game accomplishes what few survival titles do. It feels genuinely and organically rewarding to progress through the game. The focus is not crafting powerful items and completely terraforming the land to an unrecognizable state, Instead, it's about making strategic choices to improve your personal skills and learning to adapt to your surroundings. I am constantly surprised by how thoughtfully scripted the game is. While the UI is pretty utilitarian, the card illustrations are painterly and the sound design does its job to inform the player. The game is not in real time, so it's easy to pause and plan your next move despite how dynamic the game feels.

Card Survival: Tropical Island is being improved at a rapid pace. (They just patched the game as of the day I'm posting this.) The game gets weekly updates for both content and quality-of-life improvements and the devs are incredibly quick to respond. They answer questions, respond to bug reports, and listen to player suggestions within the day, it seems.

I am so excited for this game. I'm looking forward to future character customization and more quality of life adjustments. If you like survival crafting games, I would highly suggest this title.

Not sure if I am doing something wrong but every morning after I rest 8 hours i basically get stuck. The game says I cannot do two things at once and I am unable to move forward or save and quit. I have to close down the game and restart. Am I missing something or is this a bug?

This game is AWESOME! Before getting into the review I just need to say the other reviewers are correct, the developer is amazing. Its been six weeks since launch and they have released a new update every Sunday with bug fixes and exciting new features. They are active on the discussions board and take feedback so gracefully. This is my first time buying early access where I decided to be involved in discussions and the developer answered a lengthy feedback post of mine point by point, and just days later one of my suggestions that they had agreed with was implemented into the game. Once when I emailed them a save file to show them a bug, they even sent it back to me just an hour later fixed so that I wouldn't lose my progress!

As far as the game itself goes, its incredibly addicting - kind of like a slow relaxed version of Don't Starve. You will die early on several times as you learn the ropes and encounter various challenges, but eventually you become more skilled at preparation and managing priorities. The game moves at your pace - time doesn't pass until you take an action, and you can see immediately the impact your action has on your statuses. Making progress and unlocking new items to craft is very satisfying.

At first glance before buying the game I thought the aesthetics were a bit amateur, but I've completely fallen in love with the soft airbrushed art in the game and the simplicity of the fonts. It gives me a nostalgia for 90s PC gaming. The minimalist animations and sound effects triggered by actions are cute and well thought out from an immersion standpoint. Despite it being completely card based, It feels like you're actually creating a story and I find myself imagining my character as doing all these things, whether its cooking fish by the fire at the beach or digging up mud from a puddle in the jungle. There is no music, just peaceful environmental noises like the waves on the beach, the crackling of the fire and crickets in the jungle, which I much prefer to a looping soundtrack and could always put my own music on in the background if I really wanted to. Even when the game is stressful, such as when you're bleeding out or starving, you can take all the time you need to plan your next move.

As it is EA, they are still working on some balance issues and bug fixes, but right now its flowing incredibly well and I'm very close to beating it. My only major gripe with the game is that the UI is still a bit clunky. Given that it is an addictive mouse based game, the amount of clicking and dragging that is required can feel excessive. There is no automatic sorting, so if you don't take the time to regularly organize your cards to minimize scrolling (which requires a periodic investment of MORE clicking and dragging, but saves you time and sanity in the long run), inventory management becomes overwhelming. Eventually it does become second nature to be mindful about your items (especially after you do stupid things, like forgetting to empty your sack before you travel into the deep jungle to gather supplies). In the past several updates they have already made huge improvements to the functionality by adding bookmarks and rearranging item placement, so I expect this will continue to improve.

All in all its absolutely worth the price point and I am so happy to support this kind, hardworking Dev. I look forward to the updates and will definitely follow their future projects.

P.S. I have NOT played the game for an entire 72 hours... I often just have it open and I reward myself with an "island day" in between real life chores. its a good game for that kind of thing if you can prevent yourself from getting sucked in which... is not easy! So I'll say I've probably played anywhere from 30-40 hours with no regrets :)

I bought this after seeing it played. I figured it would be engaging and worth the cheap price. I was wrong, it is addicting and absurdly cheap. I'm 30 hours into a game I paid seven dollars for and it is being updated weekly. If this game is even remotely interesting to you, buy it.

About 7 years ago, a interesting channel appeared on Youtube. On it, a lone New Zealand man (John Plant) stripped down to nothing but his shorts, plopped himself down in the middle of a random patch of forest and wordlessly began to build structures, tools and equipment using nothing but what was directly around him. No tools, no foreign supplies, no help. That channel is known as Primitive Technology.

It is very clear that Grim, the developer of Card Survival: Tropical Island, was either intrigued by or, like me, an avid fan of Mr. Plant. This game is practically an homage to the channel, in all the right ways. From sculpting and firing pots and jars, to building your own hut out of handmade clay bricks and mud. In fact, if you find yourself stuck or not able to figure out a recipe, I wager you could use the Primitive Technology videos as a reference.

That isn't to say that this is a ripoff. Quite the contrary, its a well thought-out and excellently executed challenge to anyone thinking they have the knowledge to thrive on a desert island. High praise must be given to the how the game handles the ever-present meters that signify survival.

All in all, an addicting, fun survival title hiding behind simplistic graphics and easy, comprehensive mechanics.

Plus, the develop has yet to fail to reply to feedback, both positive and negative.

I highly recommend this game to everyone who's read this review up to this point.,

I knew coming from Card Quest (the developer's previous game) that I was in for an experience that is much more than what the basic graphics/UI might suggest. This game accomplishes what many survival simulators try to do but many fail, it manages to really make you feel like you are alone on a desert island where resources are limited and every minute matters to guarantee your survival.

You will have to make tough choices because every decision matters and the feeling of managing your resources & discovering new recipes will keep you wanting to just play one more in-game day time after time.

Of course, this game is still on EA and it is clear that some content is lacking, but the developer is very active both in interacting with the community and implementing new content through weekly updates so I am sure that the future of this game is bright.

Bottom line: If you give this game a chance and look past its simplistic cover, you will find a true gem. 100% recommend.

DON'T SLEEP ON THIS GAME!
This game is absolutely brutal, punishing, and just one misstep can sink you... and yet it is one of the most fun and satisfying games I've played this year. Every choice matters, everything slowly leads you down a new path of discovery.

You will die, and you will come back and your next attempt will be infinitely better because of no other reason than you just gained more knowledge, and yet that is never frustrating. All the while you are applying real-world logic about survival that almost always has a mechanical implementation in the game that feels appropriate and fair.

10/10 would have diarrhea and die again.

Card Survival is made by the same team behind Card Quest. Just like Card Quest, this is a hidden gem made with passion worth discovering. The fundamental mechanics are quite solid, even though the audio and visual aspects are lacking, and some design elements are rough around the edge.

The good :

1. The survival, exploration and crafting themes are well merged with the mechanics, in a way that becomes quite addictive.
2. The UI is very descriptive and clear, so getting started is easy. The game gives you just enough information to not be confused, while still letting you make some discoveries on your own.
3. As of today, the game has enough content so that if feels quite deep and engaging. It's also updated weekly.

The bad :
1. The game is very grindy and time consuming, often in a mindless zombie way (those coconuts...). I wish some processes were sped up somehow, to make the focus more about actual decisions.
2. Unfortunately, the game is too ambitious for it's own UI. Managing dozens of card interactions when you only see about 12 cards at a time gets very frustrating and cumbersome. I hope they will find a solution to make the many items easier to manage.
3. The overall game length is so long that dying and starting over feels really bad.

Overall, I think that this game is good, but not great at the moment. It's certainly worth checking out for it's theme and uniqueness. I think it has the potential to become amazing within a year or so.

Fun game. Well thought out mechanics.

Interesting stories emerge, such as : "Hunting boar in heavy rain deep in the jungle, with fever, bug bites and on the edge of starvation. After 3 days of fruitless tracking finally bowed it down and saved myself."

Would like to see more card manipulation options added, such as options to split a stack, throw away a certain number of cards from a stack, feed a certain amount of cards into a recipe (and not put 30 leaf fronds individually...), etc.

Would like to see an option to tone down or disable some of the card animations, because my notebook stutters and struggles for 5-10 seconds every time I travel between places, especially if they have more cards in them, such as the beach where I have most of my stuff. Travelling from the beach to my hut or coop also has this problem. My notebook is not strong, but the game shouldn't be that taxing... Perhaps a vsync option could help.

Warning: Massive gameplay spoilers! If you want to discover this game on your own, do NOT read this review. (There isn't a story though, so that can't be spoiled at the very least)

The game is generally speaking fun, but it has some elements that are just way too grindy, such as leveling up various skills. Perhaps they'll feel less grindy when the full game comes out, but seeing as you seemingly can flee with a raft already (I died like, two weeks before I would've made it to a ONE SHOT BOAR *coughgrumblecough*), I can't help but feel like the current grind should be minimized. The UI is also very, very cluttered. You have to scroll back and forth like crazy to view all your items, which, I mean, there has to be a better way to implement the UI than that.

I personally don't think the UI tells you enough either, even though it is cluttered. When I first played the game, I went all in on the coconuts. They give diarrhea, but as they're the only source of water early on, I troopered on and drank from them anyway. Turns out, severe diarrhea makes you lose water as well, so much so that you lose more than you gain from drinking the coconuts. So you're only supposed to drink some of the coconuts and perhaps find alternate food sources to cover your food needs. The UI did not inform me of this, so I effectively lost all of my runs early on to the same ailment over and over again without having a way to figure it out from the UI. The moment I discovered this, the game became a cake-walk from one moment to the next (barring the awkward UI and the ONE SHOT BOAR grrrr)

Even then, I had fun. There's a nice sense of progression and discovery through the whole thing, and the theme of survival is well implemented into the crafting mechanics. For some examples of this, you can't drink salt water, but you can get salt from it. Coconuts can be stripped for fibers that you can make clothes from, they can be drunk from, eaten from and then you can use the shells to contain water or throw them into the fire for extra fuel. That kind of versatility in the crafting is really, really nice. (One caveat, I would've wished a copper axe chopped faster than a rock one, even if by just 15 minutes or so. It's sturdier, better built and has a stronger material, which should translate into better swinging speeds and better chops, but it does not from what I gathered). So most of the gameplay does seem inspired directly from reality, which is really nice and makes the discovery a lot more intuitive.

I can, overall, recommend this if you have patience for grindy mechanics and awkward UI's, because it is dang fun.

Reminds me of a fun old school Apple II game. Very basic graphics and hardly any sound. Excellent learning curve with lots of crafting hints (I have no time for crafting games which give you no guidance). Very realistic setting and survival mechanics- well researched. A little clunky GUI with the card rows, but not a deal-breaker by any means.
Addictive game. Refreshing setting. Challenging yet easy to pick up and play.
UPDATE: Really, really well done. Rogue-like, unlock abilities for custom characters, dev is perfecting it. Very deep. MUST get.

a different kind of card game. I have fun playing it, but cant get past level 2. it is both addicting and frustrating.

a refreshing take on the survival genre insanely well made and its getting updates frequently

If you love the feeling of thinking: "I wonder if that would work?" and finding out that you're right, this game makes that happen for you like 80% of the time. If you're on the fence on this one, get it. I can almost guarantee you will not regret it.

I have really enjoyed playing this fun and realistic card survival game. It is currently difficult to understand to start with as there is no real tutorial but if you are willing to put in 30 mins to an hour then you will fall in love with the process. It is a super new game and the 2 devs are working super hard to make sure any bugs found are fixed very quickly and they have been pushing for weekly updates since release. Now that a new character setup has been implemented the replayability factor has been amped up so its more fun to play over and over. I would highly recommend this to others and I myself have fallen in love with this game and have been spending hours playing while I should be working instead :D

Way more then the sum of its parts. A truly challenging, and interesting survival crafting game with rogue-like elements and plenty of things to keep you coming back for more.

10/10 Great survival game

I love this game. Has a decent learning curve and can be completely unfair at times, but that's survival. Everything seams be stacked against you but things can finally start to go your way it feels great. and you'll learn with each death to help you survive a bit longer the next time. The game is also very realistic and you can learn actual survival knowledge from it.

The game is still in the early stages but has weekly updates and the creator is very active with the community. with random events and "loot"there is plenty of replayability.

Escape the Island of test how long you can survive for.

Weird and addictive. The developer has some very cool ideas and manages to construct deep and complex systems with very simple means. The game is definetely rough around the edges, and never holds your hand. Hell, there's basically no information about anything, and a single mistake can end your run. The game is brutally hard, yet very rewarding.

A great in-depth survival game that has you balancing short term and long term goals. I found the time flies by as I work on just one more thing. The game is updated frequently and the developer is very active on the forms. The game also has beautifully subtle effect like cloud shadows in the background or the sound and light of a campfire. A few QOL improvements could be made but the game is wonderful in its current state.

Distills the survival experience down to pure decision making. No need to have twitch reflexes or hours to grind away. Card Survival: Tropical Island throws all the out and focuses purely on decision making. Each choice you make will have certain risk, rewards, time investment, resource investment, etc decisions the player will need to make. A series of bad decisions can deplete your resources. One risky choice can put you on your way to a quick death. A nice refreshing look at the survival genre.

Your first hour will be spent dying on repeat, after that you'll set all difficulty modifiers that you unlock to make it as easy as possible, but you will still die by accident spending 3 hours cutting a log and not stopping for a second to take a sip of coconut water which will further your leaky stool into full blown cholera levels of consistency which could have been prevented if you would have remembered to pick up the conch shells to break them for food when you left the beach so you didn't have to eat the coconut "meat" instead which made your stool leaky which caused your dehydration in the first place.

its fun though

So I saw this game on Retromation's channel and knew I had to try it for myself. It is absolutely unforgiving and one mistake could be the deciding factor in toppling the seesaw, but it's absolutely the game for gluttons of punishment. It has a lot of things going for it, but there's also some factors that could do with some improvement.

Pros:
1) I've never seen a game get updated as often as this one. Getting burned on abandonware on Steam is unfortunately common, but I have no worries with that here. These developers are not only dedicated to quality in updates, but quantity as well, a best of both worlds with Card Survival

2) Every run, even this early in development, is something different. The character creation update was a huge leap in the right direction for the sake of being able to start over again and again (which you likely will due to the difficulty). One run you can focus on specific skills and the next on other skills; it really gives way to being able to experiment with what works for you, and there's no one solution to a problem either.

3) While Card Survival is hard as nails, it's mostly fair in its difficulty. Rarely while I am playing do I have something negative to me and think that it's unfair. Ofc with more updates this is likely to be an enhanced point of positivity, but the line between fair and unfair is thin with these types of games, and I think the devs are treading it pretty well

Cons:

1) While I said previously that there's no one correct way to survive, some methods/skills feel like a slog at best or pointless at worst. I remember before yesterday's update that I felt like trapping was a completely useless thing to do because it would be using precious fishing bait for something that just wouldn't pay out, or if it did, it wouldn't be worth it (I'm looking at you deadfall trap).

2) The balancing is done pretty well, but that doesn't mean some offenders slipped through the cracks. The worst offender of this is definitely the Shipwreck. Every time I'd try to get something from it I would end up with a deep laceration, which if you're unprepared for what lies ahead is absolutely a game over scenario. Even with my swimming skill maxed out, I would get badly cut two or three times before I get something like rope or a jerry can. I feel like it could really be a great boon to the game, but it desperately needs a rework before I can call it fair.

Suggestions:

1) Upon looking at an action depending on what it is, it has a percentage of success based on its appropriate skill (i.e. Climbing, Swimming) and most of the time, the current method works since it's either pass or fail. In unique circumstances such as boar hunting though, it can either be a complete success, a partial success, or a complete failure. In this instance, it still shows up as either a pass or a fail, so it would be awesome if it showed the percentages of all possible outcomes.

2) As of this review, I feel like the sea could do with more life. While there's definitely lots you can do right now, it can definitely do with more content in that area. Examples of some things that could be implemented is jellyfish encounters, sharks, or like how boars work, you can catch massive fish that can be eaten off of multiple times. Maybe even a more ambitious idea is using a less complex version of the raft to be able to sail to a different island for different resources to make a more permanent raft that could be used to escape the island.

3) With the update that implemented the character creator, the Islander was added, confirming that there's other human life present on the island. Interacting with a tribe of natives could be really cool as it would vary on hostility or hospitality based on choices made or existing factors like how much you damaged the ecosystem or how long you've survived on the island. It could even lead way to improving skills with native trainers or even the creation of new skills such as Diplomacy or Bartering.

Overview:
This game isn't just fun, it's really fun. For a game that's only been out on Steam for a month, it's accomplished more than what other titles have done in years. The game, even from when I got it a few weeks ago, is drastically different today at comparison, and the beauty of it all is that it's still changing as we speak. The weekly updates are fantastic and I absolutely would recommend it, even at it's current state. I'm excited to see where this game goes in its direction, and I'll be sure to keep playing it and supporting the title.

TL;DR: Card Survival: Tropical Island is unforgiving in difficulty, but it's fair about it. Every playthrough is something different and the devs implement new material weekly. I would absolutely recommend people try it, especially at the low price it currently stands at.

Final Score: 8.5/10 (subject to change)

Strangely, one of the best survival games I played recently, need some polish, but it's very addictive. Give it a try. It's worth it.

Graphically simple but really engaging gameplay. A classic of the boardgame genre without any doubt including the right balance of logic, mystery and interest. Devs are super responsive and are clearly listening to players. I hope this one grows and we get a series of Card Survival: xxxx. My only negative point can be expressed as a simple question - how to get longevity and replayability from this as a standalone title?

Why do survival games have you losing so quickly?
I like the card game mechanic but becoming dehydrated after drinking & eating 3 whole coconuts then dying within a day is really dumb. There is no 'meh' rating so for $8 and typically poor 'survival' mechanics, I give a thumbs down.

A fun and somewhat addicting game. I keep coming back to it for a new attempt, and the ability to create your own character with varying abilities to make it easier or harder only adds to the variability. I was originally introduced to the game early in its development, and it's come a long way since then. They're still updating it too, so you can keep checking in even if you feel like you've beaten it before.

simple game easy to play and pickup will challenge you the 1st time around after that you try to do better with each and every playthrough

I died of starvation on day 63; 30 minutes before my Roast Chicken finished... :_)

So I wanted to wait until I 'finished' the game before leaving a review. Cool concept; great execution ( including the update efforts ). I died a good dozen times ( thanks, Depression... Not a fan of this mechanic ) before breaking through the sad and establishing myself. The element of surprise is always there. Shipwrecks and wrong moves prove troublesome. Risks vs Reward is something you'll have to come to terms with. Despite some frustrations, as there will be in life, I am enjoying solving this puzzle and will be starting anew once I finish this.

Some of my early concerns have been addressed in updates; happy about that. Here's a few things I've considered tweaking ( if I made my own version anyway ):

Action: Stretch. For 15m, helps get rid of some Back Pain.

Items:

Could one use a rock to crush Pretty Seashells?

Banana Peel. Obtained by eating a Banana... Can be used in Crop Plot! ( As a sub for Fish? ) Attracts insects though.

Large Stick: Either give 2 Sticks or have no duration.

Island Salad: Remove Coconut Meat as an ingredient. An extra step for so little. Reduce the Satiety a bit if you must.

Mechanics:

New Sleep Interruption: Seems... a little harsh? Maybe limit your sleep to 4h and reduce the amount of rest you get? Kinda new, but it really threw me for a loop when it got implemented while I was STARVING. Not sure why I should die of starvation despite having eaten meat a few times. :(

Depression: Losing 2 hours in one shot can screw things up pretty hard, especially early game where every action is precious. Putting something to cook / lighting a timber / having your time go past evening; one should definitely play around this as much as they can if they end up depressed, but mechanically it still bothers me a little. Two potential changes:

1) After the depression text, your next action takes twice as long, showing the mental and physical fatigue's effects on you. Your Happy would recover based on the duration of the original action, to maybe represent the feeling of accomplishment.

2) Cut the 'rest' time to 30m and reduce the amount of Happy gained proportionately; this will interrupt a little more often, but minimizes the risk of 'wasting' resources.

Pee n' Poo: I'm surprised you didn't include these, especially since you have diarrhea. What made you exclude them?

Bugs?

Weird moment during Depression: I spotted a Seagull, then had the Depression penalty take over, then the Seagull cutscene happened. Seems weird that a Seagull would stay there for 2 hours? :)

Highlands: After the update I did a LOT of exploring and got NO copper stuff. Did I miss something?

Thanks for taking the time to read this; I'm gonna get back in there and try to finish things up.

I've put down 24hrs on this game now and this is one of those games I'll put 100+ (done before full release) hours down on. Unlike most games that give you what you can craft, this game does not... mostly. It does have a tips and trick booklet that you can check and get an idea for some things, but other combinations you have to think on a survival knowledge check. They are going for realistic and it totally fits.

I want to give a better review after it gets out of Early Access because you just don't know what they will add. The developer is super active not only on updates, but on the discussion thread giving feed back and taking feedback and suggestions to add things into the game. Which doesn't just make it a passion project to him, but kind of a community project from us.

Sense it's Early Access there are certain things that aren't fleshed out, but don't be fooled as if that means it's not polished. There are Traits that you can unlock by surviving. These traits will allow you to change up the game-play and create your own kind of scenario. These traits can make the game easier or more challenging. The world is pretty vast and the drop/scavenge of things and the difficulty of the game is surprisingly well balanced. Progression is mandatory, but this does not make it feel restricted in how you play the game. This is a management game sliced into a survival scenario and served in a card format which is kind of refreshing style of game-play.

There is a good bit of leniency in this. M̶o̶v̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶n̶o̶r̶m̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶t̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶u̶n̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶m̶o̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶b̶e̶t̶w̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶3̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶c̶i̶f̶i̶c̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶a̶s̶.̶ ̶Y̶o̶u̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶s̶e̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶o̶ ̶3̶ ̶Z̶o̶n̶e̶s̶,̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶B̶e̶a̶c̶h̶ ̶Z̶o̶n̶e̶,̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶F̶o̶r̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶Z̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶H̶i̶g̶h̶l̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶Z̶o̶n̶e̶.̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶e̶c̶h̶n̶i̶c̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶8̶ ̶l̶o̶c̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶2̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶s̶e̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶v̶e̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶g̶o̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶w̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶l̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶p̶u̶r̶p̶o̶s̶e̶.̶ They have expanded the areas on the island and also expanded their landmarks. Each area has their perks and there are so many types of animals and plants you can encounter. There is kind of a clever loading bar to confirm and action that you want to do when combining objects as well of quickly dump or pick up items. It will also tell you how long something will take before doing something.

A really solid turn-based survival game. Highly abstracted yet immersive. Well worth the money even in its current form, excited to see how it develops.

very unique take on a survival game

Do you like card games? Do you like survival games?

22.2 hours - Great game it exceeded my expectations i only thought i would be entertained for only a couple hours but was on it all day 9/10 personally. 213 hours - Played a wee bit more. Still good.

Great game with real life applicability, more over the Devs are polite and readily open to suggestions and bettering the game with the players help via the steam discussion. 10/10 would buy again

Game is brutal, but accurate-ish simulation of robinson crusoe style survival.
I think i've seen all the core gameplay 5 hours in. Haven't explored all content, waiting for later update.
Probably gonna get 20 - 40 hours when i decide to explore more.

Tons of fun and the devs are cranking out the updates.

Interesting take n the Survival Genre. Enjoying the game!

So fun! Well balanced, challenging, and a high replay value. I'm getting used to crabs.

I want to like the game, but after 4 runs, I just stopped, the exact same start all runs, the repetitiveness just killed the fun of the game for me sadly

This is a great hidden gem of a game, with a surprising amount of content for it's price. The only real complaint I would have is the lack of challenging content (and as such, replay value) once you figure out the mechanics, but since the game is in Early Access, extremely fairly priced, and has very active Devs and weekly updates, it's not really a major issue.
You can expect a good 10-30hours worth of content at the moment depending on your RNG and skill, more if you don't mind repetition and like doing self-imposed challenge playthroughs. All for a few bucks.
If you like survival games (or games with a good cooking system), I highly suggest you try it out.

Here's some more indepth notes, in case you're still on the fence or just like to inform yourself. Minor spoilers ahead:

-Updates:
An important note about difficulty at the moment is the fact that the game is in Early Access, and getting frequent, BIG updates. This is of course a great thing, but keep it in mind. What I, or anyone else, mentions in their reviews might not even apply to the game when you play it because the devs like to heavily patch the game. Or the game might be in an unfun state of balance because the devs decided to heavily change some aspects. I've seen entire systems and items removed or changed drastically, in just 3 weeks. Wounds (just an example) went from a non-issue to a MAJOR issue when you get them, going from "oh well, guess I got a few scraps again after falling off that coconut tree" to "Oh,I fell and broke my arm trying to get a coconut, guess I have to spend the next five days trying to heal this crippling condition while every single action now takes twice as long", in a matter of a single update.

-The difficulty curve:
Earlygame struggle is tough, and very satisfying after every day you manage to survive. Mechanics are fairly brutal and can quickly send you spiraling towards certain death. That being said, most of the struggle comes from lack of knowledge or making unprepared mistakes, so every subsequent run will become easier, until you manage to find your break and thrive.
Unfortunately, that also means that once you beat the game, figured out all the mechanics and have seen all there is to see, the content quickly dries up unless you challenge yourself (there's even a Trait system and "challenge runs", but the core gameplay loop is always the same), and even then everything becomes fairly easy and not comparable to that genuine, fun early struggle.
Once you set up your supply of Water (which really is the main struggle and cause of death if you're not prepared properly), you're basically done, and only serious mistakes like underestimating RNG and taking unnecessary risks can get you killed. From there on out it can quickly become a grind towards the endgame goal.

-Micromanagement:
The container system is a bit strange: What's supposed to make your life easier really just means you have to click way more and micro-manage your inventory more and more, especially when it comes to the more advanced gear like Slings and Canteens: They're all helpful and reduce the amount of ingame time you need to travel, but they heavily increase the micromanagement and amount of real life time you spend on each trip, and the amount of clicks you need for everything. This could easily be made better by either moving the UI so it doesn't take up the middle and top screen,where most of the resources and recipes are. Or just adding dedicated buttons for things like Slings. Or making the Containers (Sacks) you have to carry around just expand your inventory/card slots (or make items stackable), instead of having to go through them one by one, dragging them to the bottom bar, and only THEN being able to drag them to recipes and the middle.
Chests are the same, good for organizing in theory but just needing more clicks and more micro, because the UI takes up the important parts of the screen.
The micromanagement also extends to Recipes: I really like the cooking system, but since more nutritous recipes all require multiple ingredients (GOOD), having to drag those items in one by one can quickly become a chore when you have/want to eat several of them a day. Having an "auto-collect items from inventory/middle row" button would be a blessing to our poor fingers and sanity.
Basic recipes like Coconut milk that are part of other recipes also really need an instant craft button or be easier to craft. They get removed from the top after you craft them, so you have to keep setting them up with several clicks, and... it just becomes a chore quickly.
Just for reference: A single coconut milk alone requires at least 7 clicks for the RECIPE, plus another 6 for the INGREDIENTS. Making a single Coconut Fish at the moment requires at least 30 clicks/drags.

-Content/Replayability
This is the big one that will make or break the game, but the reason it's at the bottom of my list is because I realize I really have no room to "complain" about it: The game at the moment has at least 10-30hours of content for anyone, for 6bucks. That's completely fair, and far better than what you'd get out of most modern AAA titles. It's also getting weekly updates.

The reason I still mention it is: There's great potential here. New content can be patched in fairly easily compared to more graphical games, and because everything can be restricted to regions or "challenge playthroughs", the potential for growth is fantastic, and naturally attracts "idea guys". After playing for just 10hours I came up with so many things that could be added that would make the experience longer or better. And I'm sure the devs are getting bombarded with ideas.

But after playing for another 10hours, I beat the game. I technically "beat" the game about 8hours before that. I had a supply of water, and from there on out it was smooth sailing, over-eating cakes and Boar feasts until I got fat, everyday, GRINDING to get OFF THE ISLAND, for whatever reason. And that's how every playthrough afterwards went, even after stacking my survivors with negative traits. Because that's all there is to do at the moment once you figure out the mechanics, and what to look out for. What there is in content at the moment is basically a crafted version of a singleplayer story playthrough. there IS randomness to almost everything, including RNG and %-chances to some things, but really the challenge boils down to "can you get your water supply before a drought kicks in?". And once you know what to look for and how to get that set up, it's really not that hard.
Replayability is only there IN THEORY with the trait system, but they're all fairly extreme and don't actually add much content, just change it up a bit. the gameplay loop "feels" the same. the mermaid is a good start tho
What the game really needs is more content like the earlygame. It needs a way to keep you on your toes without it feeling artifical or unfair. It needs balancing past the initial struggle, a way to keep things fresh (randomness/events) but also giving you those breaths of relief inbetween. And I realize that's not exactly an easy things to ask.

I could list my ideas here, that range from a scaling nutrition difficulty, to different endgame/escape scenarios (like mapping the Island requiring you to spend several days in difficult biomes), to achievement/challenge playthroughs (an island inhabited by pirates who demand tribute or can be fought, or natives), to random lategame events like in Battle Brothers (Storms, droughts, floodings, new is/lands)... but ultimately it's up to the devs to balance and update the game.

There's so much potential here, but it completely depends on the enthusiasm and scope of the devs. So I'm going to be cautiously optimistic and HOPE that there will be more content. And that it won't "just" be new island parts to discover, but more events, randomness, or some systems for replayability.

A relaxing game where you can discover the game day by day, discovered thanks to Retromation.
The game is being updated and the devs are following all the discussions on the forum.
And remember losing is fun!
It is truly a work of love!

After playing this game for 200 Hours I can give it a big Thumbs up as long as it is anywhere near your alley.

If you wan't to skip reading you can check out the gameplay instead ( links at the bottom ):

Short PROS :

a) Developers are regular with the updates, open to suggestions and fast with bug fixes.

b) Game is simple to play but has a very deep complex system simulation under the hood which gives it a lot of potential for all kinds of players.

c) Plenty of Perks to tailor and roleplay your runs or make them as easy or hard as you will.

d) Plenty of Content for very affordable price. If they stopped here I would be more than happy with what I got for the money... they keep adding more each week though so it is getting even more amazing.

Short CONS

a) If you do not like turn based games. Because in essence that is what it is. Game has a long array of actions. Most taking 15 minutes, some no time at all and some more hard ones a rounded multipler of 15 minutes.

b) If you expect high end graphics or high quality music. For now there are sound effects and graphics while cute are lacking for some people.

c) If you are staying away from EA titles even if developers are super active. Just in case.

d) If the game is just not your thing.

Looooong Impressions

Like many others I stumbled on this game on Retromation's channel my first impression was... oh what a cute game I should totally try it out and well... do better than he is doing!

So I bought it downloaded it and started breaking it apart with what i considered was an op tactic of making dozens and dozens of Coconut Flasks so I never die of thirst.

I played slow, metodical, safe, avoided the dangers until i was ready. I loved the fact game did not punish me for it. I could take the game in nice and slow and move further and further into the Island and deal with challenges at my own pace as long as I did not ignore the Survival Aspects.

There are many Survival Aspects. The main one is Thirst and Hydration. Dying from thirst is a real danger on daily basis and thinking ahead is important. There are many ways to make sure you have enough when needed.
Hunger does not do anything by itself but it will make you sad and you will waste time if sad enough... but your body weight is a thing as well and if you do not eat for a couple of Weeks you will start to look like a Skeleton and eventually become one.

There are many others which simulate the state of your body. From Bug Bites, to Abbrasions on Hands, Feet or Sleepines and even the current sate of your Stool. Yes you heard it right you can get Diarhea and lose liquid if you eat wrong things to much.

But is this game really so complicated...

Well yes and no.

When you start out you can play as if the Water is the only thing you care about and you can do that for days and not be punished. But the problems will accumulate over time. Bacteria in your gut.. your body slowly losing fat... bugs patiently eating away.

This game is really easy to get into but a hard one to master. While none of the problems above or any other are a huge deal by themselfs, ignore them for to long and it will get out of hand.

ANd that is the beauty of it. You can get into it and learn in this amazing Survival game one day at a time tackling challenges as they apear.

For example the Bacteria you will not even be aware of until you sudently get Fever... and than you will get that lightbulb moment and realize what those Plants that have Antibiotic properties are for.

Splendid.

I could rant on and on but trust me here and check this game out. If you are some kind of action rpg or shooter person... well you are probably not reading this right then maybe not for you... but anyone who likes this kind of survival, exploration kind of games with simple mechanics but a lot of depth bellow... well you are in for a treat.

But back to my run. I defeated the game on first try. I took a long time because I did it slow... but I did it... and then. I wanted to play it again but this time with harder setup and do it better. Since then I think i finished the game like 3 or 4 times. Each time with some interesting twist that made the gameplay different or challenging.

Which brings us to Perks and Characters. Shortly after I started playing a first Character was released called the Unlucky Guy. Compared to a Vanilla run this dude seamed like it will be a hell to play but shortly I realized that I am much better at the game now and I can play better and more optimal and survive this helish start.

In the meantime game got a lot of new Perks which can make the game easier or harder and some of the challenging Perks are really something to think about before trying. Fractured leg for example really hampers your exploration early on and makes you totally switch priorities to even have a chance.

Oh... and turns out the Coconut Flasks were a bit OP so they are not in the game anymore. But that is fine there are other ways to secure water. More sensible ways than making a truck load of them.

ANd finally and most importantly. Developers are treating this as a product of love. They put regular updates out. Usually this is balance and tweaks with some new mechanics or Perks but every now and then they treat us with an amazing new Character or whole new Area to explore... but this is just the begining.

Game is called Card Survival : Tropical Island for a Reason. If this game is sucessfull they plan to make more in different settings. If this is not the reason to believe this will not be another EA cash grab I do not think what is... they clearly want it to suceed and make more amazing video games after.

Developers are also fast at fixing bugs and rebalancing whatever seams to be way of. It is EA it happens. It is nice to get a fast feedback and know that things are being worked on.

I will keep playing this game and be making more videos of it. Ah yes i make videos of it :D. So if you do not trust my word for it check out some of the videos and you will easily be able to tell yourself if it is a game for you or not.

For me it definatly is and I am happy I am experiencing this game in its development Phase. Doing silly crazy OP things that will probably be removed at some point or balanaced... experiencing it in a rough state.

But once it is done and refined I will make a new Review treating it as it is at that point... so I guess until then.

Bye bye and Cheers!

Hare are some videos you might wona check out:

Link to a deep tutorial I did after the most recent patch ( Update 13 ):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKE28SOR4sE

Link to an Update 12 Rant with some chill gameplay ( last update with a huge update, new area )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mF9ueFS-Tk

Link to my first playthrough which is outdated but shows the first player experience well i know very little
here expect that thirst is a big danger :D ( before this i only played for couple of days ingame and scraped the video once I realized one of things I am doing is a big Abuse of a glitch I found )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nmNJEd4XsQ&list=PLxzP5Ub_CarbeCuHG-0I_…

Link to the playlist of the hardest run I did so far ( still ongoing for testing purposes but I can win when i decide to do so )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRMwq3OeoRY&list=PLxzP5Ub_CarZQqGbx7Kc1…

You should also check out Retromations channel, really cool dude finding new fun games... he stopped playing Card Survival a bit so his videos are a bit outdated but it is funny to watch him play :D.

Enoy ;)

I honestly adore this game so much, it really can be brutal but I find it such a pleasure to play! The hours just whizz by because it hooks me in so much every time I load it up. Couldn't recommend enough!

Simple in design, unforgiving with mistakes. Things need to be done at specific times.

This is weird, this is confusing, this is hard... oh I get it.

This is a challenging, extremely enjoyable game - as someone who is perpetually dehydrated in the actual world (I forget to drink water), it has endlessly amused me that twice I've died in the game - I've died about 15 times, but twice specifically - from forgetting to drink water while I'm busy crafting.

Please, stop playing this game, have a drink of water - then return to playing.

Interesting system, moving cards (or items) on top of each other to create various actions. I really like the perk system, and the options to unlock various perks to make the journey a little easier - though not entirely simple - and a bit different each time.

Would highly recommend - it somehow walks the balance between being extremely relaxing, and highly stressful all at once :)

I look forward to ongoing development!

Edit 6/12/21

So they've now updated the game to involve some sail travel - which is equally as fun, in the same vein as the rest of the game, and added a nice little extra survival strategy. After many, many attempts resulting in death from dehydration and heat stroke - I finally built a sturdy little raft, had some chests strapped to it, full of food and rope - and sailed away from the island that had been my home for 54 days - after 10 days braving the ocean, catching fish, taking regular dips in the ocean to prevent heat stroke - I was found by a ship and rescued on day 64.

I'm not sure if I have it in me to head back to the island right now, but I'm thinking I may return for the game show made around my initial experience, and see if I can go on two win a million dollars (not in real life).

Fun game! Currently being updated frequently.

Honestly, I've had an outrageous amount of fun with both of winterspring's two games -- doubly so for the cost they're asking. Have you ever watched the youtube channel 'Primitive Technology' -- the guy who builds cool mud huts, fires clay pots and uses a million little tricks to get it all done? This game feels like playing as him - in a real survival situation on a tropical island.

The art is nice, clean and functional. The updates are frequent, fun and substantial. The devs are wonderful people - eager to respond to questions, usually just within a day, exceptionally quick to fix bugs and so, so clearly wonderfully passionate about what they're doing. They've already finished a thoroughly content-rich, soulful and gorgeous game before with Card Quest -- and it's clear that they're in this for the long haul.

I've honestly never played a better survival game - and it's a card game! Somehow, despite that, it feels more immersive than anything else I've tried - and I've tried a lot of them! It's technical without being overwhelming, it's utterly deadly and difficult without being unfair - you claw your way forward through fever, starvation and disease. You talk to your only friend on this deserted island to stay sane: a painted coconut you made yourself, complete with hundreds of different little dialog snippets to really get you into the head of your harried survivor.

Even better, it has modular starts to keep it fresh - you can start as a fat, unskilled plane crash victim complete with an urgent, bleeding wound, a native to the islands that's well-suited to the enviroment, a soldier tragically trapped after parachuting onto the island with naught but his firearm and a precious few bullets to eke out your survival with.

I really can't recommend the game enough, and for some five bucks it's an absolute steal -- if you like survival themes, realistic wilderness techniques and a harsh-but-fair gaming experience, absolutely go for it!

Deceptively simple. The rules are easy; to survive is hard.

A beautiful game with many creativity.
And the devs are always in communication with the community.
Some of my ideas are in the game and the devs made very deep games.

I love all there games and the team is very nice.

So give a try and when you find something you have the idea it must be in, than made a post and be a part of the evolution of this game

Picked it up randomly and really enjoying it. Just dropping a recommendation to say I like it.

Very fun turn-based survival game.

Dev is constantly updating it.

A+

I thought this game would be a cute, simple time waster to pass one or two afternoons, but wouldn't really have the depth to hook me. I am surprised and delighted to say that I was dead wrong! Card Survival: Tropical Island is a fascinating and intricately detailed turn-based survival game expressed entirely through cards and counters. While most survival games oversimplify concepts in order to focus on action, this game has a simple graphical style and interface which is easy to approach, but difficult to master--and which disguises an understanding of survival scenarios which would make expert outdoorsfolk sit up and take notice. It is clear that the devs have put a lot of care and thought into their game, and I dearly hope that they can turn this game into a larger series!

This game is really amazing for a sit, back and relax gaming session. I have put in about 6 hours with the game and so far I have no complaints! I would however like to see a way to adjust the volume for those time when playing while in DIscord with your buddies for example. Without being able to turn the volume down it can make it hard to hear anybody talking to you over the relaxing sound of waves that almost give you the calming sensation of splashing atop your feet, which all in all isn't necessarily a bad thing XD! I hope the devs keep up with the good work!

The developer keeps in communication constant updates, balance fixes and design tweeks. Adding not only new items but recipes areas and perks.

So much fun! Waaaay too many hours playing. The UI killed it for me. Had to stop because of finger cramps. I'll check back later. Try a radial UI or a way to move stacks? Really, it was a lot of fun and worth the price. Just needs some polishing to be playable at more than 30 days.

Mental CBT, fun if you like to inflict pain on yourself. You will not live past about day 18 without perks. That was the farthest I've gotten with only Dark Skin. You will need to live and die by getting perks are starting beefier and beefier.

You shit yourself if you eat too much coconut.

What. (amount of detail)

Excellent game!

It has deep systems but is easy to play, and the devs are very good both with adding more content and improving what can use improvement very regularly.

The dev ares also very good with communicating both what changes have been made and why, as well as what they are working on.

Excellent Game!

It's rogue-like turn-based card survival game, and quite addicting. You are stranded on a remote southsee island and have to survive. The ultimate goal is to leave the island and return to civilisation.
Most actions (building, exploring, cooking etc) cost a certain amount of time (in 15min increments).
You can build shelters, craft a large range of items and explore the island. There are several stats (hunger, thirst, sleepiness, morale, ...) you have to watch. Doing things several times adds to the specific skill level which in turn opens new building/craft options and offers a better chance at doing something (e.g. climbing a palm tree to get coconuts).

The game is hard. Expect to die several times in the beginning until you know the game and the island better (in my first try I died on day 2 ...), but with every new start you progress further and discover more.
The game has a very active and friendly community. Don't hesitate to ask in the forum for help.
The devs are awesome, fast responding (and hotfixing) reported bugs. Until now (27.01.22) they had a weekly update schedule, from now on they do a bi-weekly update (to be able to test more throroughly and offer larger updates), which I think is a wise decision. The game runs very stable.

All in all, a real gem which I can highly recommend!

solid game,
very good update rate.
Dirt cheap, don't need to wait for 1.0 to enjoy the first dozen hours

If you like survival games, it's worth to play. Took me some time to get to know mechanics, so I died a couple of times of dehydration. If you are wounded or sick then you need more water and not always there will be a rain, but there are other ways to get it. Don't want to spoil, so check it yourself :) Didn't even finish yet, I don't want to leave this island xD More content and upgrades comming

A clever game that really tickles the brain. I like that I can play at my own pace while still having the sense of time pressure. Multiple characters and some sandbox customization lead to good replayability. Definitely check it out if you're into practical puzzling.

addicting, much content for an early access game

I think this game is really fun! It has great ability to bring you back for more but I do have my fair share of problems with it.

I find it really frustrating that all the steps to a recipe are not listed, so the player is unaware of how many resources total it will take up. Ex. I got all the materials for the first part of the mud hut, only to realize there were more ingredients neccessary. So I just used up 1.5 hrs of in game time for basically nothing that immediately benefits me. Additionally, I used up valuable energy to cut down enough trees for that recipe. Furthermore, some explanations of what some items do when hovering over them would be really nice. Often I would not understand what an item is and craft it blindly to figure out only to realize it was unneccessary. Before you ask why didnt I just look up what the items did in google, I didn't want to. I don't think it's my fault for not knowing what some of these items are. What the game decides is a blueprint and what is a recipe is also really unintuitive. Like how the mudbrick is a recipe that unlocks the kiln, but the clay is somehow not? I don't think it makes the game easier to know a basic function and a borderline neccessary mechanic. Some of the features feel so unintuitive as well. Like I would never know that to get more water you have to cut down a banana tree (which can also run out of water). Water is the most important resource in the game as well, which makes this oversight even harsher. I feel like some of these resevoirs dry up so fast that it is so incrediably frustrating to operate around them. While I like the challenge the game provides, I think difficulty settings or easing up on some elements would make the game feel a lot more fair and enjoyable. You can get several hours in a run only to die from dehydration (even when you planned ahead of time) because the water you stored evaporated or a banana tree 45 minutes away dried out. It's a brutal, and really discouraging to come back and spend another 5 hours on another run just to get back where you left off.

This all makes it sound like I don't like the game, but I really do and want it to succeed! I think it's extremely fun. I would just like more accessibility because while I do think it's very fun, I also find it frustrating to not be able to play the game the way I would like to play it. I would say the game is ideal for someone looking for a challenging reasource management game involving elements of rng.

excellent game, more realistic than you might think
tense at the start, some cool grind
you should try it

This game is truly amazing.
When I bought the game my expectations were very different, I was expecting some sort of deck builder with survival theme and I wasn't sure that such a thing can be even fun, but what I got was a very well polished and mechanically deep survival game that has nothing to do with cards, outside of visuals.
I truly hope that one day this game gets the sales it deserves.

I came for the coconuts.

I left with hypothermia/diarrhea/jungle fever.

5 stars. Would come again.

Here a few basic infos about the game, then some con and some pro.
tl;d it's a solid good game with some grind tied to the survival aspect, with some harsh but fair difficulty.

This is flag as a card game, but it's really not in the way you would think at first glance.

the card are here just to represent the item, location, actions, etc.

For example you move a stone card over another stone card to make a chipped stone that can act as a cutting tool.

Now that's out of the way, some cons :
-some tedious could be helped (at the cost of dev time). I'm not talking about changing the game itself, just the number of click involved or each action.
Looting all the trap at once (since it doesn't cost in game time, just a lot of clicking).
Having a small "action" icon on the corner of some card (so you can eat wihout opening the card, or make fiber, any basic action that need to be done a lot).
Having a quick way to move all small portion of water from a stack of half coconut into filled half coconut, to reduce the amount of half coconut filled with water and thus reduce the water loss by evaporation.
Filling a stack of small jar/etc from the water pool in one go instead of doing it one per one.

-some information about the gameplay is totally hidden from the player and can be confusing (how trap works, effect of the current issue you have like +15min per movement, current skill level, are you skilled enough to perform this action ...). I would advise people to check the faq/forum and ask when needed. Dev is active here, so there is little space for missinformation in this steam forum for once. I understand why it's like this tho, since it's not v1.0 yet.

-late game is limited by metal tool - and to get them you need copper. Copper is limited, i'v searched far and wide and couldn't made all the copper gear. If I lose my knife/axe, I won't have any spare and I'll never be able to do some trap & carpentry, heavily limiting the gameplay.

Now some pros :
-feel like a good survival game - no instant kill crap, no research bench that tell you exactly what you need to do to progress, no map, etc. You just try and discover by yourself, and it works fine in this game.
-Good balance overall
-some option at the start to make the game more easy or harder, with a custom start (you can unlock all options with point earned each day you survive)
-the game play fast (animations, scrolling)

I like survival games in general. You can get a good feeling under 2h so worse case you can refund, but if you like survival game, give it a try.

Card Survival is challenging and realistic in a way I never thought a digital card game could be. The devs clearly have poured a ton of time and energy into the systemic and dynamic elements of this small but deep world. Expect to die a lot while you learn and grown with each new approach. Once you are established, is it best to build a hut in the jungle near an abundance of food, repurposed a small cave in the wetlands near building materials, or just pitch a hammock on the beach and live off the sea? This game will have you thinking about it long after you stop playing for the day.

I can't wait to see Card Survival in it's final form. If you love realistic survival simulators that promote ingenuity and experimentation over twitch reflexes, this is the game for you.

Extremely good and fun! There's a lot of strategy and quite a few hidden systems you need to learn to manage. The devs are also very active.

I am having a lot of fun. I die to random things. I fell out of a tree, sprained my leg, then died of hypothermia because it was raining and i was to injured to build a cheap shelter. Once i got a monitor(s?) lizard bite and died of infection. This game is a blast. I def recommend you trying it out.

Give it 119 minutes. If you like it, GREAT! if not, refund that shit. Either way, give it a try. What do you have to lose but a couple hours of your time? What do you have to gain but a pretty replay-able game that will probably be awesome on the steam deck.

This is a good unique game that has flow under the radar. My best description is: You are a Tom Hanks like Cast Away exploring and bush crafting with an end goal of leaving island. The world is expressed to you via cards. The mechanics are fun and the heart of the game. The art style is on point, the Development team is active and innovative. I highly recommend!

I had severe diarrhea for 25 days in a row

Don't be fooled by the simplistic UI. Under the disguise there's a rather hardcore system hidden in its core. I'll mention a couple of things that the game never tells you explicitly in-game.
- The game keeps track of the amounts of bacteria and parasites (respectively) inside your body system in exact numbers, in the save file. You get sick only when they grow out of control. Your immune system is killing them at a constant rate.
- There's a hidden stat called "mental structure", representing how confident you are that you're in control. It is affected by a variety of factors. Basically the less comfortable life you are living, the weaker mental structure you have. Low mental structure lowers your morale and causes psychological problems which may lead to detrimental delusions. I won't spoil too much here. It's some remarkable experience.
- The game even has a dynamic ecological environment. Basically the more you kill certain species - be it an animal or a plant - the slower they reproduce. If you rarely touch a certain species or plant a lot more of them, they will grow more and more, and expand their habitat to nearby locations.

Now you get the idea. The game is a lot deeper than it looks. Go, explore and experiment, die and start again. It's gonna be rough, but you'll love it.

Edit on the latest update: the bacteria amount and mental structure, along with pretty much every stat of yours, are now all visible in-game.

"Card Survival: Tropical Island" is a nicely done card-based survival game with an engaging setting, a lot of content, and intuitive, well-designed mechanics. The turn-based gameplay and the clean UI allow for a more relaxed playstyle compared to action-based survival titles, though fighting for survival against the island's many hazards can still feel properly dramatic sometimes.

1. Story & Setting

You are alone on a remote tropical island. You can play as someone who turned their back on civilization (but brought some starting supplies), or a hardy islander with no possessions, or a stranded tourist, or even a mermaid (who can drink salt water but can't stay on land for long). Optionally you can also create your own character from more than 50 perks and handicaps.

Your task is to survive, and eventually build a raft and leave, though you can stay on the island indefinitely if you want to. That's practically all the story there is, the game doesn't have much of a narration and the sparse in-game texts are mostly just matter-of-factly explanations. For example, item descriptions rarely tell you how something looks, smells, or feels, and thus don't contribute much to the player's immersion - instead, they provide hints like "Could use this together with mud to make a mud brick."

That said, the game's mechanics provide a lot of hooks to spin your own stories in your head. So while I was technically just moving cards around, in my mind I was living through a vivid story where I suffered a broken leg from a boar attack, made a makeshift splint, crawled back to some water puddles to stay hydrated, prayed for rain because I had developed a fever and needed more water than the puddles provided, tried to subsist on coconut water (but it gave me diarrhea and I also couldn't climb trees to get more coconuts due to my broken leg), eventually succumbed to sleep on the grass bed in my small cave, and then died from dehydration while the rain started pouring down, because I was too weak to wake up.

My impression is: With a fair amount of imagination and some knowledge of how a survival situation may feel like, you will probably find a multitude of interesting emergent stories here even though the game does not tell them explicitly. Otherwise, the game may feel more like a complex optimization puzzle, which can also feel very engaging, but perhaps not quite as immersive.

2. Gameplay & Mechanics

All gameplay is done through cards. For example, the location "beach" always has a "sea" card present. Clicking on the "sea" card gives you the option to either dive for conches, or wash yourself. Dragging a "stone" card on top of another "stone" card creates a "sharpened stone" card, which you can then drag on a "long stick" to create a "rustic spear". Dragging that spear to the "sea" card then lets you hunt fish, which will also be represented as cards. All gameplay is turn-based, with each turn advancing daytime by multiples of 15 minutes. Advancing time will increase your thirst and hunger, so you'll have to find efficient actions to satisfy those basic needs.

One of the game's most striking features is the extreme detail and completeness of the simulation. Obviously you'll not only have to find water, food, and shelter, you'll also have to deal with wounds, infections, wild animals, rain storms, and many other hazards. But even your mental state is tracked through several parameters including happiness, loneliness, and stress. In total, the game tracks about 100 different stats right down to details like blisters on your feet, back pain, stool consistency, or (say) overindulgence in crustacean food.

All these parameters are interconnected in intricate ways. As an example (minor spoiler ahead): You may encounter a cobra which, if you're careless, can spit poison at your eyes. That can cause permanent eye damage, which means that you may no longer be able to move around during dusk or dawn, because you can't see your environment clearly enough. You can prevent that effect by washing your eyes quickly. But if you only carry salt water with you, then - depending on your mental state - you may not have the courage to pour that into your eyes.

Problems usually have several viable solutions. For example, you can build a shelter out of sticks and palm leaves, but you can also make base in a cave - or build a mud hut. You can hunt animals with a spear, build simple traps, develop more elaborate traps, fish with a rod, or try to grow crops instead. Water can be obtained and treated in a few different ways as well - and so on.

Gameplay has a strong focus on exploration and discovery. When you start the game, you'll have to explore your surroundings, which will yield some resources and (over time) unlock paths to other areas. where the process then repeats. There are currently about a dozen areas in the game, with differing resources, hazards, animals, and points of interest. Once an area is unlocked, it will remain accessible for that playthrough, and you'll eventually be able to roam the entire island. Another exploration element lies in the resources themselves, e.g. plants may have effects (beneficial or detrimental) that you can discover by preparing them in various ways.

Crafting is another major gameplay element. Obtaining new resources gives you hints about building new tools or structures. Some items need blueprints before they can be built, which will unlock either by building certain base items, or by reaching a certain level of skill - e.g. if you keep building and using traps, then your trapping skill will gradually increase, and eventually you'll unlock blueprints for more complex trap designs.

One potential issue with the current game design, is that starting several playthroughs with the same character felt a bit repetitive. You always start at the same location, your options are limited since you need to explore for a while to find other areas, and it also takes a while to develop the same skills that each character will need. While the resources that you find from exploring are randomized, you'll quickly know what can be expected from any area you've spent time in during a previous playthrough, so there isn't much opportunity for surprises. The problem got exacerbated by the fact that the game seemed to deliberately kill me several hours into my first two playthroughs - once by entering the dry season after 30 days with no warning (so I died of dehydration), and once by a fever that I also got no warning about (since the area where I found water also has a high infection risk).

To proceed beyond this point, I had to first focus strictly on water preservation while it was still raining, and then focus strictly on stocking up the means of treating the fever that I now knew would be coming. There was no way for me to overcome either issue without meta-knowledge from my first two playthroughs. While that's basically just "learning to play the game", I feel that there's an imbalance between the inevitability of those deaths, the loss of playthroughs with many hours invested in them, and the repetitiveness of starting again. That said, the game is still in early access, and the developers are still tweaking those elements, so things are likely to change before release. The repetitiveness of subsequent playthroughs can already be diminished by creating characters with different perks, which can be unlocked with a "meta-currency" that you'll collect while playing.

3. Graphics & Presentation

... and here the dreaded character limit for reviews strikes again. ;) If you're interested in the rest of the review (with information about graphics, usability features (including accessibility and UI), and the state of development, please continue here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1694420/discussions/0/342331188002577174… . Sorry for the inconvenience.

This is the best survival game I played recently! Can´t stop playing it.

I enjoyed it alot but that is not the reason why I wrote this review.
The creator of this game is updating his game almost every week, how cool is that. He deserves my thumbs up.

fantastic little game !

it's a little bit like Stacklands, but with a lot more depth.

Think twice before you go for wild boars.
They will be the end of you.

Challenging survival strategy game. Check out Retromation on Youtube for an awesome playthrough.

I have been playing for a few months and I really fell in love with the game. I usually avoid early access games, but i'm glad I took the risk with this one.

Game can be very difficult at the beginning, not knowing the basics or the game mechanics or by doing some bad survival decision, but after a few tries game feels very fair and opens a lot of tricks. 400 hours and I am still discovering few tricks or improvements, ways to save time, or these fun "AHA!" moments.

Dev team is amazing as well, they answer very quickly and pushes bug fixes fairly quickly. They also hear the community and implements requests.

I recommend this game if you are into survival games and don't mind learning by doing irreversible mistakes. Every new start is a new lesson!

very fun distillation of the survival genre

Amazing game with great Developers!!
Continued fantastic updates too!!
will be playing more and getting the next game for sure!
!!
The discord is a chill place too :)

Challenging and addictive with frequent content updates.