I blog my way through survival games on Nintendo Switch, and Steam Deck, from snowy wastelands to shark-infested seas. Expect humour, questionable decisions, and the occasional narrow escape — because thriving is more fun than suffering (unless the wolves have other ideas).
What is one thing you would change about yourself?
If I could change one thing about myself, I’d probably upgrade my energy reserves. Not to superhuman levels—just enough to get through the day without feeling like I’ve been fighting a miniboss before breakfast.
Life runs on a tight loop of chores, work, writing, gaming, and general survival. A little extra stamina would make that loop smoother. Fewer “I need a nap already” moments. More “I can actually finish this” moments.
It’s not a dramatic change. Just a small quality-of-life buff. The kind every tired survivor quietly wishes for at the start of a long day.
I wouldn’t say I’m a full night owl or a committed morning person. I just operate on whatever schedule life forces on me that day.
Mornings are fine once I’m actually awake, but getting to that point is a negotiation. Coffee helps. Silence helps more. If the day starts smoothly, great. If not, I deal with it like any other survival scenario: one small task at a time.
Nights aren’t much different. I’m not out here thriving at midnight, plotting world domination or reorganising cupboards. I just stay up long enough to finish what needs doing and maybe squeeze in some game time before sleep wins.
So the honest answer? I run on “whenever I can,” powered by caffeine, stubbornness, and the hope that tomorrow behaves itself a little better.
When the dice roll a natural 1, you reschedule, regroup, and log the chaos anyway.
Log Date: December 1, 2025 · Filed By: Survivor Incognito
When the Dice Betray You
November was supposed to be packed: more logs, more videos, and at least one new project stepping out of the shadows. Instead, as mentioned previously, life rolled a natural 1 on me. A few plans had to be shelved so the offline chaos could be handled first.
The result? Fewer posts than planned, but the campfire is still lit, the hubs are still standing, and the backlog of ideas remains very much alive.
Rediscovering Tyria
On the plus side, I rediscovered Guild Wars. Dropping back into Tyria after all this time felt oddly right — comfortable, dangerous, and full of bad pulls waiting to happen.
With Guild Wars Reforged on the horizon, you can safely assume a lot of my spare time is going to vanish into mission runs, build tinkering, and seeing how much trouble I can get into with heroes and henchmen. Some habits never die; they just wait by the outpost gate.
A Quieter Month at Camp
Because November went sideways, the blog shifted into “keep the lights on” mode rather than “all systems go.” That meant:
Some planned entries were delayed or pushed back to a saner month.
Ongoing series like Isolation Protocol, Submerged, and 7 Days to Survive stayed on a lighter schedule than intended.
The recent site-wide updates to the FAQ, About Me, Rules of Survival, and Surviving, Not Suffering continued to do their job quietly in the background.
Not flashy, but the camp stayed organised, and nothing caught fire that wasn’t supposed to.
Small Wins Still Count
Even in a slower month, a few things still managed to land:
The shift to a 2 PM GMT posting schedule continued, giving posts and videos a better overlap with UK, EU, and US readers.
The end of Derailed & Doomed: A Choo Choo Charles Survival Diary remained a highlight — the blog’s first full documented win still doing the rounds.
Survivor’s Shorts and other videos quietly fed into the archive, strengthening the connection between written logs and gameplay.
Ko-fi stayed live in the background, available but unobtrusive — just how it should be.
Not the explosive November originally planned, but still progress. Sometimes survival looks like momentum; sometimes it just looks like not dropping anything important.
Looking Ahead (Carefully)
December’s plans are simple and realistic:
Pick up the threads of Isolation Protocol, Submerged, and 7 Days to Survive as time and dice rolls allow.
Keep refining the hubs so it’s easier to find older runs and finished series.
Let the Guild Wars and Reforged hype simmer in the background and see where it leads on the blog side.
No grand promises, just one core rule: keep the stories moving when possible, and when not, keep the camp ready for when things calm down.
December should bring more structure, more stories, and — inevitably — more things trying to kill me. Business as usual.
I keep my feelings about meat pretty straightforward. I eat it. I enjoy it. I also try not to overthink it, because life already throws enough decisions at me without adding philosophical debates over dinner.
Meat ends up on my plate mostly because it’s familiar and easy to work with. Chicken, mince, sausages—quick meals that don’t start arguments in the kitchen. When the day’s already chaotic, convenience wins.
I’m not out here trying every exotic cut under the sun, and I’m not hunting my own dinner. I just cook what I know, add some veg, and call it a victory.
No drama. No guilt trips. Just food that helps me get through the day in one piece.
Most days I keep it simple: jeans and a T-shirt. Nothing fancy, nothing dramatic, just the basic armour that gets me through whatever the universe decides to throw at me.
Jeans handle pretty much everything. School runs, food shopping, emergency coffee trips, even the occasional “why is this happening already?” morning. They’re durable, comfortable, and don’t start judging me if the day goes sideways.
T-shirts? Same deal. Breathable. Easy to replace. Works for both “I slept well” and “I survived on fumes and stubbornness.” If I spill something on it—which is often—it forgives me quicker than most fabrics.
It’s not stylish. It’s not cutting-edge. But it’s reliable, and reliability is undefeated in the daily survival game.
Platform: Steam Deck Settings: Vanilla Mario & Music — chaos, but classy. “They say patience is a virtue, but after chasing red coins in Rainbow Ride, I’m pretty sure it’s a myth.”
Back to Rainbow Ride — because apparently, I didn’t learn my lesson last time. This time I decided to be bold (read: reckless) and go for both the Red Coin Star and the 100 Coin Star together.
Collecting 100 coins went surprisingly smoothly, which immediately made me suspicious. And rightly so — the red coins were spread across moving platforms that seemed determined to throw me into the void.
When I finally gathered them all, the Red Coin Star spawned on the flying ship — nowhere near any of the coins. Several failed leaps and existential sighs later, I finally snagged it.
Only two stars this time, but both felt like boss fights. Rainbow Ride remains the chaotic crown jewel of frustration.
What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make? Why?
I’m taking a small detour from my usual tone for this one — still me, just a little more grounded than usual.
There have been a few turning points in my life — the kind you don’t see coming until you’re standing in the middle of them, trying to work out whether you’re meant to stay, leave, or sprint in the opposite direction with your coffee still in hand.
I won’t go into the personal details. Some choices belong in the private archive, not the public one. But I will say this: the hardest decisions are usually the ones where you realise something has been draining you for far too long, and the only way forward is to put yourself first for once.
Making that call isn’t dramatic. It isn’t glamorous. Most of the time, it’s the quiet kind of survival — choosing boundaries, choosing peace, choosing a path that doesn’t leave you carrying someone else’s weight on top of your own.
That doesn’t make the decision easy. But it does make it necessary.
So while the internet gets to hear about my struggles with aggressive sea fauna, angry wolves, and vehicles that absolutely should not be flipping that often… the real-life challenges stay off the grid. And honestly, that’s the healthiest balance I’ve ever found.
Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?
We’re not a family with a long list of sacred holiday recipes. There’s no legendary dish that only appears once a year, no ancient cookbook with pages stuck together, and definitely no competitive baking. Our approach is closer to: “make something warm, make something tasty, and make sure it doesn’t turn into a survival scenario.”
Most years, it ends up being simple comfort food — the kind you can put together without needing a flow chart, a timer, or divine intervention. It’s about feeding people without stress, not impressing the neighbours with a five-course meal that requires a respec halfway through.
Sometimes it’s a proper sit-down dinner. Other times it’s whatever we can pull together between work, life, and keeping the general chaos at bay. But there’s always one constant: something warm, filling, and familiar. The sort of food that gives you a breather before the next round of yearly madness.
Nothing fancy. Nothing dramatic. Just quiet, reliable meals that make the day feel calm for a moment — which honestly is the best holiday tradition we’ve ever managed to keep.
Platform: Steam Deck Vehicle: Seamoth “Valentino” — maiden voyage Objective: Reach the Sunbeam landing site Status: Stranded indefinitely
“Turns out the cavalry isn’t coming — mostly because a giant alien cannon just vaporised them.”
With my Seamoth finally ready — Valentino’s first dive into open water — I headed toward the Sunbeam landing site. For once, I actually felt hopeful. Then the radio crackled again. Another distress call — this time from Lifepod 19. They could wait. If they were still alive, they’d understand. I had a rescue ship to meet.
The Island of False Hope
Reaching the site, I was greeted by something I definitely didn’t expect: a massive Alien structure that screamed “DO NOT ENTER.” A shimmering forcefield blocked the main door, and every instinct told me I was way out of my depth — both literally and metaphorically.
I parked Valentino nearby and started exploring on foot. The island itself felt eerily empty, save for the alien architecture humming with quiet menace. It wasn’t long before I found strange purple artifacts and terminals that told stories of technology way beyond anything I’d ever seen. One room even held a doomsday device — thankfully, deactivated.
The Infection Revealed
Eventually, I found what looked like a control terminal. My PDA hinted it might shut down the “cannon” perched above. I scanned it, ready to save the day — only for the machine to stab me with a robotic needle and announce, in the most clinical way possible: “Infection detected. Cannot deactivate.”
I scanned myself. Sure enough — infected. The planet was under quarantine, and I was part of the problem now. The only way out? Find a cure. Deeper in the ocean. Because of course it couldn’t be simple.
Fireworks at Dusk
With nothing else to do but accept my new membership in the “Forever Stranded” club, I returned to Valentino and made for the landing site once more. Another radio message came through — ignored. My focus was fixed on the sky.
And then, it happened. The Sunbeam dropped out of orbit, descending toward the island. A blinding green light surged from the alien structure. The cannon fired. And just like that, my rescue became a fireball.
I stood there in stunned silence, the sky lit up with debris and despair. The PDA chirped calmly in my ear, reminding me that rescue was “no longer an option.” Thanks, PDA. Really helps.
Guess I’d better make myself comfortable. It’s going to be a long stay on 4546B.
Video Log
Watch the Sunbeam’s final moments here once the video is live.
If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time?
If I suddenly didn’t need sleep, the first thing I’d do is try to remember what “rested” actually feels like. Once that moment of disbelief passes, though, I know exactly where those extra hours would go.
I’d pour every scrap of bonus time straight into Survivor Incognito — more runs, more disasters, more questionable survival strategies that definitely shouldn’t work but somehow do. Imagine the backlog I could clear with an extra six to eight uninterrupted hours where nothing needs my attention except whichever world I’m currently trying (and failing) to survive in.
While everyone else sleeps, the house would finally fall silent. No distractions, no interruptions — just me, a half-finished mug of coffee, and whatever creature is lurking around the next corner in whatever game I’m in. The perfect conditions for chaos.
Would I become more productive? Possibly.
Would I become significantly more chaotic? Absolutely.
Extra hours don’t automatically make life easier… but they would make the diaries longer, the mistakes funnier, and the survival attempts even more questionable. Which, let’s be honest, is very on-brand for me.