Playing survival games and then writing about how terribly they go. Some people unwind with sports or crafts — I relax by getting chased through snowstorms, attacked by wildlife, and turning the whole ordeal into a blog post. It’s chaos with a purpose.

(Plenty more productive chaos at Survivor Incognito.)

Probably panic for five minutes, then treat it like a fresh spawn in The Long Dark. Start gathering sticks, look for shelter, and hope I find coffee before frostbite sets in. Honestly, I’d like to think I’d rebuild — slower, scrappier, and with a lot more humour about the chaos.

(Plenty more restarts, respawns, and survival stories at Survivor Incognito.)

Difficulty settings in survival games. I used to think harder always meant better — that you weren’t really playing unless every wolf wanted you for dinner and the weather was trying to kill you. Then I realised fun matters more. Voyageur, Customloper, or even “easy mode” — if I’m laughing while freezing, it’s the right choice.

(Plenty more survival chaos — on every difficulty — at Survivor Incognito.)

Like playing The Long Dark in real life — cold, confused, and missing half my inventory. No blog, no games, no chaos recorded. I’d probably have to go full wilderness mode and start journaling with sticks in the snow.

(Luckily, the chaos stays digital — and documented — at Survivor Incognito.)

Actual wilderness survival. I spend hours in The Long Dark boiling unsafe water, hunting rabbits, and making fires out of sticks — but in real life, I’d probably struggle to light a campfire without a lighter. Learning the real thing might make my digital disasters even funnier by comparison.

(Plenty more survival skills I still don’t have at Survivor Incognito.)

Probably the small things — like remembering I left coffee on the counter, or that my character in The Long Dark is freezing because I got distracted writing notes. In games and in life, the little details usually decide whether it’s a smooth run or a spectacular disaster.

(Plenty more missed details and memorable disasters at Survivor Incognito.)

Survive the day without a permadeath moment — in real life or in-game. Whether it’s dodging actual deadlines or digital wolves, my main goal tomorrow is to get through it with enough stories (and caffeine) to write about later.

(Plenty more day-to-day survival priorities at Survivor Incognito.)

Hard work feels fulfilling when it turns into stories. Whether it’s hours of hauling logs in SnowRunner or barely surviving a week in The Long Dark, the grind pays off when there’s a tale worth telling. Real life or digital, the effort feels lighter once I can laugh about it later.

(Plenty more hard-earned disasters turned stories at Survivor Incognito.)

My sense of humour. It’s what gets me through both real life and permadeath runs. If I can laugh after being flattened by a moose in The Long Dark or rolling my truck in SnowRunner, then I’m doing alright.

(Plenty more laughable disasters turned stories at Survivor Incognito.)

“Don’t be afraid to fail.” In survival games, failure is inevitable — wolves, blizzards, zombies, you name it. But each disaster makes the next run better (and funnier). Turns out the same advice works outside of games too.

(Plenty more entertaining failures turned into lessons at Survivor Incognito.)