Pixel-Byte Studio/Survive the Wave

Survive the Wave is a round-based survival experience created by . It was first unveiled in their Discord server on March 17, 2023. Teasers for the game continued until May 20, 2023, 3PM EST, when the game officially released to the public. The game has since remained in a Beta phase.
== Gameplay ==
When players enter the game, they will spawn on an oil rig. The game's mascot is Drop, a cute talking axolotl. It walks around the oil rig and can be talked to for advice. The oil rig also contains a map voter which the player can step on to vote a map for the next round. Spectating players can be done from the oil rig by using a telescope.
When a round starts, the most voted map is chosen and players will be teleported to the island. A random disaster is selected, which can be one of the following:
* Tsunami: Occurs when the sky is clear. Three large waves strike the map from three different directions, occurring at approximately 30 seconds, 45 seconds and 60 seconds into the round respectively. Touching a wave rapidly damages the player. Throughout the round, the water level gradually rises.
* Lava: Occurs when water is replaced by lava. Throughout the round, the lava level gradually rises. Parts will catch fire over time, touching fire will damage the player. Touching lava rapidly damages the player.
* Storm: Occurs when the sky is dark. Lightning randomly strikes the map, damaging players in contact. Throughout the round, the water level gradually rises. Parts sometimes catch fire briefly when struck by lightning.
During rounds, the player is also prone to other indirect methods of injury or death such as:
* Drowning: Players die when running out of stamina while in water.
* Fall Damage: Players take damage when falling from a great height.
* Collisions: Players take damage when hit by a falling object.
* Other players: Players take damage when attacked with certain gear used by other players.
Players can hold shift to run. Running and jumping consumes the player's stamina. It takes 5 seconds to fully regenerate stamina. Players can also press 'R' to ragdoll. 
If the player dies during the round, they will be sent back to the oil rig. At the conclusion of the round, surviving players are awarded an amount of Ducks, the currency of the game. Ducks can be used to purchase Gear and Icons in the shop.
== Maps ==
== Gear ==
Gear can be purchased from the shop using Ducks. The player can equip up to 3 different gears in their toolbar to use during rounds.
Gear 	Cost	Description 	Cooldown
Drop Sign 	N/A 	You played the game during the beta! 	5 seconds
Fidget Spinner 	100 	Keep clicking and watch it spin! 	1 secs
Lantern 	100 	Light your way when you hold this lantern! 	N/A
Magic 8 Ball 	200 	Gives a random negative effect when shook! 	6 secs
Teddy 	200 	Your new best friend! 	3 secs
Chezburger 	300 	Mmmm... use this to regain some health! 	10 secs
Bloxy Cola 	300 	Refreshing cola that regens stamina you lost! 	12 secs
Fireflies 	350 	Open the lid and watch the fireflies go! 	10 secs
Firework 	600 	Light the wick and enjoy the show! Just be careful around players. 	23 secs
Disguise Watch 	600 	Disguise yourself as a random player! 	8 secs
Beach Ball 	800 	Cause some mischief in the water by throwing this at players and tripping them! 	20 secs
Gravity Coil 	1000	Gravity has less limits when you jump high with this! 	N/A
Speed Coil 	1000	Allows you to gain some extra speed! 	N/A
Ice Potion 	1200	Surround yourself in ice and avoid drowning and being set on fire! Watch out for the wave though! 	18 secs
Banana Peel 	1300	Make players slip because it's funny! 	10 secs
Bat 	1500	Batter up! Swing this bat around at players and watch them trip! 	1.4 secs
Silly Guitar 	1750	Play some silly tunes and hit those who don't like it! 	1.6 secs
Subspace Tripmine	2000	Set off invisible explosive mines that trick unsuspecting players! 	30 secs
Fire Extinguisher	2500	Help get rid of those pesky fires! This also allows you to do a high jump in the air and save friends caught on fire.	9 secs
== Icons ==
The player can equip an Icon, which displays as an image above their head. The Icon is also shown next to their name in the survivors list at the end of a round if they survive. Icons can be either bought from the shop using Ducks or opened from bottles.
=== Shop Icons ===
=== Bottle Icons ===
Every round, a single bottle spawns somewhere on the map. Once it is picked up by a player nobody else can collect it. If the bottle is picked up, it is opened at the end of the round and contains a random exclusive Icon not available in the shop. There are three rarities - common, rare and legendary. The player will never open a duplicate Icon, unless they own all Icons in a specific rarity. In that case, the player receives Ducks instead. The only animated Icons in the game are Legendary drops from bottles (which are Rocket, Terror, Skeleton, Snow Minion, Burger, Hazel, Epic Sphere and Cat).
== Badges ==
Badge 	Description
Beta Tester 	You helped test the game!
Welcome! 	You played Survive the Wave!
Survive 	You won your first round!
Death 	You lost a round...
Winning Streak! 	You survived 5 rounds in a row!
Super Winning Streak! 	You survived 10 rounds in a row!
Mega Winning Streak! 	You survived 25 rounds in a row!
Tsunami Victory 	Win a round during a Tsunami
Lava Victory 	Win a round during Lava
Storm Victory 	Win a round during a Storm
Washed Ashore 	Open an item in a bottle
Common Treasure 	Open up common treasure from a bottle
Rare Treasure 	Open up rare treasure from a bottle
Legendary Treasure 	Open up legendary treasure from a bottle
Shopper 	Buy an item in the shop
Big Shopper 	Buy 10 items in the shop
Mr. Moneybags 	Buy 25 items in the shop
Mega Rainbow Win! 	Reach the top of the staircase
Plinko World Champion 	Win on the plinko in the lobby
Gear Up 	Equip a gear
Quite the Icon 	Equip an icon
Decked Out 	Have 3 gears equipped
Chatterbox 	Talk to Drop 5 times
Do you like waffles? 	Find the Waffle Box
Woops! 	Slippery when wet!
On Top of the World 	Reach the top of the Tower map
Overcooked 	It's still edible I think
Expert Diver 	Jump off the diving board on the Pool map
Workout 	Use the hamster wheel on the Hamster Cage map.
Treasure Hunter 	Find a bottle while on the Treasure Box map
Glass Tiles Winner! 	Get to the end of Glass Tiles
Complete Mega Fun Obby!	You completed Mega Fun Obby!
Manufactured 	Fall into the lava on the factory map
Overload 	now why would you do that
Musician 	Play all the notes on the Piano
Firefighter 	Put out a fire with the Fire Extinguisher
Helping Hand 	Extinguish a fire on a player
Savior 	Extinguish 3 players at once with the fire Extinguisher
Pranked! 	Slip a player with the Banana Peel
Incoming! 	Hit a player with the Beach Ball
Sniped 	Hit a player with the Beach Ball from over 20 Studs away
Panic Mode 	Drink Bloxy Cola right before drowning
Lookalike 	Use disguise watch to become a friend in game
So Retro! 	My life is like a video game
Do not try this at Home	Use a firework to launch a player
Big Boom 	Launch 5 players at once with the firework
Lucky 	Use the magic 8 ball 10 times in a round and survive
Not so Silly Guitar 	Hit a player with the Silly Guitar
Thawed 	Fall into lava while frozen
Tripmine 	Fling someone with the Subspace Tripmine
Chaos 	Fling 5 or more people with the Subspace Tripmine
Cooking Chaos 	Use the fire extinguisher to put out a fire on Happy Burger
Double Cheeseburger 	can i haz chezburger pls
Murder 	Kill a player with the Subspace Tripmine
Fried 	Get struck by lightning
1 Hour 	Play the game for an hour
3 Hours 	Play the game for 3 hours
5 Hours 	Play the game for 5 hours
10 Hours 	Play the game for 10 hours
15 Hours 	Play the game for 15 hours
24 Hours 	Play the game for 24 hours
Survive 10 Rounds 	Not bad!
Survive 25 Rounds 	You seem to be getting the hang of this!
Survive 50 Rounds 	Things are starting to get serious!
Survive 100 Rounds 	You're unstoppable!
Survive 200 Rounds 	Wow, that's some dedication.
Survive 300 Rounds 	Thank you for playing so much!
Survive 400 Rounds 	You're insane, but thanks!
Survive 500 Rounds 	Wow. That- Nice.
Survive 1,000 Rounds 	You have to be one of the greatest players in the game to have this badge. Congratulations.
== Criticism ==
Upon the first reveal of Survive the Wave in March 2023, group members complained that Super Bloxy Hills, a long-awaited game was still in development. Others feared the release of this game would hinder development on Tower Heroes, a popular game by the same group.
The concept was also scrutinized for being similar to Natural Disaster Survival, only more repetitive due to the focus of the game being tidal waves and flooding. YouTuber Sketch also pointed this out in the intro of his video gameplay. Pixel-Byte Studio acknowledged the similarity and decreased the repetition by implementing 'Lava' and 'Storm' disasters in addition to 'Tsunami'. Certain in-game gear such as the Bat, Subspace Tripmine and Banana Peel have also been perceived as irritating to some players.
== Trivia ==
* The place was initially named just 'water' in its early days of development.
* Before the game's release, giveaways were hosted to select three random group members to be featured in the game's thumbnails. The winners were , and .
* Two limited UGC accessories were released to celebrate the game's release.
** Drop was released on May 21, 2023, with 18,000 available. The quantity was pre-determined by multiplying the game's highest concurrent player count (during the first day of release) by 2.
** Drop Floaty Friend was released on May 31, 2023, with 15,000 available. Players could claim it by earning 20 wins in a single session. 30 minutes after its release, the requirement was lowered to 10 wins.
*Drop's gibberish talking sound effect is inspired by Undertale.
*There are several Tower Heroes references in the game (Tower Heroes is owned by Pixel-bit Studio, an affiliate group of Pixel-Byte Studio). Notable references include:
** The Crane Game map contains several Tower Heroes characters are depicted as plushes.
** The Painting map depicts Kart Kid, Beetrice, Byte, Bunny and Wuffle as drawings on a canvas.
** Stella's drawings (Wuffle, Snow Minion and Crab Bot) are available as shop Icons. Crab Bot is simply named 'BOT' in Survive the Wave. Snow Minion is also available as a legendary animated Icon from bottles.
** Kart Kid, Jester, Spectre, Discount Dog, Slime King, Balloon Pal, Hayes and Dumpster Child and Wizard are all towers from Tower Heroes available as shop Icons.
*** Kart Kid has three Icons in Survive the Wave (two identically named Kart Kid and one named Kart Kid Toy). The latter is available as a bottle Icon. The Kart Kid Toy Icon is based on an official plush toy released by the group.
*** Byte has three Icons in Survive the Wave (named Byte Pin, Byte Egg and Byte). The latter two are available as bottle Icons. Byte Egg is a reference to the Easter 2023 Event in Tower Heroes.
** Void, Bun and Mimic are enemies from Tower Heroes available as bottle Icons.
* The Painting map depicts a drawing of a baby from Where's the Baby! (a popular game made by the owner of Pixel-Byte Studio). There is also a bottle Icon named Baby depicting the same character in a kiddie car.
* The Locker map is a reference to Lockers, another game by Pixel-Byte Studio. The locker is also available as a bottle Icon.
* Several Super Bloxy Hills characters are depicted in Survive the Wave.
** There is a drawing of Chirp in the Painting map.
** Harley is available as a shop Icon.
** Kat and ICE are available as bottle Icons. The image used in Kat's icon is actually 'bitkat', a custom server emoji in the Pixel-bit Studio Discord server.
* Tori, a character from Trick or Treat in Bloxy Hills is available as a bottle Icon.
* The Chirp Pin, Byte Pin and Wuffle Pin icons are all based on genuine pins released by Hiloh23 (a developer for Pixel-bit Studio) for the Roblox Developers Conference 2022.
** The Rock and Spiky Fruit icons are based on items from Hiloh23's discontinued game, Soul Stone Simulator.
* The Glass Tiles map is a reference to the Glass Stepping Stones from Squid Game. The map also humorously features literal squids. There is also a set of metal trapdoors in the lower level of the oil rig with the same concept as Glass Tiles.
* The Block Tower map is based on Jenga.
* The Happy Home map is based on Happy Home in Robloxia.
* The Mega Fun Obby map (see Obstacle course), Cart Ride (see Cart ride) and Staircase map feature popular game archetypes on Roblox. The top of the staircase also contains Givers, a common reward seen at the end of obby and staircase games.
* The Office map has a classic billboard from Crossroads. There are also more classic billboards in a shipping container on the lower level of the oil rig.
* The Nightmare icon is the 'steamhappy' emoticon from Steam. Its name is eponymous to an emoji in the Pixel-bit Studio Discord server.
* The Helperbot icon is based on the HelperBot from Welcome to ROBLOX Building.
* The Spike icon is based on the Spike in the Deadly Machines category of the Stamper tool.
* The Toy icon is based on the Series 1 toy for Work at a Pizza Place.
* The Fire Ring icon is based on the fire ring in Sword Fights on the Heights IV.
* The Bigger Boat icon is a reference to Jaws. Its name is based on the quote 'You're gonna need a bigger boat'.
* The Hazel icon is based on a plush of Hazel, an original character designed by the animator Typh.
* A wide range of official Roblox gear and accessories are depicted as Icons.
** Neon 80s Boombox, Cool Duck Float, Decoy Deploy, Apple, Mr. Robot, Traffic Cone, Silver Ninja Star of the Brilliant Light, Penguin, BLOXikin, Classic ROBLOX Pumpkin Head, Valkyrie Helm, Despacito Spider, Cake, Witches Brew, Linked Sword and Korblox Deathspeaker Left Leg are available as shop Icons.
** Crow, C:, BLOXikin #02 Vampire Shedletsky, Dance Potion, ROBLOX GameStop Card, Monster Mash Dance Potion, Fedora, Golden Wings of the Pathfinder and Epic Duck are available as bottle Icons.
* Various memes are available as Icons including Doge and Epic Face.
* All gear available in Survive the Wave are based on official Roblox gear except the Firework and Fire Extinguisher. Notable examples include Bloxy Cola, Gravity Coil, Subspace Tripmine and Silly Guitar. The Silly Guitar can also be seen in the lower level of the oil rig.