Praey for the Gods

***Praey for the Gods*** is a single player survival game developed by No Matter Studios, a 3 man team based in Seattle, Washington. Gaining inspiration to develop their own game after decades worth of collective experience in the gaming industry, No Matter Studios set out in 2014 to develop a game of their own. The game was originally called Prey For The Gods, but had to change due to a legal dispute with Zenimax Media.

## Description

The game is a single player survival game set in a dying, frozen world of never-ending winter, where the protagonist sets out to investigate the cause of this devastating ice age. Tasked with slaying the Gods of this frozen world, the Hero must overcome white-out conditions, undead enemies, and risk their life to save their home.

## Gameplay

Gameplay involves surviving the elements of the world by scavenging berries, finding bread, and hunting for meat. The Hero has a Health and Stamina bar, both of which depend on their base stats to restore, which includes Hunger, Energy, and Temperature.

* Health represents the life of the Hero. The more injured the player is, the slower they will move, eventually resulting in the player developing a limp. Extremely low Health (10%) will blur the Hero's vision and dampen their hearing, making battle even more dangerous.

* Stamina is used to run, dodge, attack, and climb. Doing any of these activities will drain the Hero's stamina. The lower the Hero's Energy, the more costly it is to use stamina in order to perform these actions and the slower Stamina restores. Higher Energy increases restoration and decreases cost.
* Hunger represents how full the Hero is. Using Stamina decreases Hunger, and eating Food restores Hunger.
* Energy represents the Hero's current Energy levels. This is different from Stamina in several ways; higher Energy causes Stamina to restores faster, Stamina use decreases Energy, and lower Energy will lead to less effective actions when using Stamina (like jumping lower).
* Temperature is the Hero's heat level. This will decrease whenever the Hero is in the overworld. Blizzards and swimming will greatly decrease Temperature. Lighting fires, drinking certain potions, and eating certain food will increase Temperature.

Other stats which affect the Hero but aren't base stats include Strength, Speed, Armour, and Durability.

Fighting regular enemies is also part of the gameplay of Praey for the Gods. Scattered around the map, mobs of enemies will spawn to accost the Hero. These include Fallen Heroes, Wraiths, Undead, and Champions. Some enemies can be killed quite easily, others not so. All of them are a clear and present danger to the Hero.

Weather is a huge part of the game, with Wind, Temperature, Snowfall, Fog, and Cloud Cover affecting the progress of the Hero. Blizzards are one of the most dangerous weather systems in the game.

The game also features a Day and Night cycle, with temperatures and visibility dropping at Night.

## Development

Originally the team worked in San Francisco, California to pursue their objective of making a game they wanted to make, inspired by *Shadow of the Colossus*, a game where you climb massive bosses in order to defeat them, with every boss having a unique design and method to defeat.

## Links

* Website: https://www.praeyforthegods.com/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/PraeyForTheGods
* Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiAnRuIQoZKtsH43ItcMUSg/featured
* Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/praeyforthegods
* Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/praeyforthegods
* Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/PraeyfortheGods/
* Trello: https://trello.com/b/4KETTtYc/praey-for-the-gods-development-roadmap

## Trivia

* No Matter Studios changed the part of the name from "Prey" to "Praey" to avoid trademark disputes with Zenimax. However, this lead to some unexpected positive side effects for the game; the publicity from the dispute launched the game into the public consciousness again, as well as it having more unique identifier for search engines (i.e. "Prey" will suggest a lot of results while "Praey" only suggests results for this game and topics related to it). People playing the game also came to adopt the "pun" implied by the title; does the Hero "Pray for the Gods" or are they "Prey for the Gods?"
* A comprehensive guide for the game can be found here on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1640367291
* See this page for up to date Game Versions.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/bethesdazenimax-lawyers-have-forced-an-indie-studio-to-change-the-title-of-their-game/