About

Rust is a multiplayer survival video game currently in development by the British independent video game company Facepunch Studios. While the official game has yet to be released, a continuously-updated version is available for purchase on the Steam Early Access program.

Gameplay

Rust players begin by waking up in a random part the a map on a selected game server. Spawning completely nude and equipped with only a rock and a torch, players must gather resources to craft tools, food, shelter, weapons and other items to survive in the wild. To acquire resources more efficiently, players can team together to gather, build bases and raid other players. Players can die if they are damaged by other players, roaming wildlife, traps, starvation and inclement weather. Upon death, all items on the player can be looted by others. The dead player can respawn in a random location or at a sleeping bag linked to their account. Higher quality items can be crafted after scavenging blueprints in certain locations.^[1]

History

Rust was initially developed as a DayZ-style survival game with crafting elements similar to those found in Minecraft by Facepunch Studios CEO Garry Newman following the success of his indie sandbox game Garry's Mod. On December 11th, 2013, an alpha version of the game, now known as "Rust: Legacy", was released on Steam's Early Access program (shown below, left). In October 2014, a new "experimental" mode for the game became the default launch option, featuring a version of the game ported to the Unity 5 game engine (shown below, right).

Online Presence

On June 14th, 2013, the Rust Wiki^[4] was launched, which accumulated more than 700 pages over the next three years. Two days later, the /r/playrust^[3] subreddit was created for discussions about the video game.

On YouTube

Many YouTubers post videos of themselves playing Rust, spectating in-game raids or acting out scripted plot lines. On December 21st, 2013, YouTuber Markiplier posted a video of himself playing Rust with a friend (shown below, left). Within three years, the video gained more than 3.7 million views and 5,600 comments. On March 8th, 2014, YouTuber FRANKIEonPCin1080p posted footage of himself defending his base in Rust (shown below, right), garnering upwards of 2.5 million views and 4,600 comments in two years.

In April 2015, YouTuber Vertiigo Gaming began posting "raid cam" videos in which he views massive player base raids while in spectator mode (shown below, left). On May 29th, 2015, YouTuber FRANKIEonPCin1080p uploaded another Rust gameplay video in which he attempts to raid a small base (shown below, right).

Reception

While the final version of the game is yet to be released, the Early Access version made over $30 million in sales by February 2014.^[2]

Search Interest

External References