PC game concept · 2026-10-12
Flyover
Every log you burn to stay warm tonight is a log missing from the pyre the search plane needs to see tomorrow, and the planes stop flying the day the lakes freeze.
Target player
Who
Has 200 hours in The Long Dark and plays with the sound up. Finished Subnautica 2's Early Access build and noticed it ran out at about a dozen hours.
The itch
Scarcity, weather and a body to keep alive, in a game that ends. A deadline, a finish line, and someone on the other end who can actually see you.
Core systems
The wood split
The stove burns 3 kg per night hour. A full pyre needs 90 kg. Each stand of forest holds about 400 kg of deadfall, and the one behind camp is gone by day 8.
Visibility vs threshold
Smoke, ground sign and mirror flash add up to V. The pass threshold is T = 20 + 10 per km off-track + weather. The search log shows you both after every pass.
The glimpse penalty
Land within 10 points of T and the observer logs a trapper's camp. That sector drops to the back of the queue for two cycles.
The receiver
The salvaged set receives only. It has 30 battery minutes, and each evening's listen names tomorrow's sector letter. The crank charger arrives around day 9.
Lakes & canoe
About 4 km per 3 real minutes. Portages cost warmth. A capsize takes 40 warmth in one go, so every extra armful in the canoe is a risk.
The ridge gamble
On dry, windy days you can set the ridge on fire. A patrol is guaranteed within one pass, and so is the risk of losing camp, timber, or the run.
How the pressure changes
| Days | New pressure | What it asks |
|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | Cold, hunger, daily passes in the wrong place | Keep warm, build the first pyre |
| 5–10 | Receiver online, passes every 2 days | Be in tomorrow's sector with a dry pyre |
| 8+ | Home stand of deadfall exhausted | Range further, carry embers between sites |
| 11–17 | One aircraft, passes every 3 days, berries gone | Clear T by a margin, every time |
| 18–freeze | Passes every 4 days, skim ice, 10-minute days | Keep a landing lane open while ice closes in |
Differentiators
- Winning means being seen by someone else: the crafting tree points out at an aircraft, and every item you make is weighed against the stove that keeps you alive tonight.
- A weak signal is worse than none. A half-seen smoke column is logged as a trapper's camp and pushes the search away for two cycles, so restraint is a real skill.
- The threat is a schedule you can overhear. Being in the right sector with a dry pyre replaces base defence as the core problem.
- Runs end. Freeze-up closes the window between day 22 and day 26, so an attempt takes 8 to 10 hours and has a result.
Key features
- Two piles, one woodpile: every armful goes to the stove that keeps you alive or the pyre that gets you found.
- A legible visibility model: smoke, ground sign and mirror flash against a threshold set by distance and weather, shown after every pass.
- The glimpse penalty: a half-seen fire gets logged as a trapper's camp and sends the search elsewhere for two cycles.
- A salvaged receiver that names tomorrow's search sector, with 30 battery minutes to spend.
- A seeded freeze-up between day 22 and 26 that ends the search, so every run has a result.
- Four crash sites (lake country, river delta, burnt plateau, tidal bay), each changing timber, water and sector layout.
Business
Model
Premium at $19.99, straight to 1.0 after a Steam Next Fest demo. Additional crash sites as $6.99 DLC.
Why now
Steam's PvE Survival Crafting Fest (1–7 Sept 2026) showed how crowded the genre is. Flyover pitches the deadline and the plane, not the crafting.