One of Steam Next Fest's biggest survival games makes a compelling promise: "Imagine DayZ or Rust but you're a duck"

Two ducks fly over an island in a screenshot from Duckside
(Image credit: tinybuild)

"Imagine DayZ or Rust but you're a duck," is the irresistible premise behind one of Steam Next Fest's biggest survival games.

Duckside is the survival sandbox that's trying to teach ducks worldwide some self-defense. In the same way that Palworld uses the 'Pokemon-but-with-guns' premise to its advantage, Duckside has all the scavenge-y-craft-o-survival bits you'd expect from the genre, but this time it's the ducks that have guns. Want to make your game stand out? Just give your pets some deadly weapons.

"Over 10 million ducks get killed per year by featherless hunters, a statistic that would be much lower if ducks were combat trained," the game's Steam description explains. To combat this, the trailer above has a deadly flock of ducks doing your usual survival chores: sweeping up resources, building big bases, and attacking human (presumably computer-controlled) enemies, as well as other player-controlled ducks. Birds of a feather should stick together, after all.

"Play alone or create a flock with other ducks to build, explore, fight, and survive together," the blurb continues. "Ducks are fiercely territorial, so encounters with opposing ducks can and will often result in some feathers being ruffled."

Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.