Here's a lengthy gameplay video for Obsidian's tiny survival game Grounded

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Ants, spiders, giant baseballs.

(Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

Obsidian was at PAX East spruiking its forthcoming survival game Grounded, and during a lengthy Q&A presentation we got our first substantial look at the game in action. The demo was part of a panel hosted by Larry Hyrb, and in addition to a nice chunk of footage there were also a handful of new details.

The video is below, but the most salient facts are as follows: the game will support crossplay with consoles at launch. There are no birds. There will be a third- and first-person option. When harvesting grass stems for building you can actually toss whole armloads of them back to your base (assuming you're close enough), which will make grinding for materials a little more bearable. This is part of Obsidian's approach to objects in general: anything that can be held can be thrown.

The game has a Metroidvania approach to world progression, meaning certain acquired abilities and tools will provide access to otherwise inaccessible parts of the map. That said, nothing is heavily gated, so if you can improvise an unusual way of getting where you want, then all power to you. 

Oh, and if you hate spiders there will be an Arachnophobia mode, which will attempt to alleviate some of stress for people who just can't stand spiders. 

Grounded still doesn't have a release date but it's expected around mid-year. Wes played it last year, and you can read his impressions here. If you're feeling impatient with the stream archive below, someone has spliced all the footage together here, but you'll miss out on the discussion.

Shaun Prescott
Shaun Prescott
Australian Editor

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.