Survival games focus on the survival parts of these games, while encouraging exploration of an open world. Some gameplay elements present in the action-adventure genre—such as resource management and item crafting—are commonly found in survival games and serve as central elements featured in games like Survival Kids.
For example, the survival game, Don't Starve, features a separate hunger gauge and a sanity meter, which will cause the death of the character if allowed to deplete.
Minecraft, released in 2009, is considered to have popularized the survival game genre with its emphasis on resource gathering and crafting in a procedurally generated world.
Other titles use other methods of presentation: games like Terraria and Starbound are presented in two-dimensional side views, while Don't Starve uses sprites rendered in a three-dimensional isometric projection.
Furthermore, while survival games are considered action games, there are other genres that feature the survival theme, such as the turn-based role-playing games Dead State and NEO Scavenger, and the story-driven first-person shooter series S.T.A.L.K.E.R..