Veteran developer Jeremy Wood pulls no punches before he rolls out the pitch for Frostkeep Studios “Rend,” the game he’s been diligently cranking away at for more than two years. “Simply put, most of the time, most survival games just aren’t that fun,” he says, as the producer piloting the demo hacks away at a tiny tree to gather wood for his all-important settlement. “There’s a kernel of brilliance there that keeps people going, but the overall design isn’t conducive to interesting play. Players aren’t really incentivized to cooperate, or to play in an interesting way. Frankly, we hope to change that.”

It’s an intriguing statement, but it has a familiar ring to it – you can almost hear it echo all around the clogged halls of the La Convention Center, especially during E3. But who can blame him? After all, every game developer wants...