Of all the games people on TikTok could get excited about, they’ve decided it’s one about shipping containers – one about surviving at sea on a pile of shipping containers for 30 days. It’s called 30 Days on Ship, appropriately and somewhat bluntly, and it isn’t out yet, but there’s a trailer being shared that shows a character opening a never ending string of containers to find fridges, drones, motorbikes, chainsaws, televisions, quad bikes – all manner of goods that might be shipped overseas. Quite why you’d need a quad bike on a teetering pile of shipping containers, though, I don’t know.
The rest of the trailer shows a bit of base building – my favourite part being where on-screen text reads “the only mission: survive!”, while we watch a player place a flat screen TV near some sofas – as well as a bit of underwater exploration where you’ll find whales and sharks. Or at least I think they’re sharks – it’s hard to tell. It doesn’t really matter though. What matters is that the whole thing is ridiculous. I don’t think anyone’s ever thought of setting a survival crafting game on a sinking ship laden with containers, and that’s why everyone’s getting excited about it now.
There’s some inherent excitement in shipping containers, too, isn’t there? What’s inside, we wonder. There’s a whole show on TV about it called Container Wars, which you must have watched at some point – it’s been knocking around for years. The idea is that shipping containers are suddenly opened to reveal all kinds of as yet unverified treasures within, then people there have moments to decide what’s worth their money and then bid on it. What will they find? It’s alarmingly compelling – as is this collective excitement on TikTok.
I’ve spent more of my Monday morning searching for information about shipping containers than I should probably admit to. Did you know, for example, that every year, roughly 2000 to 10,000 containers are lost at sea, and that – amazingly – it can take a 20-foot container up to 171 days to sink? All that treasure, just bobbing around; perhaps this game isn’t so far fetched. Those facts come from a company which turns shipping containers into temporary homes, by the way, and I have no idea if they’re true, though it reminds me of the shipping containers turned into homes where I live – I even get my hair cut in one.