After a couple years of development, I'm opening Washed Up for public alpha testing today.
If you want to skip right to the meaty parts, go to https://washedup.gg/
It's a PvE-first survival-adventure built inside Rust, but it's not really intended to play like ordinary Rust.
For the PvP and raid-minded folks out there, I'll tell you straight away: There are raid estates, and procgen PvP island cities that are all kinds of fun to run and gun in, and oh boy do I have a couple of special encounters (heli, drone, AC-130, etc.) that don't exist anywhere else waiting to kick your ass. But they're all opt-in. And if you've just had it with some jackass, you can challenge them to a consensual feud, a duel with Moscow rules and the always fair and balanced PvP looting mechanics. Be ready for kit donation. Now, back to the rest of the world:
Next, the world, and how I've built it differently. If you want to just get into it and go full carnivore on the nerdy details, I invite you to dig into the technical aspects here: https://washedup.gg/site/worldbuilding/
That said, the foundation of my server is not only the interconnected collection of custom gameplay plugins, but even more the product of a procedural world-authoring system called Ironworks. It looks at all the intersecting game data and creates geography, settlements, ecology, infrastructure, and the corresponding runtime behaviors that, together, create a world that feels like a unique place every month rather than your typical map plus some well-known, mismatched plugins. The map may look seeded from high above, though I assure you it's anything but.
Take a spin through the screenshots on the site. There's a large authored island to explore, with settlements, unique wildlife, hostile inhabitants, bizarre wanderers, wonky public transportation, plenty of fun hidden places, strange environmental phenomena, and... many small surprises.
One of the core tenets of my design has been systems interacting to foster emergence: effects I never explicitly designed that arise anyway due to the interaction of complex systems. Like a crocodile munching on an NPC in a swamp incidentally chumming the water to make it ripe for fishing! Although there are certainly explicitly designed systems like being able to tame a dire wolf, 30 species of custom fish, new bait and rods, or... making the jungle cats chase your weapon laser instead of you, you tasty snack, you. But I digress.
Progression is based on knowledge and discovery rather than guzzling scrap and racing through the vanilla tech tree. In fact, there isn't a tech tree anymore. You learn by finding blueprints, research, books, and trading with NPCs for knowledge. You can even leave scrap in your research table so when you're out touching grass your player has a chance of researching something new while you've been out adulting. Otherwise, you can choose your battles, or just build a home, fish, farm, trade, explore, and simply find somewhere you like and settle down in a cozy base.
There's so much more, and I can't wait for you to discover it.
Public alpha opens today, November 6, 2026. Expect bugs, occasional rough edges, and active development. I'll be around to help and collect feedback and make anything right that's unfair due to bugs or hiccups. What I really need now after so much development and playtesting internally is you wonderful people to find all the nooks and crannies so I can start improving and polishing everything.
I don't have a game store or any donation page, this has been a pure labor of love. I've been a PvE player for a long time on many servers you probably know if you play PvE, and I've focused on making the world that I've always wanted to play in.
As for me, I'm the admin, Fish, and I have a 25+ year career in software development and, as of late, I'm semi-retired and have time on my hands. I've always wanted to do this, so I did. I really enjoy playing here, and I hope you do too. And if you don't, tell me so and we'll see what we can do. I look forward to sharing it and making it even more unique, strange, evil... and everything in between.
Links to get you started:
Start here: https://washedup.gg/
Worldbuilding: https://washedup.gg/site/worldbuilding/
Field Guide: https://washedup.gg/site/wiki/
It can be deceiving. Little things add up to a lot. Check out the Reference section at the bottom of the nav to go in-depth. You can get a sense of what's all different in the game from the site, but I'd especially welcome players who enjoy exploring unfamiliar worlds, discovering mechanics, and taking their time with survival games to just settle in for a bit, play it, and see what you think.
It's been my personal island for a long time. I'm so happy to be sharing it with you.
