Don't Starve Together is one of those rare games that feels like it shouldn't exist. It’s a gothic, brutal, hand-drawn survival nightmare that somehow became a massive social phenomenon. But when people start digging into the 22 founders of DST, things get a little murky. Are we talking about the original developers at Klei? The characters that make up the game's "founding" roster? Or maybe the original Kickstarter backers who essentially willed the multiplayer expansion into existence?
Honestly, the term "founders" usually refers to the core team at Klei Entertainment back in Vancouver who took a single-player experiment and turned it into a multiplayer beast. It wasn't an easy transition. At first, the studio said they’d never do multiplayer. They were adamant. They thought it would ruin the tension. Then, they realized the community was already trying to mod it in, and the rest is history.
Why the 22 founders of DST changed the survival genre forever
Klei Entertainment, led by Jamie Cheng, didn't just stumble into success. They built it on a foundation of weirdness. When you look at the 22 founders of DST—referring to that early, pivotal team—you see a group that prioritized "feel" over traditional "balance." In the early 2010s, survival games were mostly gritty, brown, 3D shooters. Think DayZ. Klei went the opposite direction. They looked at Edward Gorey and Tim Burton and decided that a 2D world with "paper" cutouts was the way to go.
It worked.
The team had to solve a massive problem: lag. In a game where kitting a Deerclops requires frame-perfect movement, even a millisecond of delay kills the fun. The developers had to rewrite the entire codebase from the original Don't Starve. It wasn't just a patch. It was a ground-up reconstruction of how the world handles state.
The characters that built the lore
While the human developers are the real-world founders, the "original" cast of characters serves as the foundational pillar of the game's identity. Wilson, the Gentleman Scientist, is the face of the franchise. But then you have the complexity of Maxwell and Charlie.
The lore is dense. It’s not just "survive the night." It's about a literal shadow dimension called the Constant. People often get confused about how many characters were there at the "founding." If you look at the early roster, it wasn't 22. It was much smaller. Over time, through the Reign of Giants and Shipwrecked influences, the roster expanded. Each new addition—from the spider-boy Webber to the robotic WX-78—forced the founders to rethink how players interact.
The technical hurdles most players ignore
Building a multiplayer game is a nightmare. Doing it for a game that was never meant to be shared is a special kind of hell. The 22 founders of DST—the core devs—had to tackle the "synchronization" problem. In single-player, the world pauses when you open your map. In DST? The world keeps spinning. This single change flipped the difficulty on its head.
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You can't just pause to catch your breath.
This led to a shift in how the community played. Suddenly, specialized roles emerged. You had the "base mom" who stayed back to manage the crock pots and the "scouts" who mapped out the Beefalo herds. This wasn't just a game anymore; it was a social experiment in resource management and ego.
Klei’s philosophy on "Fairness"
Klei is famous for being incredibly transparent with their player base. They don't hide behind corporate speak. If a mechanic is broken, they tell you. When they decided to make Don't Starve Together a standalone product rather than a DLC, they gave it away for free to everyone who owned the original.
Think about that.
Most studios today would charge $30 for a "Remastered Multiplayer Edition." Klei just handed it over. That's why the legacy of those early founders is so respected in the indie scene. They valued the community's trust over a quick buck.
The 22 founders of DST: Breaking down the core team
If we look at the credits of the early Don't Starve Together builds, you see a tight-knit group. You have names like Kevin Forbes, who was instrumental in the design, and Jeff Agala, whose art style defines the entire look of the Constant. These aren't just names on a screen. They are the people who spent years debating whether a campfire should provide too much heat or just enough to keep you from freezing.
The team was small. Scrappy.
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- Jamie Cheng: The visionary who founded Klei.
- Jeff Agala: The guy who made everything look like a beautiful nightmare.
- Kevin Forbes: The design mind who balanced the chaos.
- Seth Rosen: Worked on the intricate AI behaviors of the mobs.
These folks had to deal with the "Console vs. PC" divide too. Bringing a game with this much inventory management to a controller is a Herculean task. They didn't just port it; they redesigned the UI to make it playable.
Misconceptions about the "Founder" status
Sometimes people use 22 founders of DST to refer to the "Founders' Pack" or the early beta testers. During the closed beta, there was a specific group of players who helped stress-test the servers. These players are often seen as the "Founders" of the community. They have the "Ancient" skins. They have the bragging rights.
But it's a bit of a misnomer.
The community is a founder in a way, though. Without the persistent demand for a way to play with friends, Klei would have stayed a single-player-only studio. The players provided the feedback that shaped the "Hallowed Nights" events and the "Winter's Feast." It’s a collaborative effort between the Vancouver office and the global player base.
What actually makes a "Founder" in the Constant?
In the game's lore, the "Founders" are arguably the survivors who first entered the Constant. They are the ones who built the first Science Machine. They are the ones who figured out that you can't eat monster meat unless you cook it with three berries.
- Survival instinct.
- Willingness to die... a lot.
- A dark sense of humor.
- Micromanagement skills that would make a project manager weep.
The evolution of the 22 characters
While the developer count hovered around that number for core DST projects, the character count has also grown. We are now well past the original "founding" cast. We have characters like Wanda, who manipulates time, and Wurt, the Merm-lover.
Each character introduction changes the meta. When Warly was added, the "Crock Pot" game became a science. When Maxwell was reworked, the "Sanity" game changed. The founders of the game's design had to ensure that adding a 20th or 22nd character didn't make the first character (Wilson) obsolete.
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They managed this through "Character Refreshes." Instead of just leaving the old characters to rot, they went back and gave Wilson new skills. They gave Willow better fire control. They respected the "Founders" of the roster by keeping them relevant in a modern, fast-paced game environment.
What you can learn from the DST journey
If you’re a developer or just a fan, the story of the 22 founders of DST is a lesson in listening. Klei didn't want to make this game. They really didn't. But they listened to their fans, admitted they were wrong about the potential for multiplayer, and then executed it with a level of polish that few AAA studios can match.
It’s about "The Constant." Not just the game world, but the constant iteration.
The game today looks almost nothing like the beta. The lighting is better. The bosses are more complex. There are literal "Rifts" opening up in the world now that introduce whole new tiers of gear. It’s a living project.
Actionable Insights for DST Players
If you want to honor the legacy of the 22 founders of DST, you should play the game the way it was intended: with reckless curiosity.
- Don't look at the Wiki immediately. Try to combine items. See what happens when you give a pig a piece of meat. The founders built the game for discovery, not for following a guide.
- Experiment with character synergies. Don't just play as three Wilsons. Combine Wickerbottom's books with Wolfgang's strength. The developers spent hundreds of hours ensuring these characters "clicked" together.
- Focus on base sustainability, not just exploration. The founders designed the "Don't Starve" part of the title to be a genuine threat. Build your farms. Salt your meats. Prepare for winter in autumn, or you'll be starting over by day 35.
- Participate in the forums. Klei still reads them. If you have an idea for the 23rd or 24th character, or a way to fix a lingering bug, speak up. The spirit of the founding team is one of collaboration.
The history of the 22 founders of DST—whether you mean the devs or the early adopters—is a story of staying true to a weird, dark vision. It proves that you don't need photorealistic graphics or a massive marketing budget to create a classic. You just need a bunch of talented people in a room in Vancouver, a few thousand passionate fans, and a very, very scary shadow queen named Charlie.
Stop worrying about the "perfect" run and just start building. The Constant is waiting, and it's much more fun when you're struggling to survive with a few friends by your side. That’s the real legacy of the founders. They turned a lonely, terrifying experience into a shared one. Stay warm, keep your torch lit, and for the love of everything, don't pick the flowers unless you really need the sanity boost. Every choice matters in the world the founders built. Overcoming the odds is the only way to truly understand what they were trying to achieve. It’s a masterpiece of indie gaming for a reason. Its roots are deep, and its future is still being written by those who are brave enough to step through the portal.