Wish for the first scenario

[StayStill01]

First of all let me say that to me, The Long Dark shares some characteristics with the zombie survival genre. An inhospitable exterior, one that the protagonist has no hope to make any more friendly, versus the safety and comfort of his home base -- An extreme case of "cocooning". As a Canadian, I am very familiar with the hashness of winter and it's psychological weight.

For the story mode, my wish for the first chapter would be along those lines:

The exterior is the antagonist. The player must fear and hate it. I would make the player spend the first night outside in a makeshift shelter made from the wreckage of the plane. The woods are very dark and wolves can be heard. Overnight, the player is discouraged from venturing away from his small campfire. To the player, daytime can't come quick enough so he can find some place warm and inside.

The player will find his home base the next day and he should bond rapidly and immensely to it; it's always safe, it's always warm (there should be a woodshed close to the main building) and why not have some light. To increase the bond, maybe the player has to repair part of the building. Thereafter, almost like a mother, his home base will unconditionally take good care of the player. Then I'd start to play with his desire to stay inside vs need to go outside. He has plenty of firewood from the shed, but it must be chopped outside. He is constantly low on food so he must scavenge nearby buildings or hunt. He is discouraged from long stays away from his home and the farther he must go the more getting back is difficult. The player can't bring animal carcasses to his base; this attracts new wolves in the area and they are increasingly confident. Yes, wolves attacks are very uncommon in real life, but nevertheless a convenient tool to the story. Also, maybe make a few day-long snowstorms to make the player want to stay inside / fear outside even more. For this to work, the player must have something to do while inside. Like, foraging, repairing, crafting and cooking should be mini-game based instead of being just a progress bar.

But the situation is static, the player will never be rescued as long he remains at his home base. He must fight against his will and abandon the home base he loves and go away into the outdoors he fears. And that would mark the end of chapter 1.