Scavengers Studio announced that the reality TV show-themed survival game, Darwin Project, is currently running its open beta weekend right now.

You can download the client for free by visiting the open beta Steam page.

The beta will be open through the following times:

Friday noon PST – Sunday 9 pm PST
Friday 3 pm EST – Sunday midnight EST
Friday 9 pm UTC+1 (CET) – Monday 6 am UTC+1 (CET)

You’ll be thrown into deadly arenas located in the icy cold Canadian Rockies, where you’ll have to fight and survive against nine other participants.

The last one remaining wins the round.

You’ll have to scavenge for supplies, craft materials and attempt to kill off the competition before they kill you… or the bitter cold bites through your freezing body and turns you into a human the equivalent of a Canadian ice dildo.

There’s a new developer diary as well that was rolled out to give gamers a look at what’s new in this latest beta test for Darwin Project.

Nice move adding a pseudo-rendition of Hans Zimmer’s “You’re So Cool” as the background music. I can dig it.

So… there are some interesting elements here to Darwin Project.

For one, a large portion of the game is about tracking down the other players. Now typically, no smart player will give away their position. However, due to the freezing cold, players will have to create fires or find tools to keep warm. Making a fire out in the open will create smoke, and when the smoke rises it will give your opponents an idea as to where you might be located.

This creates a tense hide-and-seek style meta game where players will constantly have to find ways to get warm without completely giving themselves away.

You can learn more about Darwin Project by hitting up the game’s official website.