What is Castaways? Who are they? What is all this?

You must have a lot of questions. I'm here to answer them. Before you ask yet another question about who I am, I'm Dayton Mills, the creator of Castaways.

I have many interests, which have led me to try many different things, but at the core of everything I have done, I have always believed that I am just one thing: an artist.

Castaways first came about in 2022 when I had an ambitious idea to build a new multiplayer sandbox game inspired by some of my favorite games, such as Minecraft, Runescape, and Animal Crossing. The game was developed through my studio, Branch, which I founded. It was in development for two years until it sunset in July 2024. This game was too large for a studio of our size, and I decided to shut it down.

In these two years, though, what developed beyond the game was a universe—a colorful world full of life with all sorts of characters I wanted to bring to life.

So, I decided to relaunch Castaways with a focus on building the world I fell in love with—a world that could transcend one game that defined it, a world that contains stories that could be told through several games and even other mediums I'm passionate about, such as animation.

Castaways is about celebrating differences, finding your purposes, and realizing your full potential. It explores concepts of destiny and fate and, of course, man versus nature.

In this world, which I call "The Islands," all of the "castaways" are people who feel alone in their home world, wherever that may be. Maybe they thought they couldn't be themselves or were a failure in some way. All castaways on The Islands were taken from their world during a significant life event tied to who they are as characters. They all come in different ways, but always by some form of magic. Once they are here, the castaways learn to fail in pursuit of trying new things while asking themselves who they want to be. The Islands teach you to find their true selves and the aspirations they might have been denying themselves.

The characters page of our website allows you to follow the many characters we create who inhabit The Islands. I view it as a daily webcomic. We draw each of them by hand and develop their personalities individually.

I look forward to sharing the stories of all these characters and our main cast through our upcoming Animated Shorts.

Eventually, we will explore The Islands in great detail through the upcoming games we are working on.

If any of this excites you, please tell me. Sometimes, I feel like I'm the only one who cares about this. However, thousands of others have engaged at one point or another in our Discord or are following us on social media. Check our community page to get involved, and please come say hi! I can't wait to meet you.