I'm looking for sugestions of single-player games based in survival/crafting, where I need to survive using only the things I can gather or craft. I already have Minecraft and Terraria and I'm not interested in the more hardcore ones like Miasmata and Robinson's Requiem/Deus, because I like to explore and is difficult to make this with a panther-like monster chasing me or even a basic finger cut killing me of infection. Hostil creatures can exist, but not in excess like Minecraft's nights when the mobs come in large groups....

I am loosely keeping an eye on:
http://playstarbound.com/

Maybe this qualifies but I did not play it:
http://www.desura.com/games/realm-explorer

Stranded 2 may fit the bill. It's free.
I lacked patience with the difficulty of Notrium. Also free, I think.
GOG has Return to Mysterious Island, which may be a little more structured than you want, but it's a decent island survival adventure. There's a free demo out there somewhere.

Seconding UnReal World. Hands downs the best survival game I have ever played. And it just went free to play (with donations should you feel so inclined) so there's no risk in trying it out.

Actually, Miasmata is precisely what you need. The monster is really, really easy avoid (comes from a person who sucks terribly at stealth, by the way), and the survival mechanics of the game basically revolve around 'Carry water and medicine around and for the love of god don't fall off cliffs' - so they're involving enough to get you killed if you don't pay them attention, but aren't dangerous enough to actively hunt you down and murder you. I have genuinely died about three times during my 15 hours play trough of Miasmata, and all of those deaths was my own stupidity, not the game's unfairness.

@Titanium and @kultrva, Unreal World looks interesting but looks a very hard game at the same time too

@Profanity, Don't Starved I'm don't played, but looks like Minecraft at night with all creatures trying to kill you...

@Robette, Starbound looks like Terraria, Realm Explorer looks interesting, will try the demo

@grimwerk, Stranded 2 looks interesting too, Notrium not so much

@Fenixp, but if said creature is chasing you, I guess you don't have much freedom to explore, no?

Thing is, it doesn't chase you all the time - as you progress trough the storyline, it gets spawned more often, but it never got annoying - at least in my place - and I have explored over half of the island by now. Trough the 15 hours or so that I have played the game, I have met the creature I think ... 4 times? 5 maybe? And the longest encounter lasted about 15 minutes, normally it was way, way shorter.

Aww hells yeah; Don't Starve is awesome.

That's a comfortable +1 from me.

And crafting exists? Or is only the game's mission to find a cure?

Robinson's Requiem is here on GOG, but not sure if it's quite what you want as I haven't played it in years.

Well... You're a scientist, and a botanist at that, so all the game's crafting is based on flower cures, buffs and remedies. But yes, it's a pretty important part of the game, and I actually found finding new plants and figuring out what they do to be a surprisingly enjoyable aspect.

So basically, you can't craft a new gun or a vehicle or whatever, you are, on the other hand, able to craft stuff like medicine, strength buff etc., then there are unique substances which will permanently increase your stats (pretty hard to find), and, of course, the cure which will win you the game.

The only thing that a lot of people disliked about the game (and I didn't mind, so I can't really comment on that) is a bit limited UI - you can only carry 3 different species of plants at any given time (you can store them in your safehouses tho), and only one type of every craftable item. If you can get over that, the game's really fantastic.

Dead Island. :P

It's totally not what you're looking for but nothing beats building an electric sledge hammer that makes zombies explode.

Timber and Stone just went public release today. They had a paypal page up to buy it though it looks like its down at the moment.

http://www.timberandstonegame.com/

I've been keeping an eye on it since I saw it on kickstarter back in october. Though I didn't pledge back then. It might fit what your after as far as crafting and survival go as long as you don't mind it in more of an RTS then first person format.