One of clearest signs of a game’s impact is how many clones follow. Vampire Survivors is exactly that. Shortly after its full release in 2022, a lot of “survivor-like” games flooded the market. So, what is Vampire Survivors exactly? How was it made, and why it got so popular?
At first glance, the game looks simple: you move your character, enemies attack you from every side and you have to survive. But this simplicity is the strongest aspect of the game. Every choice you make matters, making you want to progress further.
In 2020, an Italian developer named Luca Galante, while unemployed, began working on the game using his past experience as an admin for an Ultima Online server. Initially his aim was to create the game to manage a community using his experience. The main inspiration for the game was Magic Survival, a mobile game released in 2019. He spent around 1100 pounds from his own money on the assets, art and music of the game. Visually, the game is heavily influenced by the Castlevania franchise and even some weapons and characters in the game are very similar to this well-known franchise.
After releasing the game on itch.io with close to no success at all, in late 2021, he decided to publish the early access version of the game on Steam. The low price of the game and the fact that some YouTube content creators started making content about it, helped make VS popular and it allowed Galante to resign from his then current job and put his sole focus on making the final version. He hired freelancers to expand the developer team and finally, the game was released on macOS and Windows on October 20th 2022 and later ported to virtually all other platforms as well as mobile phones.
In terms of genre, Vampire Survivors is a “bullet heaven” game. Unlike bullet hell games where the main protagonist faces hordes and hordes of projectiles coming from enemies, a bullet heaven game is the opposite. The main character will shoot projectiles automatically while enemies are closing in. If the enemies hit you, your health bar will decrease. The player only needs to control the main character and try to kill as many enemies as possible while trying to upgrade their character using chests and various power ups which are scattered around the map.
Although bullet heaven games are not new and a lot of clones were released after Vampire Survivors, the game is still considered one of the best of the genre. Besides the low price and simple controls, VS has high replayability and deep progression systems, that consists of different unlocks and very thoughtful evolutions, which made the game very successful.
The game may look simple on the surface but it requires a good amount of strategy from the player. Players need to master the synergies and weapon evolutions in order to survive longer on the map and unlock new areas, bosses, and characters.
For each run of the game, players select one of several characters, each with different weapons and bonuses. Players only control the character movement and they have to survive as long as possible in the map. The game starts slowly but after each passing minute, the waves of enemies will become more powerful and increase in number. In order to be able to defeat them, players have to gain XP by killing the enemies and upgrade their weapons and passive powers. Knowing what upgrade to choose and how to progress in the map may seem simple, but because of the different synergies of the weapons, it is actually quite complex and addictive. Also, because the time of each run is short (a maximum of 40 minutes if your build is really good), after losing, you always want to try again and challenge yourself one more time. The visual style of the game also resembles a condition similar to Tetris effect* which will make you see the game gems and visuals even when you are not playing the game.
Galante’s prior experience in the gambling industry was also another reason for the addictive nature of the game. He used his experience and knowledge to create flashy graphics and slot machines as part of the core mechanics of the game which made it hard for the player to put the game down.
Vampire Survivors is simple but it has mechanisms that will satisfy try-hards and hardcore players. It is visually appealing and the details in the game are astonishing. Every weapon and power-up is thoughtful, useful and unique. The fact that you can have different strategies for each run makes it replayable. It is an idle and action game at the same time. It has tons of unlockable items. The presence of gambling-like mechanisms makes it hard to put down and above all, the price of the game is something that makes it accessible to almost anyone.
The future for Vampire Survivors creator is also bright. There is a spinoff of the game called Vampire Crawlers that is scheduled for release in 2026 and a live-action film is in the works. Although the success of the future products is not guaranteed, we can agree that Vampire Survivors is one of the phenomena that only occur every several years.
* Tetris Effect or Tetris Syndrome is when prolonged focus on a repetitive task (like playing Tetris for a long time) causes the elements of said activity to appear in dreams, thoughts or real world like seeing Tetrominos (Tetris shapes) in real life scenarios.
Publisher: Poncle
Developers: Poncle
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Xboxe One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Android, iOS, Meta Quest
Release Date: October 20, 2022
Genres: Roguelike, Shoot’em Up
PEGI: 12
