Exploring the Rise of Vampire Survivors and the Indie Game Genre Deconstruction

Why Simple, Affordable Games Are Winning Over Gamers and Earning 'Overwhelmingly Positive' Reviews

Mar 10, 2023

Diablo creator praises viral hit Vampire Survivors, says he wants to make his own small games | GamesRadar+

I have a problem.

New games keep coming out that capture my interest! AGH make it stop. I don’t have money! Nor do I have the willpower to resist the temptation to try them.

Today one of the most hilariously named games came out that I have ever seen.

Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 6 on Steam

“Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 6” I don’t think I’ve seen a clunkier title from a western franchise ever. Did they really even need to specify that its the official game? Was anyone going to look at “Monster Energy Supercross” and think to themselves.

“Hmm, I’d like to try that. How can I be sure that this is made on behalf of the REAL Monster Energy? OH! It says THE OFFICIAL VIDEO GAME. Now I can be sure!” then proceeds to purchase the game.

I love it though, its very silly.

And to be totally honest. One of my favorite videogames as a child was Excitebike 64. As a matter of fact, I want to install and emulate that on my steam deck! So there is some deep burning desire inside me to try some of these motoX games when they come out to see if they are any fun. Though the price tag always seems to be just above what I’m willing to pay. I also doubt that they will retain the arcade fun of Excitebike 64. Maybe this is why I gravitate towards motorcycles when playing Mario Kart.

Also if you are wondering who my ‘main’ was, I always chose “Jumpin’ Jim Rivers”.

The age of the ‘Survivor-Like’ is now. For the unaware Vampire Survivors is an incredibly simple game where you play as a fragile character in a birds eye 2d endless map. Enemies continuously spawn and chase after you. The catch is that your weapons auto attack based on stats. The longer you survive the better your weapons get, and the better your stats get. The game lasts in my opinion due to its interesting complexities of item combos creating “ultra” items at max level.

Vampire Survivors is simple. Deceptively so. When I first saw the game it looked as though someone had just finished their first tutorial on making games and threw it on steam. A practice on steam that is more common than you might think. So I wrote it off. What I did not expect was the level of traction and momentum the game amassed. Partly from its hidden complexity, partly from its amazing game feel, and partly from its app-store level pricing.

I just noticed the song used in the trailer is based on the “Pizza Time” theme from Spider-Man 2.

The game exploded. Like all things that explode out of nowhere, imitators followed. The unique thing about this genre is the amount of praise these imitators garner. This is the most amount of games released in a single genre with ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ reviews that I’ve seen. Usually imitators are met with negativity, so it has been downright bizarre to see an uptight community greet so many games with such high praise. I think this is for a couple reasons.

Firstly I saw a talk a few years ago by someone who made small games on steam. They claimed that the real trick to getting good reviews is to set the audience expectations exactly where they should be. I can say for certain gamers are used to being over-promised. Everything is over-promised all the time in the space of triple-A games. So in the indie scene we’ve seen a reverse iteration happen. The most popular games come out as simpler and simpler versions of themselves. This could be a bad thing, but the games advertise themselves as distillations of other more grandiose experiences and don’t claim to be a million things in one. Just one, ultra-refined experience. This turns out to be such a breath of fresh air that people gravitate towards them. Negative reviews come from a player purchasing a game, and it not meeting their expectations. These games are so small its impossible for that to happen. Someone who purchases the game knows exactly what they are getting into.

Secondly, the reason I think that so many of these games are being met with praise is because of their price. If these games were all going for $60 people would be comparing and contrasting which one is the “best” one to get.

“Oh you shouldn’t get that one, its not the original. Play this one instead!”

Since these games are going for less than $5 a piece the general sentiment is that you will have tried multiple versions and found the flavor that you like. Plus the experiences themselves are small enough that you really can feel the passion put into the works. Also cheap things are just reviewed better in general because our brain tells us its a better deal. This is largely the reason the “Free To Play” model does so well. By no means is a FTP game cheaper than a $60 title. You can’t really have a ‘negative’ experience with a ftp title because you invested nothing into it. Any money you choose to give the developer you feel they earned through your internal cost-benefit analysis in your head. People only start to give FTP games negative feedback when they’ve invested money in the game and the game no longer meets the same level of expectations as money they’ve put into the game.

Overall, I’m happy these games are doing well. I love ‘deconstructionist’ games, and would love to see other genres deconstructed like Vampire Survivors.

I’ve almost finished the Powerwashing Simulator Final Fantasy VII dlc. My review of that hasn’t changed much. It’s still just as satisfying as before, however I would like to give the multiplayer a shot at some point.

Sea of Thieves is getting a board game

Yep, not sure why that’s happening. Would I play the board game? Yes. Would I buy it…. Maybe. I’m a board gamer, but not a big one. The kinds of games I enjoy would fit in the “big things in small packages” category though I’m no stickler. So We’ll have to wait and see. There’s no details out there yet other than the announcement and the name “Sea of Thieves Voyage of Legends”