Vampire Survivors
First published in GRIND II, pages 38–41.
Warning! May be addictive!
Hello! Let me introduce you to my new obsession... which I hope won't hold on to me for too long), it's a little game that doesn't need much in the way of introductions or presentations, so I'll just say this: it's charming, it's addictive, it's free, it's Vampire Survivors!
Honestly, I don't know how this game managed to slip past me until now, even though I kept seeing it in friends' posts and in YouTube recommendations. But I was never curious enough to do any in-depth research on it or even, at the very least, give it a search on Steam. At first glance it all looked too busy, claustrophobic, too noisy, even for a 27-inch screen. What stopped me, I wonder!? I think it was actually my guardian angel whispering from my right shoulder, telling me not to fall into the temptation called Vampire Survivors and to quietly get on with my own business, rather than sitting with my eyes glued to the monitor or, more recently, the phone (you'll understand why).
Obviously I wasn't spiritually strong enough, and I fell into the vampiric sin at the very next opportunity. A few days later – yesterday, to be exact (9 December 2022, the day I'm writing this article) – I saw a social media post in which a friend was celebrating that Vampire Survivors had also turned up on mobile devices (Android/iOS).
You can imagine I didn't sit around thinking about it and installed it to give it a go. If it's free, why not, right!?
Vampires "Made in Italy"
The game got me, big time, and I admit I totally underestimated it at first glance. All it took was two rounds of gameplay to realise how simple yet enjoyable it can be to butcher hordes of bats, skele- tons, zombies, walking trees and all manner of other creepy-crawlies. For fans of the hack 'n' slash and rogue-like genres, Vampire Survivors is an almost perfect recipe. The game's graphics, which might look a little unfinished at first glance, won't even bother you.
The pixel-retro aesthetic has a charm all of its own.
Then again, this isn't about the graphics – it's about the satisfaction of clearing the phone screen of monsters using the widest possible range of spells and abilities. It's about butchering mini-bosses that drop magic chests containing all sorts of bonuses: coins, new weapons and upgrades for your skills.
Before we talk about the gameplay and my other impressions in a little more detail, I'd like to run through some information about how and where the idea for Vampire Survivors came from, so we can understand the phenomenon better.
When I get passionate about a subject, I try to read up on it and find out as much as I can, both to feed my curiosity and, at the same time, to satisfy it.
Even though the game is very popular, you won't find much information about it or about the studio that made it.
That's because we're talking about a single individual who dreamt up and coded the entire vampire adventure. His name is Luca, Luca Galante. People call him Poncle too. He started work on Vampire Survivors during the pandemic (2020) to fill his free time, being out of work. Shortly after he uploaded it to Steam as Early Access, the game went viral, and at that point our man had to give up on the idea of getting a job so he could get on with expanding and refining his own project.
From fruit machines to hack 'n' slash. I said at the start of the article that the game is basically a cluster of colours, ridiculous and noisy skills, hundreds of zombies, flying knives and everything else you can imagine. You wouldn't think it, but all this chaos actually has a logic behind it.
How so!? Well... let me just tell you that, before Vampire Survivors, Luca Galante worked as a programmer in the gambling industry. It kind of makes sense now...
All this sensory baggage was created deliberately to produce that casino atmosphere. To tickle our ears, bathe our eyes, but also to numb our minds a little with all the information on the screen. The trick is for the player to put in as little effort as possible, while the game rewards and motivates them to invest more time and money so that the reward is even more appetising. You'd say it's stupid, but it's a recipe that still fools us very easily. Everything has to be as simple and traditional as possible, but arranged so that it ultimately delivers maximum results. The good part for us gamers is that, to enjoy Vampire Survivors or at least to get an idea of what it's about, all we have to do is drop a coin into Steam (or not even one, on mobile), if we want to enjoy Vampire Survivors or at least get an idea of what it's about.
Even vampires aren't what they used to be...
I think now's the right moment to talk about the game's story and, while I'm at it, to give you a few details about the gameplay. I'd ask the production crew to set up the italic font for the quotes and put the storyteller effect on my mic. Perfect, let's begin!
The story in Vampire Survivors takes place in the year
2021... yeah, I know, maybe you were expecting something more fantasy, more mythic, but apparently the action is very contemporary, taking us back to somewhere in the Italian countryside.
Hordes of monsters have been summoned by the evil vampire Bisconte Draculó, and the members of the Belpaese family, allied with the surviving heroes, have taken on the responsibility of hunting down every creature of the night and catching and butchering Draculó. On their mission, our protagonists travel through any number of lands, such as the Cursed Forest, the Haunted Library, the Dairy Plant, the Gallo Tower and, last but not least, the Cappella Magna, where Count Draculó is probably hiding. There are a few bonus locations too, but the ones above are officially part of the story of the hunt for the evil vampire. The story sounds a bit ridiculous and quite unoriginal, and that's because it is – Vampire Survivors doesn't set out to be a narrative-driven game, its strong point being the gameplay. It's a game that started from a very simple idea, fuelled by the pleasure of hunting monsters, of surviving as long as possible and of getting better and better. Luca himself said in an interview that it's a game he made mostly for himself, for when he wants to spend his free time chilling on the sofa. In that same interview Luca said that Vampire Survivors was initially conceived as a mobile game, but because it ran very badly he had to port it to the web in HTML5, and it was uploaded and played for free on itch.io. After its immediate success, he decided to put it up on Steam as Early Access for €3.
Simple gameplay, but with everything on it. The gameplay is as minimalist as it gets. Basically, the player doesn't really have to do anything: they just walk around the map collecting experience crystals to level up (the character attacks by itself), choose a single skill or weapon from the three options when they go up a level, collect chests that give them coins and other bonus weapons or skills and, most importantly, survive (but that isn't necessarily an action). As for the sound, I can't tell you much because I played it on mute, but given that Steam offers the game's soundtrack separately, for a fee, I'd guess it's something the fans want and therefore good.
Coming back to the gameplay for a moment, I'd like to show you a few characters that are easy to unlock with 50–500 coins, without giving away too many spoilers. What differs between the characters, beyond how they look, is their weapon and their special abilities.
Antonio Belpaese - starts with a whip (Whip) as his initial weapon and begins with +20 Max Health and +1 Armor. Every 10 levels he receives +10% Might until he reaches a +50% Might bonus.
Gennaro Belpaese - starts with a knife (Knife) as his initial weapon and begins with +20 Max Health and +1 Amount. He has the ability to gain +1 Projectile on all weapons.
Imelda Belpaese - starts with a magic wand (Magic Wand) as her initial weapon and begins with +10 Growth. Every 5 levels reached she gains up to +30 Growth.
That means Imelda will level up very quickly and will get skills, weapons and coins faster.
Vampire Survivors tells us that in total there are over 20 standard characters and somewhere around 16 bonus characters that are secret and can only be unlocked through a secret menu.
Next, I'd like to give you a few details about the weapons and power-ups in the game. These can be obtained, as I said, every time you reach a new level or from the chests of the special monsters, which are visually distinguished by a red or blue aura. Among my favourite weapons and power-ups are the following:
Recovery - This is a power-up that helps you recover 0.1 HP per rank (max 0.5 HP) every second. It can be improved with coins.
MoveSpeed - This is a Powerup that helps you move 5% faster per rank across the map. It can be upgraded to reach 10%.
Garlic - This is one of my favourite weapons in the game. The stink of garlic is super effective against monsters, creating an aura around the hero that grows depending on the weapon's rank and can even evolve into a superior weapon.
Peachone - The dove of peace in Vampire Survivors is a very effective weapon that, mind you, hovers around the hero and bombs areas full of monsters at random.
It's a very effective AOE weapon, especially once upgraded.
I'll stop the introductions here, because the skills and weapons in the game are far more fun to try out for yourself than to read about. Best to test them yourselves and see how ridiculous and how much fun they are.
By this Grind you shall conquer!
Alright... I know, the original quote was "by this sign you shall conquer", and it was addressed to the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine the Great. But seriously now, Vampire Survivors really is all about the grind!
Of course, and about loot... except here you don't get the satisfaction and the magic of picking dozens of beautifully green-coloured weapons up off the ground,
This year at The Golden Joystick Awards, our own Vampire Survivors won the Breakthrough Award. The distinction goes to games that manage to surprise through the finesse of how they are written and implemented.
To give you an idea of how important this award is, I'll just say that in previous years the laureates were: Returnal, Among Us, and last but not least, the beloved Stardew Valley. Vampire Survivors surfaced just as unexpectedly as the horde of monsters summoned by Draculó, and became one of the most successful launches on Steam. All we can do is be glad about this award, which encourages Poncle – a team now worthy of an indie studio – to make as much great content as possible, and maybe even a story mode. At another similar event, The Game Awards, Vampire Survivors was nominated for Best Debut Indie Game – but didn't manage to win it. blue, purple and orange. The feeling here is more like the slot machines: you fight and wait for the sevens or the cherries to come up, except in our case they've been replaced by skills and weapons.
Whether it looks too much like Castlevania or was copied from other games is no longer all that relevant; Vampire Survivors remains clear proof that simplicity beats the ostrich-camel wrapped in layers of complexity that promises everything but excels at nothing. A game that looks stupid at first glance but can't be understood without trying it at least once. Now that it's also free on smartphone, we really have no excuse! Happy gaming, and we're waiting to test the new DLC, "Legacy of the Moonspell", which launches on 15 December.
Leo Luția
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