“With a lot of developers jumping onboard the hype train, the genre is likely to quickly become saturated. Even a couple of years after writing and reposting this article, there is still a ongoing hype for this genre.“
Bram
Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t, but yes, there is a booming genre that some are calling Garlic-like. The genre was named after the success of Vampire Survivors. This article and information is from 2022, reposted from our drafts, to see that the obsession is still here mid 2024!
In the meantime, the genre did not only become a huge success, but games like Vampire Survivors even made DLC with games like Among Us, to show you how popular this genre is.
You probably have heard about the successful game Vampire Survivors, the game that has sold over 2 million copies on Steam alone stated by PlayTracker. With an all-time player peak of 77,000 players to play at once and almost 9000 players that are playing the game right now, while I am writing this article.
Why was this such a successful indie game?
Why are you so hooked to keep playing this?
For those questions, we have to get back to the start and research a bit more on developer Luca Galante, aka poncle, who always wanted to work in the Game Industry.
But as his English wasn’t that good, it wasn’t easy for him to get a job in the industry, he told Barclays.
After working some other jobs, here is where the exciting part came in, he started a job in the gambling industry where he learned how to use the same game mechanics used in gambling machines like slots, and he would in the future apply that for the Vampire Survivors game.
Now, if you haven’t played any of these games, they are Dodger, Bullet hell, and Roguelite games, where you level up by killing enemies that drop gems, each gem gives you a % for the next level.
Each level has you choose between a weapon, a skill, a buff, or a mix. By leveling you get better weapons, buffs and more, which makes you kill enemies faster, and it’s very addictive in a fun way where you want to finish the map faster and with different techniques.
One of the other games that I wanted to mention a bit later on, but has a great example of the connected rogue-lite aspect of the genre, is Rogue: Genesia where maps come into place that will have you choose between battles, shops, treasure, and elites, to go and face the boss at the end of the map.
It also is very graphically pleasing to play if that is more your thing.
There are loads of games in this genre and we are uploading gameplay videos on all of them over HERE.
With a lot of developers jumping onboard the hype train, the genre is likely to quickly become saturated. Even a couple of years after writing and reposting this article, there is still a ongoing hype for this genre.
