Vampire Survivors

Its creator, Italian developer Luca Galante, had worked in the gambling industry and knew how flashy slot machine graphics are made. He put that experience into the chest-opening animations.

The first version took about a year and cost him about £1,100 in assets, art and music, and he put it on Steam cheaply. In early 2022 YouTubers picked it up, and by February more than 70,000 people were playing on Steam at once.

The game won two BAFTAs, Best Game and Game Design, and is considered one of the first bullet heaven games with auto-attack.

One reviewer thought it looked like a bootleg, with sparse, repetitive backgrounds, and said it keeps you playing with tricks from gambling. Two more praised it and compared it to dopamine. Players rate it 98% positive across 252,803 reviews, and critics give it 86 on Metacritic. On our Recommended Score it sits at #64 of 4,736 games.

Liked it? Try HoloCure - Save the Fans!, a fan game with Hololive VTubers inspired by Vampire Survivors, and Hades, where the son of Hades tries to escape the Underworld and the story unfolds from run to run.