Vampire Survivors: our collective obsession with the quirky, genre-defining indie game
Filed under:
By Antonio G. Di Benedetto, a writer covering tech deals and The Verge’s Deals newsletter, buying guides, and gift guides. Previously, he spent 15 years in the photography industry.
Vampire Survivors isn’t just a bullet hell survival game where you maneuver around simple 8-bit stages and kill thousands of monstrous enemies — it’s also a juggernaut of an indie title that blew up in popularity enough to even get the green light on a TV show spinoff.
First launched on Steam in December 2021 under Early Access, the game had a meteoric rise in 2022, becoming one of the consistently most played games on Valve’s Steam Deck and winning the BAFTA Award for Best Game (yes, it beat Elden Ring).
Several of us here at The Verge are fully Vampire-pilled, obsessively playing it each time a new content update or DLC drops. There’s just something so satisfying about those gem pickup sounds.
Check out our ongoing coverage of the unstoppable indie.
Aug 2
Antonio G. Di Benedetto
Vampire Survivors has a knack for wild, Easter egg-filled updates, but there’s apparently a whole-ass alternate version of the game called the “Directers Cut” that exists.
Author and streamer Laura Kate Dale surprise-dropped a thread about its various absurdities, like its characters that include Santa and a giant skeleton (Mortaccio stans unite!), and a 300-chicken co-op stage.
Will this be released or make its way to the regular game — perhaps with the major update on August 17th adding co-op? Only its vampire puppet developer knows.
Jul 17
Jay Peters
I’m only about halfway through, but it’s a fascinating look at the rise of one of the now-huge indie game. And it’s a good watch ahead of the game’s next major update, which will bring the game to
Read more on theverge.com
