Scoring Guide and Examples
A step by step guide for the entire scale.
To help answer common questions from devs and reviewers using the Score Card Web Form this section will explain each category column of the comparison scale, define how we use any jargon, and then offer examples at several points from existing already scored games. Sorted in order of the category columns on the spreadsheet and web form. For an alphabetical dictionary see the Key & Definitions page. For the overall reasoning behind it see the Explainer.
The score card could also just be described as a survey. We call it a score card because we're talking about videogames and it feels a little fun to think of it that way. But we're trying to apply best practices for survey design with the understanding we'll generally do follow up interviews and research to try and correct for the best possible data.
How to Tally
-1 to 1 in 60 Categories
Scoring in 10ths
(example: -.4 or .8)
1: Feature Fully Present
0: Feature Absent
-1: Critical/Design Difference
Scoring Tip
Rely Heavily on Vibes!
Don't stress, scores will be adjusted!
Reported as number out of 60, or converted into 10 point score.
The web form does the math for you!
General Notes & Tips
Our scale is designed to tease out subtle differences between very similar games. The less similar a game, the more difficult scoring gets. But we can still do it pretty well and add some notes. For example, a game might not have a 'dodge', it might have a jump. If it's a single button press we can just mark that column and say we're calling the jump a dodge. The spirit of the scale is to measure difference and how complex or full the differences are. We're talking about art so some categories will be fuzzier than others by necessity, but the scale lets us separate those out and look at each one on its own.
We are measuring similarity by tracking if a feature exists and the game design intention behind it, not reviewing how good that feature is. Of course, a half implemented feature may not feel as good, or perhaps it doesn't have the complexity level yet, etc. But we'll review that if necessary with fans as time goes on. If you are a dev, score by what you were intending to do with the game. Try to be honest on partial scores, including not being too hard on yourself.
Some categories will be easy to get a negative score in, some will be extremely rare. For example, if your game always requires aiming and trigger presses and it revolves around it - like Call of Duty 2 - you can safely put a -1 in those categories to indicate a complete game design philosophy difference. But if it just doesn't have a feature - like a bestiary in Call of Duty 2 - then you can just put 0.
The scale is weighted. Another way to look at the above is to talk about how the scale is designed to favor certain outcomes in certain categories. Some will be noted as nearly impossible to get a negative score in. As a recommendation generation engine it also only 'wants' to recommend good games that function. A game without bugs that's simply designed for an entirely different play experience should ideally get around a 0/60 in similarity. But a game that is entirely unfinished, where modes or features are not just absent but result in system crashing bugs, where things have been advertised falsely or a variety of other especially bad things, it's possible to get negative scores in these categories too.
Our 'tie breaker' for anything on the scale is comparing to Vampire Survivors.Does the game do this as fully as Vampire Survivors does or does it intend to do it differently? If it does it differently, does it feel in terms of game design the goal or intention is similar? A different approach to solving the same player desire for that feature can still be a full point.
It's not a judgement on if Vampire Survivors does it well, but that fans cite this feature in Vampire Survivors as being important to them. If you knew a fan was coming to your game from Vampire Survivors and looking to scratch their itch for that feature, did they pick the right game?
If it's 'more' or 'better' than Vampire Survivors it's still a 1. While we're comparing features, we're also looking to generate recommendations. So technically if a game is accomplishing something as much as Vampire Survivors, it's likely to please fans of that particular feature. For example, if the Bestiary is more in depth, that's a 1. If it's got more rogue-lite features like procedural generation for enemies, that's a 1. If the buildcrafting is more in depth, that's a 1. And so on. These games might be slightly less similar, technically, but it's in a way that will satisfy fans of that feature and that's the most important thing.
We might use terms in multiple ways. Sometimes we might make a mistake or there is a better word for the concept we're discussing - please let us know! Sometimes we may be using a word in a particular way just for this spreadsheet or while discussing this subgenre. We'll do our best to define as we go!
We're reviewing and comparing games with a controller. We'll still try to get games up that have other controls and tag things correctly, but controller input is sometimes assumed in the phrasing of the survey.
Example scores might be out of date/wrong. This will be a live document as long as we can maintain it and the scale itself is subject to tweaking. We'll do our best to offer obvious and productive examples but it's possible we missed something, mistyped, a game has been updated, or otherwise made a mistake. Please let us know and consider the explanation to best of your ability!
SCORING GUIDE IN PROGRESS!
The latter sections aren't written out yet. Some scores have been adjusted since it was written, will be correcting soon
Genre - 8 Categories
The first category group on our scale includes 'Rogue-lite', 'Auto-battler / Auto-shooter', 'Real Time', 'Top-Down or Isometric', 'Direct Control of Single Avatar', 'Arcade Style', and 'Bullet Heaven A' and 'B'. This section is designed to set the basics for the genre and overall category of the game. Since our scale is designed to tease out differences in similar games, some fairly complex concepts (like Rogue-lite) only have one category while some niche categories (like Bullet Heaven A and B) get their own columns.
These categories can easily go negative. Due to the complexity of the concepts in this category group, we'll often use all 21 points of the scale in teasing out differences. This category can be considered to tell us much about how different a game is, while some latter categories will be weighted less intensely to simply track the presence of features.
1. Rogue-Lite
Does the game have rogue-lite aspects like randomization and metaprogression?
Arena Shooter
A shooting game where gameplay takes place within a relatively small and unchanging setting. Often a blank screen or small box.
Rogue-like
Often written "roguelike", this is a genre of games characterized by procedural generation, permadeath, and no metaprogression (among many other hotly debated features.) More broadly, many players, writers and devs apply roguelike to any game with short runs and permadeath, but a traditional roguelike can have runs go on for hundreds of hours, perhaps even forever.
Rogue-lite
Rogue-lite games often share many of the features with rogue-likes except for a major one: rogue-lites have metaprogression, meaning you still gain power as you play by unlocking and powering up between runs and the game gets easier or more over the top over time. While survivors-like is a portmanteau of "survival" and "roguelike", almost all survivors-likes are actually rogue-lites since they revolve heavily around metaprogression.
Rogue-Lite
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors may not have procedural maps, but randomizes playthroughs via upgrades available and mimics other aspects. It allows the player to progress between runs with both currency based and goal based unlockables.
1.0
Risk of Rain
Risk of Rain is a randomized exploration action game that allows players to progress between runs via items and characters unlockable through accomplishing in-run goals or finding items within the run.
0.5
Rogue
Rogue is the inspiration for the entire traditional roguelike genre. It has permadeath and randomization, but there is no progression or carry over between runs. It's also turn based, but we take that more into account in its own column.
0.4
Reality Break
Reality Break brands as an "opt in rogue-lite" where there is ongoing progression and respawn in most game modes, but some run ending events with some resets and powering up between runs.
0.1
Elden Ring
Elden Ring is a soulslike, where you always build up progression and advance the plot on one playthrough, but it is heavily punctuated by run-like deaths and respawns where all enemies are reset instead of staying killed. They are not randomly placed, though, so Elden Ring gets a very low partial score.
-0.7
Path of Exile
Path of Exile is almost entirely focused on long term progression with respawn. However, it does have optional hardcore modes and certain bonuses that only carry over until death, meaning there is loss for an "ended run." There is also shared account metaprogression in terms of stash and other mechanics. This gives Path of Exile a score that is only partially negative.
-1.0
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 2 is a campaign game where the player completes maps in order to complete the game. There is no meta progression where you unlock things to impact a future playthrough of the campaign and no randomization.
2. Auto-Battler / Auto-Shooter
Does the game heavily preference automated elements of the action in the game design? In terms of comparing games to Vampire Survivors, we're not necessarily looking for as much automation as in clicker/idle games. Generally, one or two aspects are highly interactive during the run (like movement + dash or movement + aiming) and other aspects are automated (like firing or summoning).
Auto-Battler
A game where elements of the battle are automated, perhaps the actions by your summoned minions or deployed troops.
Auto-Shooter
A game where some of the elements of shooting are automated, for example, if it always fires and there is no trigger button.
Auto-Battler / Auto-Shooter
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors places a great emphasis on automation, automating aiming and firing and ignoring other action controls. The player only controls movement and level choices. Most people consider it an auto shooter.
1.0
Boneraiser Minions
Boneraiser Minions places a similar emphasis on movement and level choices. While it adds a dash, this doesn't push it over the edge for us and we give it a full 1 for being an auto battler since the minions do most of the direct battling and your job is primarily to run away.
0.8
Time Wasters
Time Wasters works quite well with some builds without worrying about aiming (just dashing, usually) but aiming is quite important in the early game. It's got auto-fire but it's also a twin stick shooter. So it gets a partial positive score.
0.4
Disfigure
Disfigure is pretty reliant on a trigger, but it also has a variety of abilities that go off based on other conditions. In some ways it feels like setting up a chain to go off in other automated games. So we are generous with a partial positive score.
0.0
Whisker Squadron: Survivor
Whisker Squadron: Survivor borrows some elements from more typical survivors-likes but takes on a 3rd person spaceship on rails shooter perspective like Star Fox. This results in an action game where some elements - like flying in a certain direction at a certain speed - are automated. Since it's an action game just with some restrictions, it gets a 0 score but not a fully negative score. It can be said to lack the ability to be an auto shooter, but it's not the polar opposite either.
-0.9
Path of Exile
Path of Exile has many action controls, but it is also possible to make a summoner build where you only really worry about movement for long periods while your troops do the fighting. This gives it a very negative but not entirely negative score.
-1.0
Dead Cells
Dead Cells is an action heavy game that relies greatly on player skills and reflexes to manipulate a variety of controls with near constant precision. It earns an entirely negative score for its completely opposite game design philosophy about user interactivity.
3. Real Time
Does the gameplay take place with all actors moving concurrently "live" versus taking turns at their own speed? For our purposes, we're not paying attention to if the in-game clock is shared with the real-world clock in some realistic fashion. A 2x speed mode would still be considered real time.
Real Time
The gameplay is controlled live instead of taken in turns. This doesn't usually really refer to it being a certain speed. Most games with a daytime mechanic have a vastly compressed cycle you can see in a short gameplay session, but are still generally referred to as real time.
Real Time
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors is an action game which pauses for you to select level up rewards. All enemies and the player move at the same time, except for special powerups (which we don't count against it.)
1.0
Cult of the Lamb
Cult of the Lamb is a rogue-lite dungeon crawler with an additional colony sim element. However, both modes proceed in live time as opposed to any sort of turn-based outside of pause menus and leveling. This earns it a full point.
0.7
Dwarf Fortress
Dwarf Fortress (evaluated by the fortress mode) is a colony sim styled roguelike. It has "real time with pause" gameplay where it's possible to issue commands in real time, but likely that you will pause to do most of the player inputs. It gets a partial positive score.
0.5
Chess Survivors
Chess Survivors is a survivors-like with a turn-based hybrid mechanic combining chess-like moves on a timer and real-time bullet physics. It feels close to real time, earning it a partial positive score.
0.0
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Crypt of the Necromancer centers its gameplay around a unique rhythm mechanic. You get one move per beat, meaning it's technically turn-based but not diametrically opposed.
-0.8
Peglin
Peglin is a pachinko/Peggle style rogue-lite, where you take turns aiming and firing a ball. It plays out in real time via physics, so it gets a not-entirely-negative score.
-1.0
Rogue
Rogue is a traditional turn-based rogue-like, the namesake of the genre. It is purely turn-based with no timer, earning a fully negative score.
4. Top Down or Isometric
This category actually gives full points to two slightly different camera modes. Since the gameplay is very similar and sometimes it just comes down to the graphics style, we combined this into one column. While there are differences - a player may be able to see more top down - many games are technically top down but don't seem to be. A game can get a full point if it is either.
Top Down
The camera is positioned exactly above - sometimes this doesn't really look like it if it's a pixel art game as the sprites tend to be face on to the camera.
Isometric
In these games the camera is positioned up and at an angle from the action, kind of like looking down onto a tabletop game or from the clouds, or lifting the roof off a house to look inside.
Top Down or Isometric
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors may technically be a top down game with player and enemies moving on a flat field, but the sprites are presented at a sideways perspective to the camera. This gives it a somewhat isometric seeming view. So fans refer to it both ways!
1.0
Nova Drift
Nova Drift is an asteroids-style game where your space faring organism (which looks very much like an abstract ship) is viewed from a top perspective and moves on a 2d plane. Since it's top down, it gets a full point.
1.0
Hades
Hades is an isometric dungeon crawler where the player moves from area to area presented at a fixed camera angle from above. Since it's isometric, it gets a full point.
0.8
Gunlocked
Gunlocked is a vertically scrolling spaceship game. The perspective is from the top down on your ship, but because it's a slightly different genre with vertical movement progressing outside the control of the player, we've given it a fuzzy score of 0.8.
0.0
Whisker Squadron: Survivor
Whisker Squadron: Survivor's camera is behind the player instead of above it. It's pretty different, but we consider some other camera modes more different. It has a zero.
-0.5
Risk of Rain 2
Risk of Rain 2 is a third person shooter. The camera is up and behind the player. In this game it's pretty far up and behind often with some classes, making it feel a little closer to isometric games. So it ends up with a partial negative score.
-1.0
Peglin
Peglin is a turn based peggle-style game where the camera is at a side perspective. It also shows the puzzle gameplay area that isn't really a field of play in the same way.
-1.0
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 2 is a first person shooter with no way to see the player character in game. It's considered completely different on our scale, a good example of a -1.0.
5. Direct Control of Single Avatar (Camera Usually Centered on Player)
This category refers to the difference between most action and strategy games - if you issue orders or control menus or if you directly control the character during the action.
Direct Control
The player directly manipulates their avatar in game. This is the default in most action games.
Single Avatar
The player controls one character or object (like a ship), as opposed to switching between multiple characters or issuing orders.
Direct Control of Single Avatar
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors has the player control a single character, who they move around the play space with the control stick. While there are summons, the player doesn't directly control them.
1.0
Boneraiser Minions
Boneraiser Minions is a game that revolves around a summoning mechanic, but while you play the round you don't actually directly summon units. Your control is limited to a single avatar so it gets a 1 point.
0.7
Overlord
Overlord is an action strategy game where you control an evil horde through the influence of your character. There is directing troops but also direct abilities and attacks, earning this a high partial score.
0.5
Pikmin
Pikmin is a strategy puzzle game where you control a character as it gathers and directs minions. You are mostly controlling the character's ability to give orders, but you give orders carried out by other player controlled units. This earns it a partial positive score.
0.0
Peglin
Peglin requires the player to aim a cannon that releases a ball for peggle like puzzles. But it also has a single character who has hit points and is the focus of the journey. Since you don't directly control during the action, it gets a 0, but it's also not diametrically opposed.
-0.7
Loop Hero
Loop Hero is an innovative roguelite hybrid that requires players to guide a character around a loop by influencing the conditions of the map. For example, they can place a tile that increases stats or one that spawns enemies. The player also manages the equipment and inventory of the character. There is no direct control over movement or attacks, but you are minding the character and their inventory. So it earns a slightly less than fully negative score.
-1.0
Dwarf Fortress
Dwarf Fortress is a colony management sim where the player issues orders that are carried out indirectly by units who have been assigned related jobs (or just feel like doing it.) There is very little direct control and there is no single player character. No character is more so a player character than any other. Due to significant game design philosophy differences, Dwarf Fortress gets a fully negative similarity score.
6. Arcade Style (Little Plot Between Play)
Arcade games are a hugely encompassing category, meaning to some people anything they used to play in the arcade and to others any game with a simple or score chasing gameplay loop. In our case, we're considering things an arcade game if they're like how Vampire Survivors is an arcade game.
We're also mostly concerned with the regular gameplay loop - do players have to sit through a lot of exposition and cut scenes? Does the game require playing a two-hour tutorial to get in. We consider that to be less "arcade style."
Arcade
A less than literal genre label referencing early games found in arcades, arcade or arcade-style games are usually typified now by a simplified gameplay loop, scoreboards, and usually very retro-inspired graphics. Many survivors-likes could probably be considered arcade games but we use it more to refer to games obviously aesthetically inspired.
Arcade Style
A little fuzzier than just "arcade", this is used in our spreadsheet categories to refer to games that have quick in and out, without having to sit through a lot of plot or tutorial. It might not be an arcade genre game, exactly, just quick into the action.
Arcade Style
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors throws players right into the action and then quickly back again, even with a quick start menu as soon as you open the game. During the run and after there is no exposition or plot, just your score, stats, gold acquired and the desire to do another run. Vampire Survivors differs from classical arcade games by offering rogue-lite metaprogression.
1.0
Osmos
Osmos is an action puzzle game that lets you select a level and jump in. Levels or procedural challenges don't take long to complete. It could be considered to be more arcade style than Vampire Survivors, but we cap off at a full positive 1 score.
0.7
Hades
Hades is a roguelite dungeon crawler with a very moving plot. But it takes place without interrupting the runs so much and runs still take around a half hour. While the runs are dungeon crawling and not wave survival, they are also tweaked to be around 30 minutes leaving it with a similar amount of arcade style in and out time as Vampire Survivors, despite a very different presentation. It gets a high positive score.
0.2
Cult of the Lamb
Cult of the Lamb is run based but the cult management mode is more than a minigame, requiring a large amount of gameplay between runs. It also has an ongoing plot that plays out through the game, which combined results in a low positive score.
0.1
Rogue
Rogue is an adventure game. While it's run based, it's supposed to feel like a deep adventure and many people never finish a run for a long time. Because it doesn't have the trappings of many modern games in terms of tutorial and cutscenes, we give it a tiny positive score and don't push it towards the negatives.
-0.9
Dwarf Fortress
Dwarf Fortress is also a roguelike, so technically each game starts as a run in a new world. But you can redeploy to the same world or recover an old spot for a new fortress and it's also an incredibly complex game with tons of menus and systems to learn. It simply doesn't feel like can arcade game, but we give it a tiny ding away from full negative since it doesn't have any sort of plot heavy intro either.
-1.0
Path of Exile
Path of Exile is an online action RPG where an incredibly epic and long story plays out over dozens or hundreds of hours of player gameplay with a single character. It has tutorials, dialog trees, cut scenes, you name it. Despite also featuring fast action, it doesn't want to be an arcade game, it wants to feel like the game goes on forever. So it gets a full -1 score.
7. Bullet Heaven A: Many Player Shots
Bullet Heaven is a new way to refer to games that are reverse bullet hells. In our scale, we try to ignore other elements (likely represented in other columns) and just focus on two particular ones. This first category, Bullet Heaven A, focuses on how many player shots or attacks there are, with a heavy preference for ranged attacks. The more possible, the higher the score, with some understanding of limitations of certain game engines.
Bullet Heaven
An excellent label for games where you shoot out tons of bullets and enemies do not. Bullets are your friends and you are in heaven. Most games designed as bullet heavens right now are survivors-likes, but the term could be safely applied to a variety of overpowered older shmups and be used in other contexts in the future.
Shots
Also referred to as 'bullets', this game mechanic is not always so literal. Any projectile or ranged weapon effect that does damage could be considered a shot. As an example, we might discuss how many player shots are needed to be considered a bullet heaven. In this subgenre, sometimes melee weapons are represented in a wide variety of ways that could be considered shots for our scoring.
Bullet Heaven A: Many Player Shots
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors allows the player to stack multiple weapons right from the start and gives them abilities through each run resulting in more and more projectiles. By the end of a run, especially for late game players, the screen is often completely filled with player projectiles. This is what many people refer to as bullet heaven and is the ideal for a full 1 score.
1.0
Spirit Hunters: Infinite Horde
Spirit Hunters: Infinite Horde is a tight to formula survivors-like that attempts to flood the screen with attacks. It really doesn't get over the top as Vampire Survivors but the game design philosophy seems to be trying to do the exact same thing, so we give it a full 1 score.
0.9
Time Wasters
Time Wasters is a space ship survivors-like that never gets quite as over the top as Vampire Survivors (few titles do) but is over the top enough for us to give it a 0.9 score. It allows you to get several weapons systems and level them as high as you can, flooding the screen with attacks. The distinction isn't huge, it would probably also be ok to give this a 1 score if your game is similar, but we think Time Wasters isn't exactly going for a full game breaking flood of bullets.
0.8
Path of Exile
Path of Exile likely is considered a hack and slash game and not a shooter by most people, but as you build up your character it is quite common for the screen to become covered in player attacks. This gives it a high positive score.
0.5
Risk of Rain
Risk of Rain starts off feeling like a difficult twitch shooting sidescroller, but through skill and experience you can build up to combos that unleash a flurry of projectiles. This gives it a partial score for Bullet Heaven A.
0.2
Hades
Hades is a quick and flashy hack and slash dungeon crawler where you're often slamming dashes and attacks together with triggered abilities to quickly clear mobs of enemies. There's a technically a gun, but it's not likely you'll be showering that many bullets. We give this an almost neutral 0.2 score.
0.0
Boneraiser Minions
Boneraiser Minions can have a lot of action on screen on the player's side so we don't give it a fully negative score, but it also has no shots coming out of the player. So we're giving it a solid 0.
-0.7
Cult of the Lamb
Cult of the Lamb is very similar to Hades in many ways, but has notably less projectile or screen wiping combos with attacks, giving it a solidly less aggressive score. It then falls further down since much of the gameplay has no attacks at all.
-1.0
Elden Ring
Elden Ring's brutal melee focused combat may technically have some projectiles available in terms of thrown weapons and spells, but the game is designed for the player to feel outmatched and of low power during almost all encounters. The game design philosophy is to never let the player feel like an action movie spiral of attacks or an all out god - so it gets a -1 score here.
8. Bullet Heaven B: Few Enemy Shots / Damage on Touch Focus
Bullet Heaven B helps clarify the relative power of the player in the equation - sure the player may have a lot of shots, but do the enemies also have a lot of shots? For the purposes of our scale, we can assume a 'full' bullet heaven is one where all bullets on the screen are good. However, our comparison game, Vampire Survivors, does contain periodic enemy projectiles. So we're using that as a benchmark.
Damage on Touch Focus
Almost always written together, this doesn't mean touch controls, rather that enemies in the game contact you to hurt you instead of sending projectiles or other sorts of attacks. Tag rules, basically.
Bullet Heaven B: Few Enemy Shots / Damage on Touch Focus
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors has bullets from enemies in rare encounters, but the gameplay mostly revolves around avoiding being touched by enemies. Its game design philosophy is around this tag mechanic and bullets often don't move much quicker than enemies or are parts of the enemy that then return to it. Since well over 99% of enemies killed by the player don't shoot, it's our benchmark for a 1 score.
1.0
Halls of Torment
Halls of Torment features thrilling boss and elite encounters, but the general hordes threaten you with a touch damage focus. It still earns a full 1 score on our scale.
0.6
Time Wasters
Time Wasters has lots of touch damage mobs, and also attacks during bosses that feel a little similar to games we still give a full store, but they're also more typical of traditional shmups and low level enemies later in a run send out bullets. So we give it a high positive but not totally full score.
0.5
Risk of Rain
Risk of Rain starts off feeling like a difficult twitch shooting sidescroller, but through skill and experience you can build up to combos that unleash a flurry of projectiles. This gives it a partial score for Bullet Heaven A.
0.3
Assault Android Cactus
Assault Android Cactus is a twin stick shooter that has a lot of popcorn enemies in addition to a variety that shoot. Since not every enemy shoots and generally the screen isn't flooded with bullets, it gets a not entirely neutral score.
0.0
Loop Hero
Loop Hero is a strategy game with no dodge or shoot mechanics available to the player. So we give it a safely neutral 0 score.
-0.5
Rogue
Rogue is an example of a hard to rate game - it has projectiles but it's also turn based and quite simple compared to many of these other games. If something is undeniably different, it doesn't always matter how exactly. We give it a partial negative score.
-1.0
Returnal
Returnal is a third person bullet hell requiring a great deal of dexterity to avoid constant enemy bullets. This gives it a fully negative score of -1.
Simple Movement Focused Controls - 7 Categories
The second category gets even more focused in on movement and control mechanics. The "single stick shooter" genre is especially important to disabled gamers and also there is something special about distilling gameplay down to a single control. Most of the columns in this category group are named in the negative like "No Trigger" to emphasize the difference. In this section we differentiate games by measuring increasing complexity in controls across seven categories: "1 Handed Play", "Move Only", "No Dash / Dodge / Boost", "No Trigger", "No Special Move Button", "No Aiming", "No On Attack / On Aim Movement Penalty."
Note: Several categories in this group are named in the negative, meaning a game will essentially have a double negative if it's diametrically opposed in that column. This might be confusing, but it's needed in order to give the game we're putting at the top of the chart a full score (a 1 in "no aiming" for Vampire Survivors.) Just check out the example scores if you get confused.
Due to importance for disabled games we are relatively strict with this category. It's fairly easy to earn a negative score via a game design philosophy difference, or really any mechanic that requires special attention to controls in these groups.
9. One Handed Play
One Handed Play is fairly straightforward if it's a single stick game. We don't count navigating the menu outside of the run or while leveling. If it's not a single stick game, if you can map a button to one side of the controller, it may get a full or partial score depending on how much the gameplay emphasizes that other control.
(See the meta info and control style taxonomies for tags on other control styles)
The particular categories for movement in this spreadsheet are helpful in tracking categories important to disabled gamers and to differentiate between the many very similar survivors-likes that differ just on controls. (Note: We're not using this as a euphemism.)
One Handed Play
In our spreadsheet categories, a game is given full points for 1 handed play when it is either move only or can have whatever buttons needed mapped to one or two buttons on one side of a controller or an accessible controller.
Controller
A human interface device, in specific these games are mostly tested and rated on an Xbox controller. But most games in this genre also have mouse or keyboard control.
One Handed Play
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors maps controls to a single stick. There are no other buttons. You might use your other hand to select while leveling up, but we're going to consider the action part of the game as the point to compare to here. So it's fully playable with one hand.
1.0
Brotato
Brotato includes an option to enable manual aiming but it doesn't need it, isn't really improved by it, and isn't designed around it. With no other controls in the action gameplay, it easily gets a full 1 point.
0.9
Chess Survivors
Chess Survivors has a fairly unique turn based hybrid system that includes essentially aiming your moves. It's easier to use both hands, but the positioning and clicking to confirm can be mapped to one side of the controller, so it gets a high score in one handed play.
0.8
Halls of Torment
Halls of Torment lets players toggle between auto aim and auto fire, resulting in large swaths of gameplay where only the joystick is used to move. Since early in a run using manual aim or fire can be beneficial it gets a high but not full score of 0.8.
0.5
Soulstone Survivors
Soulstone Survivors is a very typical survivorslike of the popular first wave, where it adds complexity in terms of controls. In this case, with a dodge-like ability and toggle-able auto aim. Since both the manual aim and the dodge seem heavily preferenced in gameplay, this gets a partial score. It's technically possible to play with auto aim and map the dodge to one side of the control, but it doesn't feel like the game is designed to accommodate it, so we give it a 0.5.
0.2
Rogue: Genesia
Rogue Genesia manages to still feel pretty zen at times, but the controls actually add a near constant dash, one character has manual trigger, and aiming is important. There's also a special move button that might figure into it. While much can be remapped and there's an option to turn on auto-aim, the game is designed around more hands-on action controls earning it an almost neutral 0.2 score.
0.0
HoloCure
HoloCure - Save The Fans is very similar to Vampire Survivors but adds a special move button and aim that are highly used during play. It's possible to build one-handed builds so it's not a complete negative in game design philosophy, but especially in the early game aiming is important. It has auto fire, but we still consider it primarily twin-stick shooter.
0.0
Peglin
Peglin is turn-based and doesn't require many button presses at once, but it also just doesn't feel designed to play with a single hand on a controller. The control is very different, so while it's perhaps possible to play single-handed, we nod to that difference by giving it a 0 neutral score.
-0.5
20 Minutes Till Dawn
20 Minutes Till Dawn is heavily aim-dependent for much of play, also requiring manual trigger press and special moves. However, some abilities auto-fire or trigger on other fire, or don't require aiming. That means it doesn't have an entirely negative score and we rely heavily on vibes, giving it a -0.5.
-1.0
Rogue Legacy
Rogue Legacy is a highly skill-based sidescrolling rogue-lite with buttons required to "trigger" a variety of abilities, making it near impossible to play one-handed.
-1.0
Risk of Rain 2
Risk of Rain 2 is a highly skill-based 3rd person shooter rogue-lite with heavy emphasis on aiming and buttons required to "trigger" a variety of abilities, making it near impossible to play one-handed. It's another example of a -1 on this category.
10. Move Only
Move Only refers to games where the game design philosophy heavily emphasizes only movement - in our case during primary gameplay and not navigating menus used to level or deal with other events like chests.
Move Only
In our categories, the "move only" label refers to a simple control scheme, usually just moving the left control stick to manipulate your character (except for when in menu / level dialog). Some games you can do this for a period of time or have optional auto aim or auto fire, but to get a full score in this category you need to have only one control.
Move Only
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors distills an action game down into a single control, just movement using the left control stick (we're evaluating games by controller unless the option doesn't exist.)
1.0
Gunlocked
Gunlocked feels like a game where you aim since you have to get enemies into specific positions to "lock on" and trigger your weapon fire. However, it's all done by moving your ship around, giving Gunlocked a full 1 point in Move Only.
1.0
Chess Survivors
Chess Survivors is a weird one, a turn based hybrid that requires aiming of a sort and a button press to confirm your move. However, this is all also technically moving. In the spirit of things, we give it a full 1.0 score, despite strange mechanics.
0.8
Scarlet Tower
Scarlet Tower is a tight to formula VS-like but adds a dash, aim and fire controls. However, aiming and firing may be best left on auto and dash is a movement skill, so we give Scarlet Tower a high partial score of 0.8 for Move Only.
0.2
Army of Ruin
Army of Ruin has aim and aim penalty, which slows down and complicates movement, but more importantly it also has a commonly used special move button. This gives it a pretty low score of 0.2, still a partial score since it does have auto-fire and focuses on movement as the primary gameplay mechanic.
0.0
Star Survivor
Star Survivor heavily prioritizes movement in gameplay, but a complicated mechanic earns it a neutral score. The boost relies heavily on aiming in a way that makes sense for the space setting but is quite challenging at first to get used to. This gives it a neutral score. It has a special ability that highly complicates the movement controls.
0.0
Time Wasters
Time Wasters has a very important dodge and also aiming as a prominent feature. This makes it a twin stick shooter primarily, even if it does have auto-fire. But you can play for long periods without having to dodge or aim. This gives it a neutral 0 for the absence of "Move Only" game design.
-0.5
Disfigure
Disfigure is a survivors-like that trends farther from the movement in Vampire Survivors by having heavy aiming importance both of a weapon and of the flashlight effect, plus most weapons on trigger and a special button to switch the flashlight. On our scale, this level of complication with controls earns a partial negative score in "Move Only."
-1.0
Binding of Isaac
Binding of Isaac is a top-down dungeon crawling twin-stick shooter that requires constant aiming, use of special moves or items, and trigger pulls. This puts it far enough from Vampire Survivors to earn a fully negative score in Move Only.
-1.0
Elden Ring
Elden Ring is a complicated 3rd person action RPG game with many controls always at your fingertips including aiming, attacks of multiple sorts, activated abilities, menus active during live play, and so on. This is very far from a Move Only game design so it gets a fully negative score.
11. No Dash / Dodge / Boost
Does the game have a movement-focused special ability that figures in? In this subgenre there are often other abilities triggered on dash, but for the purpose of this survey we're considering that all the same thing.
A boost might also be a "run" button or toggle. Sometimes this is a jump button if the game is significantly different! This category is phrased in the negative so our comparison game gets a full positive score.
Dash
A dash moves your character quickly across a distance on button press. Sometimes it is also a dodge, avoiding damage.
Dodge
A dodge moves your character quickly across a distance on button press. It usually avoids damage, sometimes with "i frames" of invincibility.
Boost
A boost moves the player very quickly through a distance on button press. Unlike a dodge or dash, it usually doesn't have invincibility, but every game (and sometimes build) handles the words differently. Used more in space games. Usually a boost allows you to control direction while moving faster.
No Dash / Dodge / Boost
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors has no other controls besides moving your character, so it gets a full score for No Dash/Dodge/Boost. Sometimes an item or skill or gameplay mode might change your relative speed, but there is no separate button to control this. This category is scored in the negative so our comparison game always gets a full score. Keep that in mind!
1.0
Assault Android Cactus
Assault Android Cactus is a top-down twin-stick shooter without any sort of separate movement speeding ability. It does have powerups that might make you move a little faster, but no separate move or toggle. It also gets a full 1 score.
0.5
Dwarf Fortress
Dwarf Fortress is an interesting example where we have to think outside the box. It doesn't have action gameplay with a single avatar. But it does have an 'increase speed' button that you'll be using often. But that button increases speed for everyone! Perhaps it gets a partial positive score since a control is involved but it impacts everyone.
0.5
Binding of Isaac
Binding Of Isaac has some abilities that would count towards this but they aren't encountered in every run. So it gets a partial score relying a fair amount on vibes. Some people may never encounter this kind of ability.
0.0
Spellbook Demonslayers
Spellbook Demonslayers is a survivors-like which adds a dash button (alongside optional aiming), earning it a solid 0.
-0.5
Disfigure
Risk of Rain 2 is a 3rd person shooter rogue-lite that has a dodge style ability for some characters. But it also has the ability to jump for all characters! So we give this a -0.5 for multiple abilities in this category and since they'll be used often.
-1.0
Hades
Hades is an isometric action rogue-lite that relies heavily on dashing in gameplay, with many abilities revolving around the dash. Due to the near constant use in probably every build, the slight shift in subgenre, and the importance of dash in buildmaking and not just avoiding enemies, it gets a full negative score. The gameplay design revolves around dashing.
12. No Trigger
Does the game require a button press to activate the main attack (or attacks.) This does not need to actually be mapped to the trigger. The game could have this mapped to a face button, a shoulder button, or a control stick press, for example.
To repeat, this includes twin stick shooters that require the control stick pressed in a direction to shoot as well as aim. If the game requires a trigger press, it gets a 0. If it revolves entirely around carefully timed trigger presses and nothing happens without them, it can earn a negative score.
This category is phrased in the negative so our comparison game gets a full positive score.
Trigger
When pressed, this button will set your gun off! Usually mapped to the right trigger on a controller, it doesn't actually have to be mapped to a trigger to be considered one for our discussion. Often this is a mouse click or a face button press.
Auto-fire
A mechanism, sometimes toggleable, where your attacks are constantly firing or are automatically triggered by enemies. You don't use a trigger or directional stick to fire, it just happens. Auto shooters generally use both auto aim and auto fire.
No Trigger
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors has no other controls besides moving your character, so it gets a full score for No Trigger.
1.0
Boneraise Minions
Boneraiser Minions is primarily a movement game while your summons damage the enemies and act as primary attacks. It does have a special move and a dodge but we put those scores in their own categories. We give it a full positive score for No Trigger.
1.0
Gunlocked
Gunlocked is an innovative vertically scrolling shmup where ship attacks are triggered by lock on conditions being met. Since the lock on happens purely when enemies move through your ship's reticules and there is no way to manually trigger attacks, this doesn't count as a manual trigger. Gunlocked gets a full 1 score for having No Trigger.
0.9
Rogue: Genesia
Rogue: Genesia has gameplay revolving around auto-fire for the vast majority of the game. However, there is one character who has manual fire. This optional way of playing being restricted to only one case lets us give Rogue: Genesia a high positive 0.9 score.
0.8
Halls of Torment
Halls of Torment has an optional trigger for attacks. Many players may prefer to play with it. But in our estimation the gameplay philosophy of Halls of Torment is to mimic the enjoyable movement focused design of Vampire Survivors. So we give it a high score, since you can play without needing the trigger at all.
0.4
Disfigure
Disfigure undeniably has a trigger! But some abilities are not trigger related and others trigger via cascading effects. Since it's pretty in survivors-like vibes in other ways a partial positive score seemed acceptable.
0.0
Chess Survivors
Chess Survivors is a hybrid turnbased game that requires a button press to finish your move. We could have called this button press a special move button or a dash button but we decided to put it in trigger since it's mapped to the trigger (and other buttons.) It doesn't really matter, all we want to do is show a point of difference from Vampire Survivors in the movement control categories and No Trigger seemed as good a place as any. We gave Chess Survivors a neutral 0 score for the "absence" of No Trigger.
-0.5
Reality Break
Reality Break is a classic top down twin stick space shooter wrapped around a Diablo 2 style ARPG. It's got some Vampire Survivors inspired elements, but the majority of attacks are reliant on trigger presses so we give it a negative score. However you can often just keep it down, kind of like an auto shooter, so we don't think the trigger is the full focus of the gameplay. It gets a -0.5 in No Trigger.
-1.0
Peglin
Peglin is a rogue-lite peggle-like, revolving heavily around carefully lining up shots and then pressing the trigger. It's not possible for gameplay to happen without that trigger press, so even though it's also technically turn based we give it a fully negative score in No Trigger.
-1.0
Path of Exile
Path of Exile is a complex Action RPG with many equippable skills mapped to many buttons and even separate suites of buttons accessible via hold downs or toggles. Any one of these could be said to be abilities requiring a manual trigger so we give it a full negative score in No Trigger.
-1.0
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 2 is an iconic first person shooter set in World War II with a great emphasis on manual trigger pulls. It doesn't just have a trigger, it's a trigger you pull specifically and carefully, making sure that every shot counts. The trigger is such a constant focus of gameplay that we give it a fully negative score in "No Trigger" (a double negative, meaning it would be a fully positive score in Trigger if the scale revolved around comparing games to Call of Duty 2.) On ours it gets a -1.
13. No Special Move Button
Does the game require a button press to activate special attacks or any other sort of special move, perhaps even just reloading, changing a flashlight, or some other non-dodge ability. This could be on a second trigger, a bumper, a control stick press, whatever. It doesn't matter as long as it's not the pause/menu. This is named "special move" since many survivors-likes call it that, but in practice is just a measure of control complexity alongside the other categories in this group.
This category is phrased in the negative so our comparison game gets a full positive score.
Special Move
Many simple games label an activated ability that's not your normal attack a "special move". Perhaps the game has auto fire and auto aim for everything except one special that charges up for 2 minutes before you can press a button and deploy it. In our category ranking, we might score a variety of things as a special move, like if there is already an attack, dodge, and movement controls, one other active button could be considered a special move. It doesn't really matter what button it is mapped to, just the complexity.
No Special Move Button
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors has no other controls besides moving your character, so it gets a full score for No Special Move Button.
1.0
Loop Hero
Loop Hero is an innovative strategy rogue-lite auto-battler where you place tiles on a map and manipulate inventory to help your hero during a run. While there isn't direct control, we already put a 0 in "no trigger" to note the increase in complexity. We consider the "pause" to allowed in any game as basic UI function not requiring its own category. So we're able to give Loop Hero a full 1 in not having a "special move" button. It doesn't have the level of complexity required for multiple neutral or negative scores here.
0.8
Assault Android Cactus
Assault Android Cactus is a twin stick shooter that requires you to switch between two weapons with the use of a button. It's not quite a special move and you don't use it all the time, but it is added complexity in the controls so we give it a partial positive score of 0.8.
0.0
Time Survivors
Time Survivors is a survivors-like that is very similar to Vampire Survivors in terms of controls with one major exception: A special move button used periodically in game. For example, the first character uses it to set up a decoy that distracts enemies for a period. It just has the one and it's only used periodically so we give it a neutral 0 in the scale for the presence of a feature.
0.0
Whisker Squadron: Survivor
Whisker Squadron: Survivor is a Star Fox style survivors-like that uses space rail shooter mechanics for each run. As such, it's got heavy emphasis on trigger (-1) and a dodge-style roll and boost that give it a negative score (-1) as well. It also has a bomb button, which you use less frequently. We've called that bomb button a "special move" and given it a 0 score in Special Move to try and represent the range of difference in the movement controls category.
-0.6
Binding of Isaac
Binding of Isaac has a variety of special moves, including placing a bomb and using an item, but it also doesn't use them constantly, at least not early on in runs. We give it a low negative score.
-1.0
Elden Ring
Elden Ring has a variety of additional moves beyond the trigger for a "main attack". We recorded the run/jump buttons as a -1 in the "No Dash/Dodge/Boost" category and the careful consideration for the main attack earned a -1 in "No Trigger". (It's also got a -1 in No Aiming and No On-Aim Attack Penalty, meaning it's a very different kind of game!) That still leaves a variety of moves such as strong attacks, blocks, parries, special moves with multiple buttons pressed at once, healing items, and so on. Elden Ring clearly has great complexity in controls so it earns an additional -1 in the "No Special Move" category.
14. No Aiming
Does the game require the player to manually aim attacks? Since we're primarily focusing on controller mapping, this usually means directing the right control stick either in the direction of fire or to position a reticule over the target being aimed at.
The mere existence of aiming would result in a 0, a high focus on aiming or aiming being required in every attack, or some other mechanic designed to add complexity to aiming (such as locking it in, requiring it to be held for a certain amount of time, multiple buttons involved in aiming, etc) could result in a negative score, to a possible -1.
This category is phrased in the negative so our comparison game gets a full positive score.
Auto-Aim
A mechanism, sometimes toggleable, where your attacks are automatically aimed at enemies. Not all movement only games have auto-aim - it could also always aim the direction you are facing in, or be un-aimable. Auto-shooters often use both auto-aim and auto-fire.
No Aiming
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors has no other controls besides moving your character. Your attacks happen automatically on a cooldown timer. They might be directed based on the direction you are facing in, so games with that mechanic can still get a full score for "No Aiming."
1.0
Boneraiser Minions
Boneraiser Minions has you moving around, dodging, and collecting resources, but you don't summon your troops directly, and there are no real separate mechanics for aiming, so it gets a full 1 score.
0.8
Spellbook Demonslayers
Spellbook Demonslayers is a survivors-like with aiming, but it has a toggle that can be used in play to turn on auto-aim. Soon into a run, auto-aim quickly becomes the most useful way to play (and is always available), so we give it a high partial score for "No Aiming".
0.5
Gunlocked
Gunlocked is an automatically vertically scrolling shmup with fairly unique mechanics. You only control your movement, but in a way you still do aim because you must move to the right position to have a reticule over an enemy. So we've given it a partial score of 0.5 in "No Aiming".
0.0
HoloCure
HoloCure is an over-the-top anime bullet heaven survivors-like which heavily preferences directional aiming with the right control stick during much of a run with some characters. While it has auto-fire and will continue to shoot attacks that aren't specifically aiming, aiming can help a great deal, especially early on. But later on, it's less important, and it's possible to make builds that don't use much aiming at all. Due to this, it gets a 0 since aiming is present but not entirely focused on.
-0.8
Time Wasters
Time Wasters is a top-down spaceship survivors-likes which heavily preferences directional aiming with the right control stick during much of a run. While it has auto-fire and will continue to shoot attacks that aren't specifically aiming, aiming can help a great deal. It feels like the gameplay is designed around aiming with most builds, but it's possible to not aim late game or to make a build without aiming required. So it has a strongly negative but not entirely negative score of -0.8.
-1.0
Returnal
Returnal is a third-person shooter rogue-lite with a heavy emphasis on dodging bullets and aiming attacks back. While it's true some weapons require less aiming and may automatically track, the gameplay is highly tuned around facing the right direction with the right control stick and getting the targeting reticule on top of enemies, or often near them to fire ahead. You're constantly aiming in Returnal, so it gets a fully negative score in "No Aiming".
15. No On Attack / On Aim Movement Penalty
Does the game negatively impact the player's movement while attacking or aiming? This is often subtle, but it highly impacts gameplay. A game will often slow the player down while aiming, often increasingly depending on the intensity and range of the weapon. For example, a player may have to near stop to use a bazooka, or slow way more than normal while aiming down a scope of a sniper rifle instead of the iron sights of an uzi. In a more melee range focused game, a character might come to a stop to throw a punch, or slow down while aiming a special move that shoots them across. They might be carried forward at a slower speed while using a sword and then come to a stop at the end of a swing.
This mechanic is common in many action games, but the lack of it is also a common feature of other genres. For example, in spaceship shmups the average attack is usually done without impacting the speed of the player (sometimes they slow for specials or bombs.) A third person pilot game also usually allows for strafing, some classic "boomer" shooters heavily feature run and gun gameplay, and the twin stick shooter convention of quick movement while firing is especially relevant to the subsection of games we are studying. Most auto-shooters in the survivors-likes genre preference restriction free movement, but some notably do not.
On Attack / On Aim Movement Penalty
When you are aiming or firing your weapon, your movement slows down. In some games, you stand completely still while aiming or firing. This category measures that impact on your movement.
No On Attack / On Aim Movement Penalty
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors doesn't slow or impact the movement of the player in any way when a weapon fires.
1.0
Boneraiser Minions
Boneraiser Minions doesn't impact or slow the player in any way when the player's units are summoned. We're concerned most with whatever primary attack is.
0.8
Army of Ruin
Army of Ruin doesn't slow you down while firing in general, but it does slow you down while aiming, to a stop. It's not often you'd want to aim, so we don't give it a totally negative score and in fact leave it at a high positive score of 0.8.
0.0
Returnal
Returnal is a third-person shooter roguelite with heavy action elements. You generally slow down while aiming and firing, though it can depend on the weapon. It's not a huge slowdown so while the feature is there the player will not be thinking about it constantly, earning it a fairly neutral 0.0 for the existence of the feature but not centering it in the game design.
-0.5
Hades
Hades is a hack and slash isometric dungeon crawling roguelite that puts a variety of weapons with unique control styles in players' hands. Some of these come to a full stop while firing, but almost all of them can be combined in action with a dash, leading to a very free-moving style feel to the gameplay. The feature is there and very important, but it's also mixed in with another important style of playing, so we give Hades a fairly negative but not entirely negative -0.5 score.
-1.0
Bounty of One
Bounty of One is a western-themed survivors-like with a clever twist on the movement. The character generally only fires while standing still. The player doesn't control the trigger, just if they are moving or not, but this is effectively an On Attack Movement Penalty that is central to the game design. So we give it a fully negative score on "No" penalty.
Survival Game Modes - 4 Categories
The third category group tracks the inclusion of survival game modes typical of the "survivors" genre. Games ranked on this scale are evaluated first on if these include these modes - they don't lose points for including another mode like campaign or dungeon crawl. These categories can be thought of as "weighted", with it almost impossible to get a negative score. It's not clear exactly how different a level that takes a half hour is from a dungeon crawl, etc, so we are just worried about presence or not of the feature in question.
However, if the mechanics are within another game mode, they might get partial points. Categories in this group are "Timed Survival / Boss Mode", "Endless Mode", "Unannounced & Organic Waves", and "High Enemy Count (Horde)".
16. Timed Survival / Boss Mode
Does the game include genre typical "survivor" game styles, namely are they challenged to survive to the end of a clock? We lump "Boss Mode" in with this specifically because in many of these titles on some stages the end of the stage is punctuated by the arrival of a harder "boss" enemy. Whether your goal then is to run out the clock while surviving the boss's presence or to beat the boss to end the run, we consider this both to be variations on the same sort of run and both earn a full 1 score.
We have some flexibility for game modes that are technically surviving until the end of a certain amount of waves, as long as it's similar in terms of run time and gameplay.
Sometimes a game may be technically endless but designed around a certain time so heavily that it essentially is attempting to kill you and end your run at that point. See examples for how we score that!
In this section, it would be very rare to get a negative score. It can be considered "weighted" towards a 0 or above.
Timed Survival
Also written time survival, this is a gameplay mode where the player is challenged to survive until the end of a countdown. Many games simply refer to this as "survival." We may refer to it as a "survivor" mode if it includes other elements of subgenre typical gameplay.
Boss Mode
In wave survival games there is often a point where a boss arrives to cap off the level. While it's a survival game mode, the final challenge is to beat the boss after the timer not survive to the end of a timer.
Timed Survival / Boss Mode
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors default mode challenges you to survive 30 minutes, after which death shows up to end your run (though death can technically be beaten!)
1.0
20 Minutes Till Dawn
20 Minutes Till Dawn is a twin-stick shooter survivors-like where players must survive for 20 minutes to complete a run. Full point!
1.0
Chess Survivors
Chess Survivors breaks up each run into several levels, but they are each timed. Altogether, a run takes place in a similar amount of time and you spend the whole time running down a clock, so it gets a full point for timed survival modes.
0.8
Binding of Isaac
Binding of Isaac: Rebirth + includes a wave survival mode called Greed where groups of enemies come at the player. It's not the primary mode, and isn't formatted exactly the same way, but within it there are many features shared with survivors-likes such as upgrades, a vendor, difficulty modifiers and so on. We give it a high positive score of 0.8. (We also give it a partial 0.8 score for Endless Mode since it's possible to make that happen within this mode.)
0.8
Risk of Rain 2
Risk of Rain 2's default mode is endless, but it's heavily structured around levels with timed survival and organic waves, sometimes accompanied by bosses. Despite the overall difference in how it's set up, functionally it's rarely actually endless, with short runs always with an eye to the clock. We give it a high partial score of 0.8. The same as Isaac - though that one has it in an optional separate mode and this other has it built into endless runs between several mechanics.
0.7
Breakout Survivors
Breakout Survivors is a block-breaking survivors-like mashup that technically has endless runs. However, the game's difficulty continues to increase after about 20 minutes while the upgrades do not. The dev has noted in our interview that this is designed to push the run to an end around 25 minutes. Since it's based around a specific time that the upgrades end, we give it a high partial score.
0.1
Path of Exile
Path of Exile is a sprawling action RPG that sometimes has little timed wave survival events within its dungeons or maps, so we give it a little positive score.
0.0
Loop Hero
Loop Hero is a strategy rogue-lite autobattler with an interesting plot that plays out over several chapters. It's normal to end a run by 'returning home' after defeating a boss that shows up at the end of a chapter. It's almost impossible to progress without metaprogression much farther past one boss - so for much of the game it feels a little bit like a boss mode. However, it's technically endless and possible to have a perfect 'endless' run, really the prime appeal for many players. Since the average run is likely still around 30 minutes and ends with a boss or soon after, we give it a fairly neutral 0. In fact, we're not going to go below zero with any example.
0.0
Hades
Hades is a dungeon crawling hack and slash roguelite that challenges you to fast runs, but the goal is to escape the dungeon, not to run out a clock. Without moving forward, there's no way to advance and waves don't keep spawning in a room. Since it doesn't have the survival mode, it also gets a 0 for the absence.
0.0
Peglin
Peglin is a level-based puzzler. It also gets a zero.
0.0
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 2 is an FPS with a level-based campaign. It also gets a zero for timed survival modes.
-1.0
Godstrike
Godstrike is a top-down isometric shooter that feels incredibly far from Vampire Survivors, since instead of a horde survival mode the only mode in the game is a "boss rush" where you must defeat a boss before a timer counts down or you lose. It's almost the polar opposite of a timed survival mode since instead of trying to last for a half hour, you're trying to beat a target in something like 5 minutes and every hit you take gives you less time. There's no running away or delaying, just attacking as quickly as possible. As a player, you're hoping for the exact opposite thing to happen with the clock - for it not to run out.
17. Endless Mode
Does the game have a mode where the run goes on forever, at least in theory. Most games are still tuned to have the player either be defeated or choose to end the run around a half hour or less. But some rogue-like games can functionally go on forever, as can many simulation, base builder, and MMO games. Technically these could be considered endless modes, but we're generally referring to more arcade style survival challenges. In that respect, we're really only counting modes that reward players for surviving against enemies for long periods of time.
Some older games might not actually technically have an endless mode without end, but are designed for players to never know that. Depending on the depth of it, we might make allowances in the scoring.
In this section, it would be incredibly rare to get a negative score. It can be considered "weighted" towards a 0 or above.
Endless Mode
A survival game mode where the player is challenged to last as long as they can. In theory, endless. In actuality, you or your computer will crash at some point. In many survivors-likes endless mode is an option you can select upon completing a timed survival or boss mode challenge - like your build? Keep going!
Endless Mode
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors requires a fair amount of work to get there, but once you've proceeded to a certain point you unlock the ability to continue endlessly. Notably, you still get full advancement in this mode and can use it to work on a variety of other challenges. Probably at some point your game will crash, but we don't hold it against it.
1.0
HoloCure
HoloCure is a survivors-like that allows you to choose endless mode on a stage. It works as advertised, and we give it a full point.
1.0
Risk of Rain
Risk of Rain is a sidescrolling rogue-lite where you survive waves while moving from area to area. The gameplay is endless by default, though it will be a long time before new players see run times of any real length. Risk of Rain gets a full point for endless mode.
0.7
Bounty of One
Bounty of One lets you select endless mode if you want to keep playing at the end of the boss that shows up during timed survival. However, this mode doesn't allow you to get achievements or unlocks, so it's literally less rewarding. For this reason, we ding it a little bit, giving it 0.7 for Endless Mode - it's just a little different, but we're not saying it's worse.
0.7
Reality Break
Reality Break is a top-down spaceship action RPG with roguelite features that sometimes features wave survival within longer runs. It's not a typical endless or timed mode, but has a similar challenge, so we give it a relatively high positive score.
0.5
Assault Android Cactus
Assault Android Cactus is a twin-stick shooter with a primary level based campaign mode, but it also includes a "drive" mode with both a "daily" and "infinite" drive. The infinite drive is not technically endless, but the intention for many players is for it to appear so, so we give it a partial positive score of 0.5.
0.0
Halls of Torment
Halls of Torment is a survivors-like similar to Vampire Survivors in many ways, but devs have stated they have no intention of making an endless mode, instead focusing on making sessions harder and interesting in different ways. It gets a full 0 for the absence of an endless mode feature.
0.0
Nomad Survival
Nomad Survival is another survivors-like where the dev has spoken up about their feeling against an endless mode, saying it wouldn't be as fun as players think it would be. The absence is represented by a zero on our scale.
0.0
Peglin
Peglin is a level-based puzzler. It gets a zero for endless modes, though some fans have modded it in.
0.0
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 2 is an FPS with a level-based campaign. It also gets a zero for endless survival modes.
18. Unannounced & Organic Waves
This is a fairly focused breakdown of the wave survival mechanic, this time specifically referring to if the waves of enemies are announced or not. An announced wave might have the number of the wave advertised, might be punctuated by a break in enemies arriving or a break in gameplay altogether, it might be broken down into rounds. Non-organic waves are a common feature in tower defense and horde shooter games, giving you time to prep for the next wave.
Unannounced and organic waves show up without an indication to the player other than more enemies showing up. It can result in a gameplay loop that blends into a longer zen experience instead of tight and tactical rounds. However, this doesn't mean waves need to be totally randomized. Vampire Survivors uses enemy waves on a timer along with a wave fill mechanic that spawns additional enemies if the quota of on-screen enemies is not met (too many died, fell behind, etc). They spawn just outside the screen and can despawn if the player moves away from them. The feeling, however, is of wading through organically arrayed enemies.
In this section, it would be incredibly rare to get a negative score. It can be considered "weighted" towards a 0 or above. We don't want to separate similar games here too much from each other on our scale simply for handling wave announcement, but it can be an important feature to track, as some players really prefer one style or the other, and a game that gets it "wrong" might not be enjoyed at all.
(This is one of the main differences between Vampire Survivors and Brotato-style auto-shooters, others being super accurate auto-aim, small arenas, and level up on round end instead of XP gather level events.)
Wave
Waves refer to a group of enemies that shows up all at once. They can be announced in rounds or show up organically. A wave could be a giant horde, a boss, or a small group of tactical enemies. All that matters is they show up together.
Organic Waves
Also referred to as "unannounced waves", this means that waves come in without any on-screen text and often before you've finished clearing a previous wave. Sometimes this is done through a mechanic I like to call wave fill, where enemies are brought in to fill gaps left by dead ones in previous waves, but I'm not sure of the official name.
Wave Fill
I'm not sure of the exact name for this mechanic, but it refers to a method used in Vampire Survivors and many other games to fill out dead enemies killed in a previous wave by spawning more enemies or tweaking the numbers in the next wave event. I think it is called or related to 早回し in Japanese.
Unannounced & Organic Waves
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors accomplishes organic feeling waves by hiding any sort of timer and by filling waves using a mechanic based on how many enemies are currently on screen. It's not truly randomized, but it feels somewhat unpredictable to the player.
1.0
Sea of Survivors
Sea of Survivors is a nautical survivors-like where new boats head in from the edge of the screen throughout your run. It feels quite similar to Vampire Survivors so it gets a full 1 score.
1.0
Risk of Rain 2
Risk of Rain 2 mostly sends enemies at you at a steady but unpredictable pace. There are triggerable events that will increase the enemies or change the composition of waves, but this also is possible in Vampire Survivors, so they share a full 1 score for Organic Waves.
0.9
Spellbook Demonslayers
Spellbook Demonslayers feels very oriented around typical survivors-like organic waves, but there is an ability to interrupt individual enemies as they spawn in, which shows a red X where they will spawn. It's not in every build and there is no separation into rounds or other announcing of the wave as a whole so it still gets a high positive score.
0.5
Path of Exile
Path of Exile is a long progression action RPG with periodic wave survival modes and events within the campaign. When exploring enemy spawns feel fairly organic, but during wave events they're often punctuated by warnings or counters. We give it a partial score in organic waves.
0.2
Hades
Hades is an isometric hack and slash dungeon crawling rogue-lite. It mostly consists of moving to new rooms and defeating enemies - but within those rooms there are generally a few small waves. They feel kind of organic and can overlap, but the enemy waves are limited within that room and the spawns can be announced, so we give it a low positive score of 0.2.
0.0
Brotato
Brotato differs from Vampire Survivors here in two ways, by having enemy spawns announced by a red X in the arena, and by having gameplay broken up into rounds. So it gets a 0 for the absence of organic waves. In some categories, we might go into the negatives for such a stark difference, but we consider this a subtle category among wave defense games. We don't want to go into the negative because we'd move similar games too far from each other. A very dissimilar game in this category group would likely get a 0 in all four survival mode categories.
0.0
Dead Cells
Dead Cells is a challenging melee sidescroller rogue-lite focused mostly on dungeon crawling style runs. It doesn't really have wave survival at all, just enemies you encounter in the dungeon, so it gets a 0 in organic waves.
0.0
Osmos
Osmos is a level-based puzzler. The "enemies" in each area never spawn in or increase. So it gets a 0 also.
0.0
Dwarf Fortress
Dwarf Fortress is a roguelike colony sim. You can change notification settings, but by default enemy invasions are announced by a loud sound and pop up, so it gets a zero in unannounced waves. As you can probably tell, we're not really assigning less than 0 in this category.
19. High Enemy Count (Horde)
This category refers to the number of enemies in a wave and on screen in general. If there's a very high enemy count, we call that a "horde." Some allowances made for the capabilities of a game engine and how enemies are displayed - a 3D zombie first-person shooter might technically have a lower number of enemies on screen but still be considered a horde shooter. If your screen is full and you can't see anything but enemies, that's probably a horde.
In this section, it would be rare but possible to get a negative score. It can be considered "weighted" towards a 0 or above. We don't want to separate similar games here too much from each other simply for a different number of enemies. Games that differ in large ways probably will get 0 scores in this whole category group.
Horde
High enemy count, a particularly big group of enemies. Not just constantly coming at you, but coming at you 100 at a time.
High Enemy Count (Horde)
Scoring Examples
1.0
Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors can have an incredible number of enemies on screen. Since it's got a pixel art style that uses simple sprites for each enemy and fairly simple movement mechanics, it can simply stack the count to absurd levels. We can't expect every game engine and style to handle this amount of enemies, but Vampire Survivors hordes are our comparison point.
1.0
Path of Exile
Path of Exile is a complex action RPG with many complicated mechanics and more computer intensive graphics possible on screen at once. Despite this, it manages to periodically have absurd amounts of enemies, to the point we give it a full point here.
1.0
Osmos
Osmos is a level-based physics puzzler where each level starts full of 'enemies' and you're challenged to navigate and overcome them. While it doesn't send hordes of new enemies at you constantly, the large number of starting challenge and the vibe of being outnumbered allows it a full point.
0.9
Disfigure
Disfigure is a tense horror-themed survivors-like with shadowy enemies constantly just outside your flashlight range. It certainly feels like they're endless, but at the same time it never seems to have quite as many on screen. Rather, it seems to preference the idea of lurking horror versus a visible horde. We nod to the intended vibe with a very high positive score of 0.9.
0.7
Risk of Rain 2
Risk of Rain 2 is a third-person shooter roguelite with several wave elements and a lot of enemies to throw at you. Perhaps because of the aim and shoot style action and the 3D engine, it doesn't prioritize a huge horde of enemies though it does want you to feel overwhelmed. So we give it a high positive score.
0.2
Returnal
Returnal is a third-person shooter roguelite somewhat similar to Risk of Rain 2, but with an even higher graphical fidelity and even more of a focus on enemy bullets. With both of those other things pulling on the gameplay, it's not a surprise that it doesn't have as many enemies on screen at once. We give it a low positive score of 0.2.
0.0
Elden Ring
Elden Ring often challenges you to handle just one or two enemies at once, so we give it a 0. It's not entirely diametrically opposed though since you also often feel overwhelmed by the few enemies that are there.
-0.5
Monster Hunter
Monster Hunter series games are about challenging great beasts, but there are also smaller enemies around in general, so it doesn't get a fully negative score.
-1.0
Godstrike
Godstrike is a top-down boss rush game where every enemy encounter is with a massive boss. All of them are, essentially, 1 versus 1 and thus diametrically opposed to a "horde".
-1.0
Street Fighter
Street Fighter is a 1 v 1 fighter. It's really different from the games we're tracking, and we don't expect many games like this on the list. But just in theory, a game where you only have one or no opponents would get a negative score on high enemy count.
SCORING GUIDE IN PROGRESS!
Everything past this point incomplete, sorry!
Power Progression - 4 Categories
The fourth category group measures mechanics that increase the player's powers through the course of a game within a run and outside a run. This includes "Level on XP Gain Run Event", "Level Choices", "Currency Based Meta Unlocks", and "Goal Based / Find Based Meta Unlocks."
Level
In RPG and roguelike games, generally a level refers to when you gather enough of a resource through gameplay to reach a threshold where you get a notification and a chance to improve your character by boosting stats or picking abilities. In many survivors-likes, when you level or fill up whatever bar you are filling, you are presented with items and weapon upgrades instead of skill trees and passive perks, but they function to make a build. We try to refer to the areas play takes place in as maps or stages to avoid confusion.
XP
Experience is a resource that players gain, usually by killing enemies. In survivors-likes usually you also have to pick up your XP resource from the ground after killing, adding another layer to the gameplay. In this context it doesn't have to be labeled XP. It can be any resource a player uses to level up (or trigger new card draw or whatever equivalent.)
Run Event
An event that happens during a run. Usually this refers to an interstitial dialog a player is presented with, though technically wave spawns, quest triggers, and so on are all run events. In our category, we refer to "level on XP gain run event," which means after the player gains a certain amount of experience, they are presented with a dialog to level up. This is in contrast to being presented with all your levels at once on wave end, for example.
20. Streamlined Level Choices
Simply put, when you level up you are presented with choices and they are simplified to make leveling quick and keep you in the action. This is in contrast to passive level ups, for example, which apply to you or your items without any interaction. In survivors-likes you are often presented with 3-4 options, making it quick to choose and continue playing your run while offering a lot of randomization.
This is also somewhat in contrast to ARPG style skill trees - level choices are generally presented without being able to see the other skill trees. You have to pick and go with it. Sometimes these games pick simple UI over showing you all the stats and some players prefer this.
Currency
Used to refer to in-game collectibles required for various reasons within runs and to unlock permanent progression between runs. This could be gold, jewels, souls, whatever. Survivors-like players seem to generally prefer a simple system with just one metaprogression currency, as it can get confusing and take too long between runs. For example, Vampire Survivors just has gold, which can also be spent within a run.
Unlocks
Features and content the player gains access to through play or by spending in-game currency.
Meta Unlocks
Meta progression that the player is congratulated for and earns through gameplay. Currency based meta unlocks require a resource gathered during play (like gold) to be spent on a variety of options, while goal based and find based meta unlocks become available to players as they complete challenges or find items and secrets on their runs.
Metaprogression
A feature of roguelites and also plenty of arcade games, this means that you can increase or modify your power between runs. This is usually done via currency based unlocks and goal/find based unlocks. It can include anything from passive stat boosts to new maps, top items, weapons, characters, and even gameplay features like auto-aim.
Depth of Buildcrafting - 5 Categories
The fifth category group measures the depth of player-created builds possible through the gameplay mechanics. This is a pretty important set of categories for a rogue-lite game, as build complexity and how it builds up to it are a big part of what keeps people invested in trying a new run. The categories include "Build Crafting", "Impactful Level / Item Options", "Weapon Combination / Evolution", "Interesting Weapon, Item, Ability Synergy", and "Invincible / Broken Builds Possible."
Build
A noun that refers to the total of a player's skills and abilities, and the intended set they hope to get through play. For example, I might plan to play a "fire" build in a game and look for skills and items that work together to increase my fire damage. Builds can get very complex and interesting or be direct and simple. See also: Buildcrafting
Buildcrafting
The process of and quality of options for deciding what build you will create on a run. A game has a high degree of buildcrafting if it has many build choices (abilities, weapons, items, etc) and good synergy among the choices. But satisfaction with buildcrafting in a game is also very subjective - sometimes complexity can be tiresome, so it doesn't exactly just measure complexity.
Impactful Level / Item Options
Impactful, in our context, means that taking an option during leveling, when finding or selecting an item during a run has a major impact on play. This is in contrast to incremental level options. For example, an impactful level option will double the projectiles from my weapon. An incremental level option might increase my damage 2%. One of the big features of survivors-likes as a genre is highly impactful level options, often to the point of over-the-top insanity.
Incremental Level Options
In contrast to impactful options, this means only a small change is made during a level up. Players in the survivors-like genre often use the word incremental in a derogatory context. More useful in long-form RPGs (like a souls-like, MMO, or ARPG) where you slowly craft a build along hundreds of hours.
Item
Broadly anything the player can pick up, loot or select that isn't an innate stat. Usually coming with its own stats, and in survivors-likes, upgrade paths and synergies. Perhaps even combinations. This could be inclusive of weapons, but generally we consider weapons/attacks their own thing in the categorization. However, Armor is fairly rare in these games and just considered items.
Combination
In Vampire Survivors and many similar games it is possible to not only have synergies between your items, weapons, and abilities, but to actually combine them to make new items, weapons, or abilities, which can then be upgrades separately. In many games this takes two slots of equipables and makes them one. Usually this combination is much more powerful, referred to in some games as an "evolution." See also: Evolution.
Evolution
A more powerful equippable or ability, usually gained in a survivors-like by combining two max level items or weapons. Mechanic wise there are a lot of twists on this so a game can get a full point in it by having something similar available for late run twists. See also: Combination.
Synergy
Broadly, the interactions between various selectable systems in the game. Usually between active and passive abilities, weapons, items, and temporary buffs. A lot of different options for satisfying synergy contributes to the enjoyable buildcrafting in a game. Synergies are most often found passively increasing the power of similar moves, but interesting synergies go past the obvious to change the shape, behavior, and visuals via unexpected player discovered interactions. See also: Impactful.
Invincible
A player with an invincible build is effectively immortal and unable to take damage. Players enjoy trying to create an invincible build while playing in endless mode, as the true test of their buildcrafting is the ability to create a build so powerful they can simply put down the controller and walk away and never die. Some game design philosophy encourages this, other games are made so this is not possible. But survivors-like fans seem to prefer the possibility. See also: Broken.
Broken
Not to be taken literally, this refers to a player crafted build during a run (or a combination used in such a build) that is so successful that it "breaks" the game and there is no challenge possible for the rest of the run. Likely the build is killing enemies so quickly or healing so successfully it's simply not possible for it to be killed before it has gained enough XP to (often through an auto level option once you're at a certain point) to keep ahead of the curve. This is seen as a major goal - to discover themselves and make a broken build in the game - of many survivors-likes players. See also: Invincible.
Map / Stage Features - 7 Categories
The sixth category group looks at the stage features often present within these subgenres, including some that mimic exploration and dungeon crawling in related games by having a lot to do on the map. This includes "Explorable Maps", "BIG Maps", "XP / Currency on Ground", "Health on Ground", "Temp Powerups / Items on Ground", "Treasure Chests and / or Loot Events", and "Vendors on Map / Run".
Map
Also referred to as "stage", we try not to refer to this as "level" to avoid confusion with RPG inspired mechanics. A map is the playfield for a survivors-like. In our scale we measure if a map is explorable and if it is big. Sometimes a game with basically no map, just a box or single screen to play in, is called an arena shooter.
Ground
Broadly this refers to things being left behind by enemies, objects, or unlockables and available for pick up or absorption by the player. An asteroid dropping a power-up is functionally the same thing - the floating power-up is on the "ground." In our comparison, we look closest at if XP, unlock currency, food, and power-ups are "on the ground," as attempting to gather these things up while dodging enemies is an enjoyable and common mechanic.
Health
Referring both to the amount of damage a player can take and to healing items available left behind by enemies.
Powerup
Probably the most famous power-up is the mushroom in Mario. This can be any item, usually temporary by time or until hit, that changes the behavior of the game. For our scaling, we include things like magnets that gather XP up power-ups.
Treasure Chest
An in-run object a player can open in order to find something within. It could be a literal treasure chest, but we also count a variety of things where the loot or power-up isn't dropped directly on the ground. In survivors-likes chests often drop from enemies and contain a great deal of randomization as to their contents. In a space shooter, something like a cargo ship that doesn't shoot or harm you might be considered a treasure chest. See also: Loot Event
Loot Event
In survivors-likes players often don't click on enemy bodies to loot like in RPGs, things are going to fast. But not all loot is dropped immediately, sometimes a player might need to stay in an area for a certain amount of time, kill a certain amount of enemies, or other small challenge. This might then result in a treasure chest becoming unlocked, portal opened, or other in-game event which results in some loot and/or XP. This adds some variety into the run. See also: Treasure Chest.
Vendor
Also known as a merchant, in our scale we are looking for if there is a mechanism for exchanging currency and picking rewards with an NPC within a run, not just buying upgrades or unlocks outside of a run.
Run
In roguelikes, roguelites, and arcade games, a run refers to the primary gameplay that takes place after you've gone past the main menu. Often games are optimized around a 30-minute or shorter run, but endless mode can go on forever and many roguelikes can be played for hundreds of hours during a single permadeath run.
Depth and Breadth of Content - 9 Categories
The seventh category group looks at the variety of content included in games like this, which can be referred to as "breadth" and can also be indicative of "depth". It's possible for a game to have a lot of content technically - like many characters - but not a lot of depth - like perhaps no character actually includes different gameplay mechanics, just palette swaps. We try to take both into account. The categories in this group are "Enemy Variety", "Elites & Bosses", "Many and / or Interesting Player Characters", "Many Challenges", "Multiple Stages / Maps", "Difficulty Modifiers & Rewards", "Bestiary / Lore", "Achievements", and "Secrets."
Enemy Variety
We're a little loose with the requirements in our scale here, mostly worrying about if there is a fun feeling variety of enemies and not how different their mechanics are. Sometimes a game is better with few mechanics among the enemies, but still depends on visual differences to keep it feeling fresh. That's ok sometimes!
Elites & Bosses
In our scale, we look to see if the hordes are broken up by unique feeling encounters with big baddies or challenging opponents. Depending on the context, these are referred to as elites or bosses.
Many and/or Interesting Player Characters
We don't take this quite as seriously as RPG games might, really looking for both interesting mechanics and visuals for the selectable characters or ships, etc. A game might have interesting characters if conditions on the character require the player to play very differently or drastically change how common mechanics in the game may work. They also get points if the characters are well designed and fun to look at. A game with 10 or more might have a 1 score here, a game with 1 fully realized character might get a 0 score, and a game where the intention is there to be is no character, a basic shape or stick figure might have a -1.
Many Challenges
In our ranking we're not referring to just a game being challenging, but the player being informed of and congratulated for challenges in-game. Often these are linked to unlocks, but sometimes this is just a checklist or for achievements. No matter how implemented, visible challenges to try keeps players coming back for one more run.
Multiple Stages
Notably, this doesn't say many stages. Several distinct stages with different gameplay elements might get as high a score here as a dozen differently skinned but highly interchangeable maps or arenas. See also: Maps.
Difficulty Modifiers & Rewards
Going further beyond just easy or hard mode, many survivors-likes allow players to choose from a variety of (often unlockable) stage modifiers to mix up their runs and get unique rewards. For example, an option to increase enemy speed or damage in return for more XP or metaprogressoin currency.
Bestiary & Lore
This category marks if a game has an in-game unlockable and browsable database of monsters and various other features. In particular, a full score requires more than just a list of all abilities, attacks, and items. Monster listings can also be useful for stats, weaknesses, etc in order to let players craft strategy, but many fans simply enjoy being able to browse the sprites and see the names of monsters after defeating a certain amount of them. Since these are often arcade-style games, much of the vibe and feel of the game comes from things like monster names and these menus.
Achievements
Unlockable challenges in-game that usually also correspond with platform achievements. These can be tied to challenges presented to players and unlocks, or totally unexpected flavor earned through unlikely scenarios. Every game does it a little differently!
Secrets
No spoilers! Broadly referring to edge case items of interest from easter eggs to cheats and hidden characters. Another level of depth that many classic games indulge in. We try to ask devs if there are secrets in their game, but not spoil them! Anything a dev considers a secret is fair game on a score card.
Aesthetics - 6 Categories
The eighth category group measures how similar in a philosophical approach to aesthetics a game is to Vampire Survivors (our point of comparison.) We measure this fairly broadly - looking at if it feels like the game wants to appeal to the same instincts and not if it's strictly horror fantasy themed like our point of comparison. However, some of these categories do have more functional impact, as a pixel art style for example enables different things in a game engine versus a 3d rendered style. Similarly for a lo-fi game or triple-A first party game. Damage numbers has a gameplay effect, Bumpin' music contributes to how you play. These categories are "Retro / Pixel Art Style", "Damage Numbers", "Lo-Fi Charm", "Bumpin' Music", "Unique/Fun Names/Writing" and "Subtle Humor.
Aesthetics
In our context, broadly all of the things that give a game its feel in terms of visual art, audio effects, music, writing, description flavor, etc.
Retro
Referencing older styles of art and video games. A game with a pixel art style mimicking SNES games might have a retro art style. So might a game with neon vectors. Sometimes also referred to as vintage art style when it's very old - like Pong style.
Pixel Art
Per Wikipedia: A form of digital art drawn with graphical software where images are built using pixels as the only building block. We give games full scores in this aesthetic category when they have 2.5d art like Rogue Genesia or other similar vibes as well. We're measuring aesthetically, not scientifically. But there is an importance gameplay wise, leading to the inclusion on the scale. Games with pixel art are often able to have much more going on screen and slower movement can also feel more immediate. 3D rendered characters often look like they are moving in slow motion in a survivors-like, with characters looking to walk through molasses if a game designer isn't careful.
Damage Numbers
A visual flair many gamers enjoy (and enjoy the ability to toggle) being able to see the damage of your attacks against enemies can offer precision to build crafting and give a feeling of progression as you start off doing one or two damage in a run and end up doing tens of thousands per hit. A great feature to include.
Lo-Fi Charm
Roughly, does a game feel charming due to its perhaps homemade, humble, indie feel. A game like Chess Survivors may be a little janky, but it's sincere and earnestly fun, winning full points in Lo-Fi Charm. This is one of our fuzzy categories to measure something many gamers value but is hard to specify. Often when a game is low on charm it can be referred to as "soulless" or "corporate". It can be hard to tell you what would make a game more charming, but you know it when you see it.
Bumpin' Music
This is pretty subjective so it's very easy for a game to get a full score here if it makes a sincere attempt. This genre is full of amazing soundtracks with many games making the soundtrack available. Sometimes a soundtrack can be good but results in ear fatigue. We don't really measure how many tracks there are or how repetitive it is, and it's possible for a game to get a full score here with a sea shanty as much as pixel punk EDM. Does it fit the vibe and make you want to keep on surviving? It's probably bumpin' music.
(Unique / Fun) Writing
Broadly speaking, looking at everything from the tutorial to the bestiary to the item and ability descriptions, is the feel of the game's words enjoyable? You may think there aren't many opportunities to get a full score in this with an arcade game. But the opposite is true. If the only words in your game are the main menu, make them good ones. If the only words in your game are the descriptions of abilities, make them visceral. Don't just name an item what it is, give it a unique name to your setting and vibe. Otherwise a game can quickly become generic or forgettable.
Subtle Humor
Another category that is hard to explain in general, but easy to recognize in practice. Don't think about expanding the tutorial with bad jokes. Think about how the character sprites move and react in a game of Metal Slug at the arcade. Or how your character in many games does a take to the camera when you're idle. Perhaps the items and enemies are named in funny or cute unexpected ways. Maybe the elites and bosses have a rare unexpected non-player focused behavior. Maybe part of the background reacts when you thought it was static. Many good arcade games and great survivors-likes have their own unique subtle humor.
Gameplay Vibe Check - 10 Categories
The ninth and final category includes a variety of metrics to help us further refine if the feel of a game is similar to our comparison game, Vampire Survivors, but also helps us determine if the game well crafted, functional, perhaps even not a scam on the player. After all, if a game doesn't have controls that work, the menu doesn't let the round be started, and it constantly crashes, is it really exactly like a fully functioning and optimized game? These categories might not always tell us much about the genre labels to apply, but they are very important to potential players. This group includes "Panic & Zen Duo Vibe", "Over The Top", "One More Run / Short Runs", "Difficulty Ramp", "Fun Ramp", "Low Price", "Technical Check / Functional Polish", "Controls Check", "Fun Check" and "Feels like Vampire Survivors."
Vibes
A jokey way to refer to the fact that subjective categories will always rely on fuzzy logic, or fuzzy something at least. When generating the scale it turned out trying to be too particular resulted in bad recommendations. The revised scale encourages people to take it with a grain of salt and understand sometimes you're relying on vibes.
Panic & Zen Duo Vibe
In our spreadsheet category, we're referring to the swings a player feels during a run between intense moments of panic and almost relaxing zen 'in the zone' moments when handling a crowd well or enjoying a broken build.
Zen
Used, probably inaccurately, by gamers to refer broadly to a game where you can be involved but also detached, engaged but relaxed, totally in the zone or zoned out.
Over The Top
A key feature in the bullet heaven, horde survival and overall survivors-like genre is how over the top it gets. Do you end up sending out millions of attacks a minute? Kill thousands of enemies at once? Is the screen totally covered and your computer on fire? Perfect.
One More Run
In our spreadsheet we use one column to measure a variety of things that contribute to wanting to do one more run right away. Is the UI easy to get through to power up and jump in? Are there challenges to keep me going? Did I feel my death was my fault and not some cheap unavoidable thing I can't overcome? Are the runs short enough that I can fool myself that I'll only play one more tonight? These are all contributors to "one more run."
Ramp (Difficulty & Fun)
A term used to refer to the ease and enjoyability of the game as it increases or decreases difficulty and the amount of fun you have with varying mechanics. Hard to quantify, some games are very fun but can be considered to have less ramp because there is no change in gameplay over time other than your own skills. However, some people do refer to how a game teaches you, even if runs don't get easier, as a ramp. An ideal game probably gets both more fun, more complex, more fully understood, and more difficult as you put in more time and challenge yourself. It's a hard balance!
Low Price
A big factor in how fans evaluate games in this genre is the price, since Vampire Survivors is only 4.99 and many of the biggest games are free or have expansive free demos. This may not be entirely fair, apples to oranges in terms of what some of these games include, but if a game is 4.99 or less it gets a full point in low price by default. If there is a lot of value and the price is only a little higher it could still get a full point.
Technical Check / Functional Polish
This category in the main scale refers to bug checks, optimization etc. You can still get a full point here if your game chugs along at the end of a run (that's just slowdown! it's a feature, not a bug!) But if there are game-breaking bugs, major issues, a game might get a bad score here. This helps us weed out shovelware and unfinished attempts - after all, if a game doesn't work at all can it really be said to be exactly like Vampire Survivors?
Controls Check
A category in the main scale that lets a game earn a low scale or negative point if the controls are very badly implemented, buggy, or nonexistent. After all, if you can't control your character, can a game be said to be exactly like Vampire Survivors?
Fun Check
Since this is very subjective (but important!) in addition to any of our contributions in terms of feedback here, this is determined highly on reading Steam reviews and so on. If people seem to be having fun, a game can get a full score here even if someone working on the sheet doesn't personally like it.
Feels Like VS
This category on the main scale is a pure vibes check, does this game feel like Vampire Survivors? Highly subjective but feel free to argue the point and send us a message!