Luca, a game developer based in the UK, who changed his life with his first game, Vampire Survivers, is now full-time focused on the game, which is a thousand times better than he expected.
Although this is a game that only sells for 15 yuan, the graphics are simple and even look dull at first glance, but its stunning expression of minimalist and survival games has indeed conquered the field of shuangyou.
After experiencing the initial silence of the launch, "Vampire Survivor" sprung up in the Steam Spring Festival special sale, soaring all the way, and even recently squeezed straight into the top 10 of the best-selling hot list, the highest number of simultaneous online users exceeded 70,000, and also squeezed into the online player trend list.
"Vampire Survivor" is a game that looks only cool, but is actually very delicate and beautiful, and it has a calm and depressed mood, although it is very strange to describe a pixel wind and a zombie mowing cool swim, but I do have this strange feeling about it, and in other games of the same kind, this feeling has never appeared.
It seems like it really wants to pay homage to Castlevania
Open the character selection interface of Vampire Survivor, good guys, they are simply Simon, the protagonist of the original Castlevania, four characters of Castlevania Legends who use different weapons, and so on. And their main weapons also correspond one by one, whips, magic balls, boomerangs, throwing knives, holy water...
The story of "Vampire Survivor" is set in the story of "the members of the Belpaese family, in order to end the rule of the evil Bisconte Draculó and break the world of suffering created by his evil magic", while the story of Castlevania is based on "the struggle between the Belmont family and the vampire king Dracula".
Well? Vampire Survivor is a game that exudes a neta flavor of Castlevania, and it even pairs a simple enough graphics with a gothic OST that doesn't lose to Castlevania.
Although these superficial neta elements are enough to flaunt Luca's love for "Castlevania", it is actually incompatible with the gameplay of "Castlevania" itself, but it is using its own expression to make content with the spiritual core of "Castlevania". In "Castlevania", through the understanding of map details and RPG frameworks to solve one problem after another, the operation is pulled with the limit of the monster, and in "Vampire Survivor", there are unique expressions of Luca herself that echo. I'd like to call it a "spiritual fanwork" of Castlevania.
It's really... It was so romantic.
Mow the grass like a precision instrument
After expressing a bunch of such weird feelings, it's finally time to face this mowing swim.
Generally speaking, our definition of the quality of the lawn mowing game will be based on the rhythm of the mowing and the matching degree of character growth, the diversity of weapons, the visual effect of large-scale one-time killing monsters, the feedback of the mowing hand, etc., which are determined by the core definition of the mowing game - endless spawning.
Zombie Siege is characterized by a variety of bizarre synthetic weapon effects, Hero Siege combines the traditional gameplay of Rougelike + ARPG with mowing grass, and this type of game itself has a natural cool point from the unique experience after the build molding, and the originator of the mowing, "True Three Kingdoms Invincible", wins with combat action feedback and the narrative of the warrior crossing the battlefield.
In this way, a good lawn-mowing game will focus on not only the basic rules of spawning monsters, but also find the appropriate gameplay in the pure "coolness" of mowing, so as to prevent excessive and easy-to-get cool feedback and make players lose interest in challenges.
"Vampire Survivor" is more "excessive" in the visual effect of mowing the grass, and it was first excavated by the anchors because of this exaggerated spawning mechanism.
This exaggerated visual performance can indeed create a "first-glance attraction", but it is by no means a brainwashing game that relies on "magic" to ascend to power. As I said just now, it understands the exquisite "problem solving" rhythm of "Castlevania", which requires players to solve the difficulties one by one in the law of wave after wave of monster spawning, until they are familiar with the understanding of the whole set of builds.
Vampire Survivor chose a minimalist solution, just like the traditional casual RL+ARPG game, after upgrading, there is a three-choice system, and each chapter is an infinite large map, the map itself is almost unlimited, but also removes most of the shackles of route planning, and spawns are also spaceless, so players will remain busy and nervous in a game.
It sounds like a very pure flat map that lets you experience a mowing simulator. But it uses a very clever way to create the game level, that is, to constrain the "infinite" with "limits".
· Round spawners
When you first enter the level, there are only a few small bats on the map, and when the player continues to spawn monsters and increases the level, the map begins to brush waves of monsters with increasing levels. The monster probability in the game drops experience, requiring the player to actively walk over to pick up the experience.
It should be noted here that the map spawner is out of touch with the player's upgrade, and the spawning dynamics do not wait for the player, but rather spawn new mobs at a fixed point in time. Therefore, the monster will never stop to maintain a stronger rhythm, and the player must also maintain the rhythm of spawning, constantly upgrading to catch up with the level of the monster.
Since monsters are brushed out in a fixed number of turns on a "sliding upgrade" map, players will understand the general principle of using comprehensive strategies to solve problems when they first enter the game.
· Numeric limits
The lawn mowing game is easy to explode numerically, and Vampire Survivor does not have the problem of cheating generally exceeding the value of the monster, it generally increases and decreases the damage according to the level, to keep the value between the player and the monster growing synchronously.
That is, when the player's level is higher than the monster, there is a damage bonus, maintaining the level of mowing and suppressing the monster. When the player's level round is unable to catch up with the monster, there will be a damage reduction effect, resulting in the monster not being able to move and being overwhelmed by the monster pile.
· Map walking position
Combining the above two points, "Vampire Survivor" presents the most core layering of operation, and is generally reflected in the position of each moment.
First of all, this is a game that cannot be actively attacked, whether it is a whip in the hand, a staff, or a passive surround, it has its own set of attack logic - such as the whip will only attack horizontally, the staff will automatically snipe the nearest monster, the throwing knife will be fired according to the player's direction, etc., which makes the entire operation of the game must be carried out around the position.
Secondly, since the attack cannot actively control the direction and frequency, the most secure way is to maintain a linear movement in one direction all the time to maximize the frequency of the attack.
But there will be a problem, the monster will continue to grow over time, if it moves in a straight line, then the experience left behind by killing the monster will always be behind, and the player's growth will soon be unable to keep up with the growth of the monster. And this game must always take the upgrade as the highest priority, otherwise it will be surrounded by a wave of monsters that suddenly increase the level, so players must consider roundabout tactics and constantly stage a "top pull" with the monsters.
Under this core growth strategy, the game will set up a circle spawner on the way to spawn monsters, a large number of bats randomly flying at high speed, high-level monsters pressed into the safety line, millions of zombies crazy siege and other environmental pressures, players need to pull the core skills of the position, solve one situation after another on the spot, highlight the siege, and clear a way to live.
The stacking of monsters also has its exquisiteness, from the individual dimension, monsters are divided into fast and brittle, slow and hard, and elite monsters, and will squeeze each other, according to the number of which monsters can be squeezed to the player. When the spawning density reaches above a certain warning line, the player must make complex judgments based on this characteristic of the monster. For example, when the Crispy Monster blocks the Blood Thick Monster, it is necessary to consider that it is not possible to clean up the Closer Crispy Monster, but needs to find the weak point of the encirclement to break through, and use the characteristics of the monster to find a glimmer of life.
· build planning
The above three items are combined, and finally the player needs to macro to plan the instantaneous strategy + growth build strategy, with the advance prediction of various "test points", the player needs to plan to upgrade the weapons with certain targeted functions first, and also macroscopically consider the route of the final build formation, and at the same time must always pay attention to the tactical instantaneous strategy.
Here we only take the first chapter of the game as an analogy, the author decided to develop full-time after the game suddenly exploded, and the first chapter itself is already very much like a complete flash game, and the subsequent chapters lack coherence, so the content of the first chapter is likely to explain most of the author's design intentions.
Halfway viral, the romantic rebirth of retro flash
Vampire Survivor is actually a lot like the typical flash games of the past, when the concept of indie games was not yet emerging, and most flash games took a minimalist route, focusing on a short, streamlined experience of one hour.
The content can't be spread out too widely, as the game address may never be found again. It can't be so slow and hot, because there will always be dozens of dense catalogs of games on the flash website, and only logos and one-sentence introductions can sell themselves. In a short period of time, let the player get feedback that is refreshing and bright, because this is a small game, a simple story of small people.
The first chapter of "Vampire Survivor" basically takes an hour, from understanding, to refreshing, to cracking.
Like last year's super dark horse "Among Us", "Vampire Survivor" did not get much attention at first, until some anchors suddenly discovered it, spontaneously promoted it live, and then drove players to spread fission, and finally got the attention that matched its excellent feedback experience.
It's just that "Among Us" waits longer, its success is more intense, and "Vampire Survivor" is ultimately the spiritual pearl of the flash era. If retro is the fate of aesthetic reincarnation, then the quiet and quiet "Vampire Survivor", which represents the fun of the game itself, will grow in the new spring of flash games.