Policy
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Recently a mild friend of mine and game designer I'm a huge fan of released a video about Vampire Survivors as a sort of 'non-game'. You can view it here. So I first want to say I respect where she is coming from and how a seasoned game designer sees the same exploitative psychology in slow upgrade action RPG rougelikes as having the same skinnerbox habits. Essentially, she demands a specific rage on a particular point, when talking about the game she notices the lack of combat design, that regardless of your loadout the approach is always the same, dodge into the infinite void. "This is not combat design, this is NOTHING".
This argument is well put and rhetorically focused, and the focus on not wasting audience time is an apt starting point for most sensible game experience vehicles (although it's exactly where stuff like The Beginner's Guide comes in to take friction, but I digress). However, I do feel like 20 Minutes Till Dawn has something to include into this sort of discussion.
20 Minutes Till Dawn is an absurdly, vastly, better game for anybody who has played it. There's aim based weapon variety which require aiming at the enemy + slightly increased obstacle evasion, better aesthetic sensibilities, and a 10 minute decrease in overall time spent with the game. And all the characters you can play are slender girls with aesthetic principles rather than just Castlevania cardboard cutouts. You would be surprised how much difference these small changes make to the game experience.
At 10 minutes in, the combat variety is increased with a boss fight in a limited section of the map, it's not just mindless shoot and dodge. Your character load outs are all different with different effects they have and guns they can choose from.
This is not to say that 20 Minutes Till Dawn is a game you should play, it still has a randomness factor in the level ups and permanent upgrades, along with a lack of enemy variety but there's a measurable improvement on all other areas of play. But it's also not one that I can say with any degree of reprehensibility that you shouldnt.
Most early arcade games were not actually intended to be played ad infinitum, and so didn't have much difficulty throttling besides endurance and usually underdesigned obstacles. One that comes to mind is shown in the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters where one of the primary subject Steve Weibe tries for the high score on Donkey Kong. In it his 2 main obstacles to success here are endurance and behind the scenes corruption in the high scoring scene itself. Yet there's a few moments splintered throughout Donkey Kong as an endurance test where the obstacles prove as Absurd, particularly one moment the documentary goes in depth about is 3rd Elevators. As shown by the example here, this is not good game design, this is game design that you're purely trying to outperform against, it's gaming as a higher level endurance sport with these janky obstacle getting in the way, but when we talk about it from the perspective of 'pure design' it becomes obnoxiously under considered and frustrating. Vampire Survivors is trying to bring this older style of play and experience as a rigourous test of endurance into contemporary progression systems. The idea is that you will eventually learn more optimal builds and try to finesse around the randomness to your best ability and endure its counting clock to a satisfying end. It's a neat idea of course but as an actualization of that system it's a fucking failure due in large part to its genuine lack of difficulty in general. Vampire Survivors is easy and genuinely uninteresting, its popcorn entertainment you can bloat on. But 20 Minutes Till Dawn is by all metrics an improvement and an actualization on that system, one that I think could be further improved upon but it a great step in the right direction, with fair inputs and a decent balance of difficulty and variety. The variety offered from skilled play means improvement exists.
The issue though is that 20 Minutes Till Dawn is a blatant clone of Vampire Survivors. We can't talk about it without admitting its apeing the formula with the exception of course that some people will decide to play it first.
Sometimes when we write about genres we don't like, I think we have a habit of trying to 'outsmart' the habits of the average gamer by implying that what they are doing is lackluster. The mobile gamer is a moron because Candy Crush is worse Bewjewled and they are both braindead match threes. FPS games are needlessly violent but its also point and click, nevermind that COD, TF2, and Splatoon all play and look completely differently. Incremental games are often derided as 'cookie clickers' and with the forward momentum of socio-cultural movement the nuances and interests start to roll into one another.
In the beginning of July, a close online friend of mine Nyx, who is a fashionista and film geek came over to my parents house which at 25 I'm still trapped in. I sat around with extreme anxiety about 'what were we going to do'. I didn't like going outside, and I was nervous about the fact all I had to do was really play on a computer. But those anxieties were severely eased when I realized how low maintenance my friend Nyx was, me and her would play this game a half dozen times in the morning hopping on and off the 1 player remote commenting on the general improvements as they happened. "I unlocked a new character!"..."Check out this new gun!". "Woah there's an upgrade system in here I didn't even know about". etc.
It was a blast and made me realize a certain nuance, a zen and kinship to gaming that is often ineffable to describe. And while I'm often deeply wracked with regret and anxiety I'll always look positively on this experience as I used to in a similar way when I went over to my other friends house and played Bloodbourne on her PS5 and traded idle chatter between some of the most incredible moments in a game. Or when the love of my life was around with me as I played the frustrating and slow No More Heroes system on the Wii as she cheered me on.
For me, gaming is one of the most deeply engrained social experiences I have, and a game constantly demanding a perfect difficulty curve is not always wanted. As much as you can trash something like Vampire Survivors, its Action RPG rougelite elements share a degree with Spelunky etc. It shares an 'evasion mechanic' with Binding of Isaac which despite Nyx's limited experience with games shares it as a favourite 'time waster' game.
But no matter what there will be downtime or lulls or things that are not perfect, things that are innovated eventually with time. Vampire Survivors had to walk so that 20 Minutes Till Dawn could take stride, and who knows, there will be another game in this genre yet we dont even know about. But it takes time, and game design is a paintbrush with time itself as the chronological palette. For what other art form has racing through the painting or enduring through it as long as possible as a genuinely lauded sport you can improve on. If nothing else I thank videogames for being able to give me an innovative solution to a long standing anxiety I have around how to passively loiter time with your friends, and with yourself. Videogame's are not limited to just doing this of course, but its one hell of an advantage its history benefits from. Most people I've seen successfully play Vampire Survivors with merit, have done it while streaming or with friends. I think its a bad game, but only in part because I know what the next best thing is and that's where I feel the focus is worth bringing. This is also why I don't believe in intellectual property rights, you could quite easily argue that 20 Minutes Till Dawn as a paid for 'mod' of Vampire Survivors in an abstract sense, and you wouldn't be entirely wrong. There's lots of mods for Slay the Spire that use the engine itself. Lots of great games are really just borrowing a large degree of its resources from something else. I believe all people who make games or mods of games deserve financial compensation for their work without the threat of jail by those who own the original assets. As this game genre continues to mutate it'll begin to harmonize more with what Heather desires in these sorts of games, not less.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Recently a mild friend of mine and game designer I'm a huge fan of released a video about Vampire Survivors as a sort of 'non-game'. You can view it here. So I first want to say I respect where she is coming from and how a seasoned game designer sees the same exploitative psychology in slow upgrade action RPG rougelikes as having the same skinnerbox habits. Essentially, she demands a specific rage on a particular point, when talking about the game she notices the lack of combat design, that regardless of your loadout the approach is always the same, dodge into the infinite void. "This is not combat design, this is NOTHING".
This argument is well put and rhetorically focused, and the focus on not wasting audience time is an apt starting point for most sensible game experience vehicles (although it's exactly where stuff like The Beginner's Guide comes in to take friction, but I digress). However, I do feel like 20 Minutes Till Dawn has something to include into this sort of discussion.
20 Minutes Till Dawn is an absurdly, vastly, better game for anybody who has played it. There's aim based weapon variety which require aiming at the enemy + slightly increased obstacle evasion, better aesthetic sensibilities, and a 10 minute decrease in overall time spent with the game. And all the characters you can play are slender girls with aesthetic principles rather than just Castlevania cardboard cutouts. You would be surprised how much difference these small changes make to the game experience.
At 10 minutes in, the combat variety is increased with a boss fight in a limited section of the map, it's not just mindless shoot and dodge. Your character load outs are all different with different effects they have and guns they can choose from.
This is not to say that 20 Minutes Till Dawn is a game you should play, it still has a randomness factor in the level ups and permanent upgrades, along with a lack of enemy variety but there's a measurable improvement on all other areas of play. But it's also not one that I can say with any degree of reprehensibility that you shouldnt.
Most early arcade games were not actually intended to be played ad infinitum, and so didn't have much difficulty throttling besides endurance and usually underdesigned obstacles. One that comes to mind is shown in the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters where one of the primary subject Steve Weibe tries for the high score on Donkey Kong. In it his 2 main obstacles to success here are endurance and behind the scenes corruption in the high scoring scene itself. Yet there's a few moments splintered throughout Donkey Kong as an endurance test where the obstacles prove as Absurd, particularly one moment the documentary goes in depth about is 3rd Elevators. As shown by the example here, this is not good game design, this is game design that you're purely trying to outperform against, it's gaming as a higher level endurance sport with these janky obstacle getting in the way, but when we talk about it from the perspective of 'pure design' it becomes obnoxiously under considered and frustrating. Vampire Survivors is trying to bring this older style of play and experience as a rigourous test of endurance into contemporary progression systems. The idea is that you will eventually learn more optimal builds and try to finesse around the randomness to your best ability and endure its counting clock to a satisfying end. It's a neat idea of course but as an actualization of that system it's a fucking failure due in large part to its genuine lack of difficulty in general. Vampire Survivors is easy and genuinely uninteresting, its popcorn entertainment you can bloat on. But 20 Minutes Till Dawn is by all metrics an improvement and an actualization on that system, one that I think could be further improved upon but it a great step in the right direction, with fair inputs and a decent balance of difficulty and variety. The variety offered from skilled play means improvement exists.
The issue though is that 20 Minutes Till Dawn is a blatant clone of Vampire Survivors. We can't talk about it without admitting its apeing the formula with the exception of course that some people will decide to play it first.
Sometimes when we write about genres we don't like, I think we have a habit of trying to 'outsmart' the habits of the average gamer by implying that what they are doing is lackluster. The mobile gamer is a moron because Candy Crush is worse Bewjewled and they are both braindead match threes. FPS games are needlessly violent but its also point and click, nevermind that COD, TF2, and Splatoon all play and look completely differently. Incremental games are often derided as 'cookie clickers' and with the forward momentum of socio-cultural movement the nuances and interests start to roll into one another.
In the beginning of July, a close online friend of mine Nyx, who is a fashionista and film geek came over to my parents house which at 25 I'm still trapped in. I sat around with extreme anxiety about 'what were we going to do'. I didn't like going outside, and I was nervous about the fact all I had to do was really play on a computer. But those anxieties were severely eased when I realized how low maintenance my friend Nyx was, me and her would play this game a half dozen times in the morning hopping on and off the 1 player remote commenting on the general improvements as they happened. "I unlocked a new character!"..."Check out this new gun!". "Woah there's an upgrade system in here I didn't even know about". etc.
It was a blast and made me realize a certain nuance, a zen and kinship to gaming that is often ineffable to describe. And while I'm often deeply wracked with regret and anxiety I'll always look positively on this experience as I used to in a similar way when I went over to my other friends house and played Bloodbourne on her PS5 and traded idle chatter between some of the most incredible moments in a game. Or when the love of my life was around with me as I played the frustrating and slow No More Heroes system on the Wii as she cheered me on.
For me, gaming is one of the most deeply engrained social experiences I have, and a game constantly demanding a perfect difficulty curve is not always wanted. As much as you can trash something like Vampire Survivors, its Action RPG rougelite elements share a degree with Spelunky etc. It shares an 'evasion mechanic' with Binding of Isaac which despite Nyx's limited experience with games shares it as a favourite 'time waster' game.
But no matter what there will be downtime or lulls or things that are not perfect, things that are innovated eventually with time. Vampire Survivors had to walk so that 20 Minutes Till Dawn could take stride, and who knows, there will be another game in this genre yet we dont even know about. But it takes time, and game design is a paintbrush with time itself as the chronological palette. For what other art form has racing through the painting or enduring through it as long as possible as a genuinely lauded sport you can improve on. If nothing else I thank videogames for being able to give me an innovative solution to a long standing anxiety I have around how to passively loiter time with your friends, and with yourself. Videogame's are not limited to just doing this of course, but its one hell of an advantage its history benefits from. Most people I've seen successfully play Vampire Survivors with merit, have done it while streaming or with friends. I think its a bad game, but only in part because I know what the next best thing is and that's where I feel the focus is worth bringing. This is also why I don't believe in intellectual property rights, you could quite easily argue that 20 Minutes Till Dawn as a paid for 'mod' of Vampire Survivors in an abstract sense, and you wouldn't be entirely wrong. There's lots of mods for Slay the Spire that use the engine itself. Lots of great games are really just borrowing a large degree of its resources from something else. I believe all people who make games or mods of games deserve financial compensation for their work without the threat of jail by those who own the original assets. As this game genre continues to mutate it'll begin to harmonize more with what Heather desires in these sorts of games, not less.
I want all of the girls to dom me
Um divertido clone de Vampire Survivors, e assim como o tal, perfeito pra jogar durante uma viagem, você passa horas jogando sem nem perceber. 20 Minutes Till Dawn é competente pro que seu propõe, mas nem de longe achei tão bom como Vampire Survivors. Senti falta de armas e upgrades mais impactantes e mais variados e sem falar que tem umas builds aqui que quebram muito o desafio entregue...mas deu pra se divertir.
Vampire Survivors but I don't want to slam my head 60 times against the wall out of boredom for the first 10 minutes.
i didn't like vampire survivors so i bought another version of it and very quickly realised i didn't like it. i may be stupid
the goopy vampire survivors lobe of my brain has activated, it likes this
Arena-shooter türündeki yapımlardan en çok hoşuma giden yönü olarak şunu söyleyebilirim. Karakterimizi verilen çeşitli özellikler ile inşaat edebiliyoruz. Bu karakter inşaat edişi savunma yönünde yapınca karakterimizin yürüyen bir kaleye dönüşmesi oyundan aldığım zevki katlamıştı. Erken erişim sürümü olmasına rağmen çeşitli özelliklere sahip karakterlere artı olarak çeşitli yeteneklerle şahane bir içerik sunulmuş. Fiyatından bahsetmiyorum bile şuanda böyle bir oyun için bedava niyetinde bir fiyatta satılıyor.
Child of Vampire Survivors and grandchild of Crimsonland, 20 Minutes Till Dawn inherits much from the games it descends from. This is still roguelike survival over waves of an absurd number of enemies where upgrades, xp acquisition, and just about everything else are finely tuned to squeeze out every last happy chemical in that brain of yours. The fun to be had here is completely raw and visceral and uncomplicated, just as it should be.
Yet 20 Minutes Till Dawn differs from Vampire Survivors in that it asks more of the player, going back to the real aiming Crimsonland required and having more to the synergies available. Winning in 20 Minutes Till Dawn takes a bit more than just discovering the combinations and doing the bare minimum of dodging. This doesn't get in the way of the lizard brain appeal of this subgenre nor is it too much of its own focus, it simply feels like it fills the void and adds the extra depth a Vampire Survivors player finds themselves wishing for after they've broken through and won their first run or two. Along with that comes a much more inspired visual direction and general polish that make this release feel infinitely more like a complete package.
I've only won one run so far and there's lots more for me to unlock and try out. I'm excited~
-
Played on Linux through Proton.
Yet 20 Minutes Till Dawn differs from Vampire Survivors in that it asks more of the player, going back to the real aiming Crimsonland required and having more to the synergies available. Winning in 20 Minutes Till Dawn takes a bit more than just discovering the combinations and doing the bare minimum of dodging. This doesn't get in the way of the lizard brain appeal of this subgenre nor is it too much of its own focus, it simply feels like it fills the void and adds the extra depth a Vampire Survivors player finds themselves wishing for after they've broken through and won their first run or two. Along with that comes a much more inspired visual direction and general polish that make this release feel infinitely more like a complete package.
I've only won one run so far and there's lots more for me to unlock and try out. I'm excited~
-
Played on Linux through Proton.
Doesn't look like a fucking garbage asset flip with plagiarized Castlevania assets and doesn't rely on flashy colors to please the same kind of idiots that spend days pulling away at slot machines, plus it has more active gameplay.
I can't imagine how anyone would prefer Vampire Survivors over this.
I can't imagine how anyone would prefer Vampire Survivors over this.
A more active spin on Vampire Survivors with a pleasingly limited colour palette.
One of the better top-down survival shooters out there that is worth trying for its clean visuals and solid gameplay.
+ genre-suited, color-coded art style with almost perfect clarity
+ distinct upgrade paths and satisfying synergies
+ good number of visually appealing characters who play differently enough
+ quite imbalanced but nonetheless fun weapons
+ decent game settings including difficulty and aiming style
- a few bugs when using controller
- messy display of chosen upgrades
- underwhelming bosses that are barely worth paying attention to
- lack of variety in environments
- some obviously overpowered choices in a fairly small pool of upgrades
+ genre-suited, color-coded art style with almost perfect clarity
+ distinct upgrade paths and satisfying synergies
+ good number of visually appealing characters who play differently enough
+ quite imbalanced but nonetheless fun weapons
+ decent game settings including difficulty and aiming style
- a few bugs when using controller
- messy display of chosen upgrades
- underwhelming bosses that are barely worth paying attention to
- lack of variety in environments
- some obviously overpowered choices in a fairly small pool of upgrades
Pretty decent Bullet Heaven game. The character designs are well made, Lilith and Hastur being my personal favorite characters.
É um roguelite onde vc tem 20 minutos para sobreviver as hordas de inimigos, assim que acaba o tempo vc vence.
É bem divertido, além de ser visualmente deslumbrante, tem diversos personagens e armas pra escolher e os desenvolvedores estão sempre atualizando, a mais recente adicionou uma personagem e um sistema de runas que funcionam como melhorias permanentes.
Quando vc finaliza uma run com uma arma e um personagem eles são marcados e vc libera um nivel de escuridão adicional, que torna o jogo mais desafiador.
As melhorias dentro do jogo são bem diversificadas também, contando com adicional de dano, atk speed, companheiros e efeitos de status.
É bem divertido, além de ser visualmente deslumbrante, tem diversos personagens e armas pra escolher e os desenvolvedores estão sempre atualizando, a mais recente adicionou uma personagem e um sistema de runas que funcionam como melhorias permanentes.
Quando vc finaliza uma run com uma arma e um personagem eles são marcados e vc libera um nivel de escuridão adicional, que torna o jogo mais desafiador.
As melhorias dentro do jogo são bem diversificadas também, contando com adicional de dano, atk speed, companheiros e efeitos de status.
this is a really fun one of these. i don't feel the need to 100% it in one sitting, but i definitely did play it for like 8 solid hours the first time i booted it up. it's not very deep, but finding optimal character/weapon/skill combinations is fun. and it's like $3, so i absolutely got my money's worth
A game that bravely asks the question "what if Vampire Survivors had an aesthetic that was more appealing to Alexa, specifically, and also all the characters were like cool women and witches and stuff". And, well, it turns out the answer to that question is that it'd hold my attention about as long as Vampire Survivors did. I dunno, it's just kinda boring to play! I'm just not really feeling any strong draw to do more runs. I did a couple and it was whatever. If I needed something to play while listening to a podcast there's about dozen other games I'd go back to before this one (or another entry in whatever this genre is called). It seems Fine if you're into this genre, I guess.
Well, its better than Vampire Survivors. An art style that isnt just bad Castlevania and the remote sniff of actually having gameplay will do that. The character designs are good, there's some silly synergy stuff and a good general atmosphere which suits the horde gameplay.
So, it's best in class, and maybe the best oppurtunity for these games to show some worth. And all that makes me realise is that these games are terrible. Built around a constant drip feed of level ups, slowly gaining power through synergies and trying to cut through the hordes of enemies, which disguises the fact that you're not really doing anything, but oooh gotta follow those breadcrumbs of dopamine.
It's a brainworm. After i've finished a game like this I feel absolutely nothing, whilst the game itself is so effortless to play and dangles just enough carrots at the end of a stick to keep you playing for hours you will never get back.
And this is the best of them.
I'm worried its only a matter of time before this genre's predatory consumption of manhours turns into a predatory consumption of money too. I can see a deplorable company like Blizzard or Riot making a game like this with gacha or some shit and daily challenges and whatnot, and it makes me want to throw up.
I don't think 20 minutes was made maliciously, and there is worth in it's cool atmosphere and cool characters. But it's design is still built on exploiting human tendancies, not being engaging, or fun, or anything you will remember a minute after you finish. It and it's ilk are a blight.
So, it's best in class, and maybe the best oppurtunity for these games to show some worth. And all that makes me realise is that these games are terrible. Built around a constant drip feed of level ups, slowly gaining power through synergies and trying to cut through the hordes of enemies, which disguises the fact that you're not really doing anything, but oooh gotta follow those breadcrumbs of dopamine.
It's a brainworm. After i've finished a game like this I feel absolutely nothing, whilst the game itself is so effortless to play and dangles just enough carrots at the end of a stick to keep you playing for hours you will never get back.
And this is the best of them.
I'm worried its only a matter of time before this genre's predatory consumption of manhours turns into a predatory consumption of money too. I can see a deplorable company like Blizzard or Riot making a game like this with gacha or some shit and daily challenges and whatnot, and it makes me want to throw up.
I don't think 20 minutes was made maliciously, and there is worth in it's cool atmosphere and cool characters. But it's design is still built on exploiting human tendancies, not being engaging, or fun, or anything you will remember a minute after you finish. It and it's ilk are a blight.
Hey look, it's another bullet heaven. A young genre, an exploding one, one where it's easier to talk about what a title does differently than what a title does well.
Nonetheless: presentation here is stellar. Muted tones, limited palette. A distinct, charming style for the roster of characters. Enemy projectiles are easy to pick out. There's some low-key meta progression on top of character/weapon unlocks, but winning is possible right out the gate. This is a build-oriented game, one where it's not too hard to figure out the handful of powerful throughlines that you'll want to work toward. Power comes in steady waves, on level-up and boss kills, building up into explosive, absurd combos that can leave you untouchable by the final minutes. Movement matters quite a bit, aiming and firing is manual. You're a bit at the mercy of RNG when it comes to perks, but rarely enough to chafe.
Challenge? Not too bad once you start identifying the major builds and the (notably unnecessary) ultimates. Figuring out which weapons and characters work with which loadouts is intuitive. Balance is a bit off, with certain characters, weapons and builds clearly outpacing others, but the first two all have achievements for winning on the highest difficulty so there's some incentive to mix things up all the same.
All in all, easily worth the $5 they ask for at the door and the occasional revisit to get those mastery achievements.
Nonetheless: presentation here is stellar. Muted tones, limited palette. A distinct, charming style for the roster of characters. Enemy projectiles are easy to pick out. There's some low-key meta progression on top of character/weapon unlocks, but winning is possible right out the gate. This is a build-oriented game, one where it's not too hard to figure out the handful of powerful throughlines that you'll want to work toward. Power comes in steady waves, on level-up and boss kills, building up into explosive, absurd combos that can leave you untouchable by the final minutes. Movement matters quite a bit, aiming and firing is manual. You're a bit at the mercy of RNG when it comes to perks, but rarely enough to chafe.
Challenge? Not too bad once you start identifying the major builds and the (notably unnecessary) ultimates. Figuring out which weapons and characters work with which loadouts is intuitive. Balance is a bit off, with certain characters, weapons and builds clearly outpacing others, but the first two all have achievements for winning on the highest difficulty so there's some incentive to mix things up all the same.
All in all, easily worth the $5 they ask for at the door and the occasional revisit to get those mastery achievements.
Vampire survivors com muie bonita
could maybe use a few more upgrade paths but damn if the game isn't Fun and Addictive, plus it's super enjoyable to 100% (Darkness 15 cleared with all the characters & weapons + the few misc. achievements)
really like the character art too even if it's only visible on the character select screen
never played Vampire Survivors or any other VS-likes so no clue how it compares to any of those
really like the character art too even if it's only visible on the character select screen
never played Vampire Survivors or any other VS-likes so no clue how it compares to any of those
Well it's definitely better than Vampire Survivors! Unfortunately this game makes some baffling design decisions - some characters have functionally useless abilities, while other characters have abilities that can break the entire game in minutes. Also the game's color palette is appealing but for some ungodly reason the colors for enemy bullets and health pickups is identical, and the summons use the same colors as the enemies so at a certain point it becomes difficult to tell where your summons end and the waves of enemies begin. Overall a decently fun game that you can probably 'beat' in the first 2-3 hours.
Reminiscent of old flash games I used to play at school when I was a wee lad. This game has some great polish and rewards skill and expertise.
I've played this game on and off for a few months at this point and I have to say that they have made some great QOL changes over time. I really enjoy just playing a run or two whenever I need a lil downtime. Big fan of this entry.
I've played this game on and off for a few months at this point and I have to say that they have made some great QOL changes over time. I really enjoy just playing a run or two whenever I need a lil downtime. Big fan of this entry.
An interesting reverse-bullet-hell (did we ever pick a name for this genre other than Vampire Survivors-likes?) with some neat guns and characters. Feels more "build" based than I think I like, it pretty clearly shoves you down one of like five available paths and then you can dabble in another one or two to round out a build. The weapons are neat and there's a good variety of them plus you actually USE them which gives it a more tense feeling and also plays it out strategically when things get hairy, rather than just focusing on dodging.
Despite that the palette feels very same-y between levels and the bosses are not much to write home about.
Final Grade: B-
Despite that the palette feels very same-y between levels and the bosses are not much to write home about.
Final Grade: B-
Great twist on the popular Vampire Survivors formula, challenging and frustrating at times but good, bite sized chunks of gameplay. Great visual style, if sometimes a little hard to track. Will be playing this one for a while.
Totally average bullet hell game with roguelite elements. There are some cool synergies however there just isn't that much content and most of my playtime was spent getting achievements.
Much like many other roguelite bullet hell games there are cool synergies you can get that make you feel like an unstoppable beast, however compared to something like Vampire Survivors or brotato there just isn't that much variety into what kind of builds are actually viable.
The sound design is ok, after like 10 hours of total gameplay I ended up muting the music and game sounds as it became a bit grating to me.
The achievements are very straight forward and easy to get but require a lot of grinding as you need to finish 15 runs on increasing difficulty levels before you can start getting the majority of the achievements, which just entail beating Darkness 15 (the difficulty scale) with each character and weapon.
Much like many other roguelite bullet hell games there are cool synergies you can get that make you feel like an unstoppable beast, however compared to something like Vampire Survivors or brotato there just isn't that much variety into what kind of builds are actually viable.
The sound design is ok, after like 10 hours of total gameplay I ended up muting the music and game sounds as it became a bit grating to me.
The achievements are very straight forward and easy to get but require a lot of grinding as you need to finish 15 runs on increasing difficulty levels before you can start getting the majority of the achievements, which just entail beating Darkness 15 (the difficulty scale) with each character and weapon.
The aesthetics are excellent. Other than that, I struggle finding anything to say about it, either positive or negative. It kinda just feels like Holocure but slightly different, aside frome the radically different aesthetics.
If I hadn't played Holocure before playing this I'd probably feel radically different but as it is, I don't see myself coming back to this anytime soon, I rarely play Holocure already.
If I hadn't played Holocure before playing this I'd probably feel radically different but as it is, I don't see myself coming back to this anytime soon, I rarely play Holocure already.
my bf recommended this game to me after noticing I had it in my Epic Games library, got intrigued since I've never played any Vampire Survivors-like, gave it a try playing it every day for a lil over a week in january and I think this was really fun! I haven't seen all the ins and outs, I honestly might come back to it from time to time, but it's the perfect kind of game to keep my hands busy while I listen to a podcast/watch a video.
found the characters and build possibilities to be interesting, visually it's simple but effective, I just find the game to be a bit repetitive and grindy when it comes to unlocking things, but the core gameplay loop was fun enough to make me come back on the regular!
found the characters and build possibilities to be interesting, visually it's simple but effective, I just find the game to be a bit repetitive and grindy when it comes to unlocking things, but the core gameplay loop was fun enough to make me come back on the regular!
A twin-stick shooter in the vein of Vampire Survivors, 20 Minutes Till Dawn suffers from a lack of build diversity and weapon balance. Still well worth the slim price tag, but not the best on offer for this gameplay formula.
Schlecht gebalanced, wirklich IMMER wieder das gleiche.
Sehr wenig verschiedene Gegner, nur 3 Level.
Es gibt wirklich wenig Motivation 15 Mal die 20 Minuten zu überstehen. Jedes mal etwas schwerer, aber ehrlicherweise ändert sich nicht, sobald man 4er Kugeln mit Durchschuss hat.
Sehr wenig verschiedene Gegner, nur 3 Level.
Es gibt wirklich wenig Motivation 15 Mal die 20 Minuten zu überstehen. Jedes mal etwas schwerer, aber ehrlicherweise ändert sich nicht, sobald man 4er Kugeln mit Durchschuss hat.
Esse jogo foi dado de graça pela Epic Games e jogando voce lembra muito de Vampire Survivor.
Os temos de lovecraft chamaram aminha missão.
Parece tão fácil sobreviver 20 minutos até o amanhecer mas 20 minutos é muito, muito tempo para continuar vivo.
Não é fácil mas é muito divertido.
Os temos de lovecraft chamaram aminha missão.
Parece tão fácil sobreviver 20 minutos até o amanhecer mas 20 minutos é muito, muito tempo para continuar vivo.
Não é fácil mas é muito divertido.
While the obvious game to compare 20 Minutes to is Vampire Survivors, the most similar game in terms of design is, I think, Downwell. Obviously the colour palette of the two occupy the same neighbourhood, and even the design of the enemies (once you get past the first biome, and especially the boss and last biome, in Downwell) are markedly made with affinity. But, it's the consideration of the mechanics being multifaceted and multi-integrated that really links the two. I won't repeat the GMTK video about how Downwell's mechanics self reinforce, but a quick rundown of how 2MTD's gameplay does the same seems worthwhile:
Shooting can
a) damage enemies
b) apply status effects
c) trigger summons
d) heal the player
Running can
a) get you away from enemies
b) pick up experience
c) apply status effects
d) move your summons
Picking up XP can
a) increment your levels
b) reload your gun
c) apply status effects
d) refactor your bonuses to DPS
Killing enemies can
a) drop experience
b) spread status effects
c) trigger summons
d) trigger on death effects
Applying status can
a) kill enemies
b) heal the player
c) refactor DPS bonuses
d) improve mobility
And all that is not even taking into consideration the various domino effects of each character and gun, as well as the huge Rune selection. It's bonkers how interconnected the game is, how thoughtfully each mechanic is put in. Comparing it to Vampire Survivors is frankly wild considering how simple and solved that game is in its current state. Anyways, just wanted to make sure I wouldn't forget this little thought.
Shooting can
a) damage enemies
b) apply status effects
c) trigger summons
d) heal the player
Running can
a) get you away from enemies
b) pick up experience
c) apply status effects
d) move your summons
Picking up XP can
a) increment your levels
b) reload your gun
c) apply status effects
d) refactor your bonuses to DPS
Killing enemies can
a) drop experience
b) spread status effects
c) trigger summons
d) trigger on death effects
Applying status can
a) kill enemies
b) heal the player
c) refactor DPS bonuses
d) improve mobility
And all that is not even taking into consideration the various domino effects of each character and gun, as well as the huge Rune selection. It's bonkers how interconnected the game is, how thoughtfully each mechanic is put in. Comparing it to Vampire Survivors is frankly wild considering how simple and solved that game is in its current state. Anyways, just wanted to make sure I wouldn't forget this little thought.