The Overlooked (but humble) Magic Sauce of Vampire Survivors

Author

James Biddulph
July 04, 2025

At this point, not much is overlooked about Vampire Survivors. It has been analysed a ton from a game design and market perspective. But I think there is one humble feature that keeps people playing for a long time, which other games in this space often don’t have, that we haven’t been talking about.

First a bit of background theory:

I want a new toy!

If any short session game is going to keep players around for a long time, its by giving the player rewards. Most importantly, by giving them new toys. No player can resist completing a run and then being rewarded with a new thing to play with on their next run. Vampire Survivors has a ton of these. New weapons, characters and locations all give the player a constant drip feed of new toys, and a reason to keep playing.

You can see this in other popular short session games. One of my favourites is The Binding of Isaac, which features hundreds of unlocks in the game.

TOY: I use the term ‘toy’ a lot in game design. To clarify, it just means a single mechanic within a larger game (not an object, so a character skin wouldn’t count). I’ll revisit how toys combine to make compelling systems driven games another time.

Glossary

The Magic Sauce

So The Binding of Isaac and Vampire Survivors both use a huge amount of new toys to keep players coming back for a new run. But, Vampire Survivors has one humble difference. The unlock screen!

Vampire Survivors Unlock screen

Many games (such as Binding of Isaac) keep their unlock requirements under wraps. In theory, this should add mystery and excitement, or maybe community sharing. But by keeping things out in the open, we give players clear goals and sense of progression, along with tickling the checklist mentality that is so popular in other genres.

This also doesn’t take away from the mystery, as what exactly the unlocks are isn’t always clear, and you can’t play with a toy you don’t have.

Using this approach of keeping your ‘secrets’ public is a neat and easy way to encourage players to come back for just one more run (#3 is very effective, as it makes players feel smart too):

  1. I just got a new toy, I can’t wait to use it!

  2. Here is a challenge I haven’t beaten, I want that reward!

  3. I just got a new toy, and I think it will let me beat that challenge!

Stepping back, I think it is likely good practice to show players what is in the game, and to encourage them to actually use it. We don’t want to spend time making expensive content for <1% of players, and this is an effective step in preventing that problem.

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