Vampire Survivors–like

Yeah.

I was like, "I kinda like Survivors like," but they called it Bullet Heaven or something, and I was like-

Yes

... "Okay, ga- I, I guess we're going with that." [laughs]

You know I love to talk to game developers from all over the world, and today's episode is with someone from Estonia.

Karl is part of a five-person Estonian team who's trying to reinvent the bullet heaven genre with a game that gives the player real control, and the result is quite ambitious.

You're going to enjoy this one.

If you're into rogue-likes or even just design decisions that turn a cool idea into something that's actually quite fun to play, this conversation with Karl is something you will enjoy.

Mm-hmm

... abilities and such to the player.

Yeah, no, but of course, I mean, uh, Vampire Survivors is, uh, a bullet heaven genre, but, you know, it has its limitations.

There's, uh, the player is...

Vital Shell is a, I want to say, like, PlayStation 1-ass-looking game that I think sort of falls into the Survivors-like genre.

Jaren, when you're talking about this genre, do you say Survivors-like or do you say Bullet Heaven? Or, like, which comes up to you first?

I know with Steam, the tags, you know, dedicated bullet have into it, or at least that's what people are tagging the games with in the genre now.

But that, Riku, you always go to who conquered first in this, for me at least, when it comes to genres.

So that's kind of what it is right now.

So I still call them survivor likes.

I understand the usage of bullet heaven, but there's something about it that just doesn't sit well with me.

How about you guys? I mean, I think I lean towards survivor likes as well.

Nikkei did that, and that's what got me into Vampire Survivors to begin with, was when Nikkei did it.

And I'm like, please do Vampire Survivors, Bullet Heaven, whatever you want to call it.

It's so fun, and it's infinitely replayable, and I'll sink all of my time into it.

Yeah.