BAFTA award show recently took place. Games like God of War Ragnarök, Elden Ring, and Tunic take many of the major awards. And the best game of the year goes to Vampire Survivors.
Last year, I was told about Vampire Survivors by a friend of mine, and got it because of the low price. I rarely have time for gaming these days, working fulltime and I have a family, but I was easily able to clock 9 hours of gaming within a week. The game is very addictive.
It has a simple yet challenging gameplay that keeps players engaged and entertained. The game offers a feeling of progression and achievement, as players can unlock new characters, weapons, and abilities. The levels are short and can be completed quickly, which makes it easy for players to keep playing “just one more level.” The game offers a variety of enemies with different behaviors and attack patterns, which keeps the gameplay fresh and interesting. The game’s difficulty gradually increases as players progress, which offers a sense of challenge and accomplishment.
Vampire Survivors won the award for best game design at the recent BAFTA awards. It’s a game that became a viral sensation and inspired many knock-offs. But, is addictive gameplay enough to be considered the best game of the year?
There are many award categories, such as artistic achievement, narrative, voice acting performance, multiplayer, music, etc. If one game wins more of these categories than all the rest, but the one that got Best Game Design ends up being the game of the year, does that mean those other categories are inferior? Do they not matter in comparison to the Game Design category?
One may argue that gameplay is the most important thing about a video game, and there’s a strong argument for that, but does Vampire Survivors truly have the best gameplay? I don’t want to say Vampire Survivors is a bad game, I spent hours on it and enjoyed it, and I uninstalled it to prevent myself from playing more of it, but from my observation, the thing it does well is making something that’s very easy to pick up and get addicted to.
This is why we have seen a surge of games copying Vampire Survivors’ addictive gameplay, such as 20 Minutes Till Dawn, Spellbook Demonslayers, and Rogue Genesia. These games all have similar mechanics that make them easy to pick up and hard to put down. They are designed to keep players coming back for more and so it can go viral on streaming services like Twitch.
So this leads to my question, is addiction factor the most important factor to gaming? Is this the most valued thing seen by the game industry? And why?
In conclusion, while addiction factor may be a factor in the success of a game, it is not the most important part. Game design, narrative, artistic achievement, and music all play important roles in making a great game. As players, we should look beyond the addiction factor and appreciate games for their overall quality.
At Sabr Path, we believe that games should be enjoyable without taking over people’s lives. We value our players’ time and want them to have a healthy relationship with gaming. That’s why we don’t want to make games that are overly addictive. We strive to create games that people can enjoy, but not feel the need to keep coming back to at the expense of their daily lives. If you’re looking for a game that will respect your time and give you an enjoyable experience, look no further than Beware, our upcoming horror game that will challenge and intrigue you. Head over to our Steam page and add Beware to your wishlist today.