When I first played Vampire Survivors, it was a revelation for me. It wasn’t just that the small-scale indie game felt like the beginning of a brand-new genre; it was more that it did wonders for my anxiety. It got me through many five-hour flights, because playing it is an act of time travel. You sit down, tune everything in the world out, and realize that hours have passed by in minutes. I’ve kept up with the “bullet heaven” subgenre that developer Poncle has inspired since, spending time with games like Brotato and Megabonk, but nothing has scratched that itch in quite the same way.
That could change in two weeks. Messhof, the developer behind Nidhogg and Wheel World, is taking its own stab at a Survivors-like game on Aug. 25 with Blood Dungeon. Though it’s launching into a crowded field of games that all basically do the same thing, Blood Dungeon could have what it takes to be a breakout hit. In fact, I’ve already seen it win players over firsthand.
On its surface, Blood Dungeon is your average Vampire Survivors riff. You run around a map, dodging enemies while your weapons auto-attack around you. You level up and get a choice between three upgrades every time, and you can occasionally find treasure chests that give you additional perks. The big difference is that Blood Dungeon is a 2D platformer, so you need to work around the environment while ducking monsters. You’re juggling a whole lot of chaos at once.
I first learned about Blood Dungeon at Summer Game Fest, where I found it tucked in the corner of a room like a secret. I knew nothing about it when I tried my hand at one of its dungeons on a Steam Deck. Sure enough, I experienced time travel. I don’t know how many minutes passed; all I knew was that I didn’t want to put it down once my time was up. The simple controls, delightfully crude visuals, and alluring leaderboards made me feel like I was playing Vampire Survivors for the first time again.
I wasn’t alone in that feeling. Throughout the three-day Summer Game Fest event, I spoke to multiple attendees who were similarly smitten by Blood Dungeon. By the final day, just about everyone I talked to who had played it said it was on their “Game of the Show” shortlist. And the following week, I saw that carry over to social media as players discovered its public demo on Steam. Sometimes it’s hard to see a cult indie coming, but the early word of mouth around Blood Dungeon reminds me of the slow-building whisper train that eventually turned Balatro into a phenomenon.
If you want to know what the big deal is, you can try Blood Dungeon for yourself ahead of its Aug. 25 launch on Windows PC. It currently has a free demo on Steam, the very same one that I saw players rave about earlier this summer.