| Formal Elements | |
| The Basics | |
| Name of the game | Vampire Survivors |
| The platform | Itch |
| Time played (should be at least 30 minutes) | a few hours |
| If you could work on this game (change it), what would you change and why? | I would try to optimize the game more so that it is less laggy near the end of the game since it takes forever to get through because of how laggy it is |
| Players | NOTES |
| How many players are supported? | 1 |
| Does it need to be an exact number? | Yes |
| How does this affect play? | It is strictly a single-player game although I could see how it could be made into a multiplayer game, |
| Some types of player frameworks:Single Player – like Solitare.Head-to-head – 1 vs. 1, Chess.PvE – Player vs. Environment, or multiple players vs. the game. Common in MMOs like World of Warcraft.One against Many – Single-player vs. multiple (obvy).Free-for-all – Every man for himself (1 vs. 1 vs. 1 vs. 1..). Most common for multiplayer games, from Monopoly to Modern Warfare.Individuals Against the System – Like Blackjack, where the Dealer is playing against multiple players, but those players have no effect on each other.Team Competition – Multiple vs. multiple, i.e. sports.Predator-prey – Players form a circle and everyone’s goal is to attack the player on their left and defend themselves from the player on their right.Five-pointed Star – Eliminate both players who are not on either side of you. | SinglePlayer |
| Objectives/Goals | NOTES |
| What are the players trying to do? | The Player is trying to kill as many monsters, level up, and get as much gold as possible so that when they eventually die that they can buy upgrades, you can win, by beating the final boss but even then you just get a bunch of gold to buy more upgrades |
| Some common objectives include:Capture/Destroy – Eliminate all your opponents pieces (Chess).Territorial Acquisition – Control as much territory as you can, not necessarily harming other players (RISK).Collection – Collect a certain number of objects throughout the game (Pokemon).Solve – Solve a puzzle or crime (Clue).Chase/race/escape – Anything where you are running towards or away from something (playground game Tag).Spatial Alignment – Anything involving the positioning of elements (Tetris or Tic-Tac-Toe or that game at Cracker Barrel).Build – Advance your characters or build your resources to a certain point (The Sims).Negation of another goal – The game ends if you perform an act that is forbidden by the rules (Jenga or Twister). | capture/destroy although I don’t know if this fits this perfectly, you are trying to kill as many enemies as possible |
| Rules/Mechanics | |
| There are three categories of (what the book Rules of Play calls) operational rules:Setup – the things you do at the beginning of a game.Progression of Play – what happens during the game.Resolution – How an outcome is determined based on the game state. | |
| Controls | NOTES |
| What controls are used? | w a s d to move and click to upgrade but shooting is automatic |
| Was there a clear introductory tutorial? | there was a slight tutorial but not much, however, it was pretty simple |
| Were they easy to understand or did you find yourself spamming the controller? | you don’t really need to since the buttons that you press are very limited |
| Resources & Resource Management | NOTES |
| What kinds of resources do players control? | gold, experience, health |
| How are they maintained during play? | gold can be used to buy upgrades outside of the game and experience levels you up. Health is how much health you have before you die |
| What is their role? | mostly to improve your character so that you do better either during the game or the next time you play. Health is a basic lose-or-win function based on if you lose it all or not. |
| A resource is everything under the control of a single player. Could be the money in Monopoly or health in WoW. Other examples are:Territory in RISK The number of questions remaining in 20 Questions Objects picked up during videogames (guns, health packs, etc.)Time (game time, real-time, or both)Known information (like suspects in Clue) | |
| Game State | NOTES |
| How much information in the game state is visible to the player? | mostly everything Is known, there are arrows pointing to chests that contain level-ups or gold, and you can see the monsters coming at you. It is fairly zoomed in so you can’t always see that far around you. |
| A snapshot of the game at a single point is the game state. The resources you have, the un-owned properties in Monopoly, your opponent’s Archery skill all count towards the game state. Some example information structures are:Total Information – Nothing is hidden, like Chess.Info per player – Your hand of cards is only visible to you.One player has privileged info – Like a Dungeon Master.The game hides info from all players – Like Clue, where no one knows the victory condition.Fog of War – In video games, where certain sections of the map are concealed if you do not have a unit in sight range of that area. You also cannot see other players’ screens, so each player is unaware of the other’s information. | |
| Sequencing | NOTES |
| In what order do players take their actions? | the game is in real-time, |
| How does play flow from one action to another? | it is continuous |
| Some structures include:Turn-based – Standard board game technique.Turn-based with simultaneous play – where everyone takes their turn at the same time (like writing something down or putting a card down in War).Real-time – Actions happen as fast as players can make them. Action-based video games.Turn-based and time limits – You have this long to take your turn. | |
| Player Interaction | there is none |
| Some examples:Direct Conflict – I attack you.Negotiation – If you support me here, I’ll help you there.Trading – I’ll give you this for that.Information Sharing – If you go there, I’m warning you, a trap will go off. | |
| Theme & Narrative | NOTES |
| Does it have an actual story structure? | it has a bit of background but it doesn’t really have much to do with the game and you wouldn’t really notice it unless you read the text under each different character |
| Is it based on a historical event (or similar)? | no |
| Does the theme or narrative help you know how to play? | not really |
| Does it have emotional impacts? | no |
| Also, look for en media res (does it start in the middle of the game)? | kind of, it seems like it starts in the middle of a conflict that could possibly have been going on for a while |
| The Elements in Motion | NOTES |
| How do the different elements interact? | there are lots of bad guys that come in different shapes or forms, some of them are fast, some slow, and you shoot them with projectiles based on your character and what you picked for your level-ups |
| What is the gameplay like? | it’s a real-time shooter |
| Is it effective? | I would say so |
| Are there any points where the design choices break down? | I think near the end it gets way to laggy and is a lot less fun to play |
| Design Critique | NOTES |
| Why did the designer make these particular choices? | I don’t think it was a choice and more of a this is a problem but its very hard to fix |
| Why this set of resources? | I think they wanted to make it simple to learn, but to understand all the level-ups and mechanics it requires some research |
| What if they made different decisions? | I think the game would be a lot less fun since I think that the whole game would be less interesting if there wasn’t at least one part that was slightly complicated |
| Does the design break down at any point? | was already talked about above |
| Graphics & Sound | NOTES |
| Does the game art pair well with the mechanics? | the art is fairly pixel-like, which is good because otherwise, it would be even laggier |
| Did you find any bugs or glitches? | I have not |
| What about sound? | the sound isn’t very noticeable and I immediately turned it off because I didn’t really like it |
| Can you spot any technical shortcuts? | no |
| Various Stages of the Game | NOTES |
| To wrap up, some things to keep in mind (as if there aren’t enough already) as you play: | |
| What challenges do you face, and how do you overcome them? | the main challenge is surviving a huge horde of monster wave after wave and the game is very hard to get to the end. |
| Is the game fair? | I would say the game is meant to be really hard so that you don’t always make it to the end |
| Is it replayable? Are there multiple paths to victory or optional rules that can change the experience? | It is replayable for a bit (like a month or so) but then after that, it gets boring at least for me. But I also don’t have a huge attention span when it comes to playing the same games over and over. |
| What is the intended audience? | I would say the intended audience could be anyone about 10. Maybe a bit older but really anyone can play this game. |
| What is the core, the one thing you do over and over, and is it fun? | I like to upgrade how many projectiles I shoot it is very fun to have dozen of projectiles everywhere |