Survivors-like (bullet heaven)
In a survivors-like your character attacks on its own; you steer through ever-larger waves of enemies and pick upgrades as you level up, run after run. Vampire Survivors (2022) made the form popular, and the genre is named after it.
Where the name comes from
No first use of the name has been found. Sources trace the form to Magic Survival, a mobile game released in South Korea in 2018 and worldwide in 2019, and its popularity to Vampire Survivors in 2022. In May 2026 Steam adopted “Bullet Heaven” as its official tag; Polygon pointed out that Valve did not invent the phrase. Poncle, the studio behind Vampire Survivors, proposed “Survivaton”.
Where the edges are
The name itself is the main dispute: survivors-like, bullet heaven or autoshooter. Polygon files Vampire Survivors under action roguelites, Rock Paper Shotgun has questioned how readable the wave of imitators is, and Epic notes that Vampire Survivors was not the first game of its kind.
Key survivors-like games
Each game links to its article; the last column links to the source that puts it in the genre.
| Game | Developer | Engine | Genre per |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vampire Survivors | poncle | Wikipedia | |
| Brotato | Thomas Gervraud; Evil Empire | Godot | gamerant.com |
| Halls of Torment | Chasing Carrots | Godot | GameSpot |
| 20 Minutes Till Dawn | flanne | GameSpot | |
| Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor | Funday Games | GameSpot | |
| Megabonk | vedinad | Wikipedia |
Related genres: Roguelite, Roguelike.
At a glance
- Parent genres
- Shoot 'em up, roguelite
- Named after
- Vampire Survivors (2022)
- Also called
- Bullet heaven (Steam tag since 2026), autoshooter
- Early example
- Magic Survival (2018)
Sources
Checked .