Of all the ideological struggles pervading our world today, none is more crucial than the effort to decide what we should actually call all the games like Vampire Survivors. This week, more than 450 developers are joining forces to solve that frustrating quandary of categorical nomenclature with a public survey aiming to finally settle on a Steam tag for the genre that's been variously referred to as bullet heaven games, survivorslikes, and—apologies—"auto-attacking wave-based survival games." Hopefully it's not the last one.
As I write this, the third Bullet Heaven Festival is running on Steam until December 11, offering discounts on all manner of games where you stand in the middle of the screen as everything around you is macerated by a blender of weaponized particle effects. In addition to discounts, the organizers of the third-party sale have also organized a public poll to help canonize a communally agreed-upon name for the genre that—until now—has been scattered across a smattering of tangentially-relevant Steam tags.
"Steam has a huge influence on how game genres are defined—and this fast-growing genre still doesn’t have a proper tag," the sale's organizers said in a press release. "A Steam tag isn’t just for looks; it’s one of the most powerful tools for discoverability and helping players find exactly what they love."
Discoverability remains a massive issue on Steam, and the sale organizers say a dedicated genre tag would both help users trying to find more games to scratch the survivorslike itch and developers whose games are currently being swallowed by competing RPGs and action games.
We at PC Gamer have attempted to weigh in on this issue before, with our Robin Valentine leaning towards the genre name of "survivor" as an "elegant solution." Unfortunately, I'm going to foment a schism in the ranks by throwing my weight behind "bullet heaven"—mostly because it's a rad pair of words. And hey, it's already had three sales. Sorry, Robin.
Steam has proven itself susceptible to this kind of pressure before: Last year, it was successfully coerced into adding the "Dwarf" genre tag to appease Dwarf Fortress and Deep Rock Galactic fans (you're welcome). The Bullet Heaven Festival poll has already received more than 6,000 responses, and once the poll ends on December 10, the organizers will announce a winner and present their findings to Valve.
As a supporter of democracy, I encourage you to Vampire Survivors to the polls yourself and make your voice heard in this literally genre-defining moment. And to make sure "multi-directional shooter" doesn't win, because, I mean, come on. That's most shooters. Be serious.
