In December of 2021 Vampire Survivors was released. An auto attacking game that featured only 1 control, a joy stick. The game featured a random roll chest system that when you earned enough Xp you received a new ability. For example garlic, this ability creates an invisible barrier around you that damages enemies. This was an extremely addicting, simple, yet oddly satisfying game. It also was an extreme success. As follows any success, other games began replicating this unique mechanic, with their own style.
Nomad Survival came next, mimicking the mechanics of Vampire Survivors. They added an additional heritage system and some other small differences to major gameplay mechanics. There was also Gunlocked, which is a vertical space ship scrolling game with the same principle: you move, you have set weapon attacks, you level and upgrade said weapon attacks to fight a boss every 5 minutes.
Another well received game in the one control genre is 10 minutes Till Dawn where it’s basically the same mechanics as the previous games listed but has better balancing.
I can foresee lots of studios following suit for 1 control / single control games, the market is very hot at the current moment and these games were all very well received by the steam community. I would like to see these games evolve more, because they are really fun and quite frankly that is what gaming is all about!
Gunlocked is receiving updates regularly, Nomad Survival just released their 3rd map, 10 minutes till dawn fully released on may 11th. I would definitely recommend following this genre, with each game released within the genre the expectation of surpassing the previous game will increase.
Forcing developers to make something more unique and for us as gamers that is a good thing! All the games listed are available currently on steam! Thank you so much for taking time to read this article!