# The survivor-likes we tune ours against > Tag: PLAY · Peer games. Published 2026-06-17 by Tom and Ollie, FOXFIRE developers. Mirrors https://getfoxfire.com/dispatches/survivor-likes-we-tune-against/. Tuning a survivor-like means playing every survivor-like you can get your hands on. Five games we keep going back to as reference points, and what each one teaches us when we put it on a screen next to FOXFIRE. --- ## Vampire Survivors — the auto-fire rhythm The reference everyone names. Luca Galante's original is the cleanest study of how to make weapons feel like they're firing themselves *for* the player rather than *at* the screen. **What we take:** the pacing of the first three minutes. Vampire Survivors introduces a new system every thirty seconds — weapons fire, enemies arrive, XP, level-up, more enemies, evolution chimes — and the player never feels lost because each system arrives as a single new thing to read. **What we don't take:** the frictionless WASD. Vampire Survivors works because movement is a state machine; FOXFIRE bets survivor-like fans want the version where movement is a system. --- ## Brotato — build depth as the only progression Brotato's secret is that every weapon in the roster is a different verb. The Pistol is positioning, the Minigun is commitment, the Slingshot is patience. No "weak weapon" — just a weapon whose grammar hasn't matched the run yet. **What we take:** every weapon in FOXFIRE should be the answer to a different question. The Mining Laser is for the player who wants to hold a corridor. The Ballistic Gun is for the player who likes to read crowd density. The Anchor is for the player who can't stop accelerating. **What we don't take:** the arena. Brotato runs are static spaces with timers; FOXFIRE runs are travel. --- ## Nova Drift — the closest peer in mechanics Justin Pixelblade Stander's arcade-roguelite ship combat game. Thrust-based ships with modular gear that stacks across runs. **What we take:** thrust physics doesn't have to be punishing. Nova Drift handles inertia generously — new players acclimate inside a run, and the high-skill ceiling reveals itself through modifier choices rather than pure piloting. FOXFIRE's Military hull is downstream of that lesson. **What we don't take:** the arena, again, and the modular ship. Nova Drift is a single ship the player customises through runs; FOXFIRE is five distinct hulls that don't share parts. --- ## Cobalt Core — run pacing within a roguelite Not a survivor-like — it's here because nobody in the roguelite space has built better run-to-run momentum than Rocket Rat Games. **What we take:** a run should know it's ending before the player does. FOXFIRE's last 100 seconds are the FTL escape window because the run's structural climax should be a beat the player *feels*. **What we don't take:** the deckbuilder layer. Different game. --- ## Halls of Torment — environmental density and threat reading Chasing Carrots took the Vampire Survivors loop and re-tuned it around Diablo's visual language: the screen reads as a place, threats arrive with telegraphs, build pressure forces decisions. **What we take:** the threat-reading model. FOXFIRE's offscreen indicators owe more to Halls of Torment's ranged threats than to any space-sim ancestor. "Things you can't see should still be legible" is FOXFIRE's HUD constraint. **What we don't take:** the dungeon. FOXFIRE's stages are open space; Halls of Torment's are walled rooms. --- ## What this taught us this week Two playtests ago, FOXFIRE's Stage 2 was leaving players in a quiet patch around minute eight. Low spawn pressure, too-spread-out level, level-up rhythm peaked too early. How each peer handles minute eight: - Vampire Survivors: drops a new evolution prompt - Brotato: escalates wave intensity, not wave count - Nova Drift: opens a new system tier - Cobalt Core: changes the music - Halls of Torment: introduces offscreen ranged threat that demands repositioning What we did for Stage 2: introduced a beam artillery weapon that fires from offscreen, telegraphed across two beats, that the player has to actively hunt or actively dodge. Closer to Halls of Torment than the others. Three more playtests since and the eight-minute slack is gone. --- ## Where to look next - https://getfoxfire.com/game/ — FOXFIRE systems overview - https://getfoxfire.com/dispatches/ — Dispatches index - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4714090/FOXFIRE/ — wishlist on Steam Last updated: 2026-06-17