20 Minutes Till Dawn, one of only a handful of worthy Vampire Survivors-likes, will leave early access on June 8th. Its final update is currently available as a beta and adds weapon evolutions and new weapons, among other things.
Here’s the release date announcement trailer:
At launch, every weapon in 20 Minutes Till Dawn will now have a “set of unique evolutions,” according to the post about the final update’s ongoing closed beta. You choose one evolution upon reaching level 20 in a run.
The basic premise is the same as Vampire Survivors: you, a character sprite in the center of the screen, must wander a sparse, 2D arena, as monsters wander in from the edges. When you blast these monsters away, they drop XP gems you can collect to level up and unlock new perks, and eventually your collected powers turn you into a fizzing mess of projectiles and explosions.
20 Minutes Till Dawn differentiates itself by making you aim and shoot manually again – for most weapons, anyway. Not needing to aim is arguably Vampire Survivors’ defining feature, but 20 Minutes Till Dawn still evokes the recent smash hit in its screen-filling enemy swarms and by allowing you to rapidly create grand follies of character construction.
Alice0 loved it at launch, discovered that tanking its framerate was a satisfying win condition, and it was one of RPS’s favorites of 2022 in the middle of the year.
I’m not sure if 20 Minutes Till Dawn’s price will change at launch – it’s already increased a little as it passed through Early Access – but right now it remains £4.29/$5 from Steam.