Vampire Survivors-like, except you skid around like you're on an ice rink being mobbed by giant clouds of motorcycle riding demons and bats. So many bats! It is not a game that takes itself very seriously, but it sure is fun. There are many enjoyable weapons to blow stuff up with. Flaming rulers, bouncing shells that hurt you as often as the foe, pools of lava, deadly explosive Christmas ornaments that leave broken glass lying all around, a "Laser Champ" who comments sagaciously on your current situation ("Scary Skeleton Detected"), "Roly Poly" which sends you rotating and speeding all around the arena - usually crashing into a crowd of things and getting murdered - and many more. As usual for these games, the fun is trying to survive long enough to become a death machine, but Scary World is much shorter than Vampire Survivors and the danger ramps up fast. If you do get ahead of the curve, the game will catch up pretty quickly (particularly once you get past 10 minutes). The physic...
Scary World
- Release Date:
- Jan 22, 2025
- Developer:
- Keith Burgun Games
- Publisher:
- Keith Burgun Games
- Platforms:
- Windows
Game Tags
About This Game
YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE A SCARY WORLD.
CAN YOU DISCOVER ITS SECRET?
Scary World is a single player bullet heaven roguelike. It's sort of like Vampire Survivors but with lots of physics, and surprises! Also, matches are shorter - you win if you can survive for 10 minutes. Give it a try, maybe you'll like it!
FEATURES
Seven unlockable characters each with their own unique special powers
Over a dozen unique monsters that provide a different kind of challenge
Over a dozen learnable powers that work totally different from each other:
+ A lance that deals more damage the faster you're going
+ A stake that shoots downward below you, dealing critical damage that bypasses shields
+ A green shell that bounces around (watch out!)
+ "Laser Champ", a floating laser eyeball who flies around helpin' you shoot these scary skeletons
+ A shotgun!
+ and many more!
SECRETS! The level of Scary World has many different kinds of secrets to uncover! Can you find them?
Cheat codes!
Achievements!
Endless challenge, with 10 difficulty modes

The above image depicts the M424 Laser Champ, the friendly robot eyeball who has AI controlled Positronic Brain that shoots lasers at anything scary that he might see.
"It might not seem that scary to you, but if you were actually there it would be very scary I think" - quote from the developer
Come by the kbgames discord and share your thoughts and questions!
Screenshots
User Reviews
Balance and scaling is terrible, when I'm 20 level in I should not be having difficulty with the first enemy type. Several visual bugs, including invisible mobs and bullets. Abilities are boring, and don't improve in meaningful ways. You MUST memorize the level layout and shops to have a chance at winning. No meta progression, and no characters have unique weapons or skills. It's only 3$ but this should be labeled early access imo.
Disclaimer: I did play a playtest version of the game for free before release At a base level Scary world ist just a well done game similar to Vampire Survivors. But it has a couple really neat things going for it. 1. The match length is really short. You win the game after 10 minutes. There is no staring at blinking lights on the screen for 20 minutes while your build automatically clear everything on screen in this game. The maximum game length is 10 minutes and if don't play well early a match can be over very quickly. This leads to a great gameloop where you are constantly trying stuff out, seeing what works and what doesn't and improve at the game. 2. The difficulty system works well. After playing this game for quite a while it did seem pretty easy so I upped the difficulty settings (called Scary Levels in the setings) by a few levels and the game was immediatley noticably harder, I was dying a lot, had a lot of runs that where just 2 minutes long. But when runs are just 2 min...
This is a great VS-like with short runs, exciting gameplay and lighthearted, wacky aesthetics. The quick round times make it easy to play a few quick rounds, and just as easy to go "one more try" over and over again for hours. It only takes a minute or two before things get challenging, and your build decisions start to play out. The character abilities and build options feel distinct, and create different movement and attacking strategies. The fluid movement, while a divergence from typical VS-like controls, is incorporated throughout the gameplay, with movement and momentum influencing some of the weapons, boost pads, and some additional tension with collecting xp, as it circles around you gradually. You have to keep on the move to avoid the more mobile enemies, rather than parking it and collecting xp. I find myself preferring it more and more to the staid, linear movement in VS. The music is excellent, and the art style, while simple, is quite readable, which is the most impo...
"I hope I don't have a bad dream, of a scary world" I have bad news for you. Scary World is here! And it's intense! Run around with poison trail, blow up your enemies, or find the secret Wizard. The choice is yours. It's a lot of fun to knock all the little guys around on screen. And when you kill the big eyeball, it explodes with eyeball juice everywhere, which is really gross. The "diamond abilities" you can get by mixing and matching the different colored ability gems is a really cool mechanic, and adds a lot of strategy to which abilities you go for. It's hard to put down, I keep wanting to try just one more time! The dev also only made this game in about a month, which is really impressive. Support indies or die!
Things other survivor-likes can learn from this one: 1) Shorter match lengths are great, escalate more quickly, come to a close, let me try again. 2) Don't be afraid of actual physics, i.e. not just projectiles dealing damage, but momentum, bodies being pushed around, slingshotting yourself across the level etc. VS gave you a license for jankiness, so lean into it!
This game is really hooky and dynamic. It has that addictive appeal of VS style games, but I really like the movement in this. It's got some acceleration and inertia, so there is this satisfying "oomf" to it all. The game is also really funny. Great sense of humor. For a game of this kind, there is a surprising amount of depth in the mechanics. I beta tested this during development, and I continue to find surprises with each and every run. Designed to be about 10 minutes of fun, but very high replay value. I highly recommend you enter this SCARY WORLD.
Still cutting my teeth with it, but if you're remotely familiar with the style of Vampire Survivors, you can see 2.5 hours being a decent chunk of time for these types of games. In current state, I do not recommend it. It wants to be different which I respect, but in doing so it removes essential elements that are needed in games like this: - re-roll option(s) for items. - unique passives. - some form of a small leveling system for each character. The game in it current state is unbalanced and where I should feel pretty strong with a Level 5+ item; it does nothing at all different to make me feel like I'm causing an impact.
I really enjoyed this game. I think those who are fans of Vampire survivors or similar titles will probably get quite a bit of enjoyment out of it. I find the weapons in this game take a bit more getting used to, I'd say this game requires a bit more mechanical skill than something like vampire survivors which is more focused on knowledge.
Scary World is a very focused Bullet Heaven in the spirit of Vampire Survivors. A wall of lava drives you ever to the right on the game's single map. Your goal: To power up enough before it forces you to fight the boss that awaits at the end. If you defeat it, a portal opens that takes you back to the map's beginning, now with stronger enemies. If you play defensively from here, you'll soon have beaten the "official" objective of surviving for 10 minutes. The game explains little of its mechanics, and so it highly rewards you for paying attention to and learning them (e.g. bonuses you trigger), as well as the map's layout. The streamlined design makes Scary World feel very unique in a saturated genre. Late disclaimer: I have only beaten the minimal challenge of surviving for 10 minutes a couple of times, and only on the lowest difficulty. The game may well expand past that point. I can't say if I would like that better or worse.
Page 1 of 2
System Requirements
Minimum
- OS: Windows 10 64bit
- Processor: x64 architecture with SSE2 instruction set support
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: DX11, DX12 capable
- Storage: 600 MB available space
FAQ
How much does Scary World cost?
Scary World costs $2.99.
What are the system requirements for Scary World?
Minimum: Minimum: OS: Windows 10 64bit Processor: x64 architecture with SSE2 instruction set support Memory: 1 GB RAM Graphics: DX11, DX12 capable Storage: 600 MB available space
What platforms is Scary World available on?
Scary World is available on Windows PC.
Is Scary World worth buying?
Scary World has 87% positive reviews from 15 players.
When was Scary World released?
Scary World was released on Jan 22, 2025.
Similar Games
AI-powered recommendations based on game description