Desktop Survivors 98 on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Desktop Survivors 98 is a chaotic roguelite dungeon crawler that unfolds right on your Desktop. Your cursor becomes the hero as you explore new rooms, battle relentless waves of enemies, and collect powerful new weapons.
Desktop Survivors 98 is a action, action roguelike and casual game
developed and published by Brandon Hesslau.
Released on May 20th 2025 is available in English only on Windows.
It has received 582 reviews of which 554 were positive and 28 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.9 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 2.99€ on Steam with a 40% discount.
The Steam community has classified Desktop Survivors 98 into these genres:
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10+ (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz or equivalent
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Integrated Graphics (Intel HD Graphics 4000 or equivalent) or better
- DirectX: Version 9.0c
- Storage: 600 MB available space
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User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
For what it is, Desktop Survivors is an enjoyable experience, and having 100%ed it in almost 20 hours, I felt like I got what I wanted out of it. The 'lore' and the maps are interesting, and I would love to see the developer add dlc or something if they decide to work on this again. Even if they don't, it's a solid game and definitely felt like I got my money's worth. 9/10 Mouse icons.
Of all the indies that I have had the pleasure (and the occasional displeasure) of playing, Desktop Survivors 98 has to be one of those rare few games that sells its premise more so on the immersion and atmosphere than the actual gameplay, given my own personal preference for the types of games that I tend to play purely by what I see via trailers and the likes. Since I had already bought Vampire Survivors, the most clear comparison as far as bigger titles go, a good few months now and yet I've sat on it all this time whilst I've had an urge of playing this indie that few have matched thus far. With the recent movement led by Louis Rossman against big tech firms regarding various anti-consumer practices, one might dismiss Desktop Survivors 98 as nothing short of a veiled 'cash grab' of the sorts that borrows the iconic Clippy for its own gameplay. However, seeing as the demo for this indie was first released in December of 2024, I can put those concerns to rest as the developer behind this creative indie, Brandon Hesslau, has paid homage to the early Microsoft days in perhaps the best way possible by creating a particularly fun and engaging 'bullet hell' roguelike game that does justice to that precious late 90s era of Windows. Though to go into what this indie entails, Desktop Survivors 98 follows a more dungeon-crawler design of exploring three floors in increasing difficulty, facing off various themed monsters that escalate in challenge the further you go down. During this, the player is encouraged to kill as efficiently as possible to quickly gain XP for more levels as each level up grants a new item or an upgrade to a current one and amassing gold, either to buy items at a store that periodically spawns inside the dungeon itself or for making minor but permanent improvements outside in the hub, whilst engaging with optional bosses who drop powerful books of code to inject enhanced stats and additional abilities into weapons. No doubt there's a lot of ground to cover here, first and foremost being the monsters themselves as they vary in difficulty and how they threaten the player, some moving erratically whilst others advance in unique ways that can catch you off-guard when combined with other monsters. However, some of these monsters aren't just 'living bullets' in this bullet hell game but also fire projectiles at you too, some of them even having unique properties to them like summoning weak enemies or forming a chain in a breath-like attack. On top of that, each enemy has a regular and 'evolved' form that guarantees more damage dealt by them and taken in order to defeat them whilst also presenting new dangerous attacks that their regular forms don't possess, keeping even experienced players on their toes for a new run into these dungeons! This may sound quite intimidating at first, although no rougelite or rougelike is good without a well-designed system that gives players the ability to slowly enhance their items and abilities as they make more progress into the game itself! Seeing as you'll start off with the absolute basics and nothing else, however by interacting and engaging with both friendly and aggressive NPCs (these are also faithfully designed with that Windows 98 aesthetics) throughout each run you will begin unlocking new features that allow you to gain permanent upgrades for future attempts alongside other handy features and the likes! These include a burial site that gives higher odds of buried items showing up during a run, a mining garden which successfully mining all gems in a layer from pickaxes gained randomly throughout runs giving you various small buffs that stack and even a blackjack minigame where one can bet coins for chancing their odds as a quick way of gaining or losing money! On the note of this game's fantastic aesthetics, Desktop Survivors 98's biggest appealing factor is its visual artstyle and how pleasing it is to the eyes as far as how this game might have looked in Windows 98. Since I was still learning the early ways of life around this time, not having been introduced to the world of PCs until Windows XP was the go-to operating system, I hold no nostalgia for this era of Windows personally. And yet, in spite of it all, I can feel that love and care put into crafting such an experience where many before my time can easily be taken back down memory lane with the faithful recreation put on display here with this roguelike title. It also helps that Desktop Survivors 98 is not one to outstay its welcome either, since it took me about 28 hours or so to get all but one achievement at what felt a reasonably decent pace. One tip I'll give right off the bat is to try out and experiment with each of the game's 'cursors', the stand-in for human characters, as the 27 cursors all feature a specific starting weapon for you to focus on whilst also having their own specific stats. To give a couple of examples here, Gills starts you off with a level 2 shield pick-up that is separate from the standard upgrades and increases reflection damage by 1% for every level you gain. Bloom, meanwhile, guarantees an additional projectile when beginning each run for all weapons on top of any upgrades whilst also recovering a quarter of your max HP for every room cleared. What I enjoy most about this roguelike indie with bullet hell gameplay though is how it is fairly difficult when starting off, requiring you to 'lock in' as it were for a good portion of the game when starting out. However, as you unlock more programs to build your starting power up as well as influence your overall preferred playing style, it becomes more manageable and eventually reach a point in the game where it becomes a real possibility of becoming super-powerful and having the game essentially play itself in all of that spectacular power fantasy glory! Now whilst this indie shares a lot of elements with Vampire Survivors, there are several key distinctions to be made as that game has more of an 'open field' style of arena alongside a hard limit of 30 minutes whereby survival is nigh-impossible with the grim reaper on your case unlike Desktop Survivors 98's dungeon crawler roots and much brief time limits set for each individual room. Also the item store equivalent seems to largely be for unlocking new characters and items instead of incremental improvements and the likes whilst there's more of an emphasis on keyboard controls over using a mouse. Considering that I have next to no experience with this specific type of gameplay up until now, I'm beginning to see why there is as much widespread appeal and enjoyment to be had with such games as this and Vampire Survivors here! However, even though I don't have much criticisms outside of it becoming easy past a certain point and generally only having the one gameplay cycle to lean onto, a major issue that may arise for some players is regarding one of the collectable items which can be dropped by monsters that aid the player, including gaining a quick HP boost (biscuits) or a brief power surge in attacks from the player (batteries) among others. This specifically pertains to the iconic 'blue screen of death' item that is used to wipe all enemies currently on screen when gained, however it has also ironically posed a problem for certain users who eventually encounter it crashing the game and, more importantly, deleting all progress made until that point. Since the developer has not made any updates since shortly after the official launch of this game, I wish to make others aware of this potential game-breaking bug even though I have never encountered it myself despite having used hundreds of this item assuming this does not get patched. Outside of this one blemish however, Desktop Survivors 98 is a fantastic roguelike to dip your toes into and experience the joys of intense combat under randomly-generated and it is one that I can fully recommend to both new fans and enthusiasts of the genre as a whole!
A survivors-like that emulates a Win9x desktop environment, with all weapons and upgrades also from that era. It's an amazing fresh new take on the emergent genre that everyone will enjoy, especially those of us that were alive during the Win95 to 2000 era. One major difference to other survivor-likes is that is has room based progression: once you clear a room, you can easily pause/minimize the game for as long as you need to before diving back in.
-Make a run -ALWAYS choose zero cursor -Make it to level 3 (if i get lucky and the game actually give upgrades i need) -Die (Either on level 3 or a couple seconds into endless mode) -Gamble my gold from that run at blackjack -Lose (all of it) -Not play the game for a day or two -Repeat Is it worth $5? Hell yes!!!! Progression for runs and the game itself is way too slow but its still worth it
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Frequently Asked Questions
Desktop Survivors 98 is currently priced at 2.99€ on Steam.
Yes, Desktop Survivors 98 is currently available at a 40% discount. You can purchase it for 2.99€ on Steam.
Yes, Desktop Survivors 98 received 554 positive votes out of a total of 582 achieving a rating of 8.85.
😎
Desktop Survivors 98 was developed and published by Brandon Hesslau.
Yes, Desktop Survivors 98 is playable and fully supported on Windows.
No, Desktop Survivors 98 is not playable on MacOS.
No, Desktop Survivors 98 is not playable on Linux.
Desktop Survivors 98 is a single-player game.
No, Desktop Survivors 98 does not currently offer any DLC.
No, Desktop Survivors 98 does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
No, Desktop Survivors 98 does not support Steam Remote Play.
Yes, Desktop Survivors 98 is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Desktop Survivors 98.
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 04 June 2026 16:01 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 09 June 2026 19:32 |
| Steam price | 13 June 2026 12:58 |
| Steam reviews | 13 June 2026 16:07 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Desktop Survivors 98, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Desktop Survivors 98
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Desktop Survivors 98 concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Desktop Survivors 98 compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
22
Developer
Brandon Hesslau
Publisher
Brandon Hesslau
Release
20 May 2025
Platforms