Vampire Survivors studio reveals spin-off Vampire Crawlers

Poncle, the developer behind the breakout hit Vampire Survivors, has unveiled a spin-off game called Vampire Crawlers. The announcement, teased with a satirical trailer promising high-fidelity graphics before revealing more 2D pixel art, shows the studio is applying its unique chaos engine to an entirely new genre.

Set for a global rollout next year on Xbox and Steam, Vampire Crawlers is described as a deckbuilding dungeon crawler played from a first-person perspective. Poncle founder Luca confirmed that the game will reimagine characters, enemies, and artifacts from Vampire Survivors as cards, but the pace is entirely up to the player. As per the developer, “it's about mowing down hordes of enemies with cards while exploring dungeons, playing as slowly or as quickly as you want”.

Luca notes that the design borrows from the largely forgotten ‘blobber' genre, which was popular on PC in the 80s with titles like Eye of the Beholder and Legend of Grimrock. In essence, the game presents a first-person, grid-based dungeon interface married to a fast-paced card combat system.

The concept has been in development for roughly 4 years, stemming from the founder's desire to create genre spin-offs shortly after Vampire Survivors' success. Luca clarified that exploration will not be “a too heavy component” of Vampire Crawlers. Instead, the dungeon layout is intended to add structure and provide “interesting choices about what to do in between fights”, offering more dynamic decisions than simple menu navigation.

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KitGuru says: Did you try the original Vampire Survivors? Will you be trying Vampire Crawlers when it gets out?

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