Vampire Survivors developer Poncle has huge plans for the longer term, in line with an interview the corporate’s chief technique officer Matteo Sapio. It is opening two new studios in Japan and Italy and has over 15 video games in lively growth. That is loads of motion for a corporation primarily recognized for one franchise.
Sapio says the corporate is growing three primary sorts of video games. There are spinoffs to Vampire Survivors, like this week’s . Poncle can also be making unique IPs and says there are two video games set in new universes coming down the pike.
Lastly, it is engaged on some roguelites with comparable mechanics to Vampire Survivors, however utilizing different IPs. We already find out about one in all these, a roguelite set within the Warhammer 40K universe . It is set to land on Steam someday this yr. To help with these plans, Poncle has developed an engine that may flip pre-existing IPs into video games that play like Vampire Survivors.
In the event you’re questioning if there are sufficient followers for a number of top-down roguelites with easy controls and bullet hell mechanics, let me level you to Halls of Torment, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and Soulstone Survivors, amongst many others. This has change into a well-liked style in recent times, possible because of the continued success of Vampire Survivors. To that finish, the unique sport .
Poncle has, nevertheless, paused all of its third-party publishing plans after releasing a few video games final yr. “It was a studying expertise,” Sapio stated. “However we discovered that we weren’t in a position to give the appropriate help.” The corporate might revisit third-party publishing sooner or later.
That is nice information for Poncle and followers of the Vampire Survivors franchise, however there’s at all times danger when an organization tries to develop like this. Bear in mind Embracer Group? It went on an enormous shopping for spree starting in 2019, .
Nevertheless, this is not a AAA sport growth studio. Poncle makes indie titles and the brand new studios can be lean operations, with “little groups of individuals.” Sapio stated this organizational construction will assist preserve the corporate “agile and versatile.”
I personally have excessive hopes for this endeavor. It’s because the just-released spinoff Vampire Crawlers is so superb, which proves to me that Poncle is not a one-trick pony. It performs like a mixture of Slay the Spire with a first-person dungeon crawler like Etrian Odyssey, all whereas efficiently capturing the vibe of Vampire Survivors. If Poncle can sustain this stage of high quality, avid gamers might be in for a long-term deal with.
