According to KitGuru.net, Poncle founder Luca has officially revealed Vampire Crawlers, a spin-off from their breakout hit Vampire Survivors. The game has been in development for roughly 4 years and is scheduled for a global rollout next year on Xbox and Steam platforms. Vampire Crawlers completely shifts genres, described as a deckbuilding dungeon crawler played from a first-person perspective. The studio’s signature chaos engine will now power card-based combat where players mow down hordes of enemies. Characters, enemies, and artifacts from Vampire Survivors will be reimagined as cards, though the pace is entirely player-controlled. The announcement was teased with a satirical trailer that promised high-fidelity graphics before revealing the studio’s familiar 2D pixel art style.
Genre shift surprise
Here’s the thing – this isn’t just another Vampire Survivors clone. Poncle is diving headfirst into the largely forgotten ‘blobber’ genre, those grid-based dungeon crawlers like Eye of the Beholder that were huge in the 80s. But they’re marrying that exploration with fast-paced card combat. Basically, you get the dungeon crawling structure without the heavy exploration focus – Luca specifically said exploration won’t be “a too heavy component.” Instead, the dungeons provide interesting choices between fights rather than just menu navigation. It’s a clever way to add structure without slowing down the action.
Why this matters
This move is fascinating because most successful indie studios either make sequels or completely new IP. Poncle is doing neither – they’re creating a spin-off that leverages their existing universe while tackling an entirely different genre. And honestly? It’s probably smarter than trying to make Vampire Survivors 2. The original game basically created and dominated the “reverse bullet hell” genre, so expanding into deckbuilding and dungeon crawling makes strategic sense. They’re building a franchise rather than just milking one hit. The four-year development timeline suggests this wasn’t a rushed cash grab either – they’ve been thinking about spin-offs since shortly after Vampire Survivors’ initial success.
Market implications
The deckbuilding space is already crowded with heavyweights like Slay the Spire and recent hits like Balatro. But Poncle has several advantages – instant brand recognition, an established fanbase, and their proven “chaos engine” that makes horde combat feel satisfying. They’re also smartly targeting both Steam and Xbox simultaneously, maximizing their reach from day one. The real question is whether Vampire Survivors fans will follow them into this completely different gameplay style. First-person dungeon crawling with card combat is about as far from the original’s top-down horde survival as you can get. But if anyone can make it work, it’s probably the team that turned simple pixel art and basic mechanics into one of the most addictive games in recent memory.
Funding reality
Now, developing a game for four years isn’t cheap, even for a successful indie studio. Vampire Survivors’ massive success certainly provided the runway, but it’s worth noting that Poncle maintains a Patreon page where fans can directly support ongoing development. This hybrid approach – commercial success plus community funding – might become more common as studios look to diversify beyond single hits. It gives them financial stability to experiment with passion projects like Vampire Crawlers without betting the entire company on each new release.
