20 November 2025

Vampire Survivors Devs Announce a Roguelike Deck Builder

By newsgame

The development team behind Vampire Survivors has surprised fans with the announcement of an upcoming roguelike deck builder spin-off called Vampire Crawlers. Poncle’s pixelated reverse bullet hell game was possibly the biggest surprise success story of 2021, and the publisher and developer is now looking to take the Vampire Survivors universe into an entirely new dimension.

With its full release coming more than three years ago, Vampire Survivors has followed a roadmap of free updates in 2025 that have added a lot of special features to the game. These additions have included the introduction of maps and weapons, letting players live out their chaotic, low-res monster-slaying dreams in new ways, with the 1.14 update in October also giving players their first shot at online co-op play.

Vampire Survivors is Finally Adding Online Co-Op

The roguelike shoot ’em up title Vampire Survivors is about to get a huge update, with online co-op finally being added to the game.

A Vampire Survivors Spin-off is Coming in 2026

Now, Poncle is taking the Vampire Survivors franchise in a different direction, announcing at the Xbox Partner Preview showcase that a roguelike deck-building dungeon-crawler game will be arriving in 2026. According to a description posted to Xbox Wire, Vampire Crawlers will allow players to select from a variety of classic Vampire Survivors characters, each of whom will come with their own special abilities. Similar to the game it’s based on, players will guide their heroes through a series of indoor and outdoor dungeon areas, slaying monsters and collecting loot with familiar weapons and items at their disposal. However, unlike in Vampire Survivors, the battles will take place through a series of chaotic card battles.

Poncle founder Luca Galante said in an interview that the game has been in development for nearly four years, and the inspirations for this spin-off have come from a variety of sources, including JRPGs, CRPGs, and classic card games like Solitaire. One aspect he hopes will set Vampire Crawlers apart from other deck builders is its card customization mechanic, which he said will “be accessible and flexible enough to allow players to dig into it as much or as little as they want.” While the upcoming game will provide an entirely different gameplay experience from its source material, players should find plenty of tie-ins, from Vampire Survivors‘ weapon evolution system to its soundtrack.

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Vampire Crawlers will be available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC, through both Steam and the Epic Games Store. It’s also planned for release as a day-one game on Xbox Game Pass for subscribers in the Premium and Ultimate tiers, though no solid release date has been announced yet. Galante also noted that Vampire Crawlers may be the first Vampire Survivors spin-off, but Poncle has plenty of other irons in the fire for future spin-off games.