{"id":1896933,"date":"2026-04-22T17:40:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1896933"},"modified":"2026-04-22T17:40:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:40:23","slug":"vampire-survivors-developer-poncle-is-opening-more-studios-and-has-over-15-games-in-the-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1896933","title":{"rendered":"Vampire Survivors developer Poncle is opening more studios and has over 15 games in the works"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/tf01xZWbznQP8aNE221cCw&#8211;\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD02OTY-\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2026-04\/493375f0-3e6e-11f1-bcef-1793bc6a9236&#8243;]<\/p>\n<article id=\"article-1739f40c-1ecf-42a2-8038-e0ef14df8f48\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"mx-auto md:px-10 md:max-w-[1220px]\">\n<nav class=\"prestige-breadcrumb relative mx-4 md:mx-0\" aria-label=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<ol class=\"no-scrollbar overflow-scroll whitespace-nowrap text-battleship\">\n<li class=\"inline\">\n<li class=\"inline-block cursor-default last:pr-10 md:last:pr-20 font-bold\">Gaming<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/nav>\n<header class=\"mb-4 px-4 md:mb-6 md:px-0\">\n<h1 class=\"layout-h1 my-2 font-bold leading-tight\">Vampire Survivors developer Poncle is opening more studios and has over 15 games in the works<\/h1>\n<h2 class=\"my-2 text-[18px] font-light leading-5 md:max-w-[660px] md:text-[20px]\/[28px]\">The company just released an absolutely addictive spinoff of the gothic roguelite.<\/h2>\n<div class=\"flex-col items-start lg:flex lg:flex-row lg:items-center lg:justify-between mt-6\">\n<div class=\"relative md:mr-[10px]\">\n<div class=\"flex items-center\">\n<div class=\"flex mr-2\">\n<div class=\"shrink-0 cursor-pointer inline-block size-[42px] lg:size-[48px]\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt role=\"img\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full rounded-full object-cover object-center shadow-[0_0_0_2px_#ffffff]\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/TcQCYKuJU_9Vi2dogRUGcg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTgwO2g9ODA-\/https:\/\/o.aolcdn.com\/images\/dims?image_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fs.yimg.com%2Fos%2Fcreatr-uploaded-images%2F2023-04%2Fbe2dabc0-dee3-11ed-af74-cc21123945d3&amp;compress=1&amp;progressive=1&amp;quality=75&amp;client=hawkeye&amp;signature=b1b4a88b5678acf357d4ca80e15ee9cff64e9455\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"inline-block\">\n<div class=\"w-max text-sm\/5 font-semibold lg:!flex flex items-center\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col\">\n<div class=\"flex w-max items-center\">Lawrence Bonk<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"font-normal sm:before:inline-block\">Contributing Reporter<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"lg:hidden\">\n<div class=\"text-xs text-dolphin dark:text-shark md:text-sm\/5 pt-4\">\n<div class=\"inline-block\"><time datetime=\"2026-04-22T17:40:23.000Z\">Wed, April 22, 2026 at 5:40 PM UTC<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ml-0 mt-4 flex items-center lg:ml-3 lg:mt-0\">\n<div class=\"ml-0 mr-2\">\n<div class=\"relative flex\">Add Engadget on Google<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"hidden lg:block\">\n<div class=\"text-xs text-dolphin dark:text-shark md:text-sm\/5 pt-4\">\n<div class=\"inline-block\"><time datetime=\"2026-04-22T17:40:23.000Z\">Wed, April 22, 2026 at 5:40 PM UTC<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-1 gap-x-8 lg:gap-x-0 mx-auto md:px-10 md:max-w-[1220px] md:grid-cols-[[main-start]_1fr_[main-end_right-start]_min-content_[right-end]] lg:!gap-x-8\">\n<div class=\"md:col-main\" data-i13n-boundary=\"true\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-[[fullbleed-start_body-start]_minmax(auto,750px)_[body-end_fullbleed-end]]\">\n<figure class=\"relative col-body mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative overflow-hidden fig-image-round left-1\/2 w-screen -translate-x-1\/2 md:left-0 md:w-auto md:translate-x-0\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"object-cover object-center\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/.H.6W0yx_idSE8.9Jfx2cg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyNDI7aD03MjA-\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2026-04\/493375f0-3e6e-11f1-bcef-1793bc6a9236\"><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-[0.875rem]\/[1.25rem] figure-caption mt-1 line-clamp-2 mt-2.5 md:mt-2 pr-2.5\">\n<div><span>Poncle <\/span><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-article-mobile md:grid-cols-article lg:max-w-[750px] drop-cap\" data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\"><em>Vampire Survivors<\/em> developer Poncle has big plans for the future, according to an interview <em><ins>The Game Business<\/ins><\/em><ins> conducted with<\/ins> the company&#8217;s chief strategy officer Matteo Sapio. It&#8217;s opening two new studios in Japan and Italy and has over 15 games in active development. That&#8217;s a lot of action for a company primarily known for one franchise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">Sapio says the company is developing three basic types of games. There are spinoffs to <em>Vampire Survivors<\/em>, like this week&#8217;s <ins>deckbuilder <\/ins><em><ins>Vampire Crawlers<\/ins><\/em>. Poncle is also making original IPs and says there are two games set in new universes coming down the pike.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">Finally, it&#8217;s working on some roguelites with similar mechanics to <em>Vampire Survivors<\/em>, but using other IPs. We already know about one of these, a roguelite set in the Warhammer 40K universe <ins>called <\/ins><em><ins>Warhammer Survivors<\/ins><\/em>. It&#8217;s set to land on Steam sometime this year. To assist with these plans, Poncle has developed an engine that can turn pre-existing IPs into games that play like <em>Vampire Survivors<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">If you&#8217;re wondering if there are enough fans for multiple top-down roguelites with simple controls and bullet hell mechanics, let me point you to <em>Halls of Torment<\/em>, <em>Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor<\/em> and <em>Soulstone Survivors<\/em>, among many others. This has become a popular genre in recent years, likely due to the continued success of <em>Vampire Survivors<\/em>. To that end, the original game <ins>has surpassed 27 million players<\/ins>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"col-fullbleed mb-4 bg-marshmallow pb-5 dark:bg-ramones md:invisible md:mb-0 md:h-0 md:overflow-hidden md:pb-0\">\n<div class=\"py-2 text-center text-xs uppercase\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_nh9nam95feiv5tilbH1_\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full items-center justify-center bg-marshmallow text-center leading-3\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-body mb-4 hidden pb-5 dark:bg-ramones md:block\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_17h9nam95feiv5tilbH1_\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full items-center justify-center bg-marshmallow text-center leading-3\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">Poncle has, however, paused all of its third-party publishing plans after releasing a couple of games last year. &#8220;It was a learning experience,&#8221; Sapio said. &#8220;But we found that we weren\u2019t able to give the right support.&#8221; The company could revisit third-party publishing in the future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">This is great news for Poncle and fans of the Vampire Survivors franchise, but there&#8217;s always risk when a company tries to grow like this. Remember Embracer Group? It went on a massive buying spree beginning in 2019, <ins>before having<\/ins><ins>to sell off and<\/ins><ins>close a number of studios<\/ins>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">However, this isn&#8217;t a AAA game development studio. Poncle makes indie titles and the new studios will be lean operations, with &#8220;little teams of people.&#8221; Sapio said this organizational structure will help keep the company &#8220;agile and flexible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">I personally have high hopes for this endeavor. This is because the just-released spinoff <em>Vampire Crawlers<\/em> is so very good, which proves to me that Poncle isn&#8217;t a one-trick pony. It plays like a mix of <em>Slay the Spire<\/em> with a first-person dungeon crawler like <em>Etrian Odyssey, <\/em>all while successfully capturing the vibe of<em> Vampire Survivors<\/em>. If Poncle can keep up this level of quality, gamers could be in for a long-term treat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"md:col-main grid grid-cols-article-mobile md:grid-cols-article lg:max-w-[750px]\">\n<div class=\"no-scrollbar col-body mx-4 mb-8 mt-2.5 overflow-x-scroll whitespace-nowrap md:mx-0 md:max-w-[750px] md:overflow-x-visible md:hidden\">\n<div class=\"mx-auto max-w-screen-sm\">\n<ul class=\"inline-flex text-xs md:text-sm\">\n<li class=\"mr-6\">About our ads<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-article-mobile md:grid-cols-article lg:max-w-[750px] drop-cap\" data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\"><em>Vampire Survivors<\/em> developer Poncle has big plans for the future, according to an interview <em><ins>The Game Business<\/ins><\/em><ins> conducted with<\/ins> the company&#8217;s chief strategy officer Matteo Sapio. It&#8217;s opening two new studios in Japan and Italy and has over 15 games in active development. That&#8217;s a lot of action for a company primarily known for one franchise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">Sapio says the company is developing three basic types of games. There are spinoffs to <em>Vampire Survivors<\/em>, like this week&#8217;s <ins>deckbuilder <\/ins><em><ins>Vampire Crawlers<\/ins><\/em>. Poncle is also making original IPs and says there are two games set in new universes coming down the pike.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">Finally, it&#8217;s working on some roguelites with similar mechanics to <em>Vampire Survivors<\/em>, but using other IPs. We already know about one of these, a roguelite set in the Warhammer 40K universe <ins>called <\/ins><em><ins>Warhammer Survivors<\/ins><\/em>. It&#8217;s set to land on Steam sometime this year. To assist with these plans, Poncle has developed an engine that can turn pre-existing IPs into games that play like <em>Vampire Survivors<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">If you&#8217;re wondering if there are enough fans for multiple top-down roguelites with simple controls and bullet hell mechanics, let me point you to <em>Halls of Torment<\/em>, <em>Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor<\/em> and <em>Soulstone Survivors<\/em>, among many others. This has become a popular genre in recent years, likely due to the continued success of <em>Vampire Survivors<\/em>. To that end, the original game <ins>has surpassed 27 million players<\/ins>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"col-fullbleed mb-4 bg-marshmallow pb-5 dark:bg-ramones md:invisible md:mb-0 md:h-0 md:overflow-hidden md:pb-0\">\n<div class=\"py-2 text-center text-xs uppercase\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_nh9nam95feiv5tilbH1_\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full items-center justify-center bg-marshmallow text-center leading-3\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-body mb-4 hidden pb-5 dark:bg-ramones md:block\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_17h9nam95feiv5tilbH1_\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full items-center justify-center bg-marshmallow text-center leading-3\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">Poncle has, however, paused all of its third-party publishing plans after releasing a couple of games last year. &#8220;It was a learning experience,&#8221; Sapio said. &#8220;But we found that we weren\u2019t able to give the right support.&#8221; The company could revisit third-party publishing in the future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">This is great news for Poncle and fans of the Vampire Survivors franchise, but there&#8217;s always risk when a company tries to grow like this. Remember Embracer Group? It went on a massive buying spree beginning in 2019, <ins>before having<\/ins><ins>to sell off and<\/ins><ins>close a number of studios<\/ins>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">However, this isn&#8217;t a AAA game development studio. Poncle makes indie titles and the new studios will be lean operations, with &#8220;little teams of people.&#8221; Sapio said this organizational structure will help keep the company &#8220;agile and flexible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">I personally have high hopes for this endeavor. This is because the just-released spinoff <em>Vampire Crawlers<\/em> is so very good, which proves to me that Poncle isn&#8217;t a one-trick pony. It plays like a mix of <em>Slay the Spire<\/em> with a first-person dungeon crawler like <em>Etrian Odyssey, <\/em>all while successfully capturing the vibe of<em> Vampire Survivors<\/em>. If Poncle can keep up this level of quality, gamers could be in for a long-term treat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/gaming\/vampire-survivors-developer-poncle-is-opening-more-studios-and-has-over-15-games-in-the-works-174022348.html&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/tf01xZWbznQP8aNE221cCw&#8211;\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD02OTY-\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2026-04\/493375f0-3e6e-11f1-bcef-1793bc6a9236&#8243;] Gaming Vampire Survivors developer Poncle is opening more studios and has over 15 games in the works The company just released an absolutely addictive spinoff of the gothic roguelite. Lawrence Bonk Contributing Reporter Wed, April 22, 2026 at 5:40 PM UTC Add Engadget on Google Wed, April 22, 2026 at 5:40 PM [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,63],"class_list":["post-1896933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-engadget-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1896933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1896933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1896933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1896933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}