You don't leave an interview with Luca Galante, Mr. Vampire Survivors himself, without talking about roguelikes. So when I sat down with Galante to chat about his publishing arm, Poncle Presents, I also had to ask about the roguelike explosion that only seems to accelerate each year. Galante, who's responsible for a big wave of Survivors-likes, is unsurprisingly thrilled to see the genre, this framework of systems and gameplay loops, infecting more and more games.
"I'm really happy about it, honestly, and I'd like to see it implemented in more standard games, I guess, even AAA games," he says of roguelike elements gaining popularity. God of War: Ragnarok has a roguelike mode, so does The Last of Us 2, Destiny 2 tries another one every few months, Elden Ring Nightreign is basically a big roguelike, and even Donkey Kong is dipping his toe in with Donkey Kong Bananza's new DLC. Roguelikes are most prevalent in the indie space, and those indies regularly serve up some of the best games each year, but the genre is popular at every level of the industry.
