After reaching over 27 million players with a roguelike that popularized an entire subgenre, Vampire Survivors developer Poncle is now working on a whopping 15 projects at the same time.
"We're working on 15 PROJECTS, not 15 games," the developer clarified in a tweet following a few internet misquotes, "this includes VS, DLCs, free updates, our published games, etc."
Poncle went more in-depth about its expansive plans in an interview with The Game Business, where chief strategy officer Matteo Sapio announced that the breakout, auto-battling, bullet heaven roguelike Vampire Survivors has amassed 27 million players. In fact, the game's been such a big success that the company is now opening studios in Japan and Italy to fuel those aforementioned 15 projects.
That ambitious pipeline includes more Vampire Survivors spin-off games, not unlike the recently released (and dangerously moreish) deckbuilder Vampire Crawlers. Sapio explains it's an opportunity to use the "famous Vampire Survivors IP to experiment in new genres."
But after the hit game went viral, outside developers apparently approached Poncle for collaborations as well, which is how Warhammer Survivors was born. Auroch Digital is developing the game using the Vampire Survivor Engine, and Sapio says this is because Poncle itself didn't have the expertise to make a Warhammer 40k game and do it justice: "If we have knowledge of the IP, we will [make the game] ourselves. But a lot of times we don't."
Not everything Poncle touches has a survivors-ish flavor, though. Elsewhere in that 15-project plan are two entirely original games in development, Sapio reveals, alongside the free updates and mammoth DLCs you'd expect from the company.
Still, 15 projects is an ambitious workload for any company, big or small, but Sapio promises the developer isn't biting off more than it can chew with its numerous collaborations, updates, spin-off games, and originals. "We don't want to be AAA or AA," he explains. "We're efficient with costs. We don't take useless risks. We invest in people. So, with 15 projects, one can fail, one can go good, and you balance that." Essentially, the gigantic hits make up for the games that flop.
