With the success of Vampire Survivors and all its continued updates, including one that finally added online co-op, it was only a matter of time before developer Poncle started on a new game. Debuting at the November Xbox Partner Preview event, Vampire Crawlers is a spin-off game set in the same universe as Vampire Survivors, but it’ll be a dungeon-crawling roguelike deckbuilder. It’ll share characters, items, and jokes from Vampire Survivors, but they’ll appear in a new genre. In the game, which is set to release sometime in 2026, players will select a Crawler and set off to explore dungeons, while building and customizing decks of attacks and utilities.
Developer Luca from Poncle describes it as a dungeon crawler where you can play with cards, and it’s all about mowing down hordes of enemies while exploring dungeons. Unlike in Vampire Survivors, players can play it slowly or as fast as they want, whether they want to take their time and be tactical or play as quickly as they humanly can. Ultimately, the game is built to always provide accurate, logical outcomes, even though it might be complete chaos on the screen.
Along with the deck-building element, Vampire Crawlers features a card customization mechanic. The system is designed to alter the way players interact with their cards, with the aim of being accessible and flexible enough that players can engage with it as much or as little as they want. What it will borrow from Vampire Survivors are treasure chests, weapon evolutions, unlocking something new after every run, a great soundtrack, and, of course, terrible humor.
Luca also made it clear in an interview with Xbox Wire that the game is a spin-off of Vampire Survivors, not a sequel. He did tease that Poncle is working on something in regard to a Vampire Survivors sequel, but the studio isn’t ready to talk about it just yet. As for when development began, Vampire Crawlers started shortly after the initial success of Vampire Survivors, meaning it’s been in the works for almost four years.
Those who played PC games in the 1980s might recognize the overall interface, reminiscent of blobber games. These were essentially the most basic form of first-person CRPGs as we know them today, like Wizardry and Might and Magic.
Although we haven’t seen too much of the game, what we’ve seen is enough to make Vampire Crawlers one of our most anticipated games of 2026. Unlike Vampire Survivors, though, this won’t be launching into Early Access, as Poncle sees it as a whole game. It’s aiming to do a global release sometime next year, so players can play the whole game immediately. If you want to learn more about Vampire Crawlers, check out the full interview over at Xbox Wire.
