Vampire Survivors Studio Opens 2 Studios, 15 Games Coming

A small indie game studio that started with one breakout hit is now building a gaming empire, and it's doing it the smart way.

Poncle, the company behind the wildly popular Vampire Survivors, just announced plans to open two new studios in Japan and Italy. The company has over 15 games actively in development, a remarkable expansion for a team primarily known for a single franchise that's captured 27 million players worldwide.

Chief strategy officer Matteo Sapio shared the news in an interview with The Game Business. The company is working on three types of games: spinoffs like this week's release Vampire Crawlers, completely original titles set in new universes, and roguelite games using other popular franchises.

One collaboration already in the works is Warhammer Survivors, set in the beloved Warhammer 40K universe and launching on Steam this year. To make these partnerships happen faster, Poncle built its own engine that can adapt existing game worlds into the Vampire Survivors style.

The timing couldn't be better. The bullet hell roguelite genre has exploded in popularity, with successful titles like Halls of Torment, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, and Soulstone Survivors all finding eager audiences.

Why This Inspires

Poncle's approach to growth shows how indie companies can scale without losing their soul. Instead of going big with massive AAA studios, they're keeping teams small and operations lean, staying "agile and flexible" in Sapio's words.

The company learned from missteps too. After publishing a couple of third-party games last year, Poncle paused those plans because they couldn't provide proper support. That kind of honest self-assessment beats overextending every time.

The just-released Vampire Crawlers proves Poncle isn't a one-hit wonder. The game blends card battler mechanics with dungeon crawling while keeping the magic that made the original special.

In an industry where companies often expand too fast and collapse under their own weight, Poncle is writing a different story about sustainable creative growth.