Vampire Survivors Creator's New Game Adds Steam Demo, Already Joining Thousands of Players

the second item of vampire survivor franchise, vampire crawlerA free-to-play demo is now available on Steam and Xbox, and is already attracting thousands of players. Many may argue that card battlers or deck-building games are not the most popular genres in the industry; vampire crawler I suggest that when injected in the right dosage it can be fantastic. vampire survivor' official.

For those who are not familiar with Poncle's previous works, vampire survivorIt was released in 2022 and is widely considered one of the best action roguelikes in recent years. In fact, it won several awards, including three BAFTAs. The game was so successful that it spawned an entire subcategory of titles inspired by it, now known as Survivors-like. The developer could have easily continued to expand on this smash hit, but instead made the bold decision to explore an entirely new genre: a “turbo wildcard” deckbuilding game with roguelite elements. The move already appears to be paying off.

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Steam's new open-world shooter turns every Deathloop-like time reset into a Vampire Survivor-style build frenzy.

An ambitious new Steam game combines two vastly different concepts – the open world – and it's worth taking note of.

Vampire Crawler Demo Released as Part of Steam Next Fest 2026

As promised by developer Phonecle, vampire crawler' The free demo was released on February 23rd in conjunction with Steam Next Fest 2026. The good news for console players is that there is currently no playable preview on PlayStation, but a demo is also available on Xbox. Immediately after release, thousands of action roguelike fans jumped in to try out the action. vampire crawler On Steam, data from SteamDB shows over 3,000 concurrent players within just a few minutes of going live.

Fit 9 games into the grid.

While the game is in transition vampire survivorFrom the bullet-hell roguelike gameplay to the turn-based deckbuilding angle, it still has elements that will entice OG fans of the original. first of all, vampire crawler Familiar faces from previous games appear, including Antonio, Gennaro, and Arca. It also maintains the beloved pixel art visual style that fans of the IP have come to love. The current demo begins with a top-down scene commemorating: vampire survivor Before switching the camera to first person perspective.

vampire crawler On the surface, they seem to take place in the same universe. vampire survivorFamiliar enemies and mobs appear.

Poncle follows an interesting design philosophy with its Vampire Crawler.

“sometimes, [turn-based games] “Many modern titles are slow and repetitive to the point of providing speedup features and the option to skip animations,” says developer Poncle. vampire crawlerIn contrast, is described as a response to this problem, built around a philosophy of non-stop combat. “There’s no need to wait for the animation to end before triggering an ability,” the indie developer explains. You also have the option to unload your entire hand at once, regardless of the current stage of the fight.

in other words, vampire crawler It's a far cry from the basic incremental game where button presses bring dominance. Quite the opposite. Various strategic layers are introduced, including mana costs, gems, and buffs that only activate when cards are played in the correct order. The goal is not to remove strategy from classic turn-based designs, but to reframe them with a “turbo turn” concept where everything can unfold simultaneously without the player having to skip anything.

Fans seem to be enjoying the new spinoff of Vampire Survivors.

It's still too early to call. vampire survivor' Success or failure of the latest spin-off. But the deckbuilding roguelike has already attracted thousands of players. Additionally, a quick look at initial impressions on social media and Twitch shows an overwhelmingly positive response. “I like the fact that you can basically use the card at any speed,” one fan wrote on Reddit. Another added: “It's so much fun. I'll be unlocking it after hours and playing this game all week.”

More Vampire Survivor Spinoffs Coming Soon

Fans who enjoyed it vampire crawler' Creative Shifts will be happy to hear that developer Pocle plans to continue in this direction. “This is just a spin-off. vampire survivor“Hopefully this will be the first of a series of spin-offs,” the studio said on the game's official Steam page Pocle appears eager to take on the game's fundamental pillars. vampire survivor' is expressed as 'accessibility, immediacy, economy, regeneration, cheerfulness, splendor' and applies it to various genres.

once vampire crawler Once it's fully released and able to stand on its own, indie developers will likely move on to new projects if they aren't already working on them. However, Poncle is committed to long-term support even after the release of Dungeon Crawler Card Game 1.0, saying, “We already plan to continue supporting the game after its release, and we have thousands of ideas for what we can do.”

that vampire crawler The demo is currently available on Steam and the Microsoft store, with a 1.0 release planned for 2026.