There are certain developers I trust to deliver before I've even laid hands on their next game. Not because of big marketing campaigns or cinematic trailers, but because they’ve earned that trust through making something so bonkers and with a near-psychic understanding of what makes a game feel good. Poncle is firmly in that category for me, yet they've only made one game so far (and published two others).
Until today! Today, as unveiled at the Xbox Partner Preview, the final "gold card " in their long-running tease turned out not to be another crossover, not another expansion, but an entirely new game — Vampire Crawlers.
Everything we know so far about Vampire Crawlers
Vampire Crawlers reimagines Poncle's normal formula. Rather than the familiar top-down swarm action of Vampire Survivors, this is a first-person, deckbuilding, roguelike dungeon crawler. That combination alone is enough to get my heartrate going (my favorite games recently have been Balatro, Blue Prince and Ball x Pit all roguelikes) but what truly sells it is the promise that it still retains Poncle’s trademarks. The bible. The whip. The garlic. All those iconic powers are returning, but to be experienced in an entirely different game. It promises to be just as compulsive gameplay as Vampire Survivors and I am seated. But more importantly, will it actually have any vampires in it?
Vampire Crawlers is also headed to Xbox Series X|S, PC, Xbox Cloud, and Game Pass Ultimate continuing the partnership with Poncle. The game should be designed for short bursts that become long sessions, and having it immediately accessible across platforms is the perfect home for it. It may even open the door for an entirely new wave of players to discover why so many of us ended up losing hundreds of hours to a game that looks deceptively simple on the surface.
Right now, details are still sparse. There’s no confirmed release date just "2026" and we’re still waiting for deeper gameplay breakdowns. But I can't wait to find out more.
This might just combine my two favorite games into one
As someone who considers Vampire Survivors one of my all-time comfort games (second only to Diablo in that sacred, brain-off bliss zone), this announcement got me more excited than anything in the showcase. I’ve poured 90 hours into the Steam version, followed by another 123 hours on Xbox, and I still haven’t completed every in-game objective or unlocked every character. Yet somehow, I’ve still maxed out the achievements (before cross save was enabled, I'll have you know). It’s the kind of title where “just one more run” quietly becomes three hours, and you've forgotten to take a shower.
Poncle have been steadily dropping a bunch of content over the past month or so as as card reveals, and when the community was told the final card wouldn’t be a new collab or more content, I’ll be honest: my expectations dipped.
What's next for Vampire Survivors? 🔥here's our next hint... can you guess? pic.twitter.com/f6zQaFwsuzNovember 19, 2025
Recently we've had the brilliant Balatro crossover 'Antechamber', even more content added to Ode to Castlevania, new stages like Mazerella and Westwoods, and the massive Emerald Diorama DLC earlier this year. There's even been a Warhammer Survivors game made in the same engine announced for next year. With many fans theorizing we could get something as crazy as a Final Fantasy collaboration for the last card, a simple non-content reveal sounded like an anti-climactic finale. So I'm over the moon it turned out to be a red herring and we are getting an entirely new game from Poncle.
From what we know so far, Vampire Crawlers leans heavily into that same irresistible “one more go” vibe but with a more hands-on, immersive perspective. First-person roguelikes live or die on feel, flow, and pacing and if Poncle can translate the Vampire Survivors charm into that space, they might just create something truly special.
This reveal marks the end of that long card-tease campaign, which, in hindsight, feels like a perfectly structured misdirect as we were all expecting something for Vampire Survivors as the final drop. This is way more risky and exciting! I can’t think of a better surprise to emerge from the Xbox Partner Preview.
If you want to know more, there's an interview live with the creator over at Xbox Wire.
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