Poncle delivered a bunch of new content for Vampire Survivors in 2024, highlighted by the massive Ode to Castlevania DLC, which brought the game’s most ambitious gameplay changes yet. Their efforts earned them the Game Dev Excellence Award in our own Windows Central Game Awards 2024, and now they’ve shared an exciting glimpse of what to expect in 2025. Cross-save? A live-action movie? A brand-new game entirely? Let’s break it all down.
Celebrating a bumper year in 2024
In a psychadelic video celebrating 2024 achievements, Poncle showcased a year packed with content. Highlights included the Operation Guns collab, Darkasso updates, Balatro collab, the Castlevania DLC, and the game’s long-awaited launch on PlayStation. They also shared a chaotic teaser roadmap on their blog post, hinting at what’s to come.
Patch 1.13 will bring cross-save to all platforms
The most exciting announcement for me is cross-save support, coming in Patch 1.13. As someone who plays Vampire Survivors on both Xbox and Steam, I’ve long wanted to sync my progress between platforms. Poncle plans to make that possible this year. Alongside cross-save, they’re also working on online co-op, aiming for a 2025 release.
A live-action film and ‘something else’
Poncle is partnering with Story Kitchen to develop a live-action Vampire Survivors movie. While the concept sounds wild—turning a chaotic roguelike into a film—the team has shown they’re capable of ambitious storytelling, as evidenced by the first-ever voiced cutscene introduced in Ode to Castlevania (voiced by Neil Newbon of Baldur’s Gate 3 fame and SungWon Cho).
The blog also hints at additional “cross-media” projects to be revealed this year.
More adventures but smaller DLC
Poncle also confirmed they’ll expand the Adventures system, standalone campaigns that start players from scratch. New Adventures are planned for existing DLC, including Tides of the Foscari, and they’re even considering one for Ode to Castlevania.
However, Ode to Castlevania raised expectations so high that creating DLC of similar size and scale has become challenging. While Poncle isn’t ruling out large expansions entirely, they’ve indicated a shift toward smaller content releases, stating they’d still like to produce “at least one more original expansion.” Not a collaboration? Intriguing indeed.
Experiments and something not-Vampire Survivors
Poncle is also experimenting with Vampire Survivors-adjacent content in collaboration with indie developers. Of the six experiments mentioned, “two have been greenlit, two have been replaced, and two are still ongoing.”
Even more intriguing, Poncle teased projects unrelated to Vampire Survivors. Could they be venturing into entirely new genres or gameplay styles? Whatever they’re planning, I’m seated for it.
