Vampire Crawlers is my favorite surprise of the Xbox Partner Preview and combines my two favorite games

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I instantly trust certain game developers to create something great, even before I’ve seen it. It’s not about flashy trailers or marketing; they’ve earned my trust by consistently making unique and incredibly well-designed games. Poncle is one of those developers, despite having only released one original game (and published two others).

Today, they revealed their latest project at the Xbox Partner Preview: Vampire Crawlers – a completely new game, not just an expansion or crossover, fulfilling a long-awaited promise to fans.

Everything we know so far about Vampire Crawlers

Vampire Crawlers takes the core ideas of Poncle’s popular game, Vampire Survivors, and transforms them into something completely new. Instead of the overhead, swarm-based action, this game is a first-person dungeon crawler where you build a deck of cards as you play. As a fan of similar games like Balatro, Blue Prince, and Ball x Pit, I’m already excited! What’s really appealing is that it keeps the familiar elements of Vampire Survivors – the iconic weapons like the bible, whip, and garlic – but presents them in a fresh way. It looks like it will be just as addictive, and I’m eager to play. But the biggest question is: will there actually be vampires?

I’m excited to share that Vampire Survivors is coming to Xbox Series X|S, PC, Xbox Cloud, and is available with Game Pass Ultimate, continuing our great relationship with the developers at Poncle. The game is really designed for quick play sessions that somehow turn into hours of fun, and being available on so many platforms makes it easy to jump in whenever you have a moment. Hopefully, this will introduce the game to a whole new audience and let them experience why so many of us have gotten completely hooked on what looks like a simple game at first glance.

We don’t have many details yet – just a planned release sometime in 2026. We’re eager to see more in-depth information about how the game will actually play, but I’m really excited to learn more as soon as possible.

This might just combine my two favorite games into one

I absolutely love Vampire Survivors – it’s one of my go-to games for pure, relaxing fun, right up there with Diablo. I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time with it – over 90 hours on Steam and 123 on Xbox – and I *still* haven’t done everything the game has to offer. Surprisingly, I even managed to unlock all the achievements before cross-save was available! It’s the kind of game that easily sucks you in, where intending to play ‘just one more run’ quickly turns into a three-hour gaming session and you completely lose track of time.

Poncle has been revealing cards consistently for the past month. When the community learned the last card wouldn’t be a new collaboration or add more content, I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting much.

We’ve seen a ton of exciting updates for Balatro lately, including crossovers like ‘Antechamber,’ expansions for ‘Ode to Castlevania,’ new levels, and the huge ‘Emerald Diorama’ DLC. Plus, a new game called ‘Warhammer Survivors’ built on the same engine is coming next year! Fans were hoping for a big collaboration, maybe even with Final Fantasy, for the final card, so a simple reveal would have been disappointing. I’m thrilled it turned out to be a false lead, and we’re actually getting a brand new game from Poncle instead.

Vampire Crawlers seems to capture the same addictive “just one more run” feeling as its predecessor, but with a more direct, immersive experience. Success in first-person roguelikes depends on how good the game *feels* to play, its rhythm, and its speed. If the developers at Poncle can bring the enjoyable qualities of Vampire Survivors into this new perspective, they could create something really remarkable.

The recent announcement concludes the extended teasing campaign, which now seems cleverly designed to mislead us – everyone anticipated a new update for Vampire Survivors. This reveal is much bolder and more thrilling! It’s easily the best surprise to come out of the Xbox Partner Preview.

You can find an interview with the game’s creator on Xbox Wire if you’d like to learn more.

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2025-11-20 22:15