Vampire Survivors creator talks chaos, content, and Castlevania ahead of new DLC
Even as a gaming journalist, it’s rare to get an interview with a developer whose game you’ve played for over 100 hours. However, that’s where I recently found myself, sitting at a small table across from Luca Galante, the creator of Vampire Survivors, during a community event celebrating the upcoming launch of the much-hyped Ode to Castlevania DLC.
For those who don’t know and have presumably been living under a rock for the last three years, Vampire Survivors is one of the big award-winning indie smash hits of the 2020s, emulating the sort of runaway success that’s comparable only with the likes of Stardew Valley, Undertale, and in the last few months, Balatro. So far we’ve seen four DLC offerings, regular updates, and even a new game mode in the form of Adventures. So, I had plenty to put to the creator of one of my go-to games.
First, I asked Galante about his approach to creating DLC, like Ode to Castlevania, and whether he concentrates on balancing the new ideas with those already in the game or if he’s more interested in just making it fun. “It’s absolutely not balance; balance is completely out of the window. I just want to make stuff that is fun. This was particularly difficult, actually, because with the other DLCs we introduced the concept of Adventures so that if someone wants to have a fresh start with those items, they can.”
He continued, “With this one, it was much harder because we didn’t have the resources to do an Adventure and the base game. So it was hard, but we tried to strike a different balance than other DLCs with a different power scaling. It’s still crazy, still unbalanced, but different for sure.” For me, this was a pretty refreshing answer, as the best games put fun first, and that, in my opinion, at least, should be the core tenet for all developers. There’s not much point in balancing a game to perfection if it isn’t fun to play.
On the subject of the new Castlevania-themed DLC, I followed up by asking Galante about which part of the world of Konami’s genre-defining series he was most excited to bring to his indie game, and his answer was both unsurprising and filled with genuine enthusiasm. “I can’t pick one thing, honestly. When I saw that email from Konami, I couldn’t believe it.”
After thinking about it for a little while longer, he followed up, telling me, “I want every fan, ideally, to find something in there that they really like about the series.” Having gone hands-on with the Ode to Castlevania DLC for fifteen minutes before talking to the developer, I think his mission is a success, as even those whose familiarity with Castlevania goes as far as vague GBA memories and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate characters should find something they recognize pretty early on.
Moving on to the game in general, outside of the exciting Castlevania DLC, I asked Galante about something that recently struck me while playing the game. Can you beat Vampire Survivors? With different in-game bosses, achievements, and secrets to unlock, the game never really makes it clear that you’ve “beaten” it, as the kids like to say, so I asked the developer that, if forced, what would he classify as having beaten his game?
“I’m the worst person to ask because I’ve been working on this game for three years, and I’m probably the person who has played it the most in the world. I tried to put in some checkpoints for people to be able to say, ‘Okay, that’s enough; I don’t want to play anymore,’ but it didn’t work that well.” I can say from firsthand experience that the developer is on the money here, and I’ve got the game hours to prove it. Still, I think Galante’s description of his own game perfectly explains why it’s so engaging. The mark of a great game is that you don’t want to put it down. I’ve passed all the in-game checkpoints, and I still go back to create some bright lights and big damage with Queen Sigma regularly.
On the subject of Queen Sigma, I asked which of the characters the creator of Vampire Survivors goes for when he’s testing a new level. “I always try the latest characters, for sure, and then I go back to the first couple of characters, the ones that everyone has played at least once, like Antonio. Plus, of course, I need to have a run with Queen Sigma and see how much chaos I can put on screen.” I’m glad to see I’m not alone in giving Queen Sigma a good run in all the new locations.
If you haven’t watched the Noclips’ fantastic YouTube documentary covering the early development of Vampire Survivors, you might not know the game began as Galante’s passion project, with the developer working on the future smash hit indie in his free time. On the back of this, I asked Galante whether he felt any more pressure now when creating new content, given that there’s a massive and ravenous audience, than when it was just something he was doing for himself.
“I think the vibe is the same. I feel a bit guilty about it, but at the same time, I think it’s the right thing to do. What I mean is that I still treat Vampire Survivors as my little project that is made for me to have fun with. Because I feel like if I start being a bit more professional about it, it might lose some of what made it stand out in the end. So I still think about it as just a game for myself. Then, of course, I let player feedback affect a lot of decisions, but they’re mostly about what to prioritize compared to what I want to do with the game.”
Finally, I had to do my main job as a games journalist interviewing a developer by asking what plans Galante and the rest of the team at Poncle had for the future of Vampire Survivors. “So, we have plans to keep making stuff at the very least until the end of the next year, so free updates will keep rolling. I’ve started way too many update cycles not to finish them.” As a superfan, this was music to my ears, but Galante’s follow-up was interesting to hear.
“I would love to do more DLCs and more collaborations. The problem is I’m starting to feel like we’re doing too many somehow. I want to do them, but at the same time, I feel like I’ve had bad experiences in the past with games making too many microtransactions, too many DLCs, or expanding too much, and I feel like it is affecting me in a negative way. But I would absolutely love to just keep doing more. Especially if the players want more as well. I would love to do at least one more original DLC. ” This is a fascinating answer from Galante, as it shows how much he views his game from a player’s perspective as well as that of a developer.
He seemingly knows the pain we’ve all experienced of loading up a new game with countless DLC options, only to put it back down again ten minutes later. I can only assume it’s that sort of self-awareness that has helped the developer create something that so many people connect with. As a big fan of the game, it’s certainly reassuring that he has this sort of artistic integrity and doesn’t at all seem to view the game as a cash cow.
I said finally before that last question, but Galante, being the generous developer he is, had one final tidbit for me before I left. “I’ll tell you something fun that I’m not sure if I’ve told anyone about our own DLCs. Basically, they all come from games that I never finished, or that’s from D&D campaigns that I ran years and years ago.” This immediately makes a lot of sense, as while the gameplay of original DLC offerings like Tides of Foscari and Legacy of the Moonspell feel distinctly like the core content in terms of gameplay, their lore, characters, and even weapons feel like they stand apart from the base game. I mean that in the most complimentary of ways. They could be standalone games, and I’d still love them.
Ultimately, what I took away from my chat with Galante is that this is a developer with a real passion for his work, and he holds it close to his heart. I’ve never had such an easy interview. It was essentially just two people talking about something they both love; it just so happens to be that one of those people is responsible for introducing the piece of pixelated perfection into the world.
Our interview also made me excited for the future of Vampire Survivors, as not only is Galante still incredibly enthusiastic about his game, but he also seems to have a careful approach. It strikes me as the sort of approach the developers of some of my other favorite indies have also adopted to make sure their games continue to delight audiences and never spoil their image, which is all I can hope for from the future of Vampire Survivors. Oh, and I managed to get through the whole thing without fanboying too hard, so that’s a bonus.
There you have it, our interview with the creator of Vampire Survivors, Luca Galante. If you still haven’t tried Vampire Survivors for yourself, it’s now one of the many Apple Arcade games, and the new Ode to Castlevania DLC arrives on October 31. If you’re looking for more fantastic titles to help you settle into the spooky season, be sure to check out our picks for the best horror games on Switch and mobile while you’re here. For now, though, keep on Vampire Surviving.
