Vampire Survivors Dev Poncle Outlines Challenges of Film Adaptation: 'The Game Has No Plot'

Vampire Survivors developer Poncle has detailed the challenges of adapting their hit game into a film, which was initially announced as an animated series in 2023. In a recent Steam post, Poncle confirmed they are still collaborating with Story Kitchen on a live-action film adaptation, despite the game's lack of a traditional narrative.

Poncle emphasized the difficulty of bringing Vampire Survivors to the screen, given that the game is fundamentally a mechanically straightforward action title focused on defeating hordes of enemies. "As mentioned last year, rather than jumping the gun and make stuff for the sake of making it, we have preferred to wait to find partners that felt right, especially because to make anything that isn't a video game out of Vampire Survivors requires good ideas, creativity, and that quirky knowledge of the game," Poncle explained.

They acknowledged the unique challenge posed by the game's absence of a plot, humorously noting, "Please remember the game has no plot — it doesn't? — so nobody can really anticipate how a film about it is going to be. That is part of what makes it exciting." Poncle's ironic comment on the adaptation's announcement, "the most important thing in Vampire Survivors is the story," underscores the unconventional nature of this project.

The specifics of how the game will be adapted into a film remain unclear, even to Poncle themselves, and no release date has been set.

Vampire Survivors is a fast-paced gothic horror game with rogue-lite elements that became a surprise hit after its initial launch as a humble indie game on Steam. The game's popularity surged, leading Poncle to enrich it with new content, now featuring 50 playable characters and 80 weapons, alongside two major expansions and the Ode to Castlevania DLC.

IGN's 8/10 review praised the game, stating, "Need a game to play while listening to podcasts? This is it. Vampire Survivors is outwardly simple but turns out to be an incredibly deep hole to fall down — though it's not without extended dull periods when you get ahead of its curve."