Interview: Metal Gear Would Be 'Too Much Pressure' for Vampire Survivors Maker

Image: Push Square

Vampire Survivors needs no introduction. The bullet hell-esque roguelike RPG is a phenomenon, and extended its unstoppable run to PS5 and PS4 earlier this year, where it’s inevitably proven an enormous success.

Earlier this week, developer Poncle released its Ode to Castlevania expansion, an add-on which includes popular characters from Konami’s gothic series, including Trevor Belmont and Alucard. It also features a pretty huge map and a bunch of weapons, as well as an obligatory mix of Easter eggs.

For creator Luca Galante, this collaboration sees the release come full-circle, as he admits the game started out with a Castlevania-themed assets pack.

“When I started work on the game I had this asset pack that was used for the icons and everything that was inspired by Castlevania, obviously,” he tells us at a Halloween party in a hipster sub-district of London.

This isn’t developer Poncle’s first crossover with Konami, as it previously released a massive Contra content pack named Operation Guns. With Vampire Survivor’s obvious Castlevania inspirations, we had to ask Galante why it selected the legendary run-‘n’-gun franchise first.

“That was planned, basically,” he laughs. “Because with Konami, we actually clicked right away with the creatives and the people in marketing. I think the idea came from them actually; we thought it was funny. So that’s why we did Contra first and just teased Castlevania officially.”

Galante explains that working with Konami is collaborative. “We start by giving them the ideas that they want to go through, just to see if they're on brand. And then we just do literally whatever I want. I submit the stuff I made to them, and we get approval. It’s very simple.”

Sadly, with Castlevania designer Koji Igarashi no longer with Konami, he had no input on the DLC. But Galante reveals that he met with his hero in Japan earlier in the year, and while he couldn’t show him the content as it was still in development, it was great to catch up.

With the Konami connection so strong, we couldn’t help but ponder whether Metal Gear may be next? “I think that would be too much pressure,” he smiles. “I know Metal Gear probably as well as Castlevania, but I would really feel too much pressure. I would never say no, but I would be really, really scared.”

The plan for Vampire Survivors, however, is to keep adding to the experience. “After I released the game, I didn't know what to do after that. I wasn’t looking at much in the future. So I just tried to publish a very small patch – 1.1, I believe – and people absolutely loved it.”

That proved to be a eureka moment.

“I was like, well, you know what? I’m just going to keep doing this. I could make a sequel, but it doesn't feel correct. If I make a sequel of the game, but just the same game with different content, I feel like I’m cheating the players, really, because I can just make more content for this game. And so that's what I'm planning to do.”

It’s obvious speaking to Galante that he’s still enjoying working on Vampire Survivors, and that filters through to the end product. But to maintain that excitement, he’s only interested in working with brands that he’s personally passionate about.

“We had a lot of requests to collaborate,” he admits. “Sometimes with big franchises. But I'm like, if I don't feel a connection there, I can’t really push it to the players.”

In terms of future expansions, Galante says he does have a long list of ideas, but it sounds like he’d much rather tackle something niche. “I get scared easily [of popular franchises],” he jokes. “I’d rather do something very obscure that I'm the only one in the world or in the West who knows.”