Poncle, the developer of the wildly popular roguelike shoot ’em up Vampire Survivors, has announced plans to open its own publishing arm. During Game Republic’s Pitching to Investors and Publishers event in Liverpool this week (and reported by Gamesindustry.biz), the team made the announcement, also explaining that they would not operate as a “traditional publisher.”
Rather than simply amassing IP, the new publishing arm aims to help smaller developers make the game they want to make by offering funding support and support with first-party platforms, release management, localization, and more.
Most importantly, the publisher stressed that those reaching out have “sincerity, passion, and depth,” and that AI or Web3-related games, as well as free-to-play mobile titles, will be instantly rejected. Additionally, games too similar to Vampire Survivor are also not welcome.
Vampire Survivors is currently available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and mobile devices. The title left early access in October 2022 and snagged Action Game of the Year at last year’s D.I.C.E. Awards, as well as Best Game at the 2023 British Academy Games Awards. An animated television series is currently in the works.
The game was developed and published by one single developer, Luca Galante, and places players into the shoes of an automatically attacking warrior as they attempt to slaughter countless enemies while unlocking additional characters, weapons, and relics. Over the years, it has received a number of DLC packs adding additional character, environments, and weapons.
“While for me it is very difficult to believe this game is worth all this attention, I’m happy it’s getting it mostly because it shows that literally anyone could make it, and so it will hopefully encourage more indie developers to keep pushing on their projects,” said Galante in a 2022 interview with IGN.
