It’s been once again a wild ride, and once again we have to thank all of you for your comments, quotes, messages, fan art, reviews, and, naturally, relentelessy keeping up with your 100% (sorry!)

As always, we are incredibly thankful for the community that has built up around Vampire Survivors.

We’re doing another huge post like last year to talk about everything that happened and also have a look at what’s to come in the future. There’s a lot to cover, so we hope you enjoy!

Even after being out for more than one year, the reception of VS keeps being absolutely mindblowing.
Poncle has grown to 20 people now and we’re all still busy working exclusively on VS due to the ports, engine changes, frequent updates and releases. And then, you know, the marketing team exists.

We have a lot going on behind the scenes, but I’ll keep the update focused on Vampire Survivors and I’ll reveal a few bit in the paragraphs below!

*Deep breath* :
Bat Country, DICE Awards Action game of the year, BAFTA for Game Design, BAFTA for Best Game, Tides of the Foscari DLC, Astral Stair, Nintendo Switch port, Local Co-op, first players event, OST orchestra recordings (3rd one actually ), Whiteout, Adventures, first collab DLC Emergency Meeting!

Missed something? Most likely, oh we have udpated the OST on Steam to be available in FLAC format for example, anyway, 2023 summary done, next!

We are still investigating! To retro-fit online multiplayer in a game as simple as this, but with so much content, is still a huge challenge. We’ve got help now, and things are looking promising, but it’s still too early for us to be able to make any promises. We’ll keep giving you tiny updates until hopefully we can confirm it’s actually going to happen.

We had this in testing for a while now, but the real hold-up is having to put in place everything that is needed to comply with GDPR, CCPA, and whatever else is required for data protection. We had delays even just in testing the feature in public-beta because there’s a lot of work to do – even if all we need to do to bridge the accounts you already have on different platforms is storing just an email and password combination.
We’re working on a QOL update for February and we’re hoping to launch cross-save in public-beta only at the same time (Steam and Android only to start with).

Yep, we’re doing cross-media like the big boys for real!
Back in April 2023 we announced an animated tv series in collaboration with Story Kitchen. We had of course waited for the various strikes to end before getting to it, so for now we can just say that more info is coming in 2024!

Honestly we have received a lot of proposals to collaborate on cross-media projects, but rather than jumping the gun we have preferred to wait to find partners that felt right, especially because to make anything that isn’t a videogame out of VS requires good ideas, creativity, and that quirky knowledge of the game, that is a very difficult triplet to get 100% right!

We have several partners now and we’ll reveal more on these projects as they mature and we’ve got good stuff to show!

If you’re somehow managing to follow the Chaos Roadmap and are curious to know what changed from the last time:
– codename Chalcedony turned out to be Emergency Meeting
– Emergency Meeting is update 1.8
– no need to be cryptic about the next update: Honey Moon is the codename for the new update 1.9, “Space 54”, currently available for testing on the Steam-PC public beta branch! If everything goes well, 1.9 should reach all platforms in February together with a few performance and QOL improvements.
– the vast majority of these are free content updates of Whiteout-size

I doubt we can get all of these done in 2024, and that’s why there are no dates nor an order, but we’re here to try!

We know people are demanding more platforms, but we’re also keen on doing the ports ourselves, one at a time, and that takes time.
We can’t “just hire immediately more people”: I don’t think that’s how a healthy company grows; let’s give poncle time to grow organically.
We can’t “just get a publisher”: it would make us lose control on features and pricing.

I’d love to tell you everything about the next port, but the marketing team would kill me; I can just say it’s the most obvious one, so for streaming services of course, codenamed “if it looks like mud and smells like mud, then it’s Vampire Survivors”

Our friends at Fangamer have made some neat Vampire Survivors gadgets: an incredibly metal t-shirt, and some enamel character pins that also come with a little accesory. The Queen Sigma pin in particular is very versatile, as shown by Lucy in this video.
I use mine in a little diorama my little siblings made for me for Christmas

(feel free to cringe in the comments, but please appreciate I spared you the rest of the poem!)

Uh-oh, what now?
Something I’ve been trying to put in place almost since the beginning of VS’ crazy ride is finally happening: poncle is teaming up with other indie devs to work on some VS-adjacent experiments. We’re calling these experiments because:
– we’re starting with just an idea, we don’t know where that will lead us and that’s okay
– we don’t know when, or even if, we’ll be happy with the final results and be ready to share them
– it keeps us free to, well, experiment, stay flexible, take risks and have fun
– as you can see from this totally not vague overview, we’re following a highly scientific method and it’s totally not an esoteric process at all:

What will these experiments yield? Is there a meaning to the icons? Are there “only” six in progress? Why is this called PENTAgram in game, if the star has 6 points? Will there be a vampire? We’ll find out the answers to these and many other important questions someday.

—

That’s all for now, got a pretty busy 2024 ahead of us!
Thank you all once again and see you in the next run!

– Luca & poncle (including the marketing team)

This update 2023 wrap up first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

It’s been once again a wild ride, and once again we have to thank all of you for your comments, quotes, messages, fan art, reviews, and, naturally, relentelessy keeping up with your 100% (sorry!)

As always, we are incredibly thankful for the community that has built up around Vampire Survivors.

We’re doing another huge post like last year to talk about everything that happened and also have a look at what’s to come in the future. There’s a lot to cover, so we hope you enjoy!

Even after being out for more than one year, the reception of VS keeps being absolutely mindblowing.
Poncle has grown to 20 people now and we’re all still busy working exclusively on VS due to the ports, engine changes, frequent updates and releases. And then, you know, the marketing team exists.

We have a lot going on behind the scenes, but I’ll keep the update focused on Vampire Survivors and I’ll reveal a few bit in the paragraphs below!

*Deep breath* :
Bat Country, DICE Awards Action game of the year, BAFTA for Game Design, BAFTA for Best Game, Tides of the Foscari DLC, Astral Stair, Nintendo Switch port, Local Co-op, first players event, OST orchestra recordings (3rd one actually ), Whiteout, Adventures, first collab DLC Emergency Meeting!

Missed something? Most likely, oh we have udpated the OST on Steam to be available in FLAC format for example, anyway, 2023 summary done, next!

We are still investigating! To retro-fit online multiplayer in a game as simple as this, but with so much content, is still a huge challenge. We’ve got help now, and things are looking promising, but it’s still too early for us to be able to make any promises. We’ll keep giving you tiny updates until hopefully we can confirm it’s actually going to happen.

We had this in testing for a while now, but the real hold-up is having to put in place everything that is needed to comply with GDPR, CCPA, and whatever else is required for data protection. We had delays even just in testing the feature in public-beta because there’s a lot of work to do – even if all we need to do to bridge the accounts you already have on different platforms is storing just an email and password combination.
We’re working on a QOL update for February and we’re hoping to launch cross-save in public-beta only at the same time (Steam and Android only to start with).

Yep, we’re doing cross-media like the big boys for real!
Back in April 2023 we announced an animated tv series in collaboration with Story Kitchen. We had of course waited for the various strikes to end before getting to it, so for now we can just say that more info is coming in 2024!

Honestly we have received a lot of proposals to collaborate on cross-media projects, but rather than jumping the gun we have preferred to wait to find partners that felt right, especially because to make anything that isn’t a videogame out of VS requires good ideas, creativity, and that quirky knowledge of the game, that is a very difficult triplet to get 100% right!

We have several partners now and we’ll reveal more on these projects as they mature and we’ve got good stuff to show!

If you’re somehow managing to follow the Chaos Roadmap and are curious to know what changed from the last time:
– codename Chalcedony turned out to be Emergency Meeting
– Emergency Meeting is update 1.8
– no need to be cryptic about the next update: Honey Moon is the codename for the new update 1.9, “Space 54”, currently available for testing on the Steam-PC public beta branch! If everything goes well, 1.9 should reach all platforms in February together with a few performance and QOL improvements.
– the vast majority of these are free content updates of Whiteout-size

I doubt we can get all of these done in 2024, and that’s why there are no dates nor an order, but we’re here to try!

We know people are demanding more platforms, but we’re also keen on doing the ports ourselves, one at a time, and that takes time.
We can’t “just hire immediately more people”: I don’t think that’s how a healthy company grows; let’s give poncle time to grow organically.
We can’t “just get a publisher”: it would make us lose control on features and pricing.

I’d love to tell you everything about the next port, but the marketing team would kill me; I can just say it’s the most obvious one, so for streaming services of course, codenamed “if it looks like mud and smells like mud, then it’s Vampire Survivors”

Our friends at Fangamer have made some neat Vampire Survivors gadgets: an incredibly metal t-shirt, and some enamel character pins that also come with a little accesory. The Queen Sigma pin in particular is very versatile, as shown by Lucy in this video.
I use mine in a little diorama my little siblings made for me for Christmas

(feel free to cringe in the comments, but please appreciate I spared you the rest of the poem!)

Uh-oh, what now?
Something I’ve been trying to put in place almost since the beginning of VS’ crazy ride is finally happening: poncle is teaming up with other indie devs to work on some VS-adjacent experiments. We’re calling these experiments because:
– we’re starting with just an idea, we don’t know where that will lead us and that’s okay
– we don’t know when, or even if, we’ll be happy with the final results and be ready to share them
– it keeps us free to, well, experiment, stay flexible, take risks and have fun
– as you can see from this totally not vague overview, we’re following a highly scientific method and it’s totally not an esoteric process at all:

What will these experiments yield? Is there a meaning to the icons? Are there “only” six in progress? Why is this called PENTAgram in game, if the star has 6 points? Will there be a vampire? We’ll find out the answers to these and many other important questions someday.

—

That’s all for now, got a pretty busy 2024 ahead of us!
Thank you all once again and see you in the next run!

– Luca & poncle (including the marketing team)

This update 2023 wrap up first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

– Seal 2 power-up now gives 2 seals per rank instead of 1
– Fixed Area and Duration scaling of Fuwalafuwaloo
– Bug fixes from previous version
– For more information on Adventures please see: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1794680/view/3870343609927647849?l=english

Content:

• 9 playable characters
• 15 new weapons (of which 7 evolutions)
• A new large stage
• A new Adventure
• 6 brand new music tracks
• 20 in-game-only achievements

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2690330/Vampire_Survivors_Emergency_Meeting/

Main FAQs: https://poncle.games/emergency-meeting.html

How to start the DLC?
The new stage will appear right away at the bottom of the Stage Selection menu. You’ll see 20 new entries in the Unlocks menu to guide you through the rest of the content.
Otherwise, if you’ve played the Dairy Plant at least once, you’ll also be able to play the “Emergency Meeting” Adventure from the adventures menu.

Will the main game keep receiving free updates and content?
Yes, DLCs will always be purely extra content in terms of Stages, Monsters, Weapons, Characters etc.
Items, Power-ups, game mechanics and more will continue to be added to the base game, so if you don’t pick up the DLC you don’t have to fear missing out.
We’ll keep having free updates like the recent Whiteout for example, including new base-game Adventures. The vast majority of planned updates for 2023 will be free.

Does the DLC have achievements?
No, there are no platform-level achievements for Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting. There are in-game achievements to unlock (in the Unlocks menu as usual), but no Xbox/Steam achievements. More info on this here: https://poncle.games/emergency-meeting.html

Will you only do collabs going forward?
No, we’re indeed talking to a few people to make other collabs happen, but we also have our own content updates in the works, as usual.

Hope you have fun with the DLC, and if not, please send us some feedback, thank you!

This update DLC & Patch 1.8.206 first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

The patch is available right now and contains:

• 1 relic, Atlas Gate: Enables base game Adventures. Found in Boss Rash, minute 7, only after seeing the Yellow Sign.
• 1 new achievement for obtaining the Atlas Gate (in-game only. Will be added to the list on Steam together with the next content patch, your 100% is safe for the rest of the year!)
• 2 base game Adventures
• 1 Adventure for the Legacy of the Moonspell DLC
• 

Adventures are self-contained, mini story-modes that remix the game’s content.

FAQs: https://poncle.games/adventures-faq

Aside from providing deep lore , their main goal is actually to give you an excuse to play VS when you feel like it, but have already unlocked everything the game has to offer.

Or maybe because you want to have the feeling of starting fresh, with a different set of weapons, without actually remaining behind with the progression of the base game.

Or maybe because you just got a new DLC and would like to do a full-immersion experience in it, as a standalone piece, rather than a part of the main game.

Because of all these reasons, please keep sharing your feedback in the Discord, so we can make tweaks and see how to evolve the feature going forward!

Please know that there are no platform (Steam, Xbox, etc.) achievements for Adventures, but you can unlock base game content from them as normal (eg. if an Adventure sends you to Astral Stair, you can loot the relics in there and unlock them ahead of the standard game progression)

Things that unlock new game mechanics, like Relics, Arcanas, unlocked Power-Ups, and pickups count, carry over to Adventures.

We have 2+1 adventures for now:
– Two are unlocked by collecitng the Atlas Gate relic mentioned above.
– Then there’s the Legacy of the Moonspell adventure that gets unlocked if you have the relative DLC.
DLC Adventures becomes accessible only after visiting the Dairy Plant once.

For more information and details on Adventures, for example on how and why to Ascend an adventure after completing it, please refer to the FAQ: https://poncle.games/adventures-faq

We didn’t add a Steam achievement just for the Atlas Gate, your 100% is safe for the rest of 2023!
Our future free content patch -that is still top secret- will add a handful of achievements instead, and we’ll bundle the Atlas Gate platform-achievement with those.

– Locked characters can now be previewed in Character Selection (Secret characters aren’t shown until the Forbidden Scrolls relic is found)
– Added filters to the Collection page. You can now see easily what you need to unlock Queen Sigma for example.
– Tweaked Whiteout bosses’ HP pool
– Fixed Whiteout treasure chests not containing evos
– Fixed Celestial Voulge not being available in Super Candybox II Turbo
– Reduced self-harm from Muramasa
– Fixed Millionaire’s projectiles not being affected by the direction faced by the player

The Vampire Survivors are desperate to find the vampire, but are running out of places where to look. Only one option remains, the last frontier: be the bullet hell… in space!

We shoot them to the moon, but landed just slightly off target… Oh well, since we’re here we might as well investigate this carefully crafted knockoff mysterious purple world of Polus Replica and stock up on friends, weapons, and floor chicken as usual. You never know when or where you might get lucky and stumble upon a vampire, so better keep those EYES open anyway!

Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting is our first collab DLC, made possible by the wonderful Among Us developers, Innersloth! We took elements of Among Us that most fans of the game will recognise and freely re-interpreted them in a Vampire Survivors spin, for some outrageous, ridiculous, and hopefully fun, combinations of characters and weapons.

Common daily questions at poncle HQ are among the lines of “How would I survive 30′ in the videogame Vampire Survivors if I only had an ID Card to defend myself?” and it was pure bliss to be able to give an answer to those important questions. Huge thanks to the folks at Innersloth for making all of this possible!

Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting contains:

• 9 playable characters
• 15 new weapons (of which 7 evolutions)
• A new large stage
• A new Adventure
• 6 brand new music tracks
• 20 in-game-only achievements

DLC FAQS
While most of the contents of the DLCs are straightforward, being a collab there are some differences. For example, there are no Steam achievements, so please read the FAQs here for more info: https://poncle.games/emergency-meeting.html

You can Wishlist Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting now by clicking the link below.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2690330/Vampire_Survivors_Emergency_Meeting/

(Nintendo Switch and mobile versions are coming soon, so stay tuned to our Discord for more info)

This update Adventures + Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting DLC on Steam Dec 18th first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

If you think we’ve done enough, it would be great to get a nomination for “Labor of Love” in the Steam Awards please!
If you think we should do more instead, no problem, hopefully in 2024 we’ll get there! I’m going to share our Chaos Roadmap just below, to tease how much more we’re planning to add in the future

When it comes to planning new content, I’m not a fan of big, perfect, highly detailed roadmaps, as it’s often straight up impossible to foresee all problems that might occur during development (did you happen to hear about a huge software company trying to screw over game developers recently?)

Even internally, we use a big list of stuff we know we want to do, but we don’t put that in order or on a timeline. So here’s our Chaos Roadmap, a highly cryptic list of all future updates that are getting cooked behind the scenes:

Wondering what the heck MAZERELLA is? Sorry, my lips are sealed.

Wondering which one will be next? Me too haha

Thank you all once again, and hope to see you in here again soon for the Adventures update!

– Luca

This update Would you nominate Vampire Survivors for “Labor of Love” in the Steam Awards? first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

It’s snow themed.

– 6 new EXTRA achievements
– 1 new bonus stage
– 2 new relics to get a new PowerUp and morph an existing character
– 1 new weapon with its evolution
– 1 new playable character
– 1 new music track

– Pickup a total of 20 Orologions to unlock the new stage, Whiteout. If you have played the game long enough, you’ll probably just need to enter and exit a run!
– In Whiteout, find the Antidote relic and the Glass Fandango weapon.
– Pick up and maximize Wings to evolve the Glass Fandango.
– Survive 20 minutes in Whiteout.
– In the post game, go to Tiny Bridge and find the Chaos Altemanna.

Stage: Whiteout
It’s a 20 minutes Bonus stage, so for most of it there isn’t anything particularly challenging. Enemies move very slowly and take extra damage from fire weapons, which is why you might want to save the next spicy sausage for when the boss shows up. Funny snowmen will block your path, but might drop a decent amount of gold coins and everyone’s favourite pickup: Orologions.

As you can tell from the unlock condition, this isn’t a post game stage like TinyBridge/BatCountry/AstralStair, so it’s rather easy. If you Invert it though…

Relic: Chaos Altemanna
Allows the character O’Sole Meeo to morph when reaching Level 80. It gets a few minor stats boost and evolves its Celestial Dusting into Profusione D’Amore.
The weapon evolution still shoots flowers, but these ones also bounce against the side of the screen. It also spawns floating leaves that occasionally bloom into a chain-reaction of damaging explosions.

Relic: Antidote
Allows to buy the Defang PowerUp.

PowerUp: Defang
Very cheap PowerUp to slightly reduce difficulty. Makes some enemies completely unable to deal damage. These enemies have a green tint, that can be disabled in Options.

Weapon: Glass Fandango
Can be picked up in Whiteout, and unlocked for every other run by levelling it up to Level 7. Attacks faster and in the faced direction when moving, and with standard delay and all around when standing still. Deals extra damage to frozen enemies. Gains bonus area during the time-freeze triggered by Orologions. Requires maxed Wings to evolve into Celestial Voulge.

Weapon evolution: Celestial Voulge
Has a chance to deal critical hits and to freeze enemies. Changes the time-freeze from Orologions: enemies appear frozen and deal no damage as usual, but keep moving towards the player. Deals continuous damage.

NewCharacter: She-Moon Eeta
Starts with Glass Fandango. Slightly defensive character thanks to high Armor and Movement Speed. Has a “CriticalHP skill”, that triggers when she drops below 25% Max Health: she triggers a 10 seconds time-freeze, just like Orologions do.
The CriticalHP skill recharges only when the character recovers all HP. If the characters get hit by an attack strong enough to kill them, CriticalHP doesn’t trigger.

If you haven’t already done it last year, cast the spell spoopyseason to unlock special skins for Mortaccio, Yatta Cavallo, Bianca Ramba, and O’Sole!

The next big feature, “Adventures”, needs just a bit more time in the oven before we’ll be able to release it. We wanted to deliver it together with Whiteout, but there’s a lot of QA to do and, as mentioned in the previous update, the release process has become slower due to all the platforms we’re on, so we decided to play it safe and leave the risky bits to a future update.
If everything goes well, we should be able to deliver the Adventures patch on Steam in less than a month

Adventures remix content of the base game and add a bit of new flavour through new stage progression and descriptions. They allow to have a fresh start with new chapters to tackle, without losing anything obtained in the main game. There are several features and details that we will explain one by one in the weeks ahead.
There will be Adventures in the base game and also a special Adventure for each DLC. For example, this is what you’ll see when you start the Legacy of the Moonspell Adventure:

We’re also planning to put the new cross-save feature into the beta channels; if you’d like to try it, please follow the beta updates on our Discord to know when it will be available for testing.

We’ll keep supporting VS and stick to our top secret updates roadmap, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t ready to port VS once again if the engine situation becomes unsustainable.
We already had to rewrite almost everything in the new “game engine”, since we’re using it only for the ability to easily export the game for consoles. Everything else is basically custom and working in the new engine was actually an uphill battle against the engine itself.

That being said, going back to the old engine is not an option. While Phaser is a fantastic framework and I wouldn’t use anything else if I could, the tech stack needed to make it run on anything that isn’t a web browser is too heavy and unsupported by consoles. Most of the performance gains we’ve seen with the swap are in fact thanks to dropping the old tech stack, not because the new engine is doing any miracles.
There are also some features that exist exclusively on the new engine (co-op, and soon Adventures) that would have been incredibly hard to make in the old one, so, if we really have to make a change, we’ll go to a new-new-engine rather than the old one.

Thanks to your support we could afford another engine switch if we have to, but it would be another bumpy ride and I’d rather spend that time and headspace on new features, content, and games.

PS: if you’re a fan of Phaser like me, you probably have already noticed some funny content in the Directer’s Cut teaser… can’t wait to show you more in the following months!

Despite being ready for weeks, the Whiteout update is actually still not approved for release on all platforms. The blocker -on another platform, not Steam- , was the usage of the term “Flashing VFX” in the Options menu…

Last time I mentioned that we wanted to always release patches globally, because we know how frustrating it is to receive updates late only because your platform of choice is not the main one. But with this level of silliness, in return it becomes unfair to all other players to hold back a release because a single platform is that slow, for such nonsense reasons.

Going forward we’ll stick to our release pipeline, try to anticipate all the submissions as much as possible, but then we won’t wait for all the approval processes to be finished to release new patches on PC.

Sorry if content gets delayed on other platforms, we’ll keep trying our best, but we have so much more content to release before the end of 2023 that we really can’t afford longer waiting times.

Last week we hit 200k reviews on Steam! A huge thank you from everyone at poncle for your support!
In return we will… keep working on VS and stuff!

—

1.7.0 tweaks and fixes:
– Added more treasure chests in Il Molise
– Fixed weapon spacing in arcanas list to accommodate new weapons.
– Fixed text overlap in collection where there are 3 line descriptions.
– Fix for some missing translations in the options menu.
– Fixed Je-ne-viv world eater logic causing slowdown.
– Fixed bought character’s in secrets menu.
– Fixed revive animation not being scaled correctly.
– Fixed issue with Je-ne-viv crashing Il Molise.
– Fixed quit button audio cutoff.
– Fixed bestiary enemies scaling up and down incorrectly.
– Fixed resolution dropdrop displaying incorrect resolution.
– Fixed Cosmic Egg display in Bestiary.
– Fixed World Eater crashing with lots of eggs.
– Fixed Trinacria in Bestiary.
– Fixed Bestiary Information cutoff/display issues.
– Fixed incorrect No Future particles.
– Fixed Hellfire projectile rotation on bounce.
– Fixed Goshadokuro losing it’s head in the Bestiary.
– Fixed Directer fight inconsistencies vs old engine.
– Fixed the pause menu not animating the first time it is opened.
– Fixed missing red death particles in Holy Forbbiden.
– Updated Traditional Chinese display name on the languages page.
– Updated pickup logic to better match old-engine behaviour.
– Minor optimisation on damage number display.
– Removed incorrect screen flash on Gorgeous Moon.
– Removed various flashes if Flashing VFX is disabled.
– Added translations for “Mobile FAQ”.
– Added bounds on death particles.
– Added missing flash vfx on Directer intro.

1.7.103:
—
– Fixed Je-Ne-Viv world eating effect
– Fixed display of Stage Progression on Character selection screen
– Fixed Starry Heaven VFX in co-op

This update New Content Patch 1.7.0: Whiteout first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

[/b][/list]

• Gold items in collection are now only visible on collection
• Fix item pickups from sometimes incorrectly awarding multiple times
• In co-op, all players now die in Holy Forbidden if timer runs out
• Added game version to preloader
• Added DLC versions to options page.
• Fixed issue with weapon names not showing up in recap in Japanese.
• Fix for extra “-” in academy badge level up translation in some languages.
• Fixed Egg Count overlapping
• Fixed pause menu text overflow with high egg count.
• Fix regression of player-colour coded treasure panel buttons.
• Fixing chests getting stuck outside of walls on Astral Stairs.
• Fixed piano birds not being visible.
• Make golden eggs go to collecting character in co-op, in rare cases where you find them. Stops Sigma getting eggs indirectly.
• Adjusting Directer fight background stars zoom effect.
• Fixed Merchant soft lock when all weapons are selected.
• Fixed which character gets healing hearts in co-op.
• Fixed Vento Weapon not updating area size.
• Merchant now checks weapons in all players not just the active player.
• Increasing size and alpha of pause button.
• Sprite sizes are now correct after changing character skin.
• Fixed an issue where every level up bonuses were not being applied to all characters.
• Making the background music resume after completing Leda event.
• Fixed an issue where enemies were initializing with a wiggled state.
• Bestiary description no longer truncates and expands the content correctly.
• Merchant back button works via controller.
• Fix to Astral Stairs Teleport Layering.
• Fix for power up icon sizes.
• Character found page dark icon sizing adjustment.
• Fixed infernas secret page weapon reward icon size.
• Fixed sprite sizes in achievement info panel, and character select info panel.
• Fixed an issue where the Directer fight would try to progress before the Directer had been spoken to.
• Fix for issues with lingering visuals when exiting stages.
• Collection items now accurate sizes compared to old-engine.

This update v1.6.109 – hotfixes first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

Make sure to restart Steam to force the update on the main game and DLC packs!

Vampire Survivors is also launching on Nintendo Switch today and the Steam version is fully moving to a new engine!

ːvsgarlicː

You can play the whole of VS (including DLC packs) in 4 player local co-op now!

All you need is one controller per player and you can add up to 3 extra people on the character select screen and continue to play through your missions, hunt achievements etc. with your friends.

The biggest changes to playing VS in local co-op are, well… other people. In addition to the usual chaos of human interactions, there are also different options so you can customise your co-op games such as coloured outlines for your character and indicators, and we added some small multiplayer specific mechanics like The Friendship Amulet.

A question we get a lot is if there is online multiplayer coming too (yes, we’re looking into online co-op too, but that is such a massive undertaking that we cannot make any promises at this time. Local co-op is a first step). For now we recommend using unofficial solutions like Steam Remote Play that let you play online with friends with Steam right away. As a completely remote team (we don’t live in a big castle together), we’ve found these are mostly reliable but do have some flaws, so make sure to head over to the FAQ for tips and smaller known issues that are out of our hands to fix.

We hope you will enjoy the co-op mode with your friends, foes, and any undead demons you may have summoned. And big thanks for making this possible, we would have never thought two years ago that we would make co-op happen and it’s all thanks to your support!

PS: You can find more answers to the most frequent co-op questions in our FAQ here.

ːvsgarlicː

Mamma mia! Vampire Survivors is also out on Nintendo Switch today! 4 player co-op and all updates are included. Same price as the Steam version, no surprises or hidden taxes! (actually there’s a 10% launch discount)

A lot of people have been asking for cross-save, and the Nintendo Switch port will most likely increase demand even more. We’re working on it: we have already run successful tests in moving saves between PC, mobile, and consoles, while also adding cloud save slots! We’ll keep you updated, but save data is a very delicate thing, so this will really need a lot of testing and an adequate amount of time in the oven to be released in a safe, fully working state. Thanks for being patient!

ːvsgarlicː

As we have announced in the last update, Vampire Survivors on Steam is fully switching to its new engine today. The original and new engine have been running in parallel for a while and we are at a point now where there should be only very subtle differences left, so it’s time to make the switch so that we can focus on adding features that wouldn’t have been achievable on the old engine.

If there are major differences or even something small but that’s really annoying you in the new engine, please let us know on the forums or on Discord: last year we have discarded a fully working, first version of the new engine and started this one just to stay accurate to the original gameplay, so we’re not afraid to tackle a few leftover differences

You can find the massive changelog for v1.6 here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1794680/view/3678929839479077754

And have a quick look at a comparison in performance on Steam Deck here:
https://youtu.be/z7HCGKzwRjs

ːvsgarlicː

The old engine will not be updated anymore, but it will be kept on a private beta branch for anyone who wants to stay on it. To access the private branch, use the password: PhaserVersion2023
We wanted to keep both versions running in parallel and provide a launcher, but the overhead is just not manageable. It’s just smarter to focus our efforts on a single version of the game, even because certain features, like co-op or the future cross-save options, would just be a massive time sink to implement on the old engine and I’d rather put that time and energy on new content instead.

ːpoemgː

Thanks to the new engine being the new standard, we can finally work on large features that were very difficult, or borderline impossible, to develop on the old one.

There’s a lot happening behind the scenes, but we’ll start with a large feature that has been taking shape since December 2022 and that will add a lot of gameplay options and possibilities. I won’t spoil anything as it’s difficult to summarize it quickly, we’ll properly announce and explain this new feature over the upcoming weeks. For now, I’ll just share a mysterious screenshot:

While the screenshot depicts something from the Legacy of the Moonspell DLC just because it looks cool, please note that this new core feature is for everyone and it goes well beyond showing a different main menu background (btw the amazing artwork is from Matt Frith – it’s also animated!).
It will be released in a free patch, together with a bit of new content

As you’ve surely noticed, we’re not able anymore to release content at a fast pace, since the game is not anymore a single little .exe I can upload on Steam on my own. Between the DLCs and all the different platforms we’re now on, doing a release involves testing, building, and uploading about 21 different things, and going through 4 different certification processes. Something as simple as someone from a certification team not liking the translation of a single word, in a single language, could block any release by days.

Sure, we could release on different platforms at different times, but we know how frustrating it is to wait for patches to reach your platform of choice while everyone else is playing new content, so we’d rather try to keep doing global releases on the same days.
To address this long-winded process, we’re doing some heavy work behind the scenes to allow us to go back to, ideally, releasing content patches every month, so at a similar pace we had during early access. This will take quite some time, in the meantime we’ll keep doing our best to deliver updates!

Thank you all once again!
– what you liked from this update, was from Luca, and what you didn’t, was from the marketing team ːvsskullː

Oh, wait, there’s more! ːdireyesː
Did you see any of the “Directer’s Cut” footage online?
That’s something we’ve been doing in most events (since TGS 2022): hiding some of the future content for the game in plain sight, but this time it blew up online! While the actual menu screen might never appear in game, all the new content shown in that version is scheduled to be fully developed and released in future free updates.
So here’s a sneak peak of a handful among the dozens of characters and weapons that are getting developed for 2023 and beyond: https://youtu.be/M8GSUPBrhU8

This update Version 1.6: New engine & Local co-op first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

• Temporary fix for Player 1 controller assignment:
  – The first controller used on the Press any button screen will be assigned to player 1.
  – This can be re-assigned by toggling Options -> Coop -> “Assign Controller to Player 1” off and on, then pressing any button on your chosen controller.

• Fix for crashes occurring at or after 30 minutes.
• Fix for some controllers not being recognised on Mac.
• Fixed an issue with some old (or edited) save data files causing the game to crash.
• Added new display settings (V-Sync toggle, FPS Cap, Refresh Rate).
• Fixed an issue with some enemies starting at an angle when they should not (e.g. The Directer).
• Fixed issue where Sammy leveling up too much before starting the Directer fight would cause a crash.
• Fixed an issue with vertical monitors not showing UI navigation cursors.

• Added local co-op mode!
• Added “Disable Blood” option.
• Added “Pixel Font” option.
• Added “Border Type” option.
• Added Twitch integration (Steam only).

• Added Friendship Amulet.
• Added extra options for co-op:
• -Player colour selection.
• -Player outlines toggle.
• -Player indicators toggle.
• -UI Selection tint toggle.
• -Controller/Keyboard assignment toggle.
• -Sequential chest mode toggle.
• Added support for Steam Remote Play Together.

Before showing the gargantuan list, I’d just like to say a huge thank you to all the players who have helped reporting difference between the old and new engine, our own littla QA team who spent countless hours for testing everything across more than a dozen of platform and devices, and our developers who didn’t shy to go through the 7 layers of hell to make all the changes

• Fixed Crimson Shroud explosions not counting as rataliatory damage.
• Fixed Coin sound being more high-pitched during gold fever vs the original engine.
• Fixed Santa Water hit box position.
• Fixed an issue where La Borra and Ophion would not despawn properly when off screen.
• Fixed an issue where Super Turbo Candybox II could be shown in a chest multiple times.
• Fixed an issue where the game would freeze at the end of the Directer fight in some situations.
• Fixed Random Events showing in “special Cappella Magna” & “Eudaimonia M.”.
• Fixed a spawn position issue with the Drowner in Boss Rash stage.
• Fixed issue with golden eggs being incorrectly applied in the Astral Stair stage.
• Fixed an issue where projectiles supporting Heart of Fire Arcana were triggering retaliation explosions instead of weapon explosions.
• Updated translations with new text entries, options etc.
• Added extra error handling to DLC loading.
• Fixed an issue with the save conflict popup not displaying correctly on certain devices.
• Fixed an issue where timestamps were not displayed in local time for save conflicts.
• Fixed total egg count not updating when buying from the merchant or picking up Golden Eggs which caused Egg Man to not show up.
• Fixed evolution highlights not covering the entire item in the Grimoire.
• Improvements to caching and performance of options menu.
• Fixed issue with Trickster appearing in non-inverted library.
• Removed Stained Window from weapon summary list.
• Multiple navigation arrows fixes across the UI.
• Fixed a crash that could happen when the Gorgeous Moon weapon was removed.
• Fixed issue with sprite generation which resulted in higher vertex counts causing gradient tinting to not work.
• Enabled missing gradient tint and corrected depth sorting of Mirage projectiles.
• Fixed issue where the username was not visible on the main menu.
• Fixed issue with equipment panel spacing.
• Fixed pause button alpha not matching original engine.
• Fixed potential crash related to equipment panel.
• Fixed issue with Gem physics offsets.
• Fixed item found particles spinning too quickly on high refresh rate monitors.
• Fixed Metaglio merging not showing in equipment panel.
• General improvements to formatting and alignment of items in the equipment panel.
• Fixed sprite sizing across all panels.
• Optimised tilemap loading.
• Fix for UI popups being on the wrong layer in some situations.
• Fixed avatar infernas weapon not showing in secrets page.
• Fixed a sorting order issue for cursors and their icons.
• Updated how toastie is spawned to closer match original engine, and to ensure it is hidden when leaving gameplay.
• Added switching of Syuuto’s song during weapon evolution.
• Removed “RELEASE” from version number on main menu.
• Fixed Gallo Tower fog positioning to cover transparent borders in landscape.
• Fixed tiling backgrounds starting offset.
• Updated the default pitch of all SFX to better match the source.
• Fixed scroll bar speed across multiple UI pages.
• Updated incorrect Silent Sanctuary Arcana icon.
• Fixed crash on boot up with iOS platform under certain situations.
• Updated Level Up to fill out extra items when less than 3 are available and you are less than level 3.
• Fixed crash when certain trisection events triggered for a second time in the same run.
• Fixed resistances not showing properly in the bestiary.
• Fixed Orochimaro’s neck graphic being displayed upside down.
• Fixed an issue where the weapon store may have no weapons left, only passives, and not grant you anything.
• Fixed Drowner water edges being visible when using transparent borders in gameplay.
• Fixed hidden weapons not being checked when activating some arcanas.
• Fixed an issue with Astral Stair spinning portraits moving too slowly.
• Updated collider on the boss mummy enemies.
• Fix for Tides of the Foscari evolutions not showing in the Grimoire by default prior to seeing/unlocking.
• Updated the spawn location of the Academy Badge to spawn on land in Lake Foscari.
• Fixed an issue where the Drowner is not dismissed in some scenarios.
• Tweak to enemy rotation to closer match the original engine.
• Fix for enemy wiggle not being processed accurately.
• Updated pixelated font rendering to improve clarity and performance.
• Fixed pivot points of enemies.
• Reduced weight of fallback font to bring other languages in-line with thickness of EN.
• Fixed some missing translations in Character Selection.
• Fixed a soft-lock when fighting Jen-Ne-Viv boss.
• Fixed missing translation for grimoire title.
• Added translations to trisection events.
• Fixed visual issue with Eleanor sprite position after Je-Ne-Viv boss transition.
• Fixed equipment stats moving down the screen randomly when opening certain UI pages.
• Fixed an issue with the 16:10 aspect masking during gameplay.
• Fixed an issue where the default language was always forcefully applied.
• Added missing Victory Sword check to Stalker and Drowner enemies.
• Optimised in-game stats panel.
• Fixes to back buttons to resolve various navigation issues.
• Fixed retaliation issue with Eskizzibur.
• Fixed the Drowner enemy in Boss Rash not spawning at the correct location.
• Clamped the players movement speed between min and max integer values to stop the game crashing under extreme speeds.
• Fixed issue with trisection event text overlapping gold fever.
• Improved the way that out of bounds pickups move towards players.
• Added option to disable moving background in Astral Stair.
• Fixed an issue where pickups were being despawned too quickly, meaning maps always showed them.
• Fixed an error when showing weapon evolutions for players who are maxed out.
• Fixed error where Cold Explosions were triggering on already dead targets.
• Fixed the usage of various incorrect sprites throughout the game.
• Updated the list of Red and Blue weapons.
• Fixed Ophion not despawning correctly which sometimes caused a crash.
• Fixed Drowner movement speeds and positioning (in particular when in Hyper mode)
• Fixed a situation where invalid stage data could cause a crash.
• Updated DLC Store button location on mobile.
• Fixed an issue where Sole Solution was not pausing.
• Fixed an issue where particle reformatting could cause a crash on the Level Up screen.
• Fixed various enemy spawning differences to better match the original engine.
• Fixed an issue with tiled enemy spawns not matching the original engine.
• Corrected gameplay zoom level to better match the original engine.
• Fixed a bug with the Delete Save Data option not appearing anymore.
• Added missing SFX for Summon Night and Echo Night
• Added missing SFX for Candybox opening
• Updated credits.
• Fix for revives triggering twice.
• Fixes for particle effect sizes and duration on Level Up and Arcana.
• Various small fixes for VFX at different aspect ratios.
• Pentagram flash now obeys Flashing VFX in the options.
• UI Pages can now be scrolled quickly using shoulder buttons on controllers.
• Fixed page up down in pages with non uniformly sized elements (e.g. options page), also fixed page up down not working at all in the ingame options page
• Fix for linux launch issues and missing steam overlay
• Fixed lingering images on screen sides after completing the yellow sign collection animation
• Improvements to Arcana selection navigation.
• Optimised Thunder Loop Projectile to reduce hitch after evolving.
• Fixed Gorgeous Moon display colors and alpha.
• Fix scroll snapping when using mouse on a tickbox after having scrolled
• Fix for secrets page using incorrect character texture (DLC only) for unlocks popup.
• Updated config for Rosary SFX.
• Fixed audio issue with vacuum.
• Fix for pickup vacuum behaviour differences.
• Fixing DLC enemies appearing in credits if you don’t own DLC.
• Fixes for Luminaire’s VFX.
• Fix for walking characters hiding too early during preloader.
• Fixed an issue with CherryStarsWeapon/Projectile not despawning its sprites and effects properly.
• Fixed an issue where the bone giant weapon was not being removed properly during special events.
• Weapon Selection: Header size adjustment.
• Stage Select: Tweaked font size/alignment.

Game Over:

• Updated button animations.
• Updated text animations.
• Updated revive animations.
• Updated timings.
• Improvements to pixelation effect on Game over.

Level Up:

• Updated buttons, VFX and hierarchy.
• Fixed item icon sizing.

Final Fireworks:

• Ray scale tweaks.
• Great Jubilee weapon reveal is now above the fireworks.
• Updated positions, tweens and material of the rays.
• Now only updating fireworks once per trigger.

Item Found:

• Particles are now bigger and have a longer duration.
• Fixed item icon sizing.

Merchant/Shop:

• Corrected button alignment.
• Fixed item icon sizing.
• Fixed a layering issue with the scrollbar

Stage Complete:

• Updated button animations.
• Updated text animations.
• Updated revive animations.
• Updated timings.

Character Found:

• Button position tweaks.
• Ray scale tweaks.
• Fixes for tweens on exiting the panel.
• Various improvements to panel closing animation.
• Now only updating fireworks once per trigger.
• Updated positions, tweens and material of the rays.
• Improvements to burst effect timing.
• Starts off dark by default.
• Fixes for particles and spinning.

Arcana Selection:

• Validated sizes of both arcana card selections.
• Card selection size adjustment.
• Arcana panel (on right) is now correct size.
• Info panel text sizing and alignment improved.
• Fixed card corner sizes.
• Fixes for skip button corners.
• Fixes for card selection corners.
• Various timing changes and improvements.
• Updated particles size and density.
• Get and Random buttons now have thicker borders.
• Unlocked count now displayed at the top.

Pause Menu:

• Arcana panels were the wrong size.
• Fixed scroll view in game options.

Bestiary:

• Fixes to colour and transparency of divider.
• Improvements to list alignment.
• Navigation fixes.
• Fixes to text formatting.
• Fix for scroll when hovering.
• Fix for content fitting issues.
• Fixes for various special enemy entries.
• Basic bestiary enemies now correctly match the enemy size.

Secrets:

• Input button updated.
• Particle size and masking updated.
• Now scales the title out on click.
• Added page divider line.

Unlocks Menu:

• Fixed incorrect frames used for arcanas.
• Coin prizes now display correctly.
• Fixed broken language key on coin prizes.
• Fixed incorrect panel icons for unlocks.
• Corrected text sizing.
• Fixed navigation.
• Fix for scale of character rewards.
• Unlock, description and icons updated.
• Text available size and space updated to fix resizing.

PowerUps:

• Aligned info panel text.
• Fixed powerup level slot being on by default.
• Fixes to item font size and color.

Character Select:

• Fixed bug with scale of price.
• Sizing updates.
• Tweaked ront size/alignment.

Credits screen:

• Fixed Conga line visibility.
• Fixed navigation.

Collection:

• Fix for collection item question mark size.
• Updated info panel icon sizing.

Treasure Chests:

• Reduced delay on lvl 1 chest done button.
• Reduced delay on lvl 2 chest done button.
• Adjusted treasure chest ribbon length.
• Tweaked timings for treasure skips.
• New skip animations.
• New skip timings.
• Updated intro blast speed.
• Updated intro chest positioning.
• Updated intro chest animation.
• Fixed open button behaviour.
• Adjusted curved ribbon in lvl 3 chests.
• Adjusted far left and right reel sorting.
• Made bubbles fade in instead of appearing.
• Adjusted lvl 3 reel positions.
• Adjusted stars behind weapon reveal.
• Fixed the background circle shape, speed and alpha.
• Tweaked open and done button sizes.
• Separated arrows from open and done buttons.
• Open button now rotates out correctly.
• Adjusted fireworks sorting order.
• Changed flash and ring sorting order to be over the reels.
• Stopping background panel lighting up in lvl 1 chests.
• Updated order of lvl 2 chest wining patern.
• Moved fireworks behind chests.
• Made coin countup scale in, not just appear.
• Adjusted flash scale and position.
• Adjusted position of lvl 2 reels and coin display.
• Changed when coin particles stop in lvl 1 & 2 chests.
• Adjusted ring scale amount.
• Changed layer of coin value.
• Updated anim to scale out the coin value.
• The “done” button now rotates in instead of appearing.
• Added delay to coin value pulsing.
• Added delay to “done” button.
• Changed position of coin value.
• Changed timing to ring scaling down.
• Updated info panel icon sizing.

This update v1.6.0 patch notes first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

While you wait for the co-op update we thought we would hit the “generate Steam Trading card and other Steam things” button in our game development software, so here they are!

From today you can finally unlock the following to bolster your Steam profile:

5 Trading Cards
6 Badges (5 + 1 foil)
5 Emoticons
3 Profile Backgrounds

If you are not familiar with Steam Community Items, then you can read how to unlock them here.

Did you know that if you click on a Steam card in your inventory, you get to see the larger picture the snapshot comes from? Because of this, we had a lot of fun making the cards, so I hope you enjoy them too! (Spoiler: If you look really really closely you might spot a super subtle video game reference or two in them).
Here’s a sneak peak at one of the large cards:

(please note that due to some rules we had to remove the text from the official cards. Since the artists have spent quite some time on the text versions, we will be publishing them in the Artworks section on Steam in the following weeks)

We’ll be looking into making new items in the future, like the animated point shop items, this is just the first step!

We are also getting a lot of questions about how the local co-op mode will work gameplay-wise, and that reminded us of the old saying “a first gameplay video is worth a thousand words”.

It should answer a lot of questions like how levelling up, moving as a group, destroying friendships etc works. The video shows a pretty advanced build of the new mode but we are still tweaking details and balancing it so what you see here is still work in progress. For example…

There will also be a new item in co-op mode that we haven’t shown before. It’s an ancient, almighty artefact called… The Friendship Amulet.

This item can appear on the level-up screen and will level-up a random active weapon for each player. Players will have to decide if they tactically (or selfishly) pick a level-up for a weapon of their choice or give the whole group a round of random level-up.
(don’t worry about the Friendship Amulet poking a hole in your Collection, it is shown in there from the beginning since it’s more a game mechanic rather than an item you pick up)

We are also trying to pack as many options as possible by the next release to customise the co-op experience:

If you got feedback about the footage, of course let us know in the comments here. On that note: We’ve already heard a lot of players asking for an online mode, but that’s an order of magnitude or two more complicated to make right now. Maybe we’ll look into it when we have more time. Or maybe we are already?

As you may know, we have been running Vampire Survivors in parallel on its original engine Phaser and its new engine (that we needed for porting and better stability) for a while on Steam. Now that we are close to a point where the new engine is thoroughly tested and runs better than the old one, we will fully switch the game over to the new engine on 17th August.

On this note, big thanks to Phaser! I had a lot of fun building Vampire Survivors in it and can highly recommend it if you are interested in making wild games pretty fast!

We are hosting our first ever community event, in real life!

It’s a hands-on event where you can try out a preview of the local co-op mode with friends (if you don’t have friends then we can provide some in this case, it’s a much requested feature). The co-op event will be taking place in early August, London (UK). We’re hoping to get some player feedback on how people like the co-op mode in the wild.

So you can expect playing the co-op mode, free stuff, and surprising snacks. Tickets will be free but limited. We will announce more details on how to apply for tickets on our usual Discord, and then Twitter, Threads, TikTok, and any other social media platform that dies and arises in the meantime.

Thanks for reading and I hope you’ve enjoyed both the artworks of the marketing team and mine!
– Luca

This update Trading Cards out today, local co-op deep dive, engine switch and London event! first appeared on Survivors-likes List.