Vampire Survivors | Hit indie videogame getting a movie adaptation

Vampire Survivors co-op
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Indie game sensation Vampire Survivors is getting a movie adaptation ā€“ though its creator adds, ā€œPlease remember, the game has no plot.ā€


Vampire Survivors, the hit indie videogame first released in 2022, is to get a movie adaptation ā€“ thatā€™s according to its creator, Luca ā€˜Poncleā€™ Galante, writing in an update on the gameā€™s Steam page.

According to Galante, itā€™ll be a live-action film, and is in development at Story Kitchen ā€“ a media company that is something of a specialist in porting videogames to large and small screens. Co-founded by Sonic The Hedgehog movie producer Dmitri M Johnson, itā€™s now involved in the making of the Amazon Studios take on Tomb Raider, written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, an adaptation of Segaā€™s brawler classic Streets Of Rage for Lionsgate, and more besides.

In fact, it was previously announced (in 2023, via IGN) that Story Kitchen was working on an animated TV series based on Vampire Survivors. Itā€™s currently unclear whether the live-action film project replaces that series, or whether both are still at some stage of production.

Galanteā€™s update reads, ā€œAs 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 isnā€™t a video game out of Vampire Survivors requires good ideas, creativity, and that quirky knowledge of the game,ā€ before adding, ā€œPlease remember the game has no plotā€¦ so nobody can really anticipate how a film about it is going to be. That is what makes it exciting.ā€

Read more: Vampire Survivors review | An action RPG with bite

In essence, Vampire Survivors is a top-down action RPG with retro, 8-bit-style graphics and an absurd number of enemies on the screen at one time. A kind of Robotron 2084 or Smash TV for the age of modern roguelikes, its singularly addictive loop of slaughtering monsters, gathering trinkets and power-ups before your inevitable death turned it into a BAFTA-winning success.

And while itā€™s true that Vampire Survivors doesnā€™t have a plot, it does at least have a theme and backstory. Loosely inspired by a certain Bram Stoker yarn, itā€™s a gothic-infused horror set in an Italy in which the evil Bisconte Draculo has unleashed a plague of monsters. In response, a group of survivors (hence the title) gather together and fight back against the unholy scourge.

Vampire Survivors is also positively stuffed with references and in-jokes connected to Italian culture (its creator lives in London but was born in Rome). If the film adaptation properly respects its source, then expect the big-screen Vampire Survivors to contain nods to everything from Italian pop singers to brands of cheese to a TV magician convicted for fraud.

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