The acclaimed indie game Vampire Survivors was the big surprise hit on Steam in 2022. For developer Luca Galante, the success was unexpected, as it changed everything.
Where does the information come from? On July 17, 2023, a documentary about the surprise hit of the year 2022 was published on the YouTube channel Noclip. It also includes an interview with Luca Galante, the creator of the game.
What kind of game is this? Vampire Survivors conquered the Steam charts in 2022. The hype around the game began a few weeks after the early access launch in January 2022. Ultimately, it topped the list of the top releases of the year (via SteamDB).
The special thing: Developer Luca Galante already had a job and worked on his own projects on the side.
Vampire Survivors is available on Steam for less than 5 €. What other bargains are worth it, you can see in our video:
Steam hit was actually just a hobby project
How did Vampire Survivors come about? The native Italian Galante moved to England to pursue a career in the gaming industry. However, it started quite unglamorously in gastronomy before he could enter the gaming industry.
Galante seems to have spent most of his career before Vampire Survivors at a company that produces a gambling game for mobile. While it was a stable job, it was not really fulfilling for the developer.
In his spare time, he began working on his own projects. After spending several nights developing a Unity-based role-playing game, Galante ultimately decided on a less extensive project in Java: Vampire Survivors.
Sam McGarry, a former colleague of the developer, who now works with Galante at his own studio poncle, recalls: When the former employer held a showcase where employees could present their hobby projects, colleagues couldn’t detach themselves from the roguelite. Xbox chief Phil Spencer experienced something similar.
Developer quit his job for Vampire Survivors
What changed for the developer: The success of his small side project with Castlevania assets surprised hardly anyone more than Galante himself. At that point, he had just started a new job.
In February 2022, he told NME that Vampire Survivors “had exceeded his expectations by a factor of 1,000” and “changed everything.” Galante had just quit the new job after barely a week: The game was simply too successful and required too much attention.
When he saw the numbers rising, he immediately asked his environment for help. Galante has now assembled a team and already published additional content for Vampire Survivors. It remains to be seen where the journey will go next.
The interview is part of a recent video from Noclip that highlights the creation of Vampire Survivors. The founder of the channel, Danny O’Dwyer, recently stumbled upon crates full of footage from a decade of gaming history and saved them from going to waste:
