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Vampire Crawlers Spin Off Reaches Its First Public Milestone
poncle has confirmed that Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard, the official spin-off from Vampire Survivors, will receive its first-ever public demo in February 2026. The demo will be playable during Steam Next Fest and will also be available on Xbox platforms through Game Pass.
The demo will go live on February 23, giving players their first hands-on opportunity to experience poncle’s latest experiment outside the auto-battler formula that defined Vampire Survivors. The announcement marks a significant step forward for a project that has already generated strong interest ahead of release.
The game was first revealed in November 2025 and has since surpassed 200,000 wishlists on Steam, highlighting the appetite for a fresh take on the Vampire Survivors universe.
A Turboturn Deckbuilder Built for Speed
Unlike its predecessor, Vampire Crawlers is positioned as a turn-based deckbuilder, but one designed to move at a far faster pace than the genre typically allows. poncle describes the game as a turboturn deckbuilder, built around a system that removes traditional pauses between actions.
At the centre of this design is the Turboturn system, which allows players to queue multiple inputs without waiting for animations to resolve. The game intelligently stacks and executes actions in sequence, creating a flow that feels closer to real-time chaos than slow, methodical turn-based combat.
This approach is intended to preserve tactical depth while delivering the same sense of momentum and spectacle that made Vampire Survivors so immediately readable and addictive.
Card Customisation Drives Strategy and Chaos
Alongside its combat pacing, Vampire Crawlers places heavy emphasis on card customisation. Cards can be modified using Gems, which introduce a wide range of effects, from straightforward damage boosts to full weapon evolutions that radically alter how abilities behave.
This system allows players to lean into either simple power stacking or deeper strategic planning, depending on preference. According to poncle, Gems are designed to support experimentation, encouraging players to break the game’s systems through creative combinations rather than rigid optimisation.
The demo will offer an early look at how these customisation layers interact with the Turboturn system in practice.
New Gameplay Series Details Core Systems
To accompany the demo announcement, poncle has launched a new short-form gameplay series titled “Let’s Explore Vampire Crawlers.” The first episode is available now and focuses on breaking down the game’s two core pillars: the Turboturn combat flow and card customisation mechanics.
Additional episodes are planned for the coming weeks, gradually revealing more systems and the game’s design philosophy ahead of the game’s full release. This drip-fed approach mirrors Poncle’s typically transparent development style, inviting players to understand how the game works rather than simply marketing outcomes.
Platforms and What Comes Next
The title is currently planned to launch in 2026 on Steam, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. The February demo will be available on Steam as part of Steam Next Fest and on Xbox via Game Pass, making it widely accessible across platforms.
For poncle, Vampire Crawlers represents both a creative departure and a test of whether the Vampire Survivors identity can evolve beyond auto-battlers. The upcoming demo should offer the clearest indication yet of how successfully that transition has been executed.
