EXCLUSIVE: The viral gaming sensation Vampire Survivors is in the works for television. Story Kitchen is partnering with the game’s developer, poncle founder Luca Galante, to adapt the comedic gothic horror video game into a premium, animated television series.
In the game described as Vox Machina meets Castlevania, players control an automatically attacking character while fighting against continuous waves of monsters, with the goal being to survive the onslaught for as long as possible.
The game is set in 2021 in rural Italy. “There lived an evil person named Bisconte Draculó, whose many evil magics created a bad world filled with famine and suffering. It’s now up to the members of the Belpaese Family to end his reign of terror and return good food to the table,” reads the official description.
“There’s no place to hide -all you can do is try to survive a cursed night and get as much gold as possible for the next survivor- before Death inevitably puts an end to your struggles. Mow down thousands of night creatures and survive until dawn! This is a gothic horror action game, where your choices can allow you to quickly snowball against the hundreds of monsters thrown at you.”
A search is underway for a writer. The project will be shopped to animated TV network buyers.
Vampire Survivors was the winner of the Best Game and Best Game Design awards at the BAFTA Game Awards earlier this month. The game is Steam’s highest-rated video game of 2022, and also named Best Game from Ars Technica, GamesIndustry.biz, D.I.C.E., the New York Game Awards and the Golden Joystick Awards. The game also has received multiple nominations from the Game Developer’s Choice Awards, the Game Awards and The Steam Awards.
“The most important thing in Vampire Survivors is the story, so it’s a dream come true to see what started as a little indie game I made on my weekends come to life as an animated TV show!,” says poncle founder Galante. “It’s also great to be partnering up with such experienced and talented people to make the show. I do wonder if they’ve realized that there isn’t a single vampire in Vampire Survivors, though.”
Story Kitchen co-founder Dmitri M. Johnson said: “When our Head of Creative, Dan Jevons, flagged Vampire Survivors for us last year upon its initial release, we were prepared to dismiss it as just another vampire game. Hundreds of hours played later, we were all hooked, and we just could not get enough!! Needless to say, we’re truly honored to partner with this incredible team and to continue the Vampire Survivors story!”
Added Story Kitchen’s Dan Jevons: “Despite being responsible for countless hours of lost productivity at Story Kitchen, we are both thrilled, and honored, to partner with poncle to bring the bombastic gothic world of Vampire Survivors to life in linear media.”
Story Kitchen was founded by John Wick writer/creator Derek Kolstad, Sonic the Hedgehog film and TV producer Dmitri M. Johnson and former APA agent/partner Mike Goldberg. The company currently has game-to-TV adaptations Tomb Raider and Splinter Cell in production at Netflix, Sega’s Toejam and Earl and Streets of Rage, respectively, set up at Amazon and Lionsgate, It Takes Two set up at Amazon as well as additional yet-to-be-announced partnerships.
Story Kitchen is repped by imon Pulman & Briana Hill, at Pryor Cashman LLC, and Jennifer Levy at Behr Abramson Levy Johnson.
Here’s a trailer for Vampire Survivors: Legacy of the Moonspell.