Much like Vampire Survivors’ titular vampire, the game’s creator, Luca Galante, is often nowhere to be found. When Vampire Survivors won a BAFTA for Game of the Year back in 2023, it was a handful of Galante’s colleagues at Poncle who took to the stage to accept it. At convention panels, Galante is known for using screens and decoys rather than addressing the audience himself. In the NoClip documentary chronicling the success of Vampire Survivors, Galante opted to have a Muppets-esque puppet resembling the game’s iconic vampire mascot made so he wouldn’t have to appear on camera himself. And it is a very cool puppet.
Even after I arrived in the small, walled city of Lucca, Italy to preview Poncle’s new game, Vampire Crawlers, the myth-making of Luca Galante continued. Several Poncle devs I spoke to recounted, with sheer amusement, how they loved playing up Galante’s mysterious persona. When fans asked if Galante was around, they’d sometimes remark, “He could be. He could be me.” Matteo Sapio, the chief strategy officer at Poncle, laughed as he told me, “It’s all very funny because honestly, yes, he is brilliant, but he’s also a very kind and normal guy. He just really values his privacy.”
Imagine my delight then, when an hour after meeting Luca, I found myself sitting beside him on an old couch, both of us chatting animatedly about our love of Final Fantasy while playing Vampire Survivors together on a hulking CRT TV.
It’s great to see creators focusing on their own vision and passion. Luca Galante’s approach sounds refreshing, and I’m excited to see how his next game unfolds!