vampire survivor‘The developer didn’t intend to make a mobile version of the game itself, but had to do so after finding a studio that didn’t accept ‘non-predatory’ monetization.
Mobile games tend to be a mixed bag, with plenty of incredible stories to tell, but while often free, they’re often surrounded by countless micro-communications. That makes it unusual that the mobile version of Vampire Survivors will be completely free with no strings attached.In an interview with PCGamer, the developer Pompey Reasons for doing so are explained, along with the difficulties posed by the decision.
According to Poncle, the studio spent “months” looking for mobile developers to handle the project, but none were willing to opt for a “non-predatory” business model. But due to the large number of clones piling up in mobile stores (they are “actual 1:1 copies with stolen code, assets, data, [and] progression) Poncle had to figure this out on his own.
This resulted in some missing features, namely cloud saves and save transfers, as Poncole hadn’t originally planned to make the port. “Since we still don’t have a backend/full-stack engineer, this may end up taking longer than expected,” Poncle said.
Explaining the rationale behind the free-to-play game, Poncle said: “If you’re like me, if you want to play Vampire Survivor on your phone, you’re happy to pay a few bucks for it and call it a day. But the mobile market isn’t The way it works, by making Vampire Survivors a paid app, I completely cut off a lot of new players from even trying the game.
“That’s why we ended up with a true free-to-play approach where monetization is minimal, designed to never interrupt your gameplay, always optional, and controlled by you with a couple of ‘watch ad’ buttons, And won’t have any real money slots that mobile cash grabs typically revolve around.”
As PCGamer points out, Poncle didn’t share details about which developers were approached, or how they could realistically make the game completely free. It’s unclear how the DLC will handle that, something Poncle is considering, but there’s no resolution yet.
If you missed Vampire Survivors’ hit, you should find out why our editor-in-chief Tom chose it as his game of the year.