Catching the Wave: How Game Smithing Successfully Rode the Coattails of Vampire Survivors

The right game at the right time. Soulstone Survivors launched in Steam Early Access just as the hype surrounding Poncle's Vampire Survivors was reaching its peak in 2022. As players searched for similar games, Soulstone Survivors was ready. Nearly three years later, the game has exited Early Access, boasting over 1 million copies sold and more than 21,000 Steam reviews with a Very Positive rating. Allan Smith, founder of Game Smithing, shared with GamesIndustry.biz how he successfully hopped on a trend and the immense effort it required. Smith, based in the UK but originally from Brazil, has been in the industry for around 13 years. He began his career in mobile game development, co-founding Fire Horse Studio in São Paulo, before moving to the UK to work at Bossa Studios. After that, he joined another mobile-focused company but decided to leave when they shifted their focus to crypto games. This led him to set up Game Smithing. Despite the challenging market conditions in 2022, Smith decided to start his new company, driven by his desire to create games. He began developing an action roguelike called Rogue Soulstone in his free time, aiming to create a simple version of the game quickly and learn from the experience. The game's development was influenced by his previous experiences in Brazil, where projects with long development timelines often resulted in few downloads. Smith had a Steam page and a basic prototype for Rogue Soulstone ready within a month and released a demo a couple of weeks later. The game gained around 1,500 wishlists within three months. However, Smith was concerned that the game's scope was becoming too ambitious and decided to pivot towards a Vampire Survivors-inspired game, Soulstone Survivors. By reusing code from Rogue Soulstone, Smith created a prototype for Soulstone Survivors within a couple of weeks. The game's demo was released on Steam, and it quickly gained traction, with 1,000 concurrent users on the first day. Smith believes that the speed of development was crucial in catching the trend. The game's success came at a significant personal cost, with Smith working 20-hour days, including his time at his day job. The game took off, and Smith's wife was very supportive throughout the process. Smith's approach to game development involves putting his own twist on familiar formulas rather than trying to come up with a completely new idea. Soulstone Survivors offers complex character builds and draws inspiration from bullet hell shooters and World of Warcraft. The game's success is largely due to organic growth, with Steam being the primary source of traffic. The game's community was built through Discord, and streamers played a significant role in promoting the game. The success of the Early Access launch led Game Smithing to target consoles as well, with the studio handling the porting process in-house. The full version of Soulstone Survivors launched on PC and consoles on June 17, 2025, but the hype had long since subsided. Smith feels that the work on Soulstone Survivors is complete, and the studio is now focused on post-launch support and plans to revive Rogue Soulstone. With a team of 12 people, Game Smithing is looking to create an even better game, leveraging the knowledge and experience gained from Soulstone Survivors.