ReVamp, where you play as Dracula, is out on 25 March 2027

ReVamp finally has a date: the game from Digital Sun, the studio behind Moonlighter, launches on Steam on 25 March 2027. Its premise will raise a smile among Castlevania fans, since you play as Dracula and it’s your job to defend the castle from vampire hunters. The announcement came during the Triple-i Initiative on 8 October, alongside a new trailer and sign-ups for a players-only test phase. Launch is still a while off, but the studio wants its community playing well before then, starting at the end of this month.

At a glance

ReVamp is coming to PC on 25 March 2027

The date appears in Digital Sun’s announcement on Steam after the Triple-i, and the store page now shows it too. For now, only the PC version is planned, and no console version has been announced. The same showcase gave other indie games a stage as well, with Haunted Paws opening its demo in a very different style.

The new trailer also shows several additions the studio has been working on for months. You get a look at new minions serving Dracula, a reworked inventory, a map laid out like a constellation and the game’s shop, where you pay in blood. Together they give a clearer idea of how a run in ReVamp will be structured.

How to join the ReVamp playtest from 29 October

Digital Sun wants the game in players’ hands before it even releases a demo. A private playtest therefore starts on 29 October, and you can sign up right now on the game’s Steam page, which puts you in the pool of candidates. The studio adds that joining its Discord server and picking up the “Playtesting” role improves your chances of being selected.

Access will be granted in waves, with new players added every few days or each week. If you miss out on the first wave, more invitations will follow throughout the test. Each new wave will be announced on Discord, on Reddit and across the studio’s social channels. Player feedback will help the team test, balance and improve the game ahead of launch, Digital Sun says.

200,000 wishlists and minions with a sense of humour

Interest in ReVamp is climbing fast. Digital Sun reported 100,000 wishlists just after the game’s reveal in the spring, then a fresh post from Digital Sun celebrated 200,000 wishlists on 24 September. This Saturday, Valve’s ranking of the most wishlisted unreleased games puts ReVamp in 239th place out of 5,327.

That same post introduced two minions that set the tone. A cyclops carrying a huge club would rather rip out its own eye and throw it at mortals, then pick it back up. A chest, meanwhile, waits for an overly curious adventurer to get close before revealing itself and paralysing them. The studio stresses that where you place your creatures matters as much as the damage they deal.

Dracula on defence, Castlevania flipped around

Digital Sun describes its own game as Castlevania in reverse: you play Dracula, and you defend his castle from the mortals who have come to kill him. In the backstory the studio shared on Steam in the spring, Dracula was cursed by Achlys, a goddess of the night, after trying to save Elisabetta, the woman he loved. According to the Steam page, you expand the fortress room by room, rearrange it between attacks and turn open halls into deadly gauntlets. The blood of fallen invaders goes towards strengthening rooms and recruiting new creatures.

To hold the line, your army includes skeletons armed with swords or bows, swarms of rats that flood narrow corridors and harpies that strike from above. When the defence starts to crack, Dracula steps into the fight himself with his special abilities. And when the castle falls, the night starts over, but the blood you’ve gathered unlocks new rooms and new creatures for the next attempt.

The timing works nicely, as Konami is bringing the series back at the same moment: the free Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse demo is available ahead of the game’s launch on 15 October.