Shard Squad began development under the name Pokémon Vampire Survivors, or, in other words, a clone of Vampire Survivors that had the unique distinction of being set in the world of Pokémon. In that version, the player controlled Pikachu and faced off against all sorts of Pokémon characters in a universe where both the graphics and sounds came from The Pokémon Company’s game. Of course, it wasn’t a viable project due to copyright issues, so its developers ultimately worked on Shard Squad.
The game has received a complete makeover and now features new characters, new graphics, and a different universe. It’s still influenced by Vampire Survivors, but at least the game won’t suffer from copyright issues. Furthermore, the characters that have been created are charming and more than enough to play with from start to finish.
It has now been announced that the game will be released on Steam on November 4th, with a later date for consoles. A trailer was also revealed during Monster Taming Direct 2025.
About Shard Squad
Rennan Costa, who previously worked on Bagdex, one of the biggest highlights of the monster-taming scene, is the director and programmer of Shard Squad. He explained how the idea of making a survivor-like with cute monsters was born:
“Shard Squad started as a Unity study, with absolutely no intention of turning it into a game, selling it, or anything like that. At first, it was literally a Pokémon Vampire Survivors that ended up going viral on the internet. I even took it down at the time because I was afraid of getting sued,” he explained.
The idea of actually creating Shard Squad only came after realizing there was demand for a Pokémon-style Vampire Survivors that didn’t exist:
“Many people asked me to give it its own identity, and one thing I didn’t like about most games in the genre was the heavy themes. I wanted something cuter. Another difference was replacing weapon collecting with building a team with its own synergies.”
Rennan also explains that the goal of the team is to deliver an experience that goes beyond the usual formula of the genre:
“Our idea is to make the game both varied and beautiful. All shards are completely different from each other, and the synergy system makes team building something truly strategic. We created stories and backgrounds for all the characters, so the game doesn’t feel like just a succession of battles. Each stage has its own identity, with unique enemies, challenges, and bosses, avoiding the trap of being just a harder version of the previous one.”
