Vampire Survivor studio Poncle launches indie deckbuilder Kill The Brickman at Gamescom

In an unexpected reveal at Gamescom 2025, Poncle, the studio behind the critically acclaimed, addictive indie title Vampire Survivors, announced and immediately launched its newest game, Kill the Brickman, which is developed by indie team Dooutsaur.

The game debuted at the Xbox Game Showcase on August 21, 2025, and is now available on PC via Steam, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S|X, with no plans currently announced for a PS5 or Nintendo Switch port, though likely in the future.

This shadow-drop is similar to Poncle’s previously published game, Berserk or Die, making Kill The Brickman its second published title. Kill The Brickman is described as a “turn-based rogue-like deckbuilder from outer space.” The game mixes up the retro-arcade brick-breaking mechanics we grew up with, alongside roguelike elements with a sprinkle of deckbuilding.

Players can customize their loadouts and use bullets that either explode, multiply, or corrode. You can also choose a custom sidearm as well, including a revolver, pistol, shotgun, and pick missions from a randomized quest list on an intergalactic bounty board. 

Players will go up against your average brickmen, scaling to resistant and elite variants, and special handcrafted boss nightmares.

The collaboration between Doonutsaur and Poncle happened when Doonutsaur emailed the studio a demo, which intrigued studio director Luca Galante, who instantly became hooked. In a press release, he said:

“Yes, this is true. I love bricks. Kill the Brickman is not only a brilliant deckbuilder, it’s also one of the strangest ones I’ve ever played. And that’s a good thing.”

Doonutsaur’s Alvin shared his sentiments about the game as well:

“I wanted to focus on the strange style of this game so it could stand out amongst the other amazing deckbuilding games out there. Not only did Poncle manage to meet at my own level of weird, they helped me raise the bar on how absurd Kill the Brickman could really be!”

The game initially evolved from a game jam prototype, going for a creepy, uncanny vibe with sentient brick enemies, to a game handcrafted and released in collaboration with Poncle.

Kill the Brickman has launched for $4.99 with a 10% discount, bringing down the price to $4.49 until August 28, 2025.