"V Rising," which emerged from the coffin into Early Access last May, has found a voracious audience for the survival-oriented bloodsucking game. Developer Stunlock Studios has now announced that the game has sold over 3 million copies, a pretty incredible number for a PC-only indie title that has yet to be fully released, and thanks to such success, ambitions for the future are growing

The company has been working on a number of new projects.

Literally, V Rising is much more than a vampire-filled Valheim (opens in new tab), with a large gothic castle at its heart. The studio recently announced that a major free update is in the works. But it is "by far the most requested feature," simply because "the vision of a dark silhouette on the cliff side, tall and towering, with towers piercing the sky, easily leads the vampire's imagination into a whole world of possibilities. One can't help but dream of a mansion, opulent and seemingly endless, above a labyrinth of rooms."

One can't help but do it, but at this point in V Rising, one can't do it either. Currently, one can build a sprawling one-story castle, and the studio is prototyping ways to implement a multi-level castle, since players achieve height by the simple expedient of building on top of a hill. According to the studio, the situation could change and it is "a little too early to promise," but at some point in 2023 players will be able to "build the castle of your darkest dreams."

The world of Vardolan will also be expanded and overhauled with new enemies, visual upgrades, terrain variations, new bosses, and entirely new biomes. New marketplace features have been added, including trade stations in settlement zones, wagon sales, and basically more ways to get rare cosmetic and gameplay items. Interestingly, some items can be sold to vampires, while others can only be traded if disguised as humans.

Other changes include UI changes, a new element in the combat system called Jewels that grant abilities, an overhaul of inventory management, and other goals that may or may not go in ("Watch the clock in the coffin, or give more benefits to stamina recovery like the coffin!") and many other tweaks. The only downside to all of this is that, given the scale of this overhaul, it will involve a server wipe, so old saves will no longer be available. A release date for the patch has not yet been set.

"Here at Stunlock Studios, the earth-shattering Early Access launch of V Rising was not a surprise of success, but of sheer scale. Our faith in our product has been rewarded in the form of unprecedented audience connections, from the most brutal vampire dictators to the most elegant counts and countesses, and that audience is growing daily. The passion of our player base can only be described as inspiring."

One of the great things about Stunlock is how aware players are of what they like about V Rising - the good vampire vibe - and how they can "sit in chairs, turn lights on and off, name castles, put signs on them, and interact with servants and It's about focusing on improving the immersive experience," such as "making it easier to interact with the servants. It feels like a good future direction for the vampire game, whose arguably best power is being able to shuffle storage crates (opens in new tab).