From a pure comedy standpoint, like a kind of farcical slapstick angle, Vampire Survivors really is the gift that keeps on giving. What started as a dude’s side project to develop over time and fool around with some game mechanics ideas turned into a huge, huge hit. It didn’t have a story. The soundtrack was 

Now a professional symphony orchestra recorded fully scored, composed, and conducted soundtrack music for its second DLC, Tides of the Foscari, complete with conductor and soloist credits. You can watch a video of it happening.

All for a $2 game about vampires where the joke is that there are absolutely no vampires present. If you own Vampire Survivors on Steam, well, you own all these tracks too, as they’re part of the soundtrack there.

As many of you who have been following Vampire Survivors from the beginning know, the soundtrack has always been a super important part of the game (yes, even more important than the story 😜 ),” said creator Luca Galante in a Steam post. “During Early Access I would often receive a track from our main composers and musicians, Daniele and Filippo, and use it to get myself in the right mindset while building new parts of VS. The game wouldn’t be what it is today without its music.”

“The orchestra recording is by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra (they also worked on films like Parasite and Get Out and games like Injustice 2). The recordings took place over six hours of recording sessions with a total of 76 musicians, and the largest session involved a 56-piece orchestra. It was honestly pretty moving and impressive to see melodies from our little game performed like that. A huge thanks to all of you for allowing us to go nuts by hiring an orchestra,” he said.

PC Gamer’s Ted Litchfeld called Vampire Survivors’ Tides of the Foscari DLC the “perfect $2 jolt of the game I fell in love with last year” and it’s hard to disagree with his assessment. More goofy dudes, more weird weapons, more secrets to de-secrete.

Another big W for the game that beat out Elden Ring for BAFTA game of the year.