The Unlikely Story Of How Konami Asked Evil Empire To Make Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse

A few weeks ago, I traveled to Paris to play three hours of Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, and while there, I had the chance to speak with some of the developers who worked on the game. The project is an indie developer’s dream come true, since developer Evil Empire originally worked on Dead Cells, a game heavily inspired by Castlevania, and now it’s getting a chance to make the first new Castlevania entry in years. I asked Konami producer Tsutomu Taniguchi, Evil Empire marketing director Bérenger Dupré, and Evil Empire creative director Emmanuel Nouaille how Evil Empire’s initial pitch to Konami went. According to them, there wasn’t one; Konami was the one that asked them, not the other way around.

“They actually approach us with a DLC for Dead Cells,” Taniguchi told us via a translator. “And it kind of [became] a little negotiation, because they pitched us DLC, and then we said, ‘Well, you can do that, but can we create a new Castlevania game with you?’ And so, it was our suggestion. And then we started collaborating and discussing and creating the game together, which is what made Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse.”

The Evil Empire developers supported this series of events. “It’s actually a more tricky question than it sounds, because it’s like there was no pitching stage, and it was more discussion,” Dupré said. “We felt like we could be a good fit together to make this game, because we have this experience with 2D combat, and so we just discussed together. I think we didn’t officially pitch it. It was more like a common brainstorm.”

Nouaille added that the studios both went through with it because the Castlevania DLC was such a hit. “It was logical to discuss together to find the right project to continue to work,” Nouaille said. He then adds, with a touch of sarcasm, “It was very difficult to refuse a proposition.”

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania

From the information I gathered from past interviews with Evil Empire, this must have come as an even bigger shock than this duo lets on. In a 2022 interview about Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania (featured on page 16 of Game Informer issue 354, which you can read for free), Evil Empire co-founder Benjamin Laulan told me about how he approached Konami at BitSummit, a Japanese game conference, to ask them to create a retail version of Dead Cells in Japan. Laulan said, “I had this crazy idea that if we worked with Konami, maybe they would let us make an Alucard skin or a weapon that we could include in the game as a bonus for Japanese players.” Konami was so receptive, Evil Empire decided to shoot for the moon and mocked up a whole Castlevania-themed expansion.

“[Konami] said yes, straight away, without even looking at the presentation,” Laulan told me in 2022. “They said, ‘Yeah, we’ve been waiting for you guys to ask us.’ They were actually Dead Cells fans.”

To extend the timeline of events to today, this means the simple request for Alucard’s sword became a years-long collaboration, resulting in the first new Castlevania game in years. Pretty wild!

For more on Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, you can check exclusive art and our hands-on impressions in the next issue of Game Informer, which launches on Tuesday, July 21. To see what the developers had to say regarding generative AI in the game’s development process, click here.