Development History

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse was developed by Evil Empire, a French studio based in Bordeaux, with advisory support from Motion Twin and co-development credit taken by Konami. Konami describes the arrangement as a game developed jointly by Konami and Evil Empire with advisory help from Motion Twin, and the game had been in development for roughly four years as of mid-2026.

How the Project Started

The chain begins earlier than this game. Evil Empire co-founder Benjamin Laulan approached Konami at BitSummit in 2022 about a Japanese retail release of Dead Cells and an Alucard skin. Konami agreed without waiting for the pitch, and the response he reports getting was that Konami had been waiting for them to ask. That conversation produced the Return to Castlevania add-on for Dead Cells.

What happened next is the part that is routinely told backwards. Evil Empire pitched a follow-up add-on; Konami countered with something larger. Taniguchi's account, through a translator: they pitched downloadable content, and Konami replied that they could do that, but asked whether the two studios could instead create a new Castlevania game together. He has been direct about ownership of the idea, saying in his own words that he proposed Castlevania: Belmont's Curse. Taniguchi has also framed the earlier add-on as conditional, saying it happened on the understanding that the studios would go on to make a standalone Castlevania title.

Marketing director Bérenger Dupré describes the process that followed as informal: there was no pitching stage, and it was more like a common brainstorm. Creative director Emmanuel Nouaille has been firm that this was not a work-for-hire project but a genuine creative collaboration, and that the studio's best résumé was simply its work.

Taniguchi has given two reasons for choosing the studio: their passion for Castlevania, and their expertise in action games. He has also described the audience he was aiming at, which is metroidvania players who had never played a Castlevania game, many of whom knew the series only from the animated adaptation.

Design Pillars

Three constraints were agreed at the start:

1. The game had to remain a 2D action-exploration experience.

2. It had to fit within official Castlevania canon.

3. The Vampire Killer whip had to stay at the heart of the gameplay.

Motion Twin's role sat outside those constraints. Evil Empire describes the studio as kind of their big brother, the one they ask a crucial question when they have doubts about direction, gameplay or art. That is advisory rather than co-development of content.

The Abandoned Venice Setting

The game was not originally set in Paris. The art director has said on Konami's own channel that the team wanted it to take place in Venice, built around the theme of the Venice Carnival, and dropped the idea after concluding it would be too caricatural.

Paris replaced it because it works as a natural theatre for Gothic architecture, and the contrast the team wanted was between Dracula's Castle and Notre-Dame Cathedral standing in the same city. The lead level designer has described the resulting intent as exploring from below the streets up to the rooftops, with an intricate, deeply layered level design. See Setting and Locations.

Stated Influences

Taniguchi and the team have named three earlier games in the series as influences, and it is worth being precise about what that does and does not mean. These are statements about what inspired the team, not statements that this game contains those games' systems.

None of those games' item tables, relic systems, boss rosters or maps carry over. This game's Relics and Arcana are documented on their own terms.

The animated adaptation is a separate case. Konami has confirmed there is no explicit continuity between the show and the game, and Nouaille has said there is no specific reference to it. The influence that is documented is visual and cinematographic. Taniguchi has described the relationship as an open one, saying there is no wall between the game and the show and that he hopes people who have only watched the show enjoy the game.

Not a Roguelike

Because Evil Empire ran long-term development on Dead Cells and Motion Twin created it, the question came up constantly, and it has been answered from three directions. Asked directly in Konami's own developer interview whether Belmont's Curse would be a roguelike, the answer was that it would not. Evil Empire's own commentary says the studio has moved away from its roguelike roots. Konami's head of communications for its American branch, Tommy Williams, stated it in writing: the game is a 2D action-exploration game where players can freely explore large, elaborately crafted maps, and it is not a roguelike or a rogue-lite.

There is no permadeath and no procedural generation. Shared studio history is not shared design.

Generative AI

Neither studio used generative AI. Nouaille has said it was important to respect that direction for the team, for the fans and for the industry, and Taniguchi has confirmed the same from Konami's side.

Localisation

Konami has said it deliberated at length over the Japanese title before settling on Castlevania rather than the traditional Japanese series name, and over using Trevor Belmont rather than the name the character has traditionally carried in Japan. Both decisions were made in favour of discoverability for players new to the series.

Credits

Konami has not credited a composer for the game's 71 tracks, has not published a voice cast, and has not named the engine. Nothing is recorded here for any of those until Konami publishes it.

Anniversary Framing

Konami has presented the game as a 40th-anniversary title, with the series reaching that anniversary in September 2026, and as the first new mainline entry since 2014. In Japan, Konami described Belmont's Curse as the first of its 40th-anniversary projects and said more would follow. That is a statement about the series rather than a promise of content for this game.