Inside Outfit7’s Cell Strategy: How Vampirio Emerged as a Breakout Hit

by

Story Highlights

  • Outfit7 shifts to small “Cell” teams to drive innovation and ownership.
  • Each team manages hiring, costs, and proves ideas through performance metrics.
  • Vampirio emerges as a breakout success from this experimental Cell Project model.

Outfit7 is one of the few mobile game companies that has consistently remained popular while also delivering innovative and engaging games. They’re famous for creating a highly recognizable world of characters and continue to find success by constantly trying new approaches to game development.

We recently spoke with Jernej Česen, COO and General Manager at Outfit7, about an exciting change happening within the company. They’re transitioning to a structure of smaller, self-sufficient teams empowered to develop innovative concepts.

The cell philosophy that breathed life into the roguelike experience

Although the company is best known for the popular Talking Tom & Friends series, our discussion also covered their more innovative projects. We talked about Vampirio, a surprisingly successful game that wasn’t just luck – it came about because of a company-wide reorganization, which Jernej refers to as the “Cell Project.”

Česen explained that the cell structure is designed to empower small teams and individual owners to manage their own businesses. He stated, “You have full control over building your team and how you operate, but you’re also accountable for the budget and demonstrating that your project deserves the resources for a full launch.”

Each team handles everything from building a skilled workforce and staying within budget, to demonstrating their idea actually works. It’s a straightforward but challenging process: successful results mean the project continues, while a lack of progress leads to its cancellation.

Vampirio, known internally as Van Helsing, began as a simple idea. A small team worked in quick bursts, constantly testing, releasing updates, and making improvements. According to Česen, this process was very successful, with the game receiving extremely positive feedback.

Jernej told us he loves this type of game, mentioning Plants vs. Zombies and Swamp Attack as games he really enjoys. But he wanted Vampirio to be unique and not just another game where you simply try to survive until morning.

I see it as similar to a tower defense game. You create a setup to protect yourself, but unlike typical tower defense, the area you build is your hero – it’s like the hero can construct their own base to fight with.

Vampirio’s journey from testing to the hurdles and the success

The team did some rapid, basic testing to confirm the main gameplay experience. They immediately saw very encouraging results in how users were interacting with the game and making purchases. However, Jernej was honest about the challenges they encountered as the project progressed.

He said the initial response was fantastic, with lots of player activity in the first five days. However, interest quickly dropped off. The problem wasn’t with the game itself, but with a lack of ongoing content to keep players engaged long-term.

Games such as Vampirio need a dedicated and consistent player community to succeed. The development team at Jernej approached this with an all-or-nothing mindset, setting very ambitious goals – specifically, they aimed to increase player retention by five percent.

Just a few weeks ago, we finally received positive results, and our immediate response was enthusiastic agreement – we were ready to move forward!

The popularity of the “Cell” approach has caused a lasting shift in how Outfit7 is structured. Jernej highlights Vasyl Novskyi, the leader of Vampirio, who has moved from managing a single cell to becoming a Deputy VP in Outfit7’s new Cell Group division.

Jernej announced the game is now planned for a worldwide release in late 2026, ideally around Halloween. The development team has also become a new official part of the Outfit7 company.

Read More

2026-04-27 10:12