Hey peter! I haven't had any issues testing myself. I've tested both single player and multiplayer of aspect of Swarm and the result is good. I plan to release it on october 15th but always have the live up for people to test while I continue working and testing it
https://eggy.net/swarm/
There’s already a substantial amount of content in the game, including two campaign story modes with 30 chapters combined, along with Score Attack, Classic, Gauntlet and Endless single player modes. There’s also a multiplayer mode, multiple arenas, achievements, challenges, a shop and a growing selection of items. Every aspect of these features will be customisable through the ACP.
What I’m planning to have completed by October 15th:
- More multiplayer game types
- Boss Rush, Survival and Horde single player modes
- More enemy and boss sprites
- Additional arenas, each with their own music and audio
- More player sprites
- Additional powers
- Optional permanent progression upgrades
Shop items can be purchased using credits earned simply by playing the game. I’m also still considering adding an optional purchase system so site owners can monetise the shop if they want to.
There are daily, weekly, monthly and repeatable challenges, and shop items can be unlocked in different ways. Some can be bought with credits, while others can be tied to achievements or progression, such as completing Chapter 13 or reaching a certain number of enemy kills.
Everything will remain fully customisable through the ACP.
Permanent progression lets you gradually make your character much stronger over time, adding more replay value and giving you an extra edge when taking on the harder difficulty modes.
Single player has five difficulty levels, but they unlock progressively rather than all being available from the start. For example, beating Normal unlocks Veteran, then beating Veteran unlocks Nightmare, and so on.
As a new player, you’ll start with most of the game locked, so there’s a proper sense of progression from the beginning rather than everything being handed to you straight away.
Arenas, characters and other content can all have their own unlock requirements. Some might open up simply by progressing through the campaign, while others can require things such as completing a certain chapter, defeating a set number of enemies, reaching particular milestones or earning specific achievements.
For example, one arena might require Chapter 1 to be completed, while another could require 50,000 enemies defeated. Characters can also be tied to progression, such as completing Chapter 15 before they become available.
That gives players a reason to keep coming back, because every run can contribute towards unlocking something new. You’re not just chasing a higher score, you’re also gradually opening up more arenas, characters, items, powers and other content as you play.
It also means site owners can build their own progression structure around the game instead of being stuck with a fixed unlock system. The idea is for these requirements to remain fully customisable through the ACP, so you can decide what unlocks, when it unlocks and what a player has to achieve before they can use it.
Combined with the different game modes, difficulty progression, achievements, challenges, shop and permanent upgrades, it should give Swarm a much stronger long term progression loop rather than feeling like something you play once and then move on from.
