Hello Everyone!
It's been four weeks since the launch of our game, Swarm Grinder, which we at Last Bite Games developed with our heart, soul, and many sleepless nights. It has been quite an exciting journey! We'd like to talk about what has happened, what we've experienced, what we're doing now, and what we're planning for the future.
Since the launch, we've been incredibly busy. One of the main reasons for this was that the day after the game was released, we had to send three of our team members to their mandatory military service. They were our art director, lead game developer, and senior game developer/designer. Having to send away three of our seven-person development team for a month meant we had to work even harder to fill in the gaps. This meant patches were a little later than we had planned.
Who would have guessed that resolution-related issues would turn out to be the real final boss? We spent an entire week of work on those. The third-party plugin we used for our save system caused some problems, but those issues should now be resolved. If anyone is still experiencing problems, please let us know!
You can read the patch notes related to the fixes and improvements we have made over the past four weeks from the following links:
v0.3.3
v0.3.3f1
v0.3.3f2
v0.3.3f3
WE HEAR YOU!
A big thank you to everyone who has played the game and shared their feedback with us! Rest assured that we are listening closely and working hard to improve the game for all our players.
WE'VE OPENED THE BETA BRANCH!
Before we release new content and features to all players, we want to make sure they are polished enough. Therefore, to be able to test these contents and features in advance with a smaller group of players who follow the game closely, we have opened a Beta branch on Steam. If you want to get early access to upcoming content, test it, and contribute directly to the development of the game through your feedback, you can switch to the Beta branch. You can access the Beta branch by right-clicking on Swarm Grinder in your Steam library, selecting Properties, and switching to the "beta - for testing new stuff" branch under the "Betas" section. All upcoming content will first come to this Beta branch, be tested for a while, and then will be made available to all players.
WHAT'S COMING TO THE BETA BRANCH SOON?
Some of the mentioned changes will arrive to beta next week, some of them will arrive a bit later on!
Optimization:
We are aware that the game is not performing ideally on many computers and on the Steam Deck. We've addressed this issue and significantly improved performance. However, it's worth noting that optimization is not a task that will be completed with a single patch, but something to be done gradually over time. Even though we've achieved a noticeable increase in performance, we're not at the end of the road yet. We will continue to work on this issue in upcoming patches.
Fuel System Adjustment:
We've decided to make some adjustments to the fuel system to provide a more suitable difficulty curve throughout the game. In the current system, every active skill we acquired increased fuel consumption by 3 per second, causing the game to suddenly become difficult for new players, unintentionally or unwillingly. Likewise, in the later stages of the game, fuel was no longer a concern.
To balance this difficulty increase, we've reduced the initial fuel consumption brought about by active skills. In addition, we've introduced a small increase in fuel consumption for all skills, including passives, for each module added to a skill (main upgrades that consume large slots). This way, even if you take too many active skills at the beginning, it won't be overly punitive, but as you continue to acquire new upgrades in the game, fuel will remain as a concern.
Adjustment of Trade-offs in Upgrades:
Many upgrades came with a negative feature alongside the positive one(s) you gained. We had conceived this to better balance the game, but after receiving feedback, we've removed these trade-offs as much as possible. Now almost all upgrades will provide only positive features!
Difficulty Mutator Feature for Mining Expedition Mode:
We know there are players who have already beaten the game several times and are ready for a harder challenge. For you, we're bringing a "Hard Difficulty" option to our main map. Good luck!
For now, this mode comes as a modification of the main mode. However, in the future, it will become a separate mode with different enemies and dangers, its own special boss, and its own unique music!
"No Health Drops” Difficulty Mutator:
Is Hard Difficulty not enough? Try this mode, where enemies drop no health, requiring you to dodge enemy damage with crazy maneuvers and good planning! We should also mention that each of these two options will have its own achievement.
Replacing Two Skills for Bulletstorm:
We decided to take the Torch and Vortex Blade skills from the Bulletstorm character. The reason behind this is that, according to player feedback and conclusions we drew from watching streamers, these two skills are very hard to use effectively. Since Bulletstorm is the first character we start the game with, we decided that the first character should provide a more comfortable and instructive gameplay.
Did you think these two skills were weak while playing? Are they both useless? Do they seem unbalanced compared to other skills? If you think so, you're definitely wrong! The reason you may think so is, as I just mentioned, these skills are very hard to use effectively, especially the Vortex Blade. This makes it hard to realize how powerful they are.
So, what will replace Torch? We'll be adding a passive skill called "Pacemaker". This will be a skill you can get to increase your chances of survival. Some upgrades from other skills will also be transferred to this skill. For example, the Max HP upgrade from Mortar and the Invulnerability upgrade from Detonator will be transferred to this skill.
What will replace Vortex Blade? A skill called "Feather Blades" will come. We won't talk about what this skill is for now, let it be a surprise! (Although, I would like to point out that our lead game designer is maining Xayah in LoL these days.)
Replacing a Skill for Butcher:
We're replacing the Gatling Gun skill with a skill called “Railgun”. We believe that this new skill will better suit the Butcher gameplay we envision. Let this skill be a surprise for now!
New Upgrades for Torch, Arsenal, and Mortar:
There will be one new upgrade each for Torch and Arsenal skills, and two new upgrades for Mortar!
New Achievements Coming:
- Complete the game with five active skills.
- Complete the game in under four minutes.
- Complete the game with “Hard Difficulty” mutator on.
- Complete the game with "No Health Drops" mutator on.
- Kill a total of a certain number of enemies by dropping the drilling station on them.
- Kill the boss by dropping the drilling station on it.
- Collect a certain amount of Bio Shards in a single run. And a few more surprise achievements!
New Workshop Upgrades Coming:
We will add a Workshop Project aimed at increasing your Bio Shards gain.
A few more surprise Workshop Projects are also on the way!
WHAT WILL WE WORK ON IN THE FUTURE?
New Upgrades:
Regarding the upgrades currently in the game, we heard your feedback that upgrades aren't diversified and significant enough! We're working to solve this problem, and we will be adding more significant upgrades to the skills in the future.
More Accurate Skills and Upgrade Drop Rates:
Right now, we have a deal with the RNG gods, and the skills and upgrades that appear are entirely at the mercy of these gods. We are rewriting the system to change this. When this system is ready, the game will do its best to give you the skills and upgrades you want or need!
More Special Upgrades for Each Skill:
Currently, there is only one special upgrade in each skill. In the future, we will increase this so that there are multiple special upgrades available for each skill. However, adding special upgrades is a time-consuming job, so it may take some time to add a new special upgrade to each one.
Third Character on the Way:
Those who played the demo version will remember, there was another hidden character there. That character will be our third character! We've started working on it. Stay tuned!
Interface and User Experience Improvements:
We are aware that some players are having problems understanding the game. In upcoming patches, we will work on making the game more understandable and the interfaces more user-friendly. In the meantime, if you keep accidentally taking skills, you can activate the "Pick Up Skills With Button" option from the Options/Gameplay menu!
In addition to these, we're also working on new modes, new types of enemies, and new bosses.
You can post your questions, ideas, and feedback to this thread, the Steam Discussion Hub, or our Discord server!
Once again, many thanks to everyone for all your support!