- Swarmlake 4.2 - 28 July 2026
Hi, the definitive, free Swarmlake 4.2 update is out now: Added rival runs: Pick any leaderboard entry as your rival and their run is overlaid directly on your stats chart, curve for curve, so you can see exactly where they pulled ahead. With no rival selected it compares against your own personal best. Select a rival from the new leaderboard's context menu. Added replay movement trail: Replays viewed in third-person mode now draw a ribbon showing the player's path over the last five seconds, making routing readable at a glance. Added input buffering: Jump and beam presses made slightly too early are now remembered and fire the moment they become available, instead of being dropped. Fixes source of inputs that felt ignored during very fast sequences. Shortened the early-game curriculum The authored intro sequence is now half as long, so retrying a run no longer means replaying a long te…
- Swarmlake 4.1 - 24 June 2026
Hi, the free Swarmlake 4.1 update is out now. Where 4.0 rebuilt the game, 4.1 deepens it at both ends: more ways in for new players, and more room to master for everyone else. Added assists: Optional sliders to tune the challenge: game speed, enemy spawn rate, maximum health, and beam charge speed. Enabling any assist disables leaderboard ranking for that run, so the leaderboard stays fair. Achievements still unlock. Added accessibility options: Colorblind filters, reduce flashing, camera shake amount, and two motion comfort options. Added threat warning: A directional ember glow at the screen edge and a radar in the screen center point to enemies closing in from behind or off-screen. Removes the most common source of unfair-feeling deaths. Can be toggled in HUD settings. Added early-game spawn structure: The first stretch of every run now follows a hand-authored enemy progression. Intr…
- Swarmlake 4.0: Zenith - 25 May 2026
Hi, the free Swarmlake 4.0: Zenith update is out now. 8 years after release, this is the definitive version of Swarmlake:Added shooting beam: A manual fire mode that charges and fires a concentrated energy beam. Can create corridors through enemies, detonate bombs directly and create an explosion on the floor, opening up new scoring combos and high-skill expression.Added beam jump: Fire the beam at the ground while jumping to launch yourself upward. Can be cancelled mid-air.Added variable jump height: Tap for a short hop, hold for a full jump. Opens up more precise vertical control in tight situations.Added training mode: Structured scenarios that teach the game's core mechanics one at a time. Addresses the most consistent feedback since release that Swarmlake is hard to get into without practice.Changed enemy steering and prediction behavior: Chasing enemies drift more when the player…
- Swarmlake 3.0 - 13 September 2023
Hi, the free Swarmlake 3.0 Update is out now: Added player health Improves understandability of game overs which was by far the most common complaint since release. In the past the binary nature of one-hit deaths resulted in frustrations as there was no warning possible. Also increases the elasticity of the game challenge. This will affect the gameplay dynamic as it is now possible to intentionally take damage to get to a bomb. Added bowl-shaped arena wall Removes the punishing nature of falling off the arena while keeping effectively the same playspace as the recently introduced arena limit. As a reminder having a limited arena reduces the amount of invalid options such as running infinitely backwards/forwards or making too big of circles. Since the game gets harder over time this only ever resulted in slower and more frustrating deaths which were not obvious to understand. It also inc…
- Swarmlake 2.14 - 16 June 2023
Hey all, Swarmlake 2.14 is out to improve understandability and depth: Added arena limit Increases the required decision making and adds more positioning and meaning to space. It improves the depth tree for both expert and beginner players. For the latter it reduces the amount of invalid options such as running infinitely backwards/forwards or making too big of circles. Since the game gets harder over time this only ever resulted in slower and more frustrating deaths which were not obvious to understand. Improved enemy spawning to be independent of player look direction Less punishment and more freedom of where players look. While this increases uncertainty of where enemies spawn there is still no randomness as it is the same sequence for everyone. Especially players now need to adapt more to reach bomb enemies which makes the game more dynamic. Improved avoider (orange) enemy projectil…
- Swarmlake 2.13 - 25 August 2022
Hi, Swarmlake 2.13 is out to improve clarity: Added bomb projectile attract feedback Added death player hitbox pulse Added descriptions to settings and tutorial UI Improved fading out bomb shockwave Improved all UI icons Improved controller support Fixed bomb shockwave model size Fixed UI interaction with right mouse button Thank you - Dominique
- Swarmlake 2.12 - 7 July 2022
Hi all, Swarmlake 2.12 is out to improve depth: Added bombs moving slightly to player on each projectile hit Added pulling shards vertically up to player on jump Added grace time to enemy jump Added enemy jump sign on UI Improved consistency of attracting shards vertically Improved death camera by adding vertical offset Improved replay compression Reverted constant bomb movement from last update Reset leaderboard Unfortunately the leaderboard had to be reset due to the gameplay changes. Thank you for your understanding - Dominique
- Swarmlake 2.11 - 23 June 2022
Hey, Swarmlake 2.11 is out: Added gun muzzle flash Added slight horizontal bomb movement (reverted) Improved bomb spawn interval consistency Improved visibility of shadowed enemies Improved visual clarity by reducing enemy explosion size Improved floor model Fixed orbit camera ground collision by keeping player centered Fixed floor springs being able to clip into third person camera Thank you for your feedback and support - Dominique
- Swarmlake 2.10 - 28 May 2022
Hi, Swarmlake 2.10 is out to improve clarity: Added third-person death camera Added replay orbit camera mode Added 8x replay speed Added showcasing always a top 10 replay at game start Added gun fire rate display to UI Added first bomb movement to improve tutorial Fixed rare visual bomb spawn glitch Fixed immediately stopping sound effects on pause Tweaked visual player model Tweaked visual enemy explosion sizes Tweaked visual enemy sizes to better fit their collision sphere Removed visual sun object Removed score-based bomb spawn limit Some of the listed changes were already included in unannounced updates over the past months. Thank you for your continued feedback - Dominique
- Swarmlake 2.9 - 1 January 2022
Hey all, Swarmlake 2.9 is out aiming to improve the game based on recent feedback: Decreased distance of replacing bomb on spawn limit when far away from player by 40% Decreased time-based enemy spawn scaling by 20% (same as before 2.8) Readded score-based bomb spawn limit (reverted) Fixed replacing farthest bomb on spawn limit in rare cases Removed replacing invisible bomb on spawn limit Reset leaderboard Touching bombs is one of the core tensions of the game. Interesting decisions emerge from moving towards bombs (reward) while judging (uncertainty) how to best avoid enemies (cost). Having bombs move to the player undermines this dynamic as it was better to move in an endless circle and ignore bombs until they were close. Players wanting to win were forced to play this way which reduced depth. Therefore bomb movement was removed in the recent updates. However this increased uncertaint…
- Swarmlake 2.8 - 28 December 2021
Hi all, Swarmlake 2.8 is out to improve balance: Increased time-based enemy spawn scaling by 20% (reverted in 2.9) Decreased fire-rate increases to 1,000, 3,000 and 6,000 scores Decreased distance of replacing bomb on spawn limit when far away from player by 20% Readded avoider (orange) enemy intercepting the player (same as in 2.5) Fixed spawning bombs too close to each other in rare cases Removed bomb movement Removed score-based bomb spawn limit (reverted in 2.9) Removed score-based bomb spawn frequency Moved slowmo from fire-rate increases to 10,000 score intervals Reset leaderboard Thank you - Dominique
- Swarmlake 2.7 - 22 December 2021
Hey, Swarmlake 2.7 is out to improve balance: Decreased bomb speed by 95% Increased bomb to bomb avoidance radius by 100% Increased bomb spawn frequency by 20% Added replacing bomb on spawn limit when far away from player Improved bomb spawn height variation Removed slowing down bomb on projectile hit Removed bomb itself dropping a shard Reverted avoider (orange) enemy intercepting the player (reverted in 2.8) Reset leaderboard Thank you - Dominique
- Swarmlake 2.5 - 24 November 2021
Hi, the free Swarmlake 2.5 Update is out which improves balance based on player feedback: Readded fire-rate increases at 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 scores (same fire-rate as before 2.4) Added time-based enemy spawn scaling Added score-based bomb spawn limit until 4,000 score Improved movement of avoider (orange) enemy by intercepting the player Increased crystal attract speed by 100% Increased swarmer (white) enemy max speed by 10% (same as before 2.4) Removed slowmo outside of fire-rate increases Reset leaderboard Thank you! - Dominique
- Swarmlake 2.4 - 29 October 2021
Hey all, the free Swarmlake 2.4 Update is out now which improves balance: Added score-based bomb spawn frequency scaling Increased bomb spawn frequency by 33% Decreased bomb spawn limit from 5 to 3 Decreased swarmer (white) enemy max speed by 10% (reverted in 2.5) Removed score-based fire-rate increases (reverted in 2.5) Reset leaderboard Congratulations to the top ten players and everyone else who competed the past year: Thank you - Dominique
- Swarmlake 2.0 - 25 June 2020
Hi all, the free Swarmlake 2.0 Update adds the most requested features since release: Leaderboard replays, a new gun and more! Swarmlake 2.0 is the biggest update yet and required a near complete rewrite to make the custom engine deterministic which in turn allows for efficient input-based replays. This update would not have been possible without the continued play-tests, feedback and support from the passionate players: Added leaderboard replays with slow-mo, fast-forward and 3rd-person camera Added deterministic gameplay simulation Added new gun model replacing the old one Added diegetic score display on gun Added leaderboard navigation slider Added showcasing player replay on start Added additional music loop transitions Added tutorial wait time limit Improved gun placement and animations Improved projectile shoot consistency Improved bomb spawn consistency Improved screen shake smoo…
- Swarmlake: Anniversary - 12 March 2020
Hey all, the Swarmlake: Anniversary Update is out improving the gameplay and leaderboard experience based on player feedback: Added distance scaling to off-screen bomb markers Added leaderboard user avatars Improved leaderboard loading smoothness, navigation and error display Improved tutorial clarity Improved various icons Improved performance and stability Fixed explosion effects and lag spikes on bomb explosions with lots of enemies Fixed leaderboard loading in rare cases Fixed possible freeze on achievement upload error Thank you - Dominique
- Swarmlake: Visions - 27 February 2020
Hey all, the Swarmlake: Visions Update is out improving visual feedback and more: Added see-through bomb outline and overlay Added off-screen bomb direction marker Improved mountains visual clarity and subtlety Improved jump icons Improved performance and stability Fixed grain artifacts after playing for a long time Fixed score display after dying on final achievement target score Fixed showing off-screen markers for bomb spawn animations Thank you - Dominique
- Swarmlake: Redux - 17 February 2020
Hey everyone, the Swarmlake: Redux Update is out improving the gameplay experience with a ton of quality of life features based on player feedback: Added enemy spawn scaling increase after 10,000 score Added hemispheric ambient color to improve shadowed enemy visibility Added bomb indicators Added keyboard layout detection Added exit game confirmation dialog Improved accessibility by increasing the bomb trigger radius by 33% Improved balance by increasing bomb spawn max rotation to that of other enemies Improved visual vibrancy Improved score and tutorial display Improved bomb explosion and killer highlight visibility Improved jump sound audibility Improved performance Improved supported controllers Fixed excessive bomb explosion radius for avoider (orange) enemies Fixed crash on game start after waiting on the tutorial screen for a long time Fixed stopping music visualization on death…
- Swarmlake 1.0 - 11 November 2019
Hey all, Swarmlake 1.0 is out featuring a new engine with improved visuals, audio, gameplay, performance and much more: Added new data-oriented engine to maximize performance Added partial projectile ground hit reflection Added audio-visual effect when reaching final achievement score and multiples of it Added visual bomb pulse effect Added new shoot sound Added new achievement icons Improved jump arc control by decreasing fall speed by 25% (same as before Update 18) Improved jump height control by decreasing grounded jump height by 20% Improved ability to stop bombs by increasing bomb projectile hit radius by 33% Improved death consistency and feedback Improved bomb min and max height bounce behavior Improved bomb outline visibility Improved visual vibrancy Improved CPU performance by ~33% Improved game startup speed Improved audio mix clarity Improved UI visibility Fixed 6,000+ score-…
- Swarmlake Update 24 - 1 October 2019
Hey, Swarmlake Update 24 is out improving input, pacing and more based on player feedback: Added sub-frame input detection Improved initial wave pacing to speed up restarts as much as possible Improved playing music instantly on restart after tutorial completion Improved gun upgrade flicker color visibility Improved performance smoothness Fixed touchscreen player look input Fixed visual projectile rotation variation if multiple projectiles are fired in the same frame Fixed playing audio on switching settings tab using a controller Thank you! - Dominique
