Swarm Grinder News

[h3]Hello Grinders,[/h3][p]I want to be honest with you. I am new to the team, and I was given full responsibility to help bring this game to the place it truly deserves. Because of that, we have rolled up our sleeves for 2026. I started with a small warm up post to celebrate the new year, and now it is time to get to work. Our first step is creating a clear roadmap.[/p][p]So far, I have personally reviewed more than 1000 reviews one by one. The positive ones, and also the harsh and negative ones. I took notes for each, filtered out repeating complaints, and clearly identified the core problems standing in front of Swarm Grinder. Our first goal is to solve these issues.[/p][p][/p][h3]2026 Roadmap[/h3][p]The roadmap you see below is not a strict order. This roadmap is not a fixed order of execution. All of these items are planned for 2026, and the exact order may change based on development needs. Time will decide the exact order. What matters is that I discussed this with the development team, and our goal is to complete all of these during 2026. As a first step, we are focusing on balance issues. More variety, more meaningful builds, and changes to skills, gadgets, and characters to improve replayability are coming. After that, we are focusing on UI improvements. The interface will become more readable, more flexible, and fully optimized for Steam Deck.[/p][p][/p][p]Game feel is a critical topic for us. We are making direct changes so that upgrade and evolution choices feel more impactful and satisfying. For achievements and progression systems, our goal is clearer skill trees and smoother long term progression. With quality of life updates, you will be able to track your power growth during a run with clear numerical information.[/p][p][/p][h3]Swarm Grinder 2.0[/h3][p]After all these fixes, we are planning a major update called Swarm Grinder 2.0, which will introduce a completely new game mode.[/p][p]This roadmap is not final or closed. If there are systems you think are missing, topics you want us to prioritize, or problems that are still bothering you, please write them in the comments. This plan was shaped directly by your feedback, and it will continue to evolve with it.[/p][p]By the way, I agree with the comment on the previous post saying “after a long silence, they came back with an AI image.” Weeel, you were right. First of all, I apologize for that, and secondly, thank you for pointing it out. I spoke with our visual artist, and from now on, I will use illustrations made by them for our news posts ^^[/p][p]I want to listen to your criticism as much as I can and help bring this game to where it belongs. I want us to do this together. Wishing all of us a great 2026![/p]

[h3]Happy New Year![/h3][p]With the new year, we want to say this clearly. 2026 will be a turning point for us. We are bringing Swarm Grinder step by step to the place we have always envisioned and that you want to see as well. We will be sharing a detailed development roadmap soon and will explain the upcoming process transparently. We have significantly expanded the team, and now it is time to give this game the value it truly deserves, thanks to the support you have shown us.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Once again, we wish you a happy new year. Here’s to a great 2026 together. We are endlessly grateful to everyone who has walked this road with us so far. During this process, please feel free to share the systems you would like to see, what feels missing, and your expectations under this post.[/p][p]Lastly, do not forget to join our Discord server. We will be hosting some nice events there very soon: https://discord.com/invite/VTurrHhfcV[/p][p][/p]

[p]Hello everyone!
[/p][p]As promised, here’s our weekly development update!
[/p][p]With these devlogs, we’ll be sharing every new feature and change coming to the game step by step.
[/p][p]All updates will first roll out in Beta, and once everything is finalized, we’ll release a major update for the full game.
[/p][p]Stay tuned for more progress along the way!
[/p][p]Devlog #7[/p]

1. [p]A brand new VS-Like mode has been added.[/p]
   1. [p]Defeating enemies grants EXP.[/p]
   2. [p]Gaining EXP lets you level up.[/p]
   3. [p]Each level-up drops a pod from above.[/p]
   4. [p]These pods provide skill upgrades.[/p]
2. [p]A new Tower Defense mechanic has been introduced.[/p]
3. [p]A new enemy nest spawns waves of enemies endlessly.[/p]
4. [p]A new challenge system has been added where you must survive in a zone against tougher enemies for a set duration.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]
All these updates are being brought to life by the backbone of our team, Oğuzhan. You can check out his post on X here, and follow him for more of his work:

https://x.com/sphanxdev/status/1960427257484226615[/p][p][/p][p](He may or may not have lost a few fingers coding all this…) 🖤[/p][p]We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments—your feedback means a lot![/p][p]Cheers,
Adem[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p](That’s as much as I could make him laugh. ~Adem.)[/p][p][/p][p]Dear players, greetings to you all![/p][p][/p][p]It has been quite some time since my last update. I feel it is my duty to let you know what I have been doing during this period.[/p][p][/p][p]Above all, the fact that you believed in our game and supported it meant more to me than anything else, and I sincerely thank you for that. During this time, the only thing on my mind was how I could turn Swarm Grinder into the game you truly deserve and how I could find the resources to make it happen.[/p][p]
After everything that happened, unfortunately I was left alone, carrying many responsibilities and the weight of running a company by myself. It has truly been a difficult process, and continuing communication with you became impossible for me.
[/p][p]Since my last message, I have managed to reduce my six-digit debt to five digits. I also settled my debts with former partners and investors, and from now on I am the sole person making decisions for the game. On top of that, I have built a brand new team of talented people dedicated entirely to this project.[/p][p][/p][p]There are great things ahead! We are working hard on the next update. From now on, Adem will handle the updates and keep you informed about our progress (I was never good at communication anyway).[/p][p][/p][p]You may be wondering why there has been silence until now, and you would be right to ask. My debts had piled up so heavily that covering them with game sales alone would have taken hundreds of years (and I doubt I would live that long :’)). That is why I turned to other works. I freelanced, took part in projects across different industries, and earned income that way. But throughout it all, the only thing on my mind was to repay my debt to Swarm Grider, to give you the best possible content and experience, and to make sure that in my future games I never repeat the mistakes that brought me here.[/p][p][/p][p]Some of you have asked if the game is dead. To that, I have only one thing to say: I have risen from my ashes, and you will witness this rebirth step by step.[/p][p][/p][p]Thank you for being here,
Kağan[/p]

Hello everyone,

In this update, I’ve added new features to the modding menu:

• Trigger Range: Customize the activation range for cells.
  
• Cooldown: Adjust skill cooldown durations.
  
• Random Skill: Begin the game with 5 random abilities.
  
• Enemy Speed: Alter enemy movement speed.
  
• Back Button: Changed "

Yes, the "

Since my last post, I’ve been focused on developing a new game mode and making steady progress toward its release. This is the most critical step for me, as it will allow me to fully understand and refine the game’s flow. My goal is to deliver a new game mode within this month or the next.

Separately, I’m working on expanding the roster with new characters and skills. This brings its own challenges, especially on the art side. (Spoiler: I’m not a pixel artist!) I’ve been sketching character concepts and exploring ways to ensure the art remains high-quality while overcoming this hurdle.

If you’re wondering how you can help, I’d love to hear your ideas for new characters and skills. Don’t hesitate to share—what kind of skills would you like to see next in Swarm Grinder?


Also, Swarm Grinder is featured in Bullet Heaven Fest 2.0, and Steam is exploring the addition of a new tag, "Bullet Heaven." We’ve been asked to support this effort by adding the custom tag to Swarm Grinder.

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of adding a new tag to Steam and helping define a genre for games like ours.



If you’d like to help, simply head to Steam and add the “Bullet Heaven” tag to Swarm Grinder!

Don’t forget to share your skill ideas with me. I’m eager to hear what you have in mind!

Take care,
Kağan.