Swarmlake 4.0: Zenith

Hi, the free Swarmlake 4.0: Zenith update is out now. 8 years after release, this is the definitive version of Swarmlake:

• AddedAdded shooting beamA 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 changes direction rapidly. Charger (yellow) enemies predict circular player motion. Rewards active movement over running in circles.

• Added GPU particle system: Explosions now have more density and atmosphere.

• Added volumetric lighting: Light shafts pass through the scene dynamically, most visible when looking toward the sky's zenith.

• Improved visual clarity: Enemy rim lighting makes dense groups easier to read. Colors are more saturated. Emissives are now transparent. UI panels use a frosted glass backdrop.

• Improved shadow quality: Softer, more natural edges.

• Improved input precision and responsiveness: Aiming and movement now register more precisely and consistently at any sensitivity or framerate.

• Rebuilt on DirectX 12 and 64-bit: A modern graphics API and native 64-bit process, delivers the best frame pacing and performance on Windows.

• Improved CPU performance: Approximately 3x improvement across the board through extensive optimizations. Most players will see a noticeable jump in frame rate and smoothness. Startup is also significantly faster.

• Rebuilt arena: The floor is now hexagonal tiles, the wall is dynamic hex panels, and ocean waves fill the space beneath.

• Improved music-reactive visuals: Light beams, ocean, and the wall now pulses to the beat.

• Added floor reactions: The floor responds visually to bomb explosions, beam impacts, and projectile hits.

• Added 3D gun HUD: The weapon's status display is now rendered in world space, appearing physically mounted on the gun rather than overlaid on screen.

• AdjustedImproved gamepad controlsAim assist, a dynamic stick curve for finer small adjustments, and reduced deadzones.

• Added gamepad rumble: Explosions, hits, and scoring moments produce physical feedback on controllers.

• Improved replay: Includes a gameplay statistics display, player model damage and heal feedback, and replay scrubbing. The game stays in replay after a run ends.

• Added localization: The game is now localized into multiple languages.

• Improved leaderboard: Names display correctly for all languages including CJK. Right-click any entry to open the Steam profile.

• Improved player responsiveness: Direction reversals are snappier, reducing input lag at speed.

• Reduced auto fire rate: Power shifted toward the beam. Better fits expectations of when taking damage relative to enemy density.

• Added score-gated active bomb cap: Limits how many bombs can be active at once early on, smoothing the difficulty curve.

• Increased enemy spawn scaling: Speeds up pacing.

• Tweaked bomb spawns to bias toward center with more height variation: Encourages more vertical play.

• Removed delayed shard attraction: Encourages more aggressive playstyles.

• AdjustedReworked achievementsSplit into tutorial and score tiers. Score achievements are now higher due to increased maximum score achievable, which should result in similar challenge.

• Improved defaults: Defaults to vsync and borderless fullscreen. Skips rendering when minimized.

• Added retrying failed replay upload

A beta branch legacy_3.0 is available for players whose hardware does not support 4.0's requirements. In Steam, right-click Swarmlake > Properties > Betas > select legacy_3.0.

Thanks for playing!

• Dominique