• Slightly prettier rankings page loading.
• Better error handling. Specifically, rapidly entering combat will no longer break your character.

• Fixed the text color of the buy-unit button
• Added some new debugging information
• Added rankings for hatchery-count, zones-cleared, and achievement-count.
• Added achievements for hatcheries-looted and zones-cleared.
• Debug options should now always appear correctly.
• Added links for combat/achievements/statistics when viewing another user’s character
• Some invisible backend changes.

Today, I sent the first War Swarms beta invite. The closed beta’s finally started!

More beta invites will be sent soon; there’s a few issues to fix first. If you won a beta key, watch your Reddit inbox this week.

The tasks from my last update - code quality improvements, a placeholder combat system - are done. I’m now working on the combat system and periodic seasons/leagues, plus feedback from beta testers. Expect another update like this one in about a month.

Don’t want to wait that long for news? The War Swarms issue tracker - the to-do list I work from every day - is now public. If you’re curious what exactly I’ve been up to, follow along with upcoming milestones and the list of issues. You can also watch the changelogs, which will soon be much busier.

• Automated tests no longer fail after a version change.

• Added a placeholder combat system. It’s still very incomplete - expect changes.
• Redesigned how the client loads data from the server. It’s now far more reliable.
• Significant upgrades to the source code and developer tools. To name a few:
  • Code’s now formatted automatically with prettier.
  • Integrated flow‘s static type checking.
  • Moved all text to one place, to prepare for translation/internationalization.
• Lots and lots of other changes. I haven’t been keeping track since no one’s playing yet, but I’ve been busy, promise.

I’m still amazed by the enthusiastic response to the War Swarms announcement last month. It’s very motivating to see how excited you all are about the game - thank you!

Development is going smoothly, if a bit slower than we’d all like. Things have been quiet because I’ve been working, not because I’ve vanished!

No beta invites have been sent yet. The original plan was to send the first invites around the end of June; obviously that’s been missed. Not ready to share my next ETA just yet, but we’re getting closer.

What am I working on now?

• The biggest missing feature: combat. I have some plans and some experiments, but the implementation’s not quite ready yet. Combat won’t be there when the first beta invites go out. We’ll start with a placeholder that implements the resources and loot gained from combat, without any actual combat. This way, other parts of the game that depend on loot gained from combat are still playable.
• Improving the quality/maintainability of War Swarms’ programming. While building War Swarms, I’ve had to learn some tools I’ve never used before. Naturally I made some mistakes, and those past mistakes had started to slow down development. I could have powered through those and got the beta out earlier, but I chose to take the extra time to get things right.

The first beta invites are likely to go out once I’m done with these.

In other news, here’s a few highlights from my Reddit posts in the last month:

• Email notification for War Swarms news posts is now possible on the subscribe page. If you haven’t already, sign up!
• Combat will be single-player, not player-vs-player.
• A mobile version is likely at some point.

• Fix changelog links.
• Fix a minor login page bug.
• Minor text fixes.

• Changelog news posts should now correctly be categorized under ‘changelog’.
• Better link colors.
• Can now subscribe to news posts by tag, instead of all-news.
• Prettier loading screen.

• First release with a (working) version number. Playable, but no closed beta invites sent yet. Here be dragons.

The swarm, a race of giant bug-like aliens, prospered under the rule of the ancient Overminds.

Without warning, the Overminds vanished. Their disappearance shattered the unity of their underlings, and left many smaller, fractured swarms behind. Some swarms now wander leaderless and confused, some let their bloodthirsty instincts run wild, and some vie for power and control over the others.

Grow your fledgling swarm, fight your way back to dominance, and discover what fate befell the Overminds - all with no graphics.

My next game, War Swarms - based on Swarm Simulator - will begin closed testing this month! It’s been in the works for a long time now, and I’m excited to finally start sharing it. Don’t ask me for access yet - watch for announcements on news.warswarms.com or /r/warswarms.

Here’s what to expect:

• The same rapid-growth mostly-idle gameplay you know and love from Swarm Simulator.
• Combat, replacing the territory system, finally gives your swarm a chance to draw blood. Your warriors reproduce during combat - the longer a battle lasts, the more numerous they can grow.
• Always-online. Most blatant kinds of cheating are impossible. Leaderboards are more reliable. Play from multiple devices and multiple browsers easily, with no fear of losing your progress. Observe others while they play, or play for your own audience. Possible multiplayer features later (not on release day).
• Play anonymously - start playing instantly on release day, sign-up not required.
• Create multiple swarms (characters) per account. No more import/export gibberish.
• Monthly(?) season resets, each with fresh characters, empty leaderboards, and new content/features unique to the season. Entirely optional - your past swarms will not be deleted.
• The code will be open source on release day, just like Swarmsim.
• All this, and still no graphics.

Swarm Simulator is not going away, of course! That said, most of my programming and development time will be focused on War Swarms now.

No release date ready to share yet. Expect the closed beta to last several months, with more people invited as time passes. Watch news.warswarms.com or /r/warswarms for updates!