Press kit
Swarm Front
Real-time strategy at insect scale. Raise a colony, herd bugs, conquer the meadow.
At a glance
Fact sheet
- Developer
- TBA
- Release date
- TBA
- Platforms
- Web browser (desktop, WebGL 2): the free demo, playable now at https://swarmfront.io/play/
- Mac App Store: coming. The app is a free download, and one in-app purchase unlocks the full game
- Steam: coming. The full game is a paid game, with a separate free demo app
- Price
- Free demo in the browser; full game: price TBA
- Genre
- Real-time strategy
- Modes
- A campaign (The Gift) and skirmish matches against AI opponents
- Controls
- Mouse and keyboard. Desktop only.
- Language
- English
- Website
- https://swarmfront.io/
- Play
- https://swarmfront.io/play/
- Press contact
- [email protected]
Description
Swarm Front is a real-time strategy game at insect scale. You are the Commander of a colony. Raise your base, gather food, build an army and fight for the meadow floor against AI opponents.
Five factions play five different wars: the Obsidian Throne (black ants), the Macroterme Imperium (termites), Apex (wasps), the Hive (bees) and the Blight (a fungal plague). Each has its own units, its own way to gather resources and its own strengths and weaknesses.
The campaign is called The Gift. An amber dig uncovers something sealed, and a legion marches out to learn what it is. Act 1 takes the Obsidian Throne from the dig, along the Honeydew Line and up the high stems, to a new nest and a grey tide on the old road.
The browser version is a free demo. It runs in a desktop web browser, with no download. The full game is coming to Steam and the Mac App Store. On Steam the full game is a paid game with a separate free demo app. On the Mac App Store the app is a free download, and one in-app purchase unlocks the full game. The price is not set yet.
Where it comes from
History
Swarm Front was started in October 2026 under the working title Mandible, and renamed Swarm Front in the same month. It is an independent game, made by one developer who designs and directs it.
The first playable version is the free demo in the browser at swarmfront.io. The full game is planned for the Mac App Store and Steam. Neither store page is public yet.
What you do
Features
- Five factions that play differently. Black ants win with numbers and fast rebuilding. Termites dig in with artillery, tanks and flame. Wasps are few, elite and fly. Bees focus sunlight into beams. The Blight slows and denies the ground, and the dead rise.
- A different economy for each colony. The ants milk herds of aphids. The termites turn fibre into food in fungus gardens. The wasps sip nectar and hunt wild bugs. The bees make honey from flowers. The Blight has no workers and feeds on the dead.
- A campaign: The Gift. Five missions, each on its own map, and every one can be skipped. Act 2 is coming later. It follows an outbreak in the colony.
- Skirmish. Set up a match against AI opponents: pick your faction and a map, then play.
- Fog of war. You see only what your units see. Scout the meadow before you commit.
- A free demo in your browser. The demo needs a desktop browser with WebGL 2. Your progress saves on your device only.
Five colonies
The factions
Each colony fights its own war. The emblems are in the ZIP.
Obsidian Throne
Black ants
“There is always another wave.”
Macroterme Imperium
Termites
“Dig in. Hold. Advance one trench at a time.”
Apex
Wasps
“Few, and enough.”
The Hive
Bees
“SOL REGIT OMNIA (The sun rules all)”
The Blight
Cordyceps
“The Gift is Inevitable.”
In motion
Video
The gameplay clip from the home page: 854×480, 22.5 seconds, no sound. It is recorded from the game. A longer trailer is not ready yet.
Gameplay clips, 2560×1440
The battle at the funnel 16 seconds, no soundThe Obsidian Throne and the Macroterme Imperium meet in the middle of the meadow: flamers, shells and Stag Beetles.
Apex air raid 13 seconds, no soundHornets, Paper Wasps and Spider Wasps of the Apex dive on a termite Mortar Weevil battery.
The Blight advances 14 seconds, no soundGifted soldiers, brutes and Husk Beetles cross the Blight's grey ground and fall on an Obsidian outpost.
The Hive strikes 13 seconds, no soundThe Hive's Sunlancers and Bumble Bees meet an Obsidian squad in the open.
An Obsidian base 14 seconds, no soundAn Obsidian Throne base, four minutes into a match between two computer players.
In the meadow
Screenshots
Recorded from the game, with the HUD hidden. Click a picture to open the full size.
Brand
Logos and icon
Logo
The winged ant helmet over the title, in amber, on a transparent background.
App icon
The icon of the app, the menu and the stores.
Credits and licences
Credits
- DESIGN, DIRECTION AND PRODUCTION
- Luke Van In
- ENGINE
- three.js (MIT licence)
- SOUND EFFECTS
- Interface and impact sounds by Kenney (kenney.nl, CC0)
- TYPE
- Saira Condensed and Saira Semi Condensed by Omnibus-Type (SIL Open Font Licence 1.1)
- SPEECH RECOGNITION
- Parakeet TDT 0.6B v2 by NVIDIA (huggingface.co/nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). Converted for this game by FluidInference (Core ML) and csukuangfj (ONNX).
- SPEECH RECOGNITION (MAC APP)
- Whisper small.en by OpenAI (github.com/openai/whisper), run with whisper.cpp and ggml by The ggml authors (github.com/ggml-org), all under the MIT licence. The OpenMP runtime libomp is from the LLVM Project (Apache License 2.0 with LLVM Exceptions).
Get in touch
Contact
For review keys, interviews, questions and more material, write to the press contact.
Website: swarmfront.io
Player support: [email protected]