From the premise of Swarm — guide a group of identical, stupid creatures through trap-filled words — and from screenshots and video, it’s easy to assume it’s a Pikmin-style action-strategy game, with one player character wielding a small army of critters to fulfill goals. At least, it was easy for me to assume that. But there’s a lot more action and a lot less strategy than you’re thinking. In fact, Swarm is pretty much a platformer, albeit a platformer in which you control 50 avatars simultaneously.
Now you might be thinking that it would be pretty much impossible to control 50 avatars simultaneously — and you would be right. In fact, your little Swarmites are constantly dying off due to traps, environmental hazards, and good old-fashioned failed jumps. Not only is this okay, it’s necessary; each death increases your score multiplier, and interesting deaths result in in-game awards.
Gallery: Swarm (GDC 2011)
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Swarm preview: Extensive expendability originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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