Swarm Simulator is a Simulation Idle Game created on August 28, 2014. Like the name suggests, the player controls a Horde of Alien Locusts that starts off with a few larvae and drones before growing into a massive insect empire filled with endless amounts of bugs using larvae and meat, and captured territory.
Swarm Simulator: Evolution, an Updated Re-release of the game was released on Kongregate. Co-developed by ScaryBee, it has some Microtransactions and a few new features added in.
The game can be played here
, while Swarm Simulator: Evolution can be played on Kongregate here. It's also available on Steam.
Tropes present in Swarm Simulator:
- Alt Text: Moving the mouse over the descriptions of units or resources will display an alternate (usually more humorous) description, some of which have Shout Outs to other works. (The text is still there in Evolution, although the more graphical UI makes the act of looking for tooltips there less intuitive.)
- Ant War: Swarm Simulator: Evolution has the Invasion mechanic where you declare war on an enemy colony's leader. During this period, said enemy's bugs will periodically appear and move around the screen, clicking on them kills them and reduces the enemy's army size, but if they escape they will steal your resources. You win once the enemy's army size is reduced to 0 before two days pass.
- Artistic License – Biology: Referenced with the Bats, which clearly aren't bugs yet cost larvae to create. The Alt Text is even straight from Calvin and Hobbes:"Bats Aren't Bugs!" "Look, who's giving this report? You chowderheads or me?"
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: In Evolution, all the units after the Overmind (which was the final unit in the original game) are ascended Overminds that span the cosmos.
- Bandit Mook: Invasions in Swarm Simulator: Evolution consist of mooks periodically appearing on the screen that fly around and need to be clicked away within a time limit. If not clicked in time, they steal your resources.
- Combat Pragmatist: The Goon Swarmlord Zugin's Flavor Text shows that Goons have a brutish and violent society where this trope is commonplace, and as for the Alt Text?"The first rule of fighting is? That's cute... you have rules."
- Diminishing Returns for Balance:
- The amount of mutagen effect scales linearly for every factor of ten mutagen placed in that boost.
- The Energy-related units grow weaker the more of them you already have. Once you have enough, it can take multiple of them to increase their boost by 0.01%.
- Explosive Breeder: Doesn't even begin to cut it, what with over a decillion larvae being bred per second later on. This applies especially for the meat units, where each unit produces the unit below it, all the way down to drones that gather meat. After a few ascensions and a good amount of progress, you'll be having more than a googol drones.
- Export Save: This game has a 900+ byte save file which can be copied normally or by push of a button in-game and then copied into a window.
- Giant Spider: Arachnomorphs, and their even bigger versions the Giant Arachnomorphs. All of them capture territory for you.
- Hive Mind: One of the higher level meat units that you can produce. They even come in lesser, arch-mind and overmind variants.
- Hive Queen: Several variants starting with Hive Queens themselves. Then you get to lesser hive minds, hive minds, arch-minds, overminds, hive neurons, etc. All of which produce and control the units below them.
- Horde of Alien Locusts: The Idle Game. You play as an insect empire that grows large and takes over territory and kills everything in its path for meat. A literal example with the Locust units.
- Konami Code: You get an achievement for entering it on the startup screen.
- Mana: Called Energy over here, it's produced by Nexii and regenerates over time. You use it to cast various spell-like abilities.
- Meta Power Up: Bats increase the power of all your spells. Mutagen passively increases your larvae gain.
- Mosquito Miscreants: Culicimorphs are mosquito-like Territory units that swarm and spread disease.
- Ouroboros: The final production unit of Evolution, the Endless appears to look like this made of ascended swarm beings.
- Play Every Day: Evolution has gold bugs, which can be clicked on to collect them along with valuable crystals and sometimes other cool stuff like carapace shards or elixirs. However, there's a limit to the number you can collect each day, and the counter resets every day allowing you to get more each day. Gold bugs can also be traded for permanent boosts too — including one that increases the limit you can collect each day.
- Recycled Soundtrack: Swarm Simulator: Evolution has music straight from ScaryBee's past game Slurpy Derpy
- Shout-Out: Several, to the point they need their own page.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The game's about a Horde of Alien Locusts multiplying, taking over territory and killing everything in sight. The background music for the game is the same cheery upbeat one from Slurpy Derpy.
- Time Master: Once you research Nexii, your horde becomes able to perform swarmwarps and rushes allowing them to gain minutes worth of production at one shot. Later on, this goes up to months or even years worth of production!
- Updated Re-release: Swarm Simulator: Evolution is essentially Swarm Simulator with actual 3D graphics and more stuff added in.
- Vampire Vords: Alluded to then defied by the alt-Flavor Text of Lunzir, the Bat swarmlord."I vant to suck... stop it, you think all bats sound like that?"
- Villain Protagonist: As mentioned, you play as a Horde of Alien Locusts that consume everything in their path and take over territories.
- Wicked Wasps: Two different types, in fact. Stingers are weaker flying units with venomous stingers, and Wasps are bigger, stronger cousins of the Stingers. Both of them help you capture territory.
- You Require More Vespene Gas: There are four main consumable resources in the game — Larvae which are used to buy units, Meat which is also used to buy units, Territory which is used to expand your Hatchery and increase Larvae production, and Energy which allows you to cast spells.
