Ernest's Site

Get it on Itch.

Swarm is a top-down survival horror game, solo-developed in Unity. The development started in August 2023 and proceeded, off-and-on, until its release in December.

Swarm started as an experiment with flocking behaviors, something that was covered in an “AI for games” class I took, but I had never really implemented. My first instinct was to try and make the flocking boids your allies– you’d control them in a sort of Pikmin-esque manner– but I found them too chaotic to be much fun. Thus, I turned them into enemies.

The game was heavily influenced by the game Endoparasitic by Miziziziz. I had watched a playthrough around the time it came out, and I was enamored by the way it stripped survival horror design down to its bare essentials. I tried to replicate that simplification in Swarm: there are only doors and keys, ammo and enemies, lore and weapons.

Swarm was developed entirely by myself, including all design and assets. It was a good experience, and a useful test of my skills. It also illuminated the parts of game development that I hate and am bad at, namely level design (the project stalled for a solid few weeks when I had to make levels.) It also features no music, partially to reduce the load, but also because I wasn’t confident in my ability to make suitably evocative tracks for a horror game.

The writing in Swarm is more of an afterthought, put in because I needed rewards to give to the player. I wouldn’t say it coheres into anything, but it provides some interest, at least.

Only a few moths after releasing Swarm, I picked up a part-time job. The reduction in free time meant that I had a much harder time keeping motivation running for personal projects, explaining the gap I’ve had since. Fortunately, in July 2025, I was able to join the team to develop Word Age, my first commercial project.