Nova Swarm
Tiny Foundry · 2026 · Shoot 'Em Up, Bullet Hell, Action, Score Attack, Arcade
PC
7 user reviews100% · 7
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Screenshots
About Nova Swarm
Quick arcade runs
Nova Swarm is a small arcade space shooter from Tiny Foundry. It is built around short runs, fast restarts, and trying to get a little further or score a little better each time.
Pick a ship in the hangar, launch into Sector 1, and work your way toward Sector 10. Each sector adds more enemy patterns, hazards, bonus cores, powerups, elites, and bosses.
If you clear the main route, you can keep going in Overrun and push the score higher. That usually goes well right up until it does not.
Crowded, but learnable
The screen can get busy, but the goal is that danger has a shape you can read. Enemies cut lanes, fire rings and split shots, drop mines, pull you out of position, or force you to move before you feel ready.
Bosses have tells. Hazards are meant to be learned. A good run should feel cleaner because you understood what was happening, not because the game hid less from you.
Ships that feel different
The hangar starts small and opens up as your pilot career grows. Ships have different speed, spread, fire rhythm, damage, bullet speed, and hitbox feel.
Some are steady. Some are twitchy. A few are probably bad ideas until they suddenly make sense.
Scores, unlocks, and records
A run leaves more behind than a final number. Boss kills, clean waves, no-hit moments, new enemies, Codex discoveries, pilot rank, unlocks, career stats, and run records feed back into the career profile.
The Threat Codex fills in as you meet new trouble. The Cabinet keeps small notes from your runs, including good plays, lucky saves, and decisions that were maybe not your finest work.
There are local scores and a Steam global leaderboard for score chasing.
What is included
- Small arcade shoot ’em up action with quick restarts
- A 10 sector main route, plus Overrun after you clear it
- Enemy formations, bullet patterns, elites, tractor hazards, and boss tells
- Bonus cores and powerups that can help a run or tempt you into trouble
- Unlockable ships with different handling and weapons
- Pilot ranks, career progress, Threat Codex discoveries, and run records
- Local scores, Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud, and Steam global leaderboard support
- Keyboard or controller input
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
You did all the advertising and outreach correctly but you forgot to make the game fun to play. This is a masterclass in what not to do as an indie game developer, more curator reviews than regular user reviews and hardly any sales. This game showed up on the front section of a special steam shoot em up sale, you had every opportunity to have an explosive game but you forgot to make the game actually fun.5 found this helpful
Screen shooters are rare, and this is a rare gem amongst those. Piles of ships, enemies, and bosses, varied formations and shot patterns, shot grazing, phasing through shots (which clears them), fun music, and a bizarre personality to boot. Well worth the tiny asking price.3 found this helpful
Nova Swarm is a pretty solid arcade-style gallery/screen shmup (where you shoot upward and clear screens of enemies in-place, like Galaga or Space Invaders), with a bucket load of quirky personality (there's a commentary voice with various quips, but you can turn voices off for a more serious experience). Starts right off with good action for the main run, plus practice side modes for a softer difficulty or jumping to higher level waves based on what you've reached in the main runs. Mechanics are simple: move around (freely, not just along screen bottom), shoot, phase, and slow (yourself, not others). "Phase" is pure iframes as you move normally, and not a movement ability or speed increase, but it can also clear some nearby bullets. That move speed can be limiting using slower ships, but it's still fairly generous on cooldown, and helps you play aggressively, phasing through troublesome bullet waves, or slowing down to weave with more precision. There are various powerups to grab that give you brief boosts (brief as in several seconds), and both kill-chain and graze-chain (phasing works well for grazes, too) systems for bonus scoring (and tempting distractions :). The levels…3 found this helpful
I've only played for about 15 minutes so far, but my first impressions are very positive. The quality is definitely there, and the overall scope of the game is already pretty clear. One thing I noticed is that the screenshots don't seem to fully match what’s actually in the game for some reason. The soundtrack is awesome as well. Definitely give this a try if you enjoy similar games. 🙂1 found this helpful
Pure arcade fun! Learn enemy waves, beat bosses, grab powerups, push your score. Multiple ships with different feel. Quick restart keeps you hooked. Great for short sessions.1 found this helpful
Love it! Sam the Misfit Boss was BADASS! The ship selections and loadouts and traits are sick. Well thought out I only got about less then an hour in but love the old school vibes!1 found this helpful
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