great news, thank you

Nice foreword, its nice to know how one thinks about such a request and how one goes trough the process.

I actually really appreciate you guys for coming forward and give both reasons for why you thought matchmaking was not suited for this game. Especially when it comes to the technical side, I have absolutely no objections. However, when it comes to the second reason...

One of the devs called Tsukki on Steam did mention the second reason and while everyone can make mistakes, I personally really struggle to understand what's actually behind the meaning of that very second reason.

The very second the game came out, Twitch and all kinds of livestreams were flooded with streamers filling their own lobbies with viewers/strangers getting new people every run for hours and days. Even on other third party platforms such as Discord or hell even Steam itself you'd see people asking for other people to play together. All things considered this is pretty much matchmaking with strangers, just more steps or more old school, depending on how you view it. And it pretty much goes as expected, people know what they boot the game up for to party up and run the game together. Very similar to Riot's Swarm mode in League of Legends which did have matchmaking. I mean this isn't actual League of Legends or Call of Duty with insanity toxicity, comms needed at the level of e-sports to finish a run or difficulty of a Souls game. Maybe I'm just burned by all the untruthful devs and platforms and for what it's worth I'm still ready to give you guys the benefit of the doubt, but the second reason you gave seems like a very odd judgement of your own game and what it is. The genre itself isn't exactly new either. If anything every dev/company and their mother make a survivor-like from their main game nowadays it feels like.

I'm just so extremely puzzled as to where that doubt that random people together couldn't finish a run together in a survivor-like and a rather easy iteration of it came from. This is like if they made Mario Kart singleplayer only because devs didn't believe strangers couldn't finish a race together, that's how crazy it sounds to me. Even if the strangers failed the run, then they just try again. Same thing you'd do solo or with friends: you'd simply try again. Matter of fact that's exactly what I did, my friends did and many streamers did with their groups and I'm sure that's not even remotely the end of it.

Sorry for the long personal rant. I appreciate that you guys changed your mind on it and I'm looking forward to the (hopeful) future of this game.

THANK YOUU!!
This game is going places! <3

If lobbies are auto-set to Public when first created, and searching players are matched up with a lobby when it becomes available, does that mean that players wanting to play a Private match will first have to kick out public players or can you decide the public/private preference BEFORE the lobby actually launches? The circled section showing where the public/private tickbox is seems like the lobby will already be live at that point. I don't want to have to do admin with the lobby, kicking out players who didn't do anything wrong, just because I wanted a chill session with my friend.

I'm also curious about the reasoning for initially avoiding public co-op being that you didn't think playing "with other random players would be co-operative enough". It seemed from previous discussions on these boards that a competitive play was favoured, hence experience share defaulting as off. Is competitive play still seen as the default design preference for co-op or are you leaning towards co-operative style of play now? If so, will the default setting of experience share change to 'on'? Genuinely curious as it sounds contradictory to the initial design decisions I've seen discussed here but maybe I'm missing something.

Yeaaah thx <3

great, keep up the great work, i hope will get some more QoL improvements too especially on the health dropping part of the crates ( like let them drop of the enemies ) and please remove the 1 pansus from the crates.

Also love to see some more QoL improvement in coop like drop a white / gray chest for x amount of players and possible respawn of crates since we all 2 or 3 players gonna be needing health and not all crates drops health after some 10 min + game play most crates can be gone in a match and hard to find health some times.

I would love to see a pick up of all XP & Pansun item as well and share of pansuns too since some times one of the players is just lucky with getting all the "pick up pansuns" items and that one get most pansuns it seems, there is share XP but no share Pansun.

Oh and the ultimate cooldown fix when picking up items, your ultimate will be stopped even when you just activate it and then pick up a item, it is gone afterwards even when a few secondes (should be left as in ultimate still activate) are left on your ultimate

and PS what was the outcome of the poll about the 15 / 20 min game time possible increase of 5 min ?

Originally posted by WitchFlame:

If lobbies are auto-set to Public when first created, and searching players are matched up with a lobby when it becomes available, does that mean that players wanting to play a Private match will first have to kick out public players or can you decide the public/private preference BEFORE the lobby actually launches? The circled section showing where the public/private tickbox is seems like the lobby will already be live at that point. I don't want to have to do admin with the lobby, kicking out players who didn't do anything wrong, just because I wanted a chill session with my friend.

I'm also curious about the reasoning for initially avoiding public co-op being that you didn't think playing "with other random players would be co-operative enough". It seemed from previous discussions on these boards that a competitive play was favoured, hence experience share defaulting as off. Is competitive play still seen as the default design preference for co-op or are you leaning towards co-operative style of play now? If so, will the default setting of experience share change to 'on'? Genuinely curious as it sounds contradictory to the initial design decisions I've seen discussed here but maybe I'm missing something.

Hi! The situation you mention first can happen, and I understand how it can be bothersome. Apologies in advance! I'll let the team know so they can discuss it.

As for the reasoning, I think the post explains it pretty well! It wasn't just one thing, but the mix of both. Although we encourage friendly competition between partners, the game requires cooperating towards a common goal. Fearing a bad experience, we weren't sure about that, but seeing the many requests we got we have decided to let players made the choice of whether they enjoy matchmaking in Swarm or not.

Originally posted by (DBB)Thepriest1750:

great, keep up the great work, i hope will get some more QoL improvements too especially on the health dropping part of the crates ( like let them drop of the enemies ) and please remove the 1 pansus from the crates.

Also love to see some more QoL improvement in coop like drop a white / gray chest for x amount of players and possible respawn of crates since we all 2 or 3 players gonna be needing health and not all crates drops health after some 10 min + game play most crates can be gone in a match and hard to find health some times.

I would love to see a pick up of all XP & Pansun item as well and share of pansuns too since some times one of the players is just lucky with getting all the "pick up pansuns" items and that one get most pansuns it seems, there is share XP but no share Pansun.

Oh and the ultimate cooldown fix when picking up items, your ultimate will be stopped even when you just activate it and then pick up a item, it is gone afterwards even when a few secondes (should be left as in ultimate still activate) are left on your ultimate

and PS what was the outcome of the poll about the 15 / 20 min game time possible increase of 5 min ?

Some of the QoL requests you made already exist in the game! To be able to give you a better response we suggest you make a feedback post and go over each thing.

We'll let you know about the poll outcome next week!

why are you implementing a matchmaking when the main problem is that the game has no content?

I bought the game months ago and playing it with friends and we stopped months ago already because there is no content.

Now you implement another way I can find games with people which I do not need - because there is no content?

I dont get the extreme slow developing for the game when you literally copy pasted the idea and using assets from an already existing game.

Originally posted by Nahida:

why are you implementing a matchmaking when the main problem is that the game has no content?

I bought the game months ago and playing it with friends and we stopped months ago already because there is no content.

Now you implement another way I can find games with people which I do not need - because there is no content?

I dont get the extreme slow developing for the game when you literally copy pasted the idea and using assets from an already existing game.

The matchmaking feature is coming in patch 0.6, along with brand new content including a map and new Tems, QoL changes, new Techs, Gears and synergies, new bosses and enemies, and bug fixes.
Games in Early Access get content added as time passes and developers continue developing said content, which takes time. If you know any faster ways of producing, designing, drawing, modelling, coding, testing, fixing, adding audio, visual effects, and promoting, please slide into our DMs, we're all ears!

Originally posted by Tsukki:

why are you implementing a matchmaking when the main problem is that the game has no content?
The matchmaking feature is coming in patch 0.6, along with brand new content including a map and new Tems, QoL changes, new Techs, Gears and synergies, new bosses and enemies, and bug fixes.

The given roadmap is very unspecific about when which content will arrive.

I just know that I played this game 3 months ago and the game had very less content. In my opinion the current content is rather playtest worthy than EA. See the reviews, I am not the only one who requests more content. It is just frustrating that we wait for new content and then there finally pops up a news and it is about a features that I personally have no use for because I have played all maps already more than enough.

Originally posted by Tsukki:

Games in Early Access get content added as time passes and developers continue developing said content, which takes time. If you know any faster ways of producing, designing, drawing, modelling, coding, testing, fixing, adding audio, visual effects, and promoting, please slide into our DMs, we're all ears!

It is not even about the time a game takes to develop. But, given the fact that this game is "inspired" by countless other games of the same genre/type, using character designs from another existing game, I think we both can agree that the "design" factor is not overweighting here. But yeah, for me it would be great seeing that you invest the time in new maps, new TemTem, unlock the still locked achievements. I have not seen any progress for this in the last 3 months.

I would love to see that you guys provide more content like an endless mode before adding more features or at least have a more precide roadmap like the plans for the months rather than "we want add this and this in 2025".

Originally posted by Nahida:

The given roadmap is very unspecific about when which content will arrive.

It is not even about the time a game takes to develop. But, given the fact that this game is "inspired" by countless other games of the same genre/type, using character designs from another existing game, I think we both can agree that the "design" factor is not overweighting here. But yeah, for me it would be great seeing that you invest the time in new maps, new TemTem, unlock the still locked achievements. I have not seen any progress for this in the last 3 months.

I would love to see that you guys provide more content like an endless mode before adding more features or at least have a more precide roadmap like the plans for the months rather than "we want add this and this in 2025".

The roadmap was intentionally kept unspecific, like the roadmap post says, because we need to have margin to maneuver if something goes wrong or takes longer during development.

Matchmaking is a feature that directly affects gameplay even now, and was highly requested by the community, so we prioritized it. Please understand that we have to cater to all players at the same time, but some things must take priority or nothing would ever be done. Challenge modes will come in the future, too.

As I implied in my previous reply, inspiration doesn't equal reutilization. We design Temtem: Swarm from scratch and it is an overweighting factor. The Temtem models also weren't just reused. I beg to please have some more insight into development processes in video games before making careless assumptions like that, or not making them altogether if one doesn't know what goes on behind the scenes. There is simply no reason at all any game dev would not want to launch their updates as early as possible, and we're the same, but developing does take time.

Originally posted by Tsukki:

Originally posted by Nahida:

The given roadmap is very unspecific about when which content will arrive.

It is not even about the time a game takes to develop. But, given the fact that this game is "inspired" by countless other games of the same genre/type, using character designs from another existing game, I think we both can agree that the "design" factor is not overweighting here. But yeah, for me it would be great seeing that you invest the time in new maps, new TemTem, unlock the still locked achievements. I have not seen any progress for this in the last 3 months.

I would love to see that you guys provide more content like an endless mode before adding more features or at least have a more precide roadmap like the plans for the months rather than "we want add this and this in 2025".

The roadmap was intentionally kept unspecific, like the roadmap post says, because we need to have margin to maneuver if something goes wrong or takes longer during development.

We consider endless mode a feature that comes after the rest of the maps and Temtem have been developed, but matchmaking is a feature that directly affects gameplay even now, and was highly requested by the community. Please understand that we have to cater to all players at the same time, but some things must take priority or nothing would ever be done.

As I implied in my previous reply, inspiration doesn't equal reutilization. We design Temtem: Swarm from scratch and it is an overweighting factor. The Temtem models also weren't just reused. I beg to please have some more insight into development processes in video games before making careless assumptions like that, or not making them altogether if one doesn't know what goes on behind the scenes. There is simply no reason at all any game dev would not want to launch their updates as early as possible, and we're the same, but developing does take time.

I appreciate the response and the clarification on development priorities. However, I’d like to address the assumption that I lack insight into game development. I actually studied Computer Science with a focus on game programming and game design, so I understand the complexities involved—whether it’s asset creation, development pipelines, or feature prioritization.

That being said, I do think it’s a bit of a stretch to say that Temtem: Swarm was built entirely from scratch. While I recognize that models may not be directly reused, the character and monster designs, as well as the setting, were already established. Additionally, the core game concept itself is clearly inspired by other existing games rather than being a completely original invention. This doesn’t take away from the work involved, but it does mean that certain aspects of development benefit from pre-existing ideas and structures rather than starting from a blank slate.

Additionally, I have to admit I was a bit surprised by the tone of the response. It came across as somewhat defensive, which I wasn’t expecting when providing constructive feedback. As someone who both understands game development and is invested in the game as a player, my goal is simply to engage in open and meaningful discussions about its direction. I think a more transparent and collaborative approach to community feedback would go a long way in building trust and fostering a stronger connection with players.

That said, I do appreciate the hard work that goes into development, and I’m excited to see where the game goes from here. I hope that moving forward, we can have more open discussions where feedback—both positive and critical—is met with understanding. Looking forward to future updates!

But when?? The early access was released months ago, and there haven’t been any additions since.…