Tiny Foundry has released a major round of public updates for Nova Swarm, the fast Windows vertical shoot ’em up on Steam where boss victories shape each run, pilots master a growing fleet of ships and every sector pushes players to read the screen, choose their targets and survive the swarm.
Developed by solo creator Eirik at Tiny Foundry, Nova Swarm has recently taken a major step forward with expanded visuals, sound effects, content and gameplay. The latest public updates add Planetfall’s dismantlable orbital fortress, more rescue encounters, richer creature animation and sound, and 48 distinct space vistas designed to make each run feel more varied and reactive.
Nova Swarm challenges players to slip through dense enemy fire, rescue captured fighters, destroy key enemy systems and dismantle colossal bosses piece by piece. In Arcade Tactical mode, boss victories let players choose upgrades that shape the rest of the run, allowing ships to evolve through stacked bonuses, support drones and Fusion protocols. Players who want a purer arcade challenge can also choose draft-free Pure modes, while Onslaught throws pilots into immediate pressure from Sector 51.
The game currently features 30 ships to discover and master, each with its own weapons, handling, traits and tradeoffs. Players can begin with a small starting roster, unlock more ships as their pilot career develops and experiment with precision cannons, spread fire, drone specialists and nimble interceptors. Separate Steam leaderboards allow pilots to compete across different challenge types.
Recent additions also give players more reasons to make meaningful choices during a run. Rescue encounters can bring allied fighters into the battle, destructible enemy systems allow pilots to silence weapons or expose vulnerable cores, and strange cosmic creatures and Cabinet Wonders add personality to the galaxy between firefights.
A further large content update is now in final testing. Tiny Foundry plans to add 33 additional creatures, six capital variants, more encounter voices and additional vista work, with release targeted for the next few days. A new trailer showing more of the expanded content is also in development and is expected to appear on the Steam page later this week.
Nova Swarm is available now on Steam for Windows PC. It supports keyboard and controller play and includes comfort options such as adjustable interface size, reduced motion, screen shake controls, flash intensity settings and separate audio controls for music, voices and sound effects.
About Nova Swarm
Nova Swarm is a fast vertical shoot ’em up from solo developer Tiny Foundry. Players pilot a fleet of unlockable ships through dense enemy formations, rescue captured fighters, defeat bosses, earn upgrades and push for better runs across multiple modes, including Arcade Tactical, Onslaught Tactical, Pure modes, Daily Signal, Scout Run and Sector Run.
