Alien Swarm

Alien Swarm is currently available on Steam, for free. Launch it now* or visit its store page on (Browser | Steam*).
*Only works if Steam has been installed, please install Steam if you haven't already.
Steam Deck support status: Unknown - More info on ProtonDB

Alien Swarm is a free top-down shoot-em-up for up to four co-op players, created by Black Cat Games after the company was bought up by Valve. Its complete source code is provided in a new SDK as a sample project for Source modders, much like Team Fortress Classic was for GoldSrc.

The game thrusts players into an epic bug hunt featuring a unique blend of co-op play and squad-level tactics. With your friends, form a squad of four distinct IAF Marine classes. Plan your attack using an unlockable arsenal of weapons with countless loadout configurations against a wide variety of aliens. Blaze your way through an overrun, off-world colony, eradicating the alien infestation in environments ranging from the icy planet's surface, to a subterranean lava-flooded mining facility.

Features

TileGen

A new quick-build mapping tool. Level designers create connectible rooms and corridors which can be arranged either by hand or programmatically. TileGen maps can be played in-editor, and/or can be exported to Hammer for further refinement.

Global dynamic lighting

Alien Swarm will debut Source 2009's improved shadow mapping technology, which can be sanely used to illuminate an entire scene.

Depth of field

A real-time depth of field shader blurs backdrop scenery. Presumably we also have a decent depth buffer now, too.

Steamworks integration

Unclear how useful this will be, as currently Steamworks distribution is required to implement persistence, Steam Cloud, achievements, etc.

Source code

The source code for Alien Swarm will be released on Monday, July 19th, at the same time as the game. It will not initially include Mac code.

Rather than an update to the Source SDK itself, Alien Swarm will receive and SDK of its own. This allows Valve to make it freely available to the whole world (as opposed to existing owners of Source games) without also granting access to HL2-mounting Source 2006/2007 mods - a mirror of the Unreal Development Kit, which includes only a subset of Unreal Tournament 3's content. There is nothing confirmed either way yet.

Gallery

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Content

• Alien Swarm
  Confirm:(as)
• Confirm:Source 2007 shared (hl2)
• Confirm:Source shared (hl2)
• Source 2009 engine branch