You step onto the battlefield. Wave after wave of monsters is closing in. You dodge, collect power-ups and grow stronger with every enemy you defeat – until, inevitably, it’s game over. Then you start again, even more determined.

This is Heroes vs Hordes – a survival RPG that seems simple at first but, behind the chaos of projectiles and explosions, offers a surprising amount of tactical depth.

It was developed by Swift Games, a small studio based in Berlin. Here, co-founder Carsten Granig tells the App Store how a quick prototype became a global success – and why listening to the community remains at the heart of the game’s growth.

App Store debut: February 2022
Headquarters: Berlin
Team size: 20
Fun fact: The team’s all-time favourite hero is still the very first one: the Knight.

“We never set out to build the one big game,” says Granig. “What we really wanted was a development process that quickly shows us what works.”

Swift’s early experiments included puzzle and idle concepts, but nothing truly resonated with the team or audience. Then the team played Vampire Survivors – the hit indie title by developer Poncle – and everything clicked.

“That gameplay loop was incredibly compelling, especially on PC – but on mobile, there was still so much untapped potential,” says Granig.

Inspired by the game’s core experience – auto-attacking heroes, randomised power-ups, endless waves – Swift built its own prototype. The team layered on gear, talents, long-term progression and a wide variety of unlockable heroes, and Heroes vs Hordes was born.

What followed wasn’t a massive marketing campaign, but steady, deliberate expansion. The first version had just 10 levels – no equipment system, no meta-game – but early player data looked promising, so Swift committed to weekly updates, continuously adding features and content.

One early breakthrough was Adventure mode, a monthly reset campaign that offers players the chance to unlock an exclusive hero. Building on that concept, Swift later introduced Storyline – a special event mode with its own rules, where players start from scratch without their usual gear or talents.

Each Storyline features a longer, self-contained campaign with unique bosses, special rewards and, in some cases, official IP collaborations – such as Avatar: The Last Airbender and Ghostbusters.

“The best part,” says Granig, “is that none of these features came from a boardroom. They came directly from conversations with our community.”

One of the team’s biggest ongoing challenges? Keeping up with their fans. “Our players are incredibly engaged,” says Granig. “They blast through content we spent weeks building – in just a few days.”

To manage that, Swift focuses on balance: building depth for long-time players while staying accessible for newcomers.

At the centre of that balance is the community itself. Swift’s official Discord server now has hundreds of thousands of members – many of them actively contributing ideas, testing features and sharing strategies. Some of the most engaged players also participate in a private VIP channel, where new ideas often take shape before anyone else sees them.

“When you see the same names on Discord week after week, when ideas are bouncing back and forth – you realise you’re not just building a game,” says Granig. “You’re building a community.”