After a catch-'em-all MMO, TemTem dev reveals a co-op roguelike that looks like Pokemon meets Vampire Survivors

TemTem: Swarm trailer
(Image credit: Crema)

The developer of catch-'em-all MMO TemTem has announced it is now working on a co-op roguelike that looks like Pokemon meets Vampire Survivors.

On February 20, TemTem developer Crema announced Temtem: Swarm, a survivor-like bullet heaven spin-off game with online co-op for up to 3 players. The new game is set to release in Q3 2024 and has a real Vampire Survivors feel to it. 

Just like in the beloved Nintendo IP, TemTem features a bunch of collectible creatures that are based on different elements. Several of the creatures we met in the original game will return in TemTem: Swarm, except this time players will be able to team up with up to two friends to take on swarms of Tems together using a variety of strategies and resources.

The original TemTem game started life on Kickstarter back in 2018 where it managed to raise more than $500,000 over its original $70,000 goal. Fast forward to 2022 and TemTem was released to PC, Xbox Series X, PS5, and Nintendo Switch where it became one of the most well-known Pokemon likes - and is now rubbing elbows with Palworld, which came along earlier this year. 

Some of TemTem's fans actually weren't too happy with the announcement, with many arguing that the resources put into the new spin-off game should have been focused on the MMO itself, which has been criticized for lacking content updates for some time. (Some have also pointed to TemTem's in-game arcade, a collection of minigames that was promised in TemTem's Kickstarter campaign but has yet to materialize, but TemTem: Swarm seems like a much more ambitious, standalone game never meant to be a freebie.) Several fans have gone as far as saying Swarm looks more like a "cash grab" from the studio than anything. 

This backlash, which can be seen in the game's subreddit, prompted Crema's CEO to issue a statement on the game's official Discord, which reads: "If you really want [the] TemTem franchise to live on and more games to be made, be it spin-offs or TemTem 2, what you would really ask for is for us to stop improving Temtem 1 and start working on something new."

Find out what other games are worth your time with our best MMORPGs list. 

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.