🚨 Officers,
We wish to invite you to a very special operation, codenamed "Prime Nomination".
It is our strong belief that SWAT Commander deserves a shot (pun, as always, fully intended) in the "Better With Friends" category of the 2025 Steam Awards, and so, we humbly request that you offer your nomination to our project!
Much like our game wouldn't advance without your continued support, so would a SWAT intervention not go well without the support of your trusted officers. A reason why we've always wanted co-op to be an integral part of SWAT Commander.
On to the next part of our dispatch — another mini tutorial lands on your desks. This time the material is covering some facts about our previous update — curated intel about Customization.
As you may recall, our previous feature update introduced the ability for our commanders to deploy on customized missions by accessing the relevantly named 'CUSTOM GAME' screen from the main menu's 'SELECT MISSION' option. There, you can modify several properties of your mission's playthrough for a more personalized experience.
It is our hope and intention to make mission customization somewhat clearer with this short post — to answer some questions and clear certain doubts we've been encountering.
Customization — Some Vital Details
The first piece of information we'd like to drop here is clarification. One that relates to how mission customization works fundamentally.
In the first tab of the mission customization screen, '1—Missions', you decide which mission in which available game mode you will be modifying for your playthrough. That much is clear. But what needs to be said is that there are certain elements to the mission that will always have to remain unchanged — items or characters needed for its objectives to still work the way they do. For example, you'll always need the Hanson brothers present for the 'Silence of the Hansons' mission.
We'll add the appropriate notices about this to the Custom Game menu's UI with an upcoming update.
Fig. 1 — First tab of mission customization where you can proceed after selecting the base mission and its game mode; the mission will feature certain characters and items that cannot be changed
As you proceed to the second tab, '2—Characters', you'll see sliders responsible for setting your chosen total count for additional characters as well as the ratio of suspects to civilians in the custom game.
The 'Theme' section, in turn, lets you determine which mission those additional characters will be coming from, while in the 'Suspects Archetypes' section, you finally make the choice of those characters and their numbers.
An important detail to pay attention to here is that you decide on the total character count and civilian-suspect ratio BEFORE choosing the suspect archetypes, as changes there will have to reset your opponent selections.
Fig. 2 — 'Characters' screen in game customization; if you change the first two settings, your suspect archetype choices will have to be reset!
Finally, you arrive at '3—Mission Settings', arguably the most diversified settings tab:
The 'Mission Settings' section of the same name offers the same options you would find in standard missions, so it's useful to note that they are here too.
'Environment' lets you change the time of day, locked doors, and barricaded doors among a few other factors.
'Behavior' determines which of the characters' responses to various situations will be available in the mission.
'Morale', which defines the stat responsible for the characters' willingness to surrender.
'Health', which defines the stat responsible for how much damage characters can take before they're incapacitated or killed.
Note the 'GO TO BRIEFING' button always present at the top, which will allow you to launch your configured custom game. You don't have to leave this screen to do that!
Fig. 3 — A variety of options in the 'Mission Settings' tab, some of which are the same as what you can typically configure in a standard game
Mission Customization has opened a brand new venue for gameplay in SWAT Commander, and we hope you use it to its fullest potential! Came up with any interesting custom configurations? Share them with your fellow officers in the comments below!
Upcoming Weapons Update
Moving on, work on SWAT Commander continues, all owing to your support for our project in Early Access. Our next update will address several core mechanics of the game's weapons and how they work exactly.
One part of the update is going to be an adjustment to the dynamics between firing guns and how bullets leave the barrel, and that should deliver an improvement to various contexts, such as when using laser sights!
Fig. 4 — More natural bullet-barrel dynamics and… canted sight? Might prove interesting indeed!
As always, we'll bring you more details as soon as our update is ready to go.
Over and out,
SWAT Commander Team
