In February 2023, the Kickstarter campaign for the Netherlands-based solo developer behind Beleef Studios’ second official game release, titled ZWAARD, began, ultimately raising a total of €12,767 during its successful month-long run. While the project has been in active development over the past two years, fans have been able to witness ZWAARD‘s progress through consistent developer log updates posted to the Beleef Studios YouTube Channel. Alongside these frequent developer updates in early 2025, eventually came the announcement of the project’s partnership with the indie game publisher Top Hat Studios.

ZWAARD is a top-down pixel art dungeon crawler set in a post-apocalyptic world where the borders between technological life and biological life are stretched thin. Centuries after the extinction of most land animals and the beginning of humanity’s fall as a whole, ZWAARD sees a young girl travel through a shattered, empty world of cryptic, ancient ruins in hopes of uncovering the truth about what befell the planet that she calls home. Equipped with a sword made from the very technology that seems to be corroding the earth beneath her feet, she will have to adapt to survive encounters with the slew of unique types of minor abominations and biotechnological bosses set along her path.

ZWAARD is expressly stated by the lead and solo developer, Douwe Broekema, on the game’s Kickstarter page as heavily inspired by similar dungeon crawlers, with Nintendo’s classic Legend of Zelda series and Heart Machine’s Hyper Light Drifter in particular being noted as primary influences. The art direction for ZWAARD directly mirrors that of Heart Machine’s 2016 pixel art dungeon crawler, with lush, densely filled environments separated into wholly unique biomes. From this same influence comes a strong emphasis on the use of cryptic, hidden passageways and puzzles hidden in plain sight throughout most levels’ designs, which is certain to be exciting news for those who love difficult yet rewarding metroidvania-style level design like this.

Fan excitement for ZWAARD has come in waves since the game’s successful Kickstarter, but more news has just come in that has the possibility of bringing in even more fans of the project. As of this past September 24, it was announced that a free-to-play demo for PC gamers will be available on Steam sometime in 2026!