Zapling Bygone
Released Aug 2022
Zapling Bygone is a twisted metroidvania where you murder your foes and steal their abilities by wearing their skulls and absorbing their consciousness into your hive-mind.
80% positive · 198 reviews
Done
All announced content has been released
High confidence
Done
All announced content has been released
High confidence
Where to buy
Steam $15.99
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Evaluation
Zapling Bygone is a solo-developed metroidvania that launched on August 5, 2022. In the announcement post prior to launch, the developer described working on it solo for more than two years, framing the release as the culmination of that effort. Following launch, the developer issued a handful of bug-fix patches in the days immediately after release (August 6–11, 2022) to address day-one issues. These patches explicitly noted that "more fixes and polish are on the way," but no additional content was ever announced or delivered beyond that initial post-launch polish. The game has no DLC listed, no roadmap, no season pass, and no developer communications after mid-August 2022. The 21 news posts on record include only one major_content entry and no post-launch content drops. The store description describes the game as a self-contained experience with no mention of planned updates or expansions. The game launched as a complete, finished product, and all available evidence is consistent with that — a solo developer who shipped their game and moved on.
Evidence
Patch 1.1.2 — the last recorded developer communication, consisting of minor bug fixes. No content announcements or roadmap mentioned.
Day-one patch addressing launch bugs. Developer noted more fixes and polish were coming, but made no mention of new content or expansions.
Media
Details
Developer
Publisher
9FingerGames
Achievements
26
Platform
Windows
Controller
full support
Steam Deck
Playable
Players
Single-player
About this game
Play as an alien hive-mind who murders bosses, steals their abilities and wears their skulls.
Zapling Bygone is a twisted metroidvania where you murder your foes and steal their abilities by wearing their skulls.
Every ability is gained by killing a boss and stealing their skull. These abilities allow you to transverse the world in new and exciting ways as well as help you destroy your opponents.
Make every inch of the alien planet your playground as you learn its secrets and use them to your advantage. Take advantage of Zaplings sticky tentacles to fluidly jump and climb around the world.
Find game-changing mutations that modify and enhance your abilities, collect skull fragments that shine light on long dead civilizations. Trade plasma for ancient keys, forgotten secrets and weird paintings.
Explore a vast, dangerous and interconnected world with only you and your skulls as company. Reveal each biome in the world by collecting the skulls of people who lived in them.
Explore and conquer 6 biomes, each with their own enemies, bosses and backstory.
This includes:
When wearing the skulls of your foes you will gain access to their memories and unlock comic strip panels representing major events in their lives. The skulls will even talk to you throughout your adventure.
Piece together the history of the planet, one comic panel at a time.
Learn how The Ratking gained his consciousness. How an ancient civilisation destroyed itself in search of a fake god. Figure out the repercussions of an alien virus that causes enteral life, and enternal suffering.
Piece together the events that occurred in a post-apocalyptic alien planet, and use its secrets to fight a fragment of your own hive.
Zapling Bygone is a twisted metroidvania where you murder your foes and steal their abilities by wearing their skulls.
Every ability is gained by killing a boss and stealing their skull. These abilities allow you to transverse the world in new and exciting ways as well as help you destroy your opponents.
- Killing the Ratking allows you to wear his skull and use his ability to climb on walls.
- Killing an ancient manufacturing robot allows you throw his claw-head and use it to swing around the world.
- Killing The Protector allows you to use his power core to fire devastating laser beams.
Make every inch of the alien planet your playground as you learn its secrets and use them to your advantage. Take advantage of Zaplings sticky tentacles to fluidly jump and climb around the world.
Find game-changing mutations that modify and enhance your abilities, collect skull fragments that shine light on long dead civilizations. Trade plasma for ancient keys, forgotten secrets and weird paintings.
Explore a vast, dangerous and interconnected world with only you and your skulls as company. Reveal each biome in the world by collecting the skulls of people who lived in them.
Explore and conquer 6 biomes, each with their own enemies, bosses and backstory.
This includes:
- Ratqueen Gardens, an old mine that has been overgrown with monstrous plants and angry rats that are rampaging due to their kings untimely death.
- Grimtown, an empty shell of a fallen civilization occupied by people who have lost everything to a creeping virus that causes everlasting suffering.
- Mountain Path, a snowy inhabitable mountain littered with ancient technology built to protect the planet from alien invasion.
When wearing the skulls of your foes you will gain access to their memories and unlock comic strip panels representing major events in their lives. The skulls will even talk to you throughout your adventure.
Piece together the history of the planet, one comic panel at a time.
Learn how The Ratking gained his consciousness. How an ancient civilisation destroyed itself in search of a fake god. Figure out the repercussions of an alien virus that causes enteral life, and enternal suffering.
Piece together the events that occurred in a post-apocalyptic alien planet, and use its secrets to fight a fragment of your own hive.
Are these done yet?
Last evaluated Jun 23, 2026
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