Colony by Swen

[raw]
made by Swen for Ludum Dare 46 (COMPO)

In this game you create your own ant colony by digging tunnels and constructing rooms. But you won't do this all by yourself of course, as the queen you'll acquire servants to do the work for you!

Your goal is to stockpile food for the winter and fend off any threats coming your way. Protect the queen at all cost!

Controls

  • Moving the Camera use the arrow keys or right mouse button

  • Creating ants use the "actions" menu in the bottom left corner only works if you have any eggs available

  • Building rooms use the "build" menu in the bottom right corner, click to confirm

Score

  • You'll gain 1 point for each second that the colony survives.

  • Each collected food item grants 30 points.

Types of ants

  • Queen the most important of them all. You'll lose the game if she dies. She can lay eggs by using the "lay eggs" action in the action menu (if there's one or more empty nurseries available). QueenAnt.png

  • Soldier wanders around the hive. Has increased health and damage. Useful for fending off attackers. SoldierAnt.png

  • Forager digs tunnels under the surface and searches for food. When food is found it will be caried to a storage room that has space left if there is one available. ForagerAnt.png

  • Builder digs tunnels and constructs rooms. You'll need at least 1 builder to construct rooms. BuilderAnt.png

Rooms

  • Nursery houses eggs, which can be laid by the queen. You'll need at least 1 nursery to lay eggs. NurseryRoom.png

  • Queen Room houses the queen. The queen will return here after laying eggs. QueensRoom.png

  • Storage drop off point for foragers. Can store around 10 food items. Each stored food grants 30 points. StorageRoom.png

Screenshots

Screen1.png

Screen2.png

Screen3.png

Screen4.png

Tips and Tricks

  • Build the queens room in the lower part of the ant hill. This gives her a safe place to retreat after laying eggs.

  • Build the nursery rooms above the queens room. Hatching soldiers here will most likely make them patrol the rooms above the queen's.

  • Build the storage rooms in the upper part of the hill to decrease the distance foragers have to walk.

  • Expand early by creating builders. This will become harder later on.

Post COMPO changes

  • Increased difficulty

It is recommended to play in full screen (using the fullscreen button in the Unity webplayer)

Enlarge.PNG

Ratings

Overall 120th 3.9⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 76th 3.96⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 189th 3.76⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 153th 4.06⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 356th 3.68⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 557th 2.667⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 436th 3.31⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 20🗳️ 11🗨️

Feedback

🎤 Swen
20. Apr 2020 · 01:12 UTC
Feel free to share your ant nest in the comments if you like! :smile:
Dimling
20. Apr 2020 · 07:54 UTC
Hah, really fun an addictive! :D
Fabrizio Spadaro
20. Apr 2020 · 13:43 UTC
Well executed, fun and nice graphic, I 'am sure you are into ants you know about them, that was reflected in the mechanics.
Stefanie Leitch
20. Apr 2020 · 13:45 UTC
Fun game! For some reason it made me really want an idle/incremental game with this as the base. Loved watching the base grow and my ants go about their business. The only issue I ran into is that my soldiers wouldn't actually go and defend my other ants from the enemies. Do they only help if they happen to run into the enemy?
Nicolas Diniz
20. Apr 2020 · 13:46 UTC
Oh I'm so hyped, love ant colony game !
EDIT : Yep really great ! I only regret that there is no audio
🎤 Swen
20. Apr 2020 · 13:54 UTC
Thanks for your lovely comments and feedback all!

@stefanie-leitch Correct, soldiers only fight enemies that bump into them. I had planned for this feature where ants would warn other ants for intruders and if the queen got attacked that the whole colony would swarm the attacker. Would be a good addition I think.
BloodpulpGames
20. Apr 2020 · 13:54 UTC
Addictive but very hard to get far
Bloham
20. Apr 2020 · 13:56 UTC
I like the type of game! Its fun and addictive! Just the Ants get stuck on every corner and my queen did so many times unnecessary because the soldiers don't move anywhere xD I like the game in general and could see it becoming a real project.
alininavcisi
20. Apr 2020 · 13:56 UTC
loved the art
KneehatGames
20. Apr 2020 · 13:58 UTC
This game is really refreshing. I got a score of 333 and I lost because the queen was under attack. So there is no way to control the queen and let her stay in it's room? Because even though I had soldiers the queen still started attacking instead of running away haha
Very fun game :)
Mad Scientist Carl
20. Apr 2020 · 14:04 UTC
Pretty good game. Though it would be much better if rooms can be removed, because ants dig tunnels randomly. Or perhaps have the queen prioritize staying at the deepest room?
Standly007
20. Apr 2020 · 14:20 UTC
Super fun game, really love it, but it would be better to know how many ants are live for each kind, then I would know which kind of ant to hatch, and it would be great that I could control queen back to queen room when she is under attck
Saviqq
20. Apr 2020 · 15:29 UTC
Fun game, here are few of my notes:

**Things I liked**
- interesting idea and mechanics
- decision making when deciding which type of ant to spawn
- pixel-art

**Things that could be improved**
- add music and sound effect to lighten up atmosphere
- new ant types and a buildings
- upgrading ants by eating foraged food

Nice work done in 48 hours! :smile:
Cryptomnesic
20. Apr 2020 · 16:29 UTC
I've actually wanted to make something like this. This is near the top of the dozen or so I've rated so far. A few quibbles. Is there a win condition? Or only a loss condition? Improving the soldier ai so that it patrols near the queen possibly. Sound of course. Lay eggs action could be automatic.
🎤 Swen
20. Apr 2020 · 16:53 UTC
Thanks guys!

@bloham "Just the Ants get stuck on every corner and my queen did so many times unnecessary because the soldiers don’t move anywhere". Haha, yes, there is definitly room for improvement! Although ants are kind of like that I guess.

@kneehatgames That is such a good idea. Adding a "move to queen room" action. Didn't think of that. Would have been a nice though. I do like that you have to becareful with your room placement and when laying eggs now though.

@mad-scientist-carl Building the queens room deep down is indeed a good strategy :smile: . It's interesting to play around with the placements of the rooms.

@standly007 Those would be very nice additions indeed. Thanks for leaving this feedback.

@saviqq Yes! I'd totally add those!

@cryptomnesic Thanks! All great suggestions. The eggs lay action is manual so that you have control over when the queen leaves her room. But I do agree that it feel a bit tedious atm.
Cryptomnesic
20. Apr 2020 · 16:54 UTC
I love the idea of having Elite Ants in your ant army after they murder enough reds.
🎤 Swen
20. Apr 2020 · 17:20 UTC
@cryptomnesic Yes! Great idea. Maybe they could use the reds head as a harness.

I feel like I had to do more playtesting beforehand. So many good suggestions and ideas.
Alexey Kuzovkov
20. Apr 2020 · 21:41 UTC
I think you should continue to develop this game. It's great.
Alex Mulkerrin
23. Apr 2020 · 12:23 UTC
For the queen! :ant: