Antmound is an ant colony sim in pixel art that you play right in your browser, in the spirit of the famous ant game of 1991. You start as a lone black queen in a back garden, dig a nest, lay the first egg and then take over the yellow ant: the one ant in the colony you steer yourself. Everything else, from the foragers to the soldiers, runs on its own.
Key Takeaways
- Antmound is an ant colony simulation: you play one yellow ant while hundreds of black ants forage, nurse, dig and fight around you on their own.
- The colony finds food through scent trails. Ants carrying food home lay a trail, other ants follow the strongest scent, and short routes win until a neat line of ants runs from the hole to the food.
- You shape the colony with two triangles: Caste (workers, soldiers, breeders) and Behavior (forage, nurse, dig). Both can stay on Auto.
- A rival red colony, a wolf spider, an antlion, a caterpillar, the lawn mower and the rain all stand between you and the house. At 100 ants your colony flies and founds new nests.
- A run lasts 15 minutes, plays on desktop and phones in English, Spanish and German, and your score goes on a shared leaderboard.
An ant colony sim where the colony thinks for itself
Antmound is not a game where you click on every ant. You are one ant among many, and the colony around you behaves like a real one. Workers leave the nest, wander until they find seeds or crumbs, and carry them home. Nurses feed the larvae. Diggers widen the tunnels so the queen has room for more eggs. When something dangerous comes near the hole, the soldiers pour out.
Your job is to lead by example. The yellow ant can dig, carry food, lay scent, bite and call other ants to follow it. Where you go first, the colony tends to follow. Find a rich pile of seeds on the far side of the lawn and bring one seed home, and within a minute you see the first workers heading out along your trail.
The colony grows in real stages. Eggs become larvae, larvae need feeding, and pupae hatch into new ants. Feed the brood and the counter climbs. Let the food store run dry and the larvae stop growing, so a strong supply line is the backbone of everything else you do.
How scent trails work
The heart of Antmound is the scent. Every ant that carries food home leaves a pheromone trail behind it. The trail fades slowly and spreads a little to the ground around it. Foragers leaving the nest steer towards whichever side smells stronger.
That simple rule creates something beautiful to watch. At first the ants wander in loops. Then a few of them find food and leave trails. Short routes get walked more often, so they get stronger, while long detours fade away. After a few minutes the crowd has turned into a straight line of ants between your hole and the food, even around rocks and garden clutter.
Press T to lay the scent over the map. You can see the food trails, the alarm scent around a fight and the nest scent near the hole. Rain washes everything away, so after a downpour your colony has to find its routes all over again. If a food pile runs out, the old trail fades and the ants switch to the next best source on their own.
Your first five minutes in Antmound
The game walks you through the start with short tasks, one at a time, each showing the key to press and a clear "Done" when you finish it.
- Dig a nest. Walk the queen onto open grass away from the red hole and press Space (ACT on a phone).
- Lay the first egg. Press Space again inside the nest. A bar shows how long the egg needs to hatch.
- Become the yellow ant. When the first worker hatches, you take it over.
- Go out. Walk up the tunnel to the blinking arrow and press Space to step outside.
- Find food. Look for the yellow seed piles and press Space to pick up a seed.
- Bring it home. Walk onto your hole, go in and store the seed. On the way you lay the first trail of the game.
Once the first seed is in the store, the colony is up and running, and the game starts telling you about the bigger tools: castes, recruiting and the map.
Workers, soldiers and breeders: running the colony
Two triangles let you steer the colony without micromanaging a single ant.
- Caste decides what new eggs become. Workers forage, nurse and dig. Soldiers are built to fight and guard the nest. Breeders are the future: they fly off to found new colonies.
- Behavior decides how grown workers spend their time: foraging for food, nursing the brood or digging more room in the nest.
Drag the cross towards a corner to get more of that kind, or leave both on Auto. On Auto the colony raises soldiers when enemies come near and starts raising breeders at 80 ants. If you want your colony to spread sooner, drag the Caste cross toward Breeders yourself.
Spiders, red ants and the lawn mower
The garden is busy, and not everything in it is friendly.
- The red colony lives on the same patch and fights over the same food. Its raiders get bolder after the first few minutes.
- A wolf spider hunts near your hole and eats an ant every few seconds. One ant cannot stop it, but a crowd can.
- An antlion waits at the bottom of its sand pit for anyone who wanders too close.
- A caterpillar crawls by now and then. Bring it down and it becomes a feast for the whole colony.
- The mower sweeps across the lawn. The game warns you a few seconds ahead, so get under ground.
- Rain clears every trail on the surface.
This is where the yellow ant matters most. Hold R to recruit every ant around you, walk into the enemy and bite. Your recruits follow you and bite whatever you bite. Eight ants bring down the spider and leave a big pile of food behind. Lead a crowd down the red hole and you can kill the red queen herself, which is worth 400 points.
Spread across the garden and into the house
Antmound is played on a map of the back garden and the house. Once your colony reaches 100 ants and 20 breeders, the breeders take off on a mating flight and you choose where the new queen lands. The house opens at 5:00, and its rooms are the richest patches on the map, and the most dangerous, with feet and bug spray waiting inside.
Press M to open the map at any time. Every colony you found is yours to visit: the yellow ant can switch to any patch with a living black queen. If you have played a city builder like Pixelopolis, you know the feeling of watching something you started grow into a network across the whole map.
Score, runs and the leaderboard
A run lasts 15 minutes of sim time, at normal or double speed. Your score adds up:
- one point for every black ant on the map,
- 100 for every patch with a living black queen,
- 150 more for every room of the house you hold,
- 400 for every red queen killed,
- 2 for every red ant killed.
Your score is saved every minute, so even a run you leave early counts. Scores go on the shared PixelDen leaderboard, and they add to your place in the overall ranking across all games.
Frequently asked questions
How do I play Antmound?
Move with WASD or the arrow keys and press Space for the action shown on screen. The game guides you through the first steps: dig a nest, lay an egg, go out with your first worker and bring food home. On a phone you use the stick and the ACT button.
Can I play Antmound on my phone?
Yes. On a phone the game switches to a portrait layout with a joystick and buttons for the action, recruiting and releasing your ants. The map and the triangles work with touch too.
Why are my ants walking in a line?
That is the scent trail at work. Ants carrying food lay a trail home, and other ants follow the strongest scent. Short routes are walked most, so the trail straightens itself into a line between the nest and the food.
How do I beat the spider?
Hold R to recruit all the ants around you, then walk into the spider and keep biting. With eight or more ants on it, the spider goes down and leaves a pile of food. Press F to release your recruits afterwards.
When does my colony start new nests?
At 100 ants and 20 breeders the colony flies. You get a few seconds to pick a patch on the map, and the new queen lands there. On Auto, breeders start at 80 ants; drag the Caste cross toward Breeders to fly sooner.
What languages is Antmound available in?
English, Spanish and German, like the rest of PixelDen.
Play Antmound now
Antmound turns a few simple rules into a living colony you can watch, steer and fight for. Dig your first nest, bring home the first seed and see the trail form behind you. Play Antmound in your browser, and when you want a change of pace, try the flocking birds of Flock Fold, the farm life of Furrowfield or the desert war of Sandcrown, or browse the full game catalog.