Antmound
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About Antmound
Antmound is an ant colony simulation in pixel art, played in the browser and modelled on the ant game of 1991. You start as a young black queen on a patch of the back garden. Dig a nest, lay the first egg, and when the first worker hatches you take it over as the yellow ant, the one ant you steer yourself. Every other ant in the colony runs on its own.
The heart of the game is the scent. Every ant carrying food home lays a pheromone trail behind it, the trails fade over time and spread a little, and the foragers that come out of the nest follow the strongest scent. Short routes are walked more often, so they get stronger, and after a few minutes a wandering crowd turns into a straight line of ants between the hole and the food. Press T to lay the scent over the map and watch the trails form, merge and wash out in the rain.
You run the colony with two triangles. The Caste triangle decides what the new eggs become: workers that forage, nurse and dig, soldiers that fight, and breeders that fly off to found new colonies. The Behavior triangle splits the grown workers between foraging, nursing the brood and digging more room in the nest. Leave both on Auto, or take them over when the reds come.
The garden is not empty. A red colony lives on the same patch and fights over the same food, a wolf spider hunts near the hole, an antlion waits in its sand pit and a caterpillar crawls by for a feast. The yellow ant can recruit the ants around it and lead them into a fight: eight ants bring down the spider, and a crowd that follows you down the red hole can kill the red queen. The mower comes over the lawn, rain washes the trails away, and in the house a foot comes down and the bug spray comes out.
At 100 ants and 20 breeders your colony flies, and you pick where the new queen lands on the map of the garden and the house. The house opens at 5:00, its rooms are the richest and the hardest. A run lasts 15 minutes of sim time, at normal or double speed. The score counts your ants over the whole map, the patches you hold, the rooms of the house, the red queens killed and the red ants beaten. The ants, the garden, the nest and the creatures are drawn in code; some creatures and props are pixel art made with PixelLab.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do pheromone trails work in Antmound?
Every ant that carries food home lays a scent trail behind it. The trail fades over time and spreads a little to the cells around it, and the foragers leaving the nest steer towards the stronger scent on their left or right. Short routes are walked more often and stay strong, long detours fade, so the trail between the hole and the food straightens itself. Press T to show the food, alarm or nest scent over the map. Rain washes the trails away.
How do I recruit ants and fight the spider?
Press R to recruit the 5 nearest ants of your colony, Shift+R for 10, or hold R to call every ant around you. The recruits follow the yellow ant and bite whatever you bite. Lead them into the spider: it eats an ant every few seconds, and each ant on it slows it down, so a group of eight or more brings it down and leaves a big pile of food. Press F to release the recruits when the fight is over.
What do the Caste and Behavior triangles do?
The Caste triangle sets what the new eggs hatch into: workers, soldiers or breeders. The Behavior triangle sets how the grown workers split their time between foraging, nursing the brood and digging the nest. Drag the cross towards a corner to get more of that. On Auto the colony picks for itself: it raises soldiers when enemies are near the nest and breeders once it has 80 ants. Drag the cross toward Breeders to fly sooner.
How do I expand to a new patch of the yard?
A colony with 100 ants and 20 breeders sends the breeders on a mating flight. You then have 10 seconds to pick a patch on the map for the new queen; without a pick she lands on a neighbouring patch. The house opens at 5:00 and its rooms are the richest. Every patch with a living black queen adds 100 points, every room of the house 150 more. Open the map with M to move the yellow ant to any of your colonies.
How is the score calculated and when does a run end?
A run lasts 15 minutes of sim time, at normal or double speed. The score is your black ants over the whole map, plus 100 for each patch with a live black queen, 150 for each room of the house among them, 400 for each red queen killed and 2 for each red ant killed (up to 600). The run ends early if your last queen dies. Your score is saved every minute, so a run you leave still counts.
