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[Vendayn]

So...anyone know of any ant based games?

On the bee based game thread (reason I'm posting a new thread is...I don't feel like it would be right to hi-jack the thread about ants, when thread is about bees)...the Antrush game was mentioned. I LOVE raising ants and studying them outside. I've been keeping ants since I was 12 or so, give or take a year...and now 23.

http://antrush.com/

So, going to make a list to see whatever ant games there might be. I don't currently have time to add links to them, but I'm sure you can find them on Google.

Sim Ant (probably most famous ant based game that I know of and the best one).
AntRush (which looks pretty similar to Sim Ant in a lot of ways, and with added multiplayer and more choices in "races" to select)
Ant War (not that great really, I think more aimed for little kids. It is nice, but gets boring fast. It is turn based, with a flat 2d screen, that you can't interact with)
Empire of the Ants (probably best looking ant game (3d too). But, not a very good implementation of one. It never really felt like an ant game, like Sim Ant did. More like an average RTS. Doesn't make it bad though)
Antzzz (think there was three Z's...it is a browser based ant game, but it is pretty good for what it is)

That is the list so far. With my opinions on each of them.

Any other ant games you guys may know of? I ask, because someone knew of AntRush, and even the ant forum I'm a part of never found that game. So, you guys seem to find those hidden gems of a game.

[Ozyton]

Dwarf Fortress hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Vendayn]

Dwarf Fortress hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Hmm, I'll have to try and look for it. I've never seen a Dwarf Fortress ant mod. But, to be honest, never actually thought to look.

[Frumple]

Last I checked, it's not terribly difficult to either implement an ant civ or replace the dwarves with one. Might take a half-hour, I guess. Maybe an hour, tops.

[Vendayn]

I know 0 of modding, lol. But you can also add a queen that lays eggs that grow to ants? The worker ants digging seems easy enough, as Dwarves do that already. There would also be the soldier ants. And an ant colony usually has winged alates, as well that help their species spread. And depending on what type of ants, like Leaf-cutter ants grow fungus for food. Or Slave-making ants that can't do work themselves, but have other ants do it for them. And like AntRush, it has termites too. There are tons of variety of ants.

Replacing just the Dwarves with ants, wouldn't seem very ant-like to me. Would need to have a queen ant, eggs and everything else, too. But, since I'm no modder, I can't really do that. Unless there is already a mod for that.

[ductape]

I know 0 of modding, lol. But you can also add a queen that lays eggs that grow to ants? The worker ants digging seems easy enough, as Dwarves do that already. There would also be the soldier ants. And an ant colony usually has winged alates, as well that help their species spread. And depending on what type of ants, like Leaf-cutter ants grow fungus for food. Or Slave-making ants that can't do work themselves, but have other ants do it for them. And like AntRush, it has termites too. There are tons of variety of ants.

Replacing just the Dwarves with ants, wouldn't seem very ant-like to me. Would need to have a queen ant, eggs and everything else, too. But, since I'm no modder, I can't really do that. Unless there is already a mod for that.

regular ant=miner dwarf
soldier ant= sword/axe/whatever dwarf
winged ant= i dunno, but probably easy to implement too. maybe nobles of some sort
leaf cutter ant = lumberjack dwarf
queen = noble of course
fungus growing ant = farmer dwarf and plump helmets, durr
termites = goblins
spider = GCS

seems pretty easy to me.

[hemmingjay]

SimAnts?

[Jafferey]

Sim Ant is actually a lot like Dwarf Fortress. Sort of.

[Alehkhs]

I've encountered various other ant games over the years (I often find myself just trawling google for such things). You've posted the main ones I remember. I've played all of the ones in the OP: I actually own Empire of the Ants, which I agree is a sad affair (the novel on which it is based is fantastic however - in a Watership Down for ants sort of way); I did a review of AntRush over on TIGSource; and I regularly play the SNES version of SimAnt on my phone.

Ah, there was a text-based German one that I encountered a good while ago (4-5 years, min). I don't recall it's name, but it played a bit like Ant War.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert actually had a hidden campaign where you fought giant ants à la B-Movies like Them!

More on the toy side of things there is also "Ant Life Studio," from Bandai, which is intended to act as a desk-top formicarium. I think it's only available in Japanese, but I don't imagine the interface would be too difficult to figure out. If only out of sheer novelty value (let alone my fanatic interest in ants), I personally would love to have this.

I'll be following this thread closely, as I personally love ants and their ilk and wish they were used more frequently in games. Never has there been such a natural setup for an RTS as social insects like ants, bees/wasps/hornets, and termites. Empire of the Ants was unfortunately a poor attempt, plagued by buggy (haha?) gameplay and unrefined graphics, but I think the opportunity is still available for a full-scale RTS to be made using the concept.

[baruk]

Ant Attack. From 1983, I think it holds up pretty well!
edit: Found an emulator.

[Alehkhs]

Ant Attack. From 1983, I think it holds up pretty well!
edit: Found an emulator.

Ah, this game.

There's also quite a few remakes, here: http://www.encho.me/antattack/


(Also, here's a larger version of yours: http://www.sandywhite.co.uk/fun/ants/)

[Cecilff2]

Microsoft Ants! was pretty fun back in its day.

[Alehkhs]

Microsoft Ants! was pretty fun back in its day.

For some reason, I always picture Microsoft Ants in my head whenever I saw Ancient Ants Adventure.


I mentioned Them! in an earlier post, yet somehow managed to forget to mention It Came From the Desert!

If you have a Nintendo DS, there is Ant Nation, which seems similar to SimAnt. There also appears to be a version for the Nintendo Wii.

On the mobile devices front, there are a bunch of "smash the ants" games that really aren't worth listing (as well as various ant wallpapers), but I did find an RTS/Tower Defense game for iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad called Ant Tower, of which a video review showing gameplay can be seen, here. There is also a second ant-related RTS on the iPad, called Ant Raid (gameplay footage).

[Endymion]

Earth Defence Force 2017 seems to be primarily about ants. (EDF! EDF! EDF!)

[Alehkhs]

Earth Defence Force 2017 seems to be primarily about ants. (EDF! EDF! EDF!)

True! I absolutely love that game. For those interested, the Earth Defense Force (and Global Defense Force) series is a Japanese series of third-person shooters that bring to mind B-movies with giant ants, spiders, robots, dinosaurs, you name it. EDF 2017 is available on the Xbox 360, and the newest title, EDF: Insect Armageddon, is available on both the 360 and PS3.

They are hectic fun.