Ant Forts is a strategy game where you don't have direct control over your units.
WebGL version and Downloads (win+linux) at itch.io. Link to updated version down bellow.
Controls: - Mostly mouse, click on + symbols (nest opening, end of ant trail) - You can use arrows to move camera, scroll to zoom (or +/-) - Escape to pause
Goals: - send ants to certain direction, you can change it at (almost) any time - collect items to upgrade your main nest or build forts at the end of a path - defend yourself from bugs
UPDATES - UPDATE (T+1h): removed game-breaking bug (game froze up when clicking through UI) - UPDATE (T+8h); another one (unsubscribe event) - UPDATE (T+14h): New Version with a few gameplay changes and one new feature
Software used: - Unity3D - Paint.NET - MS Visual Studio - Roboto font, ObjectPool.cs
Notes: - no music or even sounds sadly - there are multiple gameplay bugs and design issues (missing features), you sort of have to play around them
I really liked this - can see it becoming addictive! It was easy to work out how to play and what was going on - which is always a plus with me! Enjoyed the concept of moving directions and building up the fortresses. The big bugs were very pretty too :-) Nice work!
I'm not sure I could find a real strategy for this game. The ant fort's didn't seem to cause any type of special attack or defensive measure, so I couldn't really see much advantage to building them rather than just letting the ants fight the bugs back at the nest. It also meant I couldn't find much reason to build in specific directions, apart from collecting resources. Maybe I was just missing something though?
I actually like it a lot. I have a fondness for games where you have to control mindless drones. Obviously lacking in the sound department but you already know that. I like the scent/pheromone mechanic as a means of controlling things, that seems intuitive. A nice strategy game overall I thought. Now of only you could make this mindless drone good at strategy games :rofl:
Enjoyable little game! I didn't come across any bugs for what it's worth, but it took me a while to figure out you could create fortresses at any time - my strategy would've been markedly different if I'd known first time round! :D
Interesting idea with not having direct control over your units, was something a bit different - can get quite tense when a bug is attacking one of your forts, and you're hoping that a few of your ants will reach it in time to prevent it being destroyed. I'd suggest having a way to deactivate paths, so you can focus your ants in a particular direction, but I guess that would go against the idea of not having direct control. Good stuff :-)
@rockhoppergames Sadly, you are right. I didn't leave myself enough time to balance things.
@jorbits The health is just number of ants in the nest. There's a certain spawn rate at each level and one ant = one "food". Leaves are also food, so that helps.
@breadmower That's one of the features I didn't manage to squeeze in. It's finished in the post-compo version I linked in the Updates section if you want to give it a try.
The game has a very interesting concept and I believe that a few changes would make a pretty solid strategy game from this. Unfortunately, it's very hard now and it's missing a few important features (like to be able to create shortcuts or whole new trails, so ants weren't forced to go through each point over and over).
But overall I enjoyed playing the game. When I firstly saw a bug, I though I'm doomed... it really creates an impression of a colossus when compared with ants :grinning:
That's some very interesting gameplay. It's very intuitively designed -- I was able to figure out the main mechanics quite quickly without a tutorial. With a little bit of balancing and a more sophisticated difficulty curve (maybe various enemies, different fortresses, upgrading etc.) this could really have some potential! The UI is a bit sloppy, but the game works really well for a compo entry! I'm impressed, congratulations!
Very interesting game, with nice gameplay. It looks great - This could definitely be something to develop further. Gamewise it was a bit confusing for me in the beginning what the goal was and how to achieve it, but got the hang of it quite quickly. Well done :)
Loved the bustling, scurrying and crawly look of it all. However, I did not feel any challenge, the bugs mostly just died off without causing relevant damage to the nest, they only destroyed my forts, so I stopped building those.
After a while I also found out there isn't really a challenge, so that was unfortunate. You have a nice little game though. With a bit more balancing (and please add sounds) you might have a fun game.
Cool concept, I like it. I wish there was a way to fork a tunnel at any point and then close one of the openings, I didn't realize you should start multiple paths right from the beginning.
@mortus that was definitely my intention with the forts - they would act like a split in the path, but I didn't manage to finish it. Another functionality I didn't squeeze in was to control the paths (open/close) [I added this in a small post-compo update at least for the main nest].
The gameplay is pretty shallow as a result since there's not much to do.
I was always running after the rocks :)
Just rated <3