Desktop Ant Farm Simulator is Available Now!
Hello all! Kyle here. I'm super pumped to release my ant game into Early Access. So let me talk about the ant game, Early Access, the state of the game now, and where it could be going.
Digital Ant Farming
This is a desktop companion type deal. It will persist over other windows when you are in your ant farm. The window is full stretchable as you see fit, and if you peep the controls in the help menu, there is a decent bit of camera options to get it the size and look you want. A simple press of [ctrl] switches the view between portrait and landscape. Pressing [tab] makes the window borderless. There are options to make the window that works for your persistent ant farm.
So what's the point of digital ant farming? It's satisfying to watch and a good distraction while you are stuck in some other computer task. I've got some good ADHD and I like to multi-task. I want more screens. So working remotely while having an ant farm in the corner was satisfying. I made this idea for me. This release is made for anyone though and I tried to pack in plenty of settings at Early Access launch to fit different tastes.
There are plenty of audio settings, effects settings, and even 3 fonts to choose from. Beyond that, for folks that would also be putting on random lo-fi while they work anyways, like me, there is lo-fi here. 10 lo-fi tracks at Early Access at launch which play in a shuffled playlist.
You can choose from two styles of ant farms at Early Access launch:
Productivity Mode: 80 ants on a fresh farm. No interaction. Let them dig and do their thing while you work.
Idle Mode: the basic starting elements of an idle version. Start with 1 ant. Buy more ants. Make them faster. Make them stronger. Early Access exists to flesh this mode out.
I wanted to release this as only the Productivity Mode because that is what *I liked to engage with. Obviously, that incremental growth thing ticks specific parts of the brain though. So I added that as well. The Idle Mode exists to collect thoughts and vibes. The cost scaling is far from final and there are no caps on anything. You can get as many ants as you want and make them as fast as you want. I've pushed this pretty dang far myself without hitting the limits of the engine. We'll see what happens. I'm excited to routinely build on Idle Mode.
Upcoming Core Features and Updates
There is a short list of already planned core features and updates that will hit ant game within it's first few months. They each focus on one aspect of the game.
The Camera Update: This will make the camera even more sophisticated. Goals include the game automatically switching between portrait and landscape, and more sophisticated control UI.
The Jukebox Update: In addition to adding 10 more lo-fi tracks, creating a favorites playlist is on the menu. Also an in-game pop-up to display the new track when it starts playing.
The Idle Stats Update: The goal here is to refine the three current stats and add 2 more incremental stats to shake things up further.
The Worm Watching Update: You know how bird watching is a thing? Now do that with worms. They are all over the underground and will become exposed as your ants dig tunnels. Can you spot them all?
The Settings Update: More settings for everything and anything. More visual options, colorblind toggle, more fonts, anything to make the experience more modular.
Ant Farming Begins Now
There is plenty on the horizon. I am sitting right back down after this post to continue working on the game. I enjoy letting an ant farm idle there on my desktop for days and wanted other folks to get the chance. The EA release state matches a level of settings and structure/polish I feel proud putting out there. It is an obvious work-in-progress, and is a niche little thing in general, but I love it and I hope you do too.
Thank you,
Kyle