pixelportalz 2021-04-27 04:59
Really like the idea and thank you for the linux build! I didn't manage to send newly hatched ants to forage :( They got stuck
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD48 → Adam Wilks' Ant Colony
By adam-wilks
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 824 | 2.77 | 24 | |
| Fun | 855 | 2.38 | 24 | |
| Innovation | 586 | 2.97 | 24 | |
| Theme | 496 | 3.50 | 24 | |
| Graphics | 799 | 2.61 | 24 | |
| Audio | 1.39 | 16 | ||
| Humor | 616 | 1.84 | 18 | |
| Mood | 759 | 2.61 | 20 |
Really like the idea and thank you for the linux build! I didn't manage to send newly hatched ants to forage :( They got stuck
It would be nice to have a bit more information, i.e. the goals and how things worked. For example it took me a while to work out you needed to use forage on the top row of tiles for it to work. I think a different appearance for the queen would have been nice, if even a pallet swap. I accidentally sent her out to forage but luckily she returned. Not sure about the goal, I just kinda dug straight down and nothing much happened. I'm guessing you ran out of time before you could implement much more? A good start though.
The text is sooooo small! I struggled to read all the text. I found it confusing and hard to control. Having to right click is really hard to do on a laptop, and the delay from clicking to the ant moving is too long. I have to try each click several times to get the ant moving. I like the idea, but I couldn't get past the controls.
Thanks for playing @pixelportalz. I built it on linux, so in some sense the linux version is the canonical version.
Thanks for checking it out @hruhf. Ya I kind of had my head down implementing stuff for most of the 48 hours and didn't really have time to design goals. If I do this again I'd probably try somethig with a smaller scope, so I have more time to tighten the design.
Sorry to hear about the negative experience @ripter. The ant should start moving right away, I don't think there's a delay. Tunneling takes a little longer. Thanks for the feedback on the right clicking, I should've taken accessibility into account more. I could've added in alternate controls, but it's hard to test extensively in 48 hours.
The parts are there, but it needs some more work.
To me, the most defining and important aspect of a Sim Ant style game is the fact that the ants kinda do their own thing, even without player intervention. Right now, it's completely manual. A few other players mentioned that things could be explained better, which I also think is true, if not in the game itself, at least as a set of instructions on the site. It's also missing an exit button, which is really sort of telling that you ran out of time. 48 hours really isn't a lot of hours
You've got a foundation. I hope you keep adding until it's a lovely house!
Nice concept. As other stated, it lacks a bit of tutorial and from the ants to be a little bit more autonomous.
However, for a compo entry it's solid.
Well done.
it very hard, but is very interesting. good job!
This is a neat little simulator. If you ever plan on expanding it, though, adding some in-game goals to work towards would definitely make it worth more than a couple minutes of play time. Also, as others have said, controlling each ant individually became tedious pretty fast. Some way to get them to carry out directions en masse would be super helpful. Of course, it's rare to see such an ambitious concept executed to completion in a compo, so I'd say what you have here is quite well done!
It took my a while to figure out the controls, but after that I was able to build a small colony. I like the idea, but the game really needs automation of some sort though - like routes with repeated behaviors or something, since it quickly becomes too much to control manually. Perhaps some basic behaviors can be "programmed" by the player by specifying what happens in certain conditions, allowing perhaps actual ant-like behavior (such as in ant colony optimization [ACO] algorithms, with pheromones and all that).
The system is really cool and clearly took a lot of work. I agree with Hruhf: I would've had more fun with some guidance. That said, the game has a lot of features- cool stuff!
Always love to see ant simulators. The tunneling and expanding is quite good. I feel like the main thing that can be improved would be the controls. I still don't know if selecting an ability, left clicking on an and and then right clicking is what I need to do, but at least one button could be removed there. The foraging, laying eggs and moving around are all very micro intensive. The best thing about these colony simulators is seeing all your little guys walking around and being productive.
Good work on your compo and good luck in the future!
I have to agree with some of the other comments here that it's very intensive on the micro management which makes it kind of difficult to grow your colony very large, as they mostly will just loaf around. The controls are a bit clunky, but the pathing and camera/scrolling is all very well done. Seems like the start of what could be a nice ant sim.
I think it's a super cool concept and I really wanted to like this, but the controls are way too hard and confusing and the pacing is super slow. Cool prototype of something that could definitely become interesting.
Made me think of sim ant. I think controlling the ants need some work. It felt like too many clicks to do something. Keep improving it and I think you have a good idea.
Sim and all the way
As a huge fan of SimAnt, I liked this game a lot. I see that other people are confused by some of the mechanics but having played SimAnt for many hours as a kid I have some idea of how to "win" this game. With that said the design is a little too "on the nose" (like even the green blobs of food are similar in design). I appreciate the depth of the mechanics you've been able to implement in such a short time. Other commenters have left you some great suggestions but one I will add is that I wish the selected ant didn't get deselected when you choose an action. That one little change would make a big difference. Nice work.